Fight big tobacco not smokers!

Becky is angry that the tobacco controllers say they are fighting a war against Big Tobacco, not smokers, but it is smokers – not Big Tobacco – who are being hammered.



“It is cruel to blame cigarette smokers because 90% of us became addicted to tobacco long before the age of responsibility,” says Becky, “and that makes us the victims of tobacco industry marketing practices – and now we are the victims of greedy governments wanting our tobacco tax dollars.”



“I agree that the government tobacco controllers should make it difficult for young people to take up the habit, but I wish they would stop making themselves look good at the expense of making us look evil.”



“There are some tobacco controllers who do urge a more industry-oriented approach and show genuine empathy for addicted smokers,” says Becky, “but most of them are unscientific moral zealots, publicity seekers or control freaks wanting to regulate all human activity.”



“The very term ‘smoking’ inherently blames the victim,” says Becky. “They should use the term ‘tobacco products’ to make it plain that their war is against Big Tobacco, not us – and yet no matter what the official line is, all government anti-smoking campaigns have centered on individual smokers because their aim has been to win votes for re-election rather than to seriously to affect tobacco sales.”



“There was even a guy called Repace who introduced the idea of smokers’ breath being ‘hazardous’ to nonsmokers,” laughs Becky. “Of course this, and the concept of ‘third hand smoke’, has no foundation in reality.”



“Tobacco companies are not being punished – they are still making profits – but smokers are continually being punished through taxation and the removal of smoking-permitted areas,” says Becky. “All references to smoking and smokers are negative and we have been demonized as ‘nicotine addicts’ – but since many of us are also ‘caffeine addicts’ I don’t mind that so much.”



“Now that ex-smoker York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has finally won his campaign to institute smoking bans in parks it should be pointed out that he achieved that goal not by punishing his wealthy mates in Big Tobacco but by nasty social pressure being applied to us,” says Becky. “He actually encouraged the harassment of smokers by saying that non-smokers should glare at smokers when passing them in the street!”



“The tobacco industry can no longer advertise its products, but it is still legally allowed to sell them,” says Becky. “That leaves smokers as the fall-guys, and since everyone in public health has been brainwashed into anti-smoking hate behavior, we are extremely vulnerable.”



“Tobacco controllers think they are smart to associate smoking with worse behaviors such as spitting in public places, or throwing urine and feces out of windows,” says Becky, “and their attempts to infantilize smoking - by saying it is like sucking on a pacifier - are really pathetic.”



“They say that smoking is a personal choice,” says Becky, “but those of us who find it most difficult to quit generally got hooked when we had no adult rational judgment to make that choice.”



“Honestly, if just a fraction of the hate smokers receive is directed at any other social group it would attract immediate condemnation.”



Read more by Becky on this issue:

Bogus health research

Sinful Pleasures

Anti-smoking media tarts

Licensed to smoke?

Who voted for WHO?

Fifty years of anti-smoking

How’s the war against smoking going?

How’s the war against smoking going?

Like any war, Becky sees the war against smoking as having its foot soldiers (the activists) and its generals (members of WHO, the American Cancer Society, Heart Foundation and Lung Foundation); an enemy (Big Tobacco) and the enemy’s foot soldiers (the hapless smokers); a battleground (the media, workplaces, schools, public spaces, etc); and an aim – to legislate to make smoking history.



“Most of the battles in the war against smoking were between activists and smokers,” says Becky. “The fanatic useful idiot activists did a magnificent job attracting media attention to their cause – but it was the more skilled activists who actually did the smooth talking that influenced legislators to adopt the WHO’s directives.”



“These skilled activists were garnered from the professions - teachers, doctors and health professionals,” explains Becky. “With the opportunity to join the WHO gravy train – and undoubtedly a better job than they had already – they were easily persuaded to join the cause as political lobbyists.”



“Private companies were also targeted to implement anti-smoking policy irrespective of legislation and became ‘models’ for more and more private companies for follow,” says Becky. “At that time, before smoker discrimination became sanctioned by government, banning employment to smokers was illegal (but, like all discrimination, it was never written down as policy and many smokers suffered illegal discrimination).”



“Support was also drawn from other activist issues - environmental groups had a natural affiliation with anti-smoking because of their interest in air pollution,” says Becky, “and citizen groups, motivated by the secondhand smoke propaganda, were also a fertile area for support - militant anti-smoking citizen groups such as New Jersey’s GASP started appearing as early as 1974.”



“Newsletters linked local groups to international groups and were used effectively to network and initiate ideas such as special days and events for smoke-free occasions which invariably made the news,” says Becky, “but the most effective tactic, by far, was promoting law suits.”



“Once individual citizens initiated law suits against tobacco companies seeking to prove product liability for sickness and death – and won – the avoidance of similar law suits by private companies and governments became obvious because they had a duty of care to protect employees and the public at large from tobacco smoke.”



“It helped, too, that ‘duty of care’ and ‘occupational safety and health’ hearings were heard by authorities stacked with anti-smoking stooges,” says Becky. “ASH founder John Banzhaf’s lawsuit of 1994 against OSHA was withdrawn in 2001 due to ‘perceived high-jacking of due process’, but Richard Daynard - a professor of public health and a staunch anti-smoker - managed to wangle a new ASHRAE standard relating to indoor ETS in 1999 while he was a member of that organization!”



“By referring to smoking as a ‘pandemic’ or a ‘scourge’ and inflating the harm done by it, especially to non-smokers, people were easily swayed to the anti-smoking cause,” says Becky. “And, by shifting the emphasis - from the harm smokers do to themselves to the harm they do to others - the vast majority of non-smokers who were not bothered by smell or irritated by ETS suddenly became concerned about their health and their right to clean air.”



“This shift in emphasis was a brilliant move because up until then non-smokers and smokers alike saw the anti-smokers as crazy fanatics – now all non-smokers became one force against smokers.”



