Libertarians seem to get it

Spiked comments on the phenomena of "advocacy research":

If the chemicals in cigarette smoke were really so deadly as Winickoff and Glantz imply, it would be simply inconceivable that people could live - as many do for 50 years or more - while smoking a packet of cigarettes or more every day. It usually takes decades of effort directly polluting the body with tobacco smoke before someone becomes seriously ill because of it. The idea that a whiff of smoke in the air, or a thin coat of smoky tar on the walls, can put us in mortal danger is just laughable. Or, at least, it would be if the health authorities weren’t so keen to pounce upon each new study as a justification for ever-greater restrictions on lighting up.

Anti-smoking is hypochondria-by-proxy, an obsessive compulsive disorder whose sufferers demand that the normal pastimes of others leave them under attack. Contrary to what Winickoff says, it is anti-smoking campaigners and our health guardians who need help - to quit their disgusting, illiberal, interfering, busybody habit once and for all.

Smokin' news

Two items of note in today's paper:

Smoking curb could "upset China stability

"Smoking harms people's health, but restraining smoking threatens social stability," said Zhang Baozhen, deputy chief of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. "Smokers rioted when the former Soviet Union collapsed because they could not get any cigarettes... The principle applies in China as well," Zhang said, responding to proposals from some members of China's parliamentary advisory body to curtail the smoking industry.

Interesting factoid: The World Health Organization estimates that smoking kills 1.2 million people are year in China.

R-rated movies lure white teens into smoking?
Apparently, white kids kick back with a bucket of popcorn, a pack of smokes, and a risque movie. Interesting tidbit from the study, which was published in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine: today's movies depict actors smoking as often as in the 1950s.

Sublime - c'est nous!

One of the items I'm including on my Christmas wish list is a pricey little paperback: Cigarettes are Sublime by Richard Klein. According to Booklist, "Klein's survey of the history of cigarettes and their gestalt of ritual, seduction, contemplation, and danger is fruitful and often surprising. [...] As Klein discusses the representation of cigarettes in literature and film, he also tracks various attitudes toward smoking. He believes the current zealous condemnation goes far beyond matters of health and drifts into issues of personal freedom. But he never denies the fact that smoking cigarettes is bad for you. Of course they're hazardous, that's why they're sublime: they combine pleasure with an "intimation of mortality."

Sigh. At last, someone who understands. It's well, sublime.

Smokin' -- at the BC

From the NTRA Breeders' Cup website:
Smoking Policy
Guests are permitted to smoke at any outside location within Churchill Downs, with the exception of within the Paddock and the Winner's Circle. Interior smoking areas include Champions Lounge on the second floor of the new Clubhouse and the upper and lower Jockey Club on the second floor of the original Clubhouse.

Celeb smokers: Bridget Jones

Even a quick reading of Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding will reveal: Bridget is a lone smoker!

Another test while I play with labels

Just testing ... but I think I can hide the labels, and still categorize the posts. Woohoo! Thjs is smoking!

Good heavens!

Good grief, Charlie Brown - Banned Book Week is smoking! And it's coming next week.

Alone on the street

Like a streetwalker, I stand on the corner. But not alone. I have my trusty cigarette in hand.