Free Republic

The first scene in NBC's new fall sitcom "Whoopi" begins with the star, Whoopi Goldberg, puffing on a cigarette, ignoring a nearby "No Smoking" sign. "You know, secondhand smoke kills," says an irritated guest of the hotel Goldberg's character owns. "So do I," she shoots back, glaring at the guest. Scheduled to premiere Sept. 23, the show is designed to be a Norman Lear-like commentary on American society, in the same vein as the groundbreaking "All in the Family." That show was built around bigoted jokes that boomeranged on Archie Bunker, while "Whoopi," featuring a relationship in which her brother...

Cigarette packs could soon carry distrurbing pictures of cancer-ravaged organs. A new study shows smokers have become immune to current warnings on packets and calls for a radical re-think. It could lead to the use of images pictures of damaged hearts and lungs to push home the 'smoking kills' message. Experts at the Cancer Research UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research in Scotland led the European-wide investigation. Interviews were conducted with 56 focus groups in Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and Sweden. Participants looked at pre-2001 "small" warnings on cigarette packs and current large "black and white" warnings. The results...

    It's not about smoking, it's about constitutional guarantees! 42 tyrants and a ring leader named Bloomberg It is saddening to see the people of one of our nation's 13 original states, whose founding fathers were among those who pledged their "...lives, fortunes and sacred honor..." in order to secure the blessings of liberty and establish protection of individual rights associated with property, allowing 42 tyrants and a ring leader named Bloomberg, to trample upon and disregard these fundamental protections written into our constitutions, state and federal. It is equally saddening to observe two factious groups in New...