“Another good shift was to counter the anti-freedom argument used by Big Tobacco with the argument that society has the freedom to implement public health measures,” says Becky. “By cunningly promoting Big Tobacco as an evil profit seeker, the anti-smokers looked like innocent defenders of their freedom to breathe clean air and live a healthy life.”



“One of the biggest hurdles governments had to overcome in order to implement tobacco controls was the economic fallout - jobs will be lost, and tobacco revenue will diminish,” says Becky. “The anti-smokers had to agree to a phasing out agenda in order to allow farmers alternatives to tobacco growing, and governments time to find another revenue source (which they never really did).”



“Finally, the anti-smokers believed they had won the war on the basis of their claim that no civilized society hesitates in stopping the spread of an addictive killer like tobacco,” says Becky. “There was never any direct cause-and-effect relationship between tobacco, addiction and death, but by making the tobacco companies look evil it was pretty easy to convince society that tobacco control was a civilized thing to do.”



“As the old anti-smoking generals grow infirm and die off, the newer ones taking their places really don’t have much public support any more – the world has moved on to more important concerns,” says Becky. “And, because no government in a world heading for financial meltdown can exist without revenue from smokers, the war against smoking is definitely losing momentum – except, of course, for those hoping to crown their anti-smoking careers with a WHO appointment.”





Read more by Becky on this issue:

Bogus health research

Sinful Pleasures

Anti-smoking media tarts

Licensed to smoke?

Who voted for WHO?

Fifty years of anti-smoking

Fight big tobacco not smokers!

Fifty years of anti-smoking

In the early 1960s three American bodies - the Cancer Society, the Heart Association and the Lung Association - began working together to educate Americans about the health hazards associated with tobacco use, and Becky traces how this ‘education’ turned into a global crusade for the next fifty years.



“The first report on smoking and health was published by the Royal College of Physicians in 1962,” says Becky, “and first World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in New York in 1967.”



“In 1969 the WHO’s regional committee for Europe and the Americas passed resolutions to make cigarette smoking history by the end of the century,” says Becky, “and this committee also set up a global network of anti-smoking professionals working together to achieve its aim by lobbying governments.”



“The 2nd World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in London in 1971, but it was at the 3rd World Conference on Smoking and Health held in New York in 1975 that the Godber Blueprint for making cigarette smoking history was set in stone with strategies to achieve the WHO’s final goal by 2000.”



“In 1979, at the 4th World Conference on Smoking and Health, Stockholm, the World Health Day theme was ‘Smoking or Health, the Choice is Yours’ – a reasonable theme,” says Becky, “but by the 5th World Conference on Smoking and Health held at Winnipeg, Canada, in 1983 there was a shift in membership which made its mark at the 6th conference.”



“By then, anti-smoking activists had infiltrated the health departments of their home governments and, once in positions of relative power, they were not only able to allocate tax-payer funds to private tobacco control organizations but also to put themselves forward as ‘professionals’ for media advocacy of their anti-smoking cause.”



“An anti-smoking industry, funded by taxpayers – particularly smokers via tobacco tax – had come into being.”



“By 1984, following a call by former U.S. Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, for a smoke-free society by 2000 - reiterating the Godber Blueprint of 1975 - the global anti-smoking crusade stepped up.”



“In 1985, tobacco-Free America (TFA) was created to form coalitions to lobby legislators, regulators and other public officials about the urgent need for enactment of tobacco-control legislation to achieve a smoke-free society by the year 2000,” says Becky. “TFA was also instrumental in changing public attitudes towards smoking, making it out to be a health hazard and a socially unacceptable behavior.”



“The first no smoking day was observed – of all places - in Shanghai, China, in May 1986; and in the following year, 1987, the 6th World Conference on Smoking and Health was held in Tokyo.”



“The first Global No Smoking Day was celebrated on 7th April 1988 coinciding with the 40th anniversary of WHO (a body dedicated since its inception in 1948 to end smoking).”



“The World Conferences on Smoking & Health continued, like a moveable feast, attracting more and more delegates eager for fame and fortune on the anti-smoking bandwagon,” says Becky, “In 1990 the 7th was held in Perth; in 1992 the 8th was held in Buenos Aires; in 1994 the 9th was held in Paris; in 1997 the 10th was held in Beijing; in 2000 the 11th was held in Chicago; in 2003 the 12th was held in Helsinki; in 2006 the 13th was held in Washington; in 2009 the 14th was held in Mumbai; and in 2012 the 15th World Conference is due to take place Singapore.”



“That’s fifty years of anti-smoking crusading!” laughs Becky. “These guys are just using smoking as an excuse to get on the WHO gravy train!”





Read more by Becky on this issue:

Bogus health research

Sinful Pleasures

Anti-smoking media tarts

Licensed to smoke?

Who voted for WHO?

How’s the war against smoking going?

Fight big tobacco not smokers!

Anti-smoking media tarts

The bulk of anti-smoking ‘research’ has, according to Becky, been conducted by a very small number of people in the public heath field who then promote their research via media and public presentations, gaining more and more prominence for themselves, warranting them being called media tarts.

“Tobacco control was a sweet deal by which governments could legitimately claim a much bigger slice of Big Tobacco’s massive profits for their own revenue – as well as slugging the hapless smokers with tobacco tax,” explains Becky, “but what has not been much publicized (for obvious reasons) is that in return for giving governments a means by which they can increase revenue – and save lives, hopefully – the WHO made two demands: give us a cut of the loot and employ our anointed anti-tobacco activists in lucrative lifelong positions within public health departments as tobacco ‘controllers’.”

“I don’t have to tell you who these anti-smoking public health tarts are – you know who they are already by their regular appearances on TV, the radio and in newspapers whenever they want to announce some ‘new’ research or some draconian tobacco control measure.”

