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Anti-tobacco lobby still blows smoke/If This Doesn't Make You Mad, Nothing Will!
20 August 2002 | Lindor Reynolds

Posted on 08/20/2002 11:36:27 AM PDT by SheLion

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To: SheLion
Whoa. Let's see....we've heard the tobacco industry called "Merchants of Death" and how many articles written about the tobacco executives "lying in front of Congress"? That's not demonization???? What more can they do?
61 posted on 08/21/2002 2:11:13 PM PDT by Max McGarrity
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To: SheLion
'too hopelessly addicted or willfully stupid to quit.'

Hmmmm!

62 posted on 08/21/2002 2:14:19 PM PDT by verity
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To: Squawk 8888
I've written the following to the publisher (rudy.redekop@freepress.mb.ca) and editor (Nick.Hirst@freepress.mb.ca), along with a copy to Fraulein Reynolds:

I believe it may be a criminal offence to publish comments that promote "hatred of identifiable groups" or to "spread false news" both of which Lindor Reynolds is guilty in her recent diatribe against smokers. Perhaps you should think twice before publishing such hate-filled rhetoric. Just a suggestion, you know...at least until I can locate an attorney hungry enough to take the case.

Thanks, Squawk.

63 posted on 08/21/2002 2:47:48 PM PDT by Max McGarrity
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To: Max McGarrity
What more can they do?

Gawd! Don't ask, Max. LOL!

64 posted on 08/21/2002 3:14:49 PM PDT by SheLion
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To: *puff_list; Just another Joe; Gabz; Great Dane; Max McGarrity; Tumbleweed_Connection; red-dawg; ...
She's back! There for awhile, she had her email turned-off. She was receiving too much "hate mail." I wonder why? I just received this in email, that she is back....and still full of cruel hate for the smoker. I guess the Winnipeg doesn't care WHO writes for it. As long as they can fill up space:

Winnipeg Free Press story.
_______________________________________

Tuesday, August 27th, 2002
Baring their yellowed fangs

Tuesday, August 27th, 2002

Lindor Reynolds

In the past week I have been called a Nazi, a faggot, a nigger, criticized for lacking gonads of appropriate size, for being "foreign" and for the unforgivable sin of appearing to be fat.

The vitriolic response to an anti-smoking column on this page (Anti-tobacco lobby still blows smoke, Aug. 20) was expected. What was fascinating was not the vilification by the hacking minority but the way they expressed their outrage.

To be perfectly clear: I support the right of all readers to disagree with what I write and to fully express their displeasure. What surprised me in the 100 or more responses to last week's column (one paragraph of which was distributed over the Internet by an American pro-smoking lobby) were the lengths to which respondents would go to find a soft spot in which to insert the filleting knife.

First, here's the paragraph, taken from a column dealing with the condemnation of Canada's anti-smoking public education program by a coalition of health groups:

"Making smoking illegal would be a better solution, but apparently the rights of too many yellow-toothed smokers would be stomped to ensure the rest of us have clean air," I wrote feverishly.

"The ghettoization of smokers, reducing them to pack animals huddled together in parking garages and in back alleys, has been wonderful to watch but it hasn't gone far enough. It seems ardent smokers, the sort who claim they enjoy every cigarette (yes, even the ones stolen outside in minus 40 weather) are too hopelessly addicted or willfully stupid to quit."

Strong words? I suppose, but it was the news that cigarette smoke kills 45,000 people a year ("Name one," snapped an e-mail) that motivated me.

"The promotion and incitement to treat other human beings in a way reminiscent of Nazi-era Germany is outrageous," wrote Audrey Silk of Brooklyn, N.Y. "I demand a public apology. Reynolds should be fired."

Silk was one of a dozen people from the pro-smoking lobby who accused me of wanting to destroy Jewish businesses and slap yellow stars on people I don't like. It was a dramatic yet despicable charge. I wrote many of them back, polite notes that explained I found it repugnant that a person who chooses to engage in an activity known to harm others would dare compare herself to a Jew in Nazi Germany.

Robert Foster wrote: "Perhaps you should think twice before publishing such hate-filled rhetoric. Just a suggestion, you know ... at least until I can locate an attorney hungry enough to take the case."

"Coming from someone so badly in need of a root touch-up and with an obvious life-long weight problem," wrote Rose Kouroyen, "have you taught them (my supposed children) to demonize overweight people also?"

Anonymous made some presumptions based on my first name.

"Why don't you go back to your own country," that e-mail began, with wonderful solipsism. "We don't need foreign faggots telling us what Americans should do."

From another person: "Your nigger thoughts don't mean anything. What should I care about you and your stupid opinion?"

Wrote another: "I'm a white suburban soccer mom, a world you'll never understand or be a part of."

And from an anonymous correspondent: "Mr. Reynolds, if you had any balls you'd put your phone number in the paper. You need a good smack."

And so it came to this. It is impossible to write a coherent argument for smoking in 2002 so they wrote instead of what they hoped were my vulnerabilities. Was I black? Gay? Concerned about my weight? Terrified of a physical fight? Afraid of a lawsuit? An unrepentant dyer of hair? Then those were the points they would attack.

What they chose -- what they believed would be hurtful -- revealed their prejudices as clearly as my original column revealed my prejudice against smoking. They labelled their new enemy with the rawest of their fears and stepped off from there. I went from being a newspaper columnist in a city they'd never visited to a composite of every person they secretly loathe.

I can't say it felt good to be the subject of their prejudice. It felt worse to fully understand how close to the surface some individuals keep their hatred and how little it takes to tear the thin skin that covers it. (She writes about herself in this paragraph).

Email her at:
lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2002 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.

65 posted on 08/27/2002 9:00:23 AM PDT by SheLion
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To: SheLion
What surprised me in the 100 or more responses to last week's column

So, out of 100 or more responses she got six that were a little hateful. I wouldn't think that this is too bad an average after some of the things that were put out in this column.

66 posted on 08/27/2002 9:08:35 AM PDT by Just another Joe
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To: Just another Joe
So, out of 100 or more responses she got six that were a little hateful. I wouldn't think that this is too bad an average after some of the things that were put out in this column.

She received a lot more then 6! She had her email turned off for awhile, and several others couldn't get their mail sent in. It was returned to sender.

This woman is so full of hate for smokers it's pathetic.

And I guess the Winnepeg could care less WHAT they put into print!

67 posted on 08/27/2002 9:11:06 AM PDT by SheLion
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To: SheLion
Silk was one of a dozen people from the pro-smoking lobby who accused me of wanting to destroy Jewish businesses and slap yellow stars on people I don't like. It was a dramatic yet despicable charge. I wrote many of them back, polite notes that explained I found it repugnant that a person who chooses to engage in an activity known to harm others would dare compare herself to a Jew in Nazi Germany.

In light of this statement, apparently Mzzzz. Reynolds needs a bit more educamation. SheLion. P'raps I shall give it the old college try. (Oh, yeah, she wrote "polite notes," alright. She said to one of us "Hit a nerve, did I?" That was before the realization hit her one brain cell and she blocked her e-mail. Hehehe.)

Linda (she "HATES" being called that), you've been FREEPED! ROFLMAO!

68 posted on 08/27/2002 8:29:36 PM PDT by Max McGarrity
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