recession smokers

Nessie works near the financial hub of the city and she's noticed a lot more smokers huddled outside buildings, puffing madly, since the recession started to bite.

"I've also noticed a lot less discrimination against me from passers-by when I dash down to have a quick smoke," says Nessie, "so I guess the recession is good, in a way, for smokers and other victims of government health fads because it distracts the bullies, giving them something more important to do with their time than interfering in other people's enjoyment of life."

"I'm not a vindictive person, but if this recession is going to cause the government to offload all of the health fad parasites in its various departments in order to save the nation from bankruptcy, then it's three cheers from me," laughs Nessie. "Let them find a real job in the real world rather than swanning around their smoke-free offices finding more and more ways to victimize smokers while living a fat-cat life on our tobacco tax money."

"Let them find out what it's like to be removed from their comfort zone and their addiction to living like parasites on our tobacco tax."

"In fact, let them apply their own sanctimonious advice to themselves when they find themselves reaching for their tobacco tax-funded pay packets and find them empty," laughs Nessie. "Let's see how easy it is for them to give up their addictive comfort zone -- patch that if you can!"

"It would be poetic justice, indeed, if some of them -- stressed out with it all -- took solace in a cigarette," says Nessie. “Very few people are able to quit one addiction without taking up another one.”

"I do, however, feel sorry for all the ex-smokers who've lapsed with the stresses of the recession," sighs Nessie. "It must be terrible for people who've lost money or fear the loss of their jobs to cope with it all -- and who can blame ex-smokers in this situation who say 'to hell with it, I need a smoke’!"

"If they had quit smoking in the first place because of exorbitant tobacco taxes, then they are going to be in a far worse financial situation taking the habit up again," says Nessie. "It's always bothered me why governments would tax so heavily a product that calms people down and makes them feel good – without any nasty repercussions, such as violence or risky behavior -- but I suppose in good times governments can do what the hell they like."

"I imagine that recession worries are causing a whole lot of other 'reformed' people to lapse, too," adds Nessie. "When times are bad, people naturally turn to comforting substances like sweet and fatty foods, alcohol and drugs to make them feel better, so watch out for a lot more drunks and druggies on the streets!"

"Now that the times are bad," suggests Nessie, "I think the government should reduce tax on tobacco -- even hand out packets for free!"

"I don't know about you, but I'd prefer a mass of recession smokers on the streets than a mass of recession drunks and druggies."

are anti-smokers so perfect?

Neva reports that there's a quotation from an ex-president of ASH on the Freedom2choose website saying words to the effect that he's no role model, and she makes the valid point that people who make a living out of reviling other people's lifestyles should have a moral duty to be perfect in all respects themselves.

"Frankly, I have better things to do than waste time investigating the lifestyles of prominent anti-smokers and those who run ASH and our health departments -- and besides which what they do in their private lives is none of my business," says Neva, "but there are plenty of smokers who are so incensed by the hypocrisy of the holier than thou anti-smokers that they will most definitely make it their business to expose the nasty little secrets of these people."

"Actually, since most of these anti-smokers are being funded by taxpayer dollars it is really the civic duty of all citizens -- smokers or not -- to ensure that their money is being spent wisely and that the people spending it stand up to moral scrutiny."

"We've recently seen how easy it is for terrorists to get employed by health departments -- and to get paid with our taxes to blow us up," says Neva, "so what other type of people are being employed by health departments and their ancillary bodies?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if the whole health system -- from the top to the bottom -- is riddled with unsavoury characters," laughs Neva. "As far as I am concerned, the lunatics have been in charge of the asylum for a long time because who else would have foisted multiculturalism and political correctness upon us?"

"It is not sufficient to be a non-smoker to set yourself up as a voice against smoking," explains Neva. "You've got to be perfect in every respect in order to convince everyone that you are good and smokers are bad." "That ASH and other bodies like it have no 'face' and, as far as I know, no address or telephone number, leads me to believe that the anti-smokers are hiding something."

"Could it be that they are all such terrible role models that if the general public saw them they would be laughed out of town?"

"Let me see," muses Neva, "are they all fat slobs? Are they drunks? Are they psychiatric patients? Are they drug addicts? Are they wife beaters, pedophiles, tax cheats, pornography merchants, criminals, fundamentalists or what?"

"Like the puny little Wizard of Oz, when people make a big noise but prefer not to be seen there is generally something terribly wrong with them -- even if it is merely a lack of stature or just plain old age."

'The anti-smokers are smart enough to know that their appearance or character or creed is so unacceptable that their message is better promoted with advertisements and written literature than with public appearances," explains Neva. "And, when a public face is required they hire consultants (ie actors) to do it for them, or brainwash children into their cause."

"In view of the fact that a lot of good people have had their social lives ruined by anti-smoking propaganda," says Neva, "I can't blame smokers for wanting to expose the anti-smoking propagandists for what they are."