“These anti-smoking public health tarts have been around since the early days of the war against smoking - when they were mediocre university students with no prospects and thought it would be a lark to join some radicals going around knocking fags out of old men’s’ mouths.”

“They got into the anti-smoking movement in its early days, and have benefited enormously from the tobacco fraud perpetrated upon us,” says Becky. “They received first class tickets and accommodation for all of the World Conferences on Tobacco and Health – rarely attending any of the presentations – and they’re now at retirement age.”

“Rather than collecting their lucrative government pensions and moving on to a new life, these guys cannot give up and will not give up,” sighs Becky. “They’ve made a hatred of smokers their entire life focus, and despite their huge gains in tobacco control some of them are still deeply resentful that the Godber Blueprint goal of 1975 – ‘there will be no smoking by 2000’ - never materialized.”

“By seeing Big Tobacco as the source of the problem, it was felt that once its media, marketing and political campaigning was banned that smoking would stop,” says Becky. “Obviously, for smoking to have continued – and to have attracted a new generation of smokers – it is not the industry’s fault, and could very well be the fault of the anti-smoking media tarts themselves in bringing the issue to the fore time and time again.”

“In many ways, some of these guys have been as much duped by the system as ordinary non-smokers have been,” explains Becky. “Some genuinely expected that their work would see the end of smoking by 2000, but those who saw the bigger picture – that it was never intended to ban smoking – are delighted that the media spotlight remains on them and their work continues with a new generation of smokers.”

“Unfortunately for them, though, it’s not just their age that is catching up with them,” laughs Becky. “Their bogus old research – tarted up in a million different ways to make it look relevant forty years later – is becoming as much a joke in media circles as their autocratic styles.”

“The younger generation of smokers sees these sad old anti-smoking media tarts as deceptive frauds peddling self-serving propaganda under the guise of public health credibility and scholarship,” explains Becky. “They are not fooled by old farts calling themselves 'Dr' when, in fact, it is a PhD in some obscure social science that these guys have, not a medical degree; and neither are they fooled by the so-called anti-tobacco ‘research’ because much of the evidence to support anti-smoking research was simply made up – similar to the Climategate research.”

“Also, the anti-smokers dream that smokers will be legally discriminated against in employment, opening up employment for the less qualified, is being torn down,” says Becky. “Colorado, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee and Virginia have enacted anti-discrimination protection for smokers - putting them into a ‘protected’ class - and several states have adopted measures preventing local bodies from enacting further smoking restrictions.”

“The autocratic style of the anti-smokers – we are right and you are wrong – is seen as stupid and old-fashioned,” says Becky. “It worked well in the 20th century with the regimented children of the Baby Boomers, but Gen Y is altogether a much smarter generation – very media savvy – and can see through these old media tarts and what they’re doing – trying to justify the persecution of smokers as a health measure!”

Read more by Becky on this issue:

Bogus health research

Sinful Pleasures

Licensed to smoke?

Le Grand Fag Parasite

self-employment in parasitic britain

parasites and brain drains

Crazy government priorities

Pilar is a small, quiet woman who works in a back office and has no vice other than enjoying a cigarette, the curtailment of which under the government’s crazy system of priorities has driven her to seek help.

"I have no influence whatsoever, nor do I seek it," says Pilar, “and although I have a right to confront my electoral representative on this issue I am unwilling to stick my neck out just to get it chopped off."

"The last time I got riled up enough to hit back at an anti-smoker, I lost my job," says Pilar. "So you can understand why I am loathe to take my complaint -- by telephone, letter, email or face to face -- to my representative's office. I'd have to give my name and address and telephone number, and that's almost giving permission to an anti-smoker in that office to victimize me for the rest of my life."

"To admit to being smoker today is like admitting to being the worst possible type of human being on Earth -- worse than a pedophile or a suicide bomber," says Pilar. "Imagine that? People can be sympathetic to pedophiles and suicide bombers -- something bad must have happened to these misguided souls in childhood -- but nobody has ever spoken to me in a civil, let alone a sympathetic manner about my smoking because, believe it or not, the government I pay taxes to believes it is a higher priority to get rid of smokers than any other undesirable."

"I've known grown men turn white in fear when someone higher up the pecking order confronts them about their smoking," sighs Pilar. "It's a very serious and scary issue in workplaces, for men as well as women, and that's why I don't want to be confronted with bullying at home via government anti-smoking advertisements."

"All the public interest lawyers who might otherwise champion the cause of smokers are nowhere to been," says Pilar. "They don't want to jeopardize their careers with such an unpopular issue. Better to champion the pedophiles, right?"

“While I can appreciate that some arty-type smokers are getting their own back on the government and the anti-smoking lobbies by promoting cigarettes in a new wave of movies, this is merely adding fuel to the fire as far as I'm concerned,” says Pilar. “There must be a better way to fight a stupid government which believes banning smoking will solve all the world’s problems.”



Read more by Pilar on this issue:

tobacco tax funding ASH ads?

taxes diverted to the rich

ASH goes MADD

street government

Sapphire believes that there are two governments in every land – one ruled by the young and free which operates in the streets, and the other ruled by the geriatrics and health nuts which has no jurisdiction over her and young people generally.

"When bars and clubs start enforcing bans on drugs decreed by the public health lobby we'll just move the party outside or go back to what we've been doing for years -- partying at home," laughs Sapphire. "I feel sorry, sort of, for the hospitality industry losing out on us, but the bar and club owners really should have taken a stand."

"Their main source of income -- and attraction -- came from us, not the geriatrics and the health nuts running the public health lobby," says Sapphire. "It's ridiculous that they've forced us outside to smoke or do drugs. Hardly anybody is taking advantage of the smoke-free environment inside, and of those most are so old that they are not going to be around much longer."

"How is the government going to made amends to the hospitality industry when these bans close down thousands of bars and clubs?" asks Sapphire. "What about the tourist industry? What young people would want to come here when the whole country is geared for health nuts and geriatrics trying to live for eternity?"

"Who wants a night out at the gym or a place where the old folks hang out in their drug free zones?"

"I'm not sure which group is more responsible than the other for the current crackdown on all of our vices," says Sapphire, "but there's definitely a health agenda behind it and I think alcohol is going to be next."

"Like I said, it won't bother me what they do because I have my street government," says Sapphire, "but the world is going to become an awfully boring place for everyone else when all the health bans on drugs take effect."

"Bring back the likes of cigar chewing Winston Churchill and vodka swilling Boris Yeltsin," laughs Sapphire. "Now they were politicians to admire and would have kicked the current politically correct idiots back to kindergarten where they belong."

Read more by Sapphire:

health nuts, geriatrics and smokers

unruly teen alienated by stepfamily

We’re all gonna die!

drugs create genius?

health and safety madness

government treats smokers as enemies?

Penelope has endured ten years of victimization from anti-smoking fanatics, and she believes that life under the Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan cannot be much worse than it is for her and other fellow citizens who smoke, and wonders why her government is treating smokers as enemies.

"I can appreciate that the Islamists and the anti-smokers truly believe in the barrow they are pushing," says Penelope, "but they don't ever seem to question the propaganda that feeds their cause. They just accept it as if it were an incontrovertible truth and repeat it so often that they sound like parrots."

"I am prepared to listen to the arguments the government puts forward about cancer, passive smoking and everything else -- I don't have much choice, really, when it's pushed into my face every day," says Penelope, "but I cannot in all seriousness accept all of it.”

“Most of it has been discredited and while I don't mean to be disrespectful, something that makes me feel so good cannot be all bad. It's as simple as that."

"It's a pity they are not prepared to listen to what smokers have to say," sighs Penelope, 'but brainwashed fanatics are, by definition, incapable of seeing both sides of an issue so I don't bother trying any more."

"Frankly, after putting up with the anti-smoking terrorists at home for ten years, I fail to see how life under the Taliban could be very much worse," says Penelope. "In fact, it would be a lot easier to accept being terrorized by them because they're not the same race and religion as myself -- as my current intimidators and torturers are."

“Now I know how the Jews felt in Nazi Germany,” says Penelope. “I feel like a non-citizen in my own country.”

Read more from Penelope on this subject:

brainwashed anti-smoking terrorists

brainwashing v education

tobacco war doing better than terror war!

anti-smoking funeral stunt

Like many retired people facing old age, Hetty has started reading death notices and she was particularly annoyed by the funeral arrangements of one old gentleman who sullied the solemn occasion of his funeral with a ridiculous anti-smoking propaganda stunt.

"Apparently Dick Whittamore, 85, wanted an anti-smoking message to be displayed at his funeral parade and by his grave as a warning to others," says Hetty, "but as the old codger died of a heart attack, not lung cancer or emphysema – and his earlier request for strippergram girls at his funeral was dropped as being inappropriate - I cannot understand why the anti-smoking placards 'Smoking Killed Me' were not deemed similarly ridiculous by the funeral directors."

"This anti-smoking stunt is not only tacky but it's also misleading advertising," says Hetty. "And, because the old guy lived ten years beyond the UK average male life expectancy he was actually advertising smoking as being a good thing!”

"Obviously the old codger was a rabid anti-smoking nut -- even to the point of having the placards printed in the same typeface as the health warnings on cigarette packets," sighs Hetty, "but why his hatred of smoking was allowed to be publicized in this inappropriate manner is beyond my comprehension and it's very likely that the funeral directors had to be rabid anti-smoking nuts too in order to permit it."

"Mr Whittamore's cause of death on February 16 2010 was recorded as a heart attack, not lung cancer or emphysema," says Hetty, "and this anti-smoking stunt is not only tacky but it's also misleading advertising."

"So what if he was a heavy smoker in his youth and developed emphysema later in life," says Hetty. "Most people in his age-group, 85 plus, smoked heavily or were exposed to heavy smokers, and some developed emphysema later in life and some didn't."

"Apparently Mr Whittamore ran a printing shop for almost 50 years -- and was also an assistant manager of a theatre -- so he had a flair for publicity and drama and was also exposed to dangerous chemicals in his work which may have caused his emphysema," adds Hetty. "So, to blame his later ill health on a smoking habit he had as a lad is stretching it a bit far."

"Let's face it, the old guy lived ten years beyond the UK average male life expectancy – an exceptional innings – and was well known as a 'character'," says Hetty. "If he sincerely wanted to warn people against smoking, which I believe he did, then he did not succeed in this task as well as he succeeded at drawing attention to himself after death (which, I believe, was his main objective)."

"God help us all if ASH applauds anti-smoking funeral stunts like this," sighs Hetty. "Even if you really did die of a smoking related disease, especially long before your allotted three score and ten years, it's still extremely tacky to sully a solemn occasion such as a funeral with anti-smoking propaganda."

"We all die of something, and it's ridiculous to state in your will that you want advertised what you 'think' killed you before you even know what did kill you," laughs Hetty. "Would the placards still have been displayed even if Mr Whittamore had been killed by a bus?"

"Somehow, I think Mr Whittamore was so anti-smoking that he would have insisted on having his 'smoking killed me' placards displayed no matter what killed him - justifying this anomaly, I presume, with whatever nonsense his ilk usually comes up with -- which, I suppose, is the same sort of nonsense his ilk claim we smokers use to justify continuing to smoke!"