"Personally, the only anti-smokers I have come across are the brainwashed variety," says Neva. "When I ask them why they are opposed to smoking they invariably say that their teachers, parents or pastors told them it was a bad thing to do."

"I suppose if I took the trouble to ask teachers, parents and pastors why they are opposed to smoking -- and make sure that the children in their care are opposed to it, too -- they would invariably cite ASH or health department literature."

"So, by exposing the nasty little secrets of the anti-smokers in ASH and the health departments we would be able to discredit their anti-smoking propaganda," says Neva. "By exposing themas terrible role models, we destroy the credibility of their anti-smoking literature."

"It's all very nice in theory," sighs Neva, "but just like brainwashed religious fanatics don't turn away from their religion upon discovering their leaders are pedophiles and frauds,I doubt whether the brainwashed masses would stop hating smokers just because a health minister, for instance,was discovered to be a heroin addict."

"Smokers would need to expose every single anti-smoking propagandist as a fraud before the brainwashed masses woke up to themselves," says Neva. "and then it would take another generation before the anti-smoking hate subsided."

"As I see it, the anti-smoking propagandists know a lot about the power of generating hate in the masses -- and singling out a particular group to vent it on," says Neva. "And, while those who make a living out of reviling other people's lifestyles should have a moral duty to be perfect in all respects themselves, they very often get away with having far worse lifestyles than those they are reviling."

anti-smokers target women, avoid men

After several attacks from anti-smokers who deliberately avoided smoking men in order to target her, Gilda, 56, is wondering whether the anti-smoking crusaders are chicken-livered cowards or whether the campaign is designed to stop women, not men, smoking.

"Traditionally, men have always smoked in our society -- they had smoking rooms and smoking jackets and tobacco clubs where they hung out -- but it's only in relatively recent times that women took up the habit," explains Gilda. "It was very popular with emancipated women from the 1920s onwards, but didn't catch on with working class women until the 1950s."

"We all know what happened after the late 1960s," laughs Gilda, "and I'm wondering whether the anti-smoking campaign is just another backlash by men and their dependent women against feminism."

"Nobody in their right mind could object to the image of a macho guy smoking, let alone try to stop him -- he's so cool," laughs Gilda, "but it's a different story with women smokers, isn't it?"

"Guys of my generation -- the baby boomers -- are reasonably comfortable with women smokers," says Gilda,"It's the older men, the younger men and immigrant men of all ages who seem to have trouble with women smoking."

"Where I lived last year was an elderly couple in their 70s and although the wife was pleasant the husband was incredibly hostile to me -- not only attacking me for smoking but for being a single women, too," laughs Gilda. "He was from the old school who felt a woman's place was at home, under a man's thumb, and that smoking was something guys did, not women!"

"That guy would have a lot in common with Islamic men and might enjoy living under Sharia law where he could stone a few women to death," sighs Gilda, "and his beliefs are pretty widely held by men, and dependent women, of his generation. Too young to have fought with the smoking men and women in WWII, and too old to have enjoyed the 70s. Poor, lost souls."

"There were other smokers in the apartment block -- mostly male -- but that guy left them alone and just attacked me!"

"With immigrant men from backward cultures who denigrate women you expect a bad reception -- and I've had plenty of those in recent years thanks to our government opening the flood gates to middle-eastern refugees," sighs Gilda. "They just don't seem to understand -- or want to understand -- that women in our society have equal rights to men, including the right to smoke."

"At a outdoor coffee bar one lunch-time I was accosted by a middle-eastern man who screamed at me for smoking and raised his hand as if to strike me," says Gilda. "I didn't even see him arrive with his wife and baby and sit behind me. I was too busy reading. Considering we were seated on the sidewalk with vehicles belching out their poisons I was surprised that he didn't see the irony of what he was saying and, why, indeed, he didn't use the non-smoking section of the coffee bar if he objected to cigarette smoke."

"Again, several male smokers were seated outside but this guy left them alone and attacked me," sighs Gilda. "And guess what, the male smokers smirked rather than coming to my aid. Very gallant of them, eh?"

"Young men, too, seem to be particularly averse to women smoking," says Gilda. "I'd be a rich woman if I were paid a dollar for every young man who thought it was his male prerogative to insult a lady for smoking."

"But it's not just men who behave badly towards smoking women," says Gilda. "Women of all ages -- even my own -- seem to be coming out of the woodwork and beating up on members of their own sex who smoke."

"And, like the cowardly male anti-smokers, they target women smokers and leave the male smokers alone," says Gilda. "The young girls at my office have similar complaints so it's not just older women being targeted. In fact, some of the young girls have told me stories about being physically assaulted for smoking by the men in their lives."

"While it's sensible for female crusaders to avoid male smokers in case of violence, it's downright cowardly for the male crusaders to attack women and leave male smokers alone, isn't it? asks Gilda. "So, what is it? Are we looking at deliberate discrimination against female smokers, or just cowardice?"