"Anyway, RIP old man, and bear in mind that if your heart had not packed in you might have lived another 10 plus years but not in the comfort of your home, with a mobility wheelchair to scoot around in, but in some horrible nursing home dribbling from all orifices."

smoking invasions

Like most smokers, Moya, 48, is under considerable pressure at work to quit her enjoyable habit even though smoking is something she indulges in at home -- not at work -- and she is fuming that her civil liberties are being violated and invaded in this manner. She sees the whole quit smoking campaign as being as criminal, shortsighted and venal as the Iraq invasion, and believes that it's pushed by the same type of opportunistic people, for the same reasons.

"Although it's not a life-threatening violation of my civil rights -- as the criminal invasion of Iraq was, and still is, to Iraqi citizens," says Moya, "the quit smoking war is still very much a criminal act -- it's creating discriminatory attitudes in my place of work that are violating my civil liberties to enjoy a legal product in the sanctity of my own home."

"What I do at home is absolutely no business of my employer and it's deplorable that a comment I made to a coworker about smoking ended up being reported on my employment file," says Moya. "This is Big Brother gone crazy and next thing they'll be wanting to know what we eat for breakfast and what we do in bed."

"As I see it, the quit smoking campaign came about as a result of someone getting lung cancer and successfully litigating against the tobacco companies," says Moya. "That person may very well have developed lung cancer from a bacterial infection whether he or she smoked or not, but once the precedent had been set -- and the dollar signs started flashing -- that was the end of freedom for smokers."

"From then on, smokers became the enemy and the lies started coming thick and fast -- such as smokers are killing themselves and others (some of us may very well be doing that, but so are drinkers, drivers, meat eaters, gun owners, etc); we are bankrupting the health services with our smoking-related diseases (and paying for them ten times over with tobacco tax); and we crave liberation from the thralls of addiction (yeah, sure, we embrace the efforts of the nicotine-Nazis with love and gratitude.)"

"The illegal invasion of Iraq -- against UN decisions -- came about as a result of Mr Bush and the warmongers being frustrated at failing to nab Osama and going after Saddam instead," says Moya. "One criminal excuse after another was given in order to justify the illegal invasion -- Saddam was a monster (he may have been, but so are lots of other rulers and even Hillary Clinton is seen as being one by a fellow Democrat! ); he had stockpiles of WMD (Hans Blix found none); and the Iraqis crave liberation (yeah, sure, they embrace our gun-toting troops with love and gratitude)."

"The quit smoking campaign and the decision to invade Iraq are also alike in that they were based on shortsighted premises by people who have no understanding of consequences and no way to back off without losing face -- making them dangerous people."

"Their jobs -- their wealth and their pension funds -- depend upon successfully completing their mission and maintaining control over the outcome," says Moya. "They refuse to admit that they were wrong in invading Iraq -- that Saddam was the right person to rule a divided nation -- and they also refuse to admit that they were wrong in making such deceitful claims against smokers."

"The Iraqi people they claimed to be 'liberating' are now living in fear, anger and helplessness, wishing Saddam were back in power," says Moya. "And that's the way many ex-smokers feel. The rewards of being a non-smoker are not what they were cracked up to be -- all of the hidden reasons why people become smokers in the first place come back with a vengeance when they give it up."

"I have personally seen several acquiantances at work sink into deep depression when they quit cigarettes," says Moya. "Now they are on prescribed medication and spending just as much on their meds as they did on cigarettes. Big deal!"

"And there has been no massive decrease in the so-called smoking-related diseases either," says Moya. "Rather that admitting that other factors cause these diseases, the health authorities now claim that people who once smoked have already done the damage. Hmm, more reason to keep on smoking, then?"

"Finally, by far the closest likeness between the quit smoking campaign and the invasion of Iraq is, you guessed it, money!" sighs Moya. "They want a bigger cut of the Iraqi oil fields and they want a bigger cut of our money -- if not in tobacco tax then in quit programs and products."

"They've already pushed the Iraqis too far by overstaying their welcome -- and they're pushing smokers to the end of their tether, too," says Moya, "and I have no idea whether they doing what they're doing out of grotesque money-grubbing greed, arrogant self-righteous hubris or just plain dumb stupidity."

"The only way the warmongers can win decisively in Iraq is the same way the anti-smokers can win decisively in the smoking war -- imprison or shoot all the dissidents."

"I don't think there are enough prisons and bullets to achieve this end and while fellow citizens may not be too concerned about this sort of thing happening in Iraq they may start squirming when the dissendent smokers at home start getting rounded up -- or will they?"

"Judging from what's happening at work -- and what's happening in society at large --I honestly fear that our national identity as a feircely proud and free nation has been so watered down with foreign immigrants from totalitarian nations that the concept of civil liberties is fast disappearing from our national psyche."

"That so many so-called democratic freedom lovers still see the Iraq invasion as justifiable -- as justifiable as smoking and other bans -- is really scary," says Moya. "I feel so sorry for the next generation raised on Big Brother television and Big Brother government -- as well as control freaks at school and work -- because they will never know what freedom is."

"And most of all I feel sorry for the Iraqis -- especially the ones who smoke, and that's an awful lot of them -- because if western style democracy takes off in that country, they're going to be hit with an invasion of their smoking rights next."

cigarette muggers

Zaina and her partner were recently mugged for their cigarettes and she points out that this is what happens when governments regularly increase tax on a legal product that is addictive -- like cigarettes -- in order to fund schools and hospitals. The time has now arrived when cigarettes have become too expensive to buy for many smokers and some will necessarily resort to crime in order to get what they want. Is this how we want our schools and hospitals funded?

"I was standing outside a restaurant with my partner having a smoke when we were mugged by a gang of youths," says Zaina. "Okay, they didn't actually bash us up -- they pushed my partner and stole his packet of cigarettes -- but the effect was the same as a mugging."

"We felt violated and wounded by this experience," explains Zaina, "and more so because we had no redress -- we could hardly call the police and complain about being pushed around and having cigarettes stolen, could we?"

"This sort of thing never happened when restaurants allowed people to smoke inside," says Zaina, "and, as the tax on cigarettes goes up even more, I expect these muggings to increase and become even more violent. Is this really how we want our schools and hospitals funded?"

"By forcing us outside to smoke the restaurant owners are exposing us to muggers," says Zaina, "but I don't blame the restaurant owners because they are merely complying with the new rules. It's the fault of the mugging government in every respect!"

"The government enforced the no-smoking rules on public establishments and imposed draconian taxes on cigarettes and it might find the whole exercise backfires when someone gets badly hurt and takes legal action -- reversing the whole legal process that started the non-smoking campaign in the first place."

"Already we've read about lots of smoking-related violence -- smokers reacting violently against people trying to stop them lighting up in non-smoking areas, and anti-smokers behaving violently towards smokers smoking in smoking areas," says Zaina. "I don't know how many smokers have been mugged for their cigarettes like we have -- it's not the sort of thing that makes front page news, is it? -- but I predict an increase in this sort of crime when the taxes increase so much that poor people can no longer afford to buy their cigarettes."

"A huge increase in cigarette smuggling to avoid tax is also going on," sighs Zaina. "It's really upsetting to see a pleasurable thing like smoking attracting criminal elements."

"The government is crazy if it thinks that people will just cut down or stop smoking when it becomes too expensive for them to buy cigarettes," sighs Zaina. "We're talking about an addiction here, not a preference for one thing over another like buying a cheap bottle of wine when you can no longer afford French champagne, or a bottle of methylated spirits when you can no longer afford a cheap bottle of wine."

"Most smokers have already been forced by exorbitant taxes to buy cheaper brands of cigarettes, and when the cheapest brand become too expensive to buy the ugly consequences of the anti-smoking campaign are really going to manifest themselves big time."

"The government knows that cigarette smoking is most prevalent among low socio-economic groups," says Zaina. "What plans does it have to prevent theft, violence and slaughter when it raises the taxes on tobacco products to the tipping point?"

"I believe most smokers are honest law-abiding people -- we have accepted the new smoking rules and accommodated to them without stirring up a revolution," says Zaina, "but I do not know whether my partner and I will be able to sit by silently while not only the government bullies us but the poorer smokers, too."

"After our mugging experience we have decided to stay home from now on -- or to restrict our dining out experiences to places where there is a private smoking area," says Zaina. "But now we worry about being mugged at the point of sale -- places where we buy our cigarettes."

"When people get desperate they do desperate things -- and even if tobacco outlets are set up as fortresses the purchasers are exposed to muggers when they leave such establishments."

"Imagine having to look around and see who's watching you every time you buy a pack of cigarettes," sighs Zaina. "It's not a nice way to live and I am angry that the government is creating a criminal environment around the sale and use of a legal product."

"It is almost as if the government is deliberately creating a crime situation by raising taxes so much that poor people have to resort to crime to get their cigarettes (and then it can take the ultimate step to ban smoking altogether)," muses Zaina. "but since it makes such a big deal about tobacco tax being used to fund our schools and hospitals I can't see any logic in that argument."

"If our schools and hospitals are funded by tobacco tax, and everyone who smokes suddenly quits, buys their cigarettes tax-free off smugglers or mugs for them, then what? Where is the money for the schools and hospitals going to come from?"

"No, I don't think the government's ulterior motive in increasing tax on cigarettes is to create such a bad crime situation that it has a good reason to ban smoking -- that would be like cutting off its nose to spite its face," says Zaina. "So, that leaves me with the horrifying realization that the government hasn't a clue."

"It had no idea what Pandora's box it opened when it targeted smokers and put the tax screws on them, but it's going to find out pretty soon," sighs Zaina. "Reminds you of the invasion of Iraq, doesn't it?"

"In the meantime, I can't understand why schools and hospitals can't be funded by regular taxes," sighs Zaina. "If tobacco is so bad, then it's mind-boggling that the government would depend upon it in this way."

"And, if it's not so bad, then it's mind-boggling that the government would tax it to the point where consumers can no longer afford it and have to resort to crime."

ideologically driven education

Myra remembers angrily how her education was blighted by compulsory religious instruction spewing out anti-communist propaganda and that of her daughter's with compulsory hygiene instruction spewing out anti-smoking propaganda. Now, she is hopping mad that her grand-children's education is not only going to be blighted by similar political agendas -- this time global warming -- but also by a complete curriculum change.

"Was education ever intended to educate children -- to stretch their minds and inspire them?" asks Myra. "Or was it always intended to be ideologically driven by whatever political agenda was in vogue?"

"I've heard that a complete curriculum change is being proposed -- to replace subjects such as geography and mathematics with more politically relevant subjects such as global warming and financial planning."

"Hello? Since when has global warming been established as an undisputed fact?" asks Myra. "And, although I like the idea of slanting subjects towards a practical application I am not happy about my grandchildren being force fed propaganda and being denied a rigorous academic grounding in time-honored subjects."

"Who are the gnomes responsible for proposing these changes?" asks Myra. "And how dare they dumb down our children more than they have been dumbed down already."

"Grammar started going out of fashion when I was at school -- along with classical Latin and Greek," sighs Myra. "My mother still corrects me for my grammatical errors and wonders how an ignoramus such as I ever gained a university education!"

"Likewise, spelling and the times-tables went out of fashion when my daughter was at school," sighs Myra."Nevertheless, she gained a higher degree than I did and not wanting to be like my mother I never dared correct her or take away her calculator."

"I truly believe that academic standards are dropping with each generation," says Myra. "I would never have passed an entrance examination of my mother's era, and similarly my daughter would never have passed one of my era."

"And, I believe that for every political agenda pushed into schools, some vital academic knowledge is being pushed out."

"Is it the aim of our educational gurus to churn out a bunch of politically correct idiots or what?