"Do the anti-smokers want to stop everyone from smoking, or just women?"
"Is the hidden agenda of the anti-smoking campaign to regain tobacco for exclusive male use?"

"Are macho male smokers behind it all?"

"Don't laugh," sighs Gilda. "In this crazy world of government spin and faceless male elites ruling the world behind the scenes, anything is possible."

"You'd think, wouldn't you, that after fifty years of feminism we'd have more respect and political clout than we have today," adds Gilda. "We're going backwards -- no doubt about that -- and I blame globalization and immigration for eroding the feminist values that the grand old dames of the 20th century won for us."

"And, yes, smoking is a feminist issue," asserts Gilda. "Remember the cigarettes Virginia Slims and their slogan 'you've come a long way, baby'? It's all about being treated equally, and if women are being victimized for smoking and men aren't, then something is going on that all women,smokers or not, should be alerted to because you don't know what's coming next."

save us from the fanatics!

Leonie is 82, remembers Hitler and the Fascist thugs that set out to change the world according to their fanatic beliefs, and while no longer much of a smoker herself, she defends the right of those who choose to exercise their civil liberty to do so and she's fuming at Belmont City Council's unanimous vote to prohibit smoking anywhere in the Californian city except for single-family detached residences.

"Can you believe the hide of these fanatics!" says Leonie. "They're going to ban smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car and back yard! What a nice money-earner that's going to be for the fat cats at Belmont City Council, but what a cruel blow for smokers and their civil liberties."

"I'm old enough to understand the delicate human condition," says Leonie. "To be human means to be flawed, nobody's perfect, and I do my best to follow the golden rule, treat others as I want them to treat me, being respectful of differences and tolerant of flaws."

"But there are three flaws I cannot respect or tolerate -- child abuse, brutality and fanaticism -- and when people possessing one or more of these deadly flaws end up in positions of power or influence over the rest of us I become really angry."

"Our legal system generally takes care of the child abusers and brutes among us, but what about the fanatics?"

"Who is keeping an eye on those among us with fanatical delusions of superiority who aim to change society to their liking -- to stop us taking drugs, smoking, drinking alcohol, owning firearms, chopping trees, committing suicide, having an abortion, driving SUVs, eating fast food, wearing headscarves and generally following any of our myriad human inclinations?"

"The list of their dos and don'ts is endless and generally encompasses everything some of us want to do at some point in our lives, so we're all at risk of being targeted."

"That most of the regulated dos and don'ts of the fanatics are ostensibly for our own good, or the good of society, seem to make them widely acceptable," adds Leonie, "but has everyone forgotten the lunatic prohibition on alcohol in the 1920s? What good did that do? The drinkers went underground, exacerbating crime and drunkeness, and those that gave up drinking merely substituted their cravings with something else. That's when heroin and cocaine crept into our homes."

"Naturally, we'd prefer that our kids didn't do any drugs at all, but we all have cravings of one sort or another -- even for chocolate -- and, knowing that the good people at Belmont City Council have similar cravings, how dare they tell us what we can and cannot do, and how dare they publicly revile people for their human frailties!"

"There are only three hateful crimes that need to be proscribed: child abuse, brutality and fanaticism," says Leonie. "Everything else is a matter of following the golden rule and taking sensible precautions."

"Accidents happen and careless or foolish people will always get fleeced or hurt, and when such misfortunes happen the matter should be a private one between the victim and the perpetrator."

"Our courts and prisons are so clogged with petty matters and petty criminals that gross crimes involving child abuse, brutality and fanaticism often go unnoticed and the perpetrators enjoy untouched lives in society."

"By proposing to criminalize smoking, Belmont City Council is deliberately or otherwise taking the searchlight off real crimes and real criminals and encouraging people to get their kicks with far more dangerous drugs than nicotine."

"After the WWII horrors of Nazi Germany under Hitler when -- for the good of the fatherland -- Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, the disabled and other so-called undesirables were publicly reviled and exterminated, the world's watchdogs made a solemn promise to keep the human fanatic monitor on full alert, but somehow they fell asleep on the job when the fanatics were perpetrating similar atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and other places."

"Why?"

"Is the combined human fanatic monitor so flawed that we can't see these people coming -- in any area of human life -- and stop them before they do too much harm?" asks Leonie. "If we can't rely on the highly paid UN watchdogs to protect the basic human rights and civil liberties of people in the third world then these rights don't exist and everyone, everywhere, is totally at the mercy of fanatics."

"What are we going to get next?" sighs Leonie. "Another Senator Joe McCarthy and a commission to expose smokers in our society?"

"For God's sake America, wake up before it's too late," says Leonie. "Men and women of my generation and the generation before mine gave up their lives to defend freedom and civil liberties -- and most of them smoked, too! -- and you're allowing the evil monsters back into power."

"Whatever happened to the golden rule?"

"Shame on all of you who treat smokers like criminals!"