"I remember being scared out of my wits by Reds under the beds and the wrath of God when I was at school," says Myra. "And my teachers achieved this politically inspired instruction by dropping grammar, Latin and Greek."

"Similarly, my daughter was scared out of her wits by the evils of smoking and did so at the expense of a thorough grounding in spelling and mental arithmetic."

"So, what are our political masters going to drop from the curriculum in order to indoctrinate the next generation into being good little green environmentalists?"

"Oh, I know, it's going to be history, isn't it?"

"We're going to exchange history for current affairs so that the next generation never gets a chance to learn from the mistakes of previous generations, right?"

"Of course, past events significant to the political agenda being pushed will be mentioned," says Myra, "but all of the blood and guts, the heroes and the villains that we learned about will be dropped, and children will never be able to form their own opinions about anything."

"When teachers push political opinion rather than education and become more concerned about political correctness than academic excellence, we are doomed," says Myra. "Children will be indoctrinated, not educated."

"Okay, I survived my indoctrination -- there never were any Reds under the beds and God was never watching me with an eagle eye -- and my daughter survived hers to become a smoker of all things," laughs Myra, "but did we really need to learn this rubbish and do so at the expense of academic learning?"

"In years to come, global warming like everything else will have lost credibility," says Myra, "and I shudder to think of a world populated by grammatical dunces, bad spellers and people without any grounding whatsoever in mental arithmetic, geography, history, Latin or Greek."

"To be totally cynical," says Myra, "it's as if our political masters want to take us back the Dark Ages of illiterate masses and despotic rulers."

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."

brainwashed anti-smoking terrorists

It never ceases to amaze Penelope how the anti-smokers use the same old discredited information to justify their intimidating and terrorizing behavior towards smokers. She suggests that they're singing from a jihadist hymn book similar to that used by the Red Mosque to brainwash innocent children into becoming Islamist fanatics.

"I don't make the comparison lightly," says Penelope. "At times I have been literally terrorized by anti-smokers, and with the smoking bans it is getting worse."

"We're advised that the only way to defeat the Islamist terrorists is to ignore their atrocious behavior and go about our daily lives as normal," says Penelope. "This is exactly the behavior I have adopted over the ten years or so that I have been subjected to anti-smoking venom."

"However, while their jihadist tactics have had no impact on my smoking habit, my carrying on as normal has upped the ante as far as their abominable behavior is concerned -- and I fear the same situation is developing with Islamism."

“Fanatics never give up.”

"It strikes me as odd, too, that the anti-smoking jihad took off about the same time as the Islamist jihad," says Penelope. "I'm not saying that there's a connection between the two -- although there might be, smoking is big in Muslim countries -- all I am saying is that the world, generally, has become increasingly intolerant in the last ten years or so and just as the Islamist cause has been whipped into a frenzy by a few lunatics, a few lunatics must have been behind the anti-smoking cause, too."

“Perhaps smokers need a few ‘lunatics’ to emerge from our downtrodden ranks to stand up to these bullies?”

Read more from Penelope on this subject:

brainwashing v education

government treats smokers as enemies?

tobacco war doing better than terror war!

weak-willed ex-smokers

Bibi is 38, a social smoker, and she's fuming that anti-smoking propaganda has caused so many people to quit and change from being pleasant companions into irritable, nasty and weak-willed ex-smokers.

"There are plenty of people who have sworn off alcohol and yet can enjoy a night out with drinkers -- and some ex-smokers can do this sort of thing, too," says Bibi, "but my personal experience with people who have quit smoking is that they have become absolute pains."

"My ex-best friend was a social smoker like myself who has been trying to quit for three years, but claims that she gets drawn back into temptation by smokers in social situations," explains Bibi. "She is delighted with the new smoking ban because she feels it will actually help her resist the temptation to smoke."

"Well, hello!" laughs Bibi. "As long as smoking is legal she is going to come across smokers wherever she goes and if she has so much trouble quitting then she might as well continue smoking."

"As I see it," says Bibi, "if she really wanted to quit she would. End of story. She is merely blaming her failure on others around her. If it's not us, it's her parents. She is totally spineless and I'm ashamed that I never saw that feature in her before -- but I'm not beating up on myself because even the colleagues of the terrorist doctors didn't suspect them."

"I appreciate it doesn't help the quitters if others are smoking around you," says Bibi, "but if you are having serious trouble with this sort of thing you need to get therapy or stay at home far away from people and environments that tempt you."

"I believe that lots of ex-smokers left the pub and club scene -- and are flocking back now -- because they couldn't cope with the temptation," says Bibi, "but I fail to see why millions of smokers need to have their freedoms curtailed just because some ex-smokers have personal problems with willpower."

"When she sees me and the other smokers going out for a smoke she starts lecturing us on addiction and adopts a holier than thou attitude," sighs Bibi. "She is becoming a real pain."

"There was absolutely no health reason why she needed to quit," says Bibi. "She just swallowed all the anti-smoking hype and became a born-again non-smoker with all the zeal attached to born-again crusaders."

"In my opinion there is no such thing as an ex-smoker," says Bibi. "It's like alcoholism. You're hooked for life and you have two choices when you want to quit: accept your addiction and exercise willpower to overcome it, or become a ranting crusader."

"Unfortunately, too many ex-smokers find it easier to become ranting crusaders than exercise willpower," sighs Bibi, "and now that they are coming back into the pub and club scene in droves I fear more rather than less victimization when I'm outside smoking."

"I've never tried to quit so I don't know exactly how difficult it would be," muses Bibi, "but if I ever had to make that choice I hope I have the strength of character to do it with grace without feeling a need to inflict venom on those who choose to remain smokers."

"I had to give up junk food a while back because I was putting on too much weight and while it's probably not the same sort of addiction as smoking I didn't feel a need to inflict venom on those around me who continued eating it in my presence."

"Sure, my mouth watered and I was tempted to give in hundreds of times," laughs Bibi, "but I persevered and now being around junk food doesn't bother me much. Yes, I still desire the stuff -- just like an ex-smoker must still desire cigarettes -- but you learn to concentrate on something else and the desire passes."

"Let's face it, at some time in our lives we all have to give up something we enjoy doing," says Bibi, "and how you do it shows what you're made of, doesn't it?"

powwows and peace pipes

Celeste is a school teacher -- no, she doesn't smoke on school premises -- and she points out that what is sadly missing from the ongoing war between the tobacco companies and the anti-smoking organizations -- and the ongoing harassment of smokers by community bullies that results from it -- is a genuine desire to resolve the conflict.

"I was watching the great foes of Northern Ireland -- the Republican extremist Martin McGuinness and the Loyalist extremist Ian Paisley -- finally resolve their differences after an endless war that took many lives and ruined even more," says Celeste, "and it suddenly occurred to me that the tobacco war has been going on for almost as long and it's about time that it, too, ended."

"It's probably not a particularly appropriate suggestion," laughs Celeste, "but what they need to do is to sit down, have a powwow, resolve their differences and smoke a peace pipe."

"Personally, I don't encounter much harassment where I live and work -- we're a pretty laid back sort of community," says Celeste. "While the principal doesn't approve of staff who smoke he's happy to butt out of our personal lives after working hours, and I'm happy to preach all the anti-smoking stuff to the kids because they need to be informed of the health hazards of all drugs."

"It's a different matter, though, when my husband and I have to travel," sighs Celeste. "What's with you city people? There are so many non-smoking signs and self-appointed citizen smoke police in the city that we can't believe we're in the same country!"

"Twice in the past six months I've been harassed by these self-appointed citizen smoke police -- for smoking (with my own personal ashtray) in a park and then outside a library, neither area prohibiting smoking," sighs Celeste, "and I can imagine how horrific this sort of environment would be if you have to put up with it every day."

"What's more scary is that when my husband and I tally these harassing encounters he receives half as many as I do -- and he smokes twice as much," sighs Celeste. "The harassers, so far, have all been male, so it's not just smokers they are targeting but women smokers particularly -- and this puts a nasty slant on it all."

"As I see it, if the ongoing war between the tobacco companies and the anti-smoking organizations came to an end, so would the ongoing harassment of smokers by community bullies that results from it," says Celeste. "So, how about it guys? Are your agendas negotiable or non-negotiable? Are you like Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley, willing to make peace; or are you like Hamas and Israel, with the former pledged to destroy the other?"

"If we put up a wigwam on some neutral ground, provided you with the finest feathers to adorn your noble heads and gave you the choice of smoking the peace pipe or swigging back some fine whisky, or both, would you meet for a powwow?"

"It was once the time-honored way ancient cultures -- and some of our ancestors -- resolved their differences," says Celeste, "and it's a tragedy, really, that smoking the peace pipe would now be seen as a filthy, dirty, stinking and totally anti-social habit."

"Smoke -- in all its forms -- has incredible powers over and above its mundane uses," says Celeste. "It's been used for thousands of years as a medium for communication, healing and rites in a variety of ancient cultures."

"And tobacco -- like most plants -- has medicinal as well as toxic properties," explains Celeste. "We don't even know half of the magic of plants and herbs that ancient cultures knew -- this knowledge, an oral one, died out when the last ancient culture was wiped out."

"Lighting tobacco and smoking it," says Celeste, "is a peaceful and healing experience for me and, I'd say, for all smokers. It's why we do it, guys. Get it?"

"I'm certainly not going to advise that everybody should take up the habit," laughs Celeste. "On the contrary, I think it only appeals -- in its deepest sense -- to people with a spiritual connection to our ancient roots."

"What can be more fundamental to being a human being than our relationship with fire?"

"I know there are social smokers -- people who just put a cigarette in their mouths to make out while they're in company with smokers -- but they're not real smokers," says Celeste. "And I don't think chain smokers are real smokers, either -- they need stronger medication for what ails them."

"Someone who smokes alone, or in quiet accord with another smoker, is showing a spiritual connection to our ancient roots," says Celeste, "and it's this 'peace pipe' affect that's sorely needed in the tobacco war."

"Once the tobacco companies and the anti-smoking organizations have made their peace I don't expect that harassment of smokers by community bullies will stop overnight," sighs Celeste, "and I don't think powwows and peace pipes are a particularly a good way to deal with bullies in any case."

"What the harassing bullies need is a bit of zap-pow and a piece of pipe stuck where it hurts."

smoking milch cows

There are so many lawyers, anti-smoking organizations and government health departments stacked up against the tobacco companies that Eileen, a social worker, is convinced that the whole smoking issue is one big Milch Cow.

"It's not just the tobacco companies getting milked for all they are worth but us, the stupid smokers, too," says Eileen, "and I'm not apologizing for using the 'stupid' word for smokers because that's what both sides of the issue think of us, and frankly I sometimes think of myself like that, too."

"The smoking issue is the most convoluted thing I've ever come across and because lawyers are involved I believe it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better."

"What's a cosy legal battle in plush offices for them is a dirty war of abuse on the streets for us," says Eileen, "and I am angry with the tobacco companies as well as the others for turning the lives of smokers upside down, robbing us of our hard earned money and causing others to abuse us."

"On a social level, the 'suits' from the tobacco companies and their so-called enemy 'suits' in the other camps probably do lunch together every day, entertain in each other's homes and send their kids to the same posh schools," says Eileen. "And, if they ever DO think about the fallout abuse that their cosy little war costs us, the stupid smokers, it would be followed invariably with peals of sneering laughter because -- wait for it -- I have yet to find evidence that any of the tobacco company guys actually smoke."

"The tobacco companies make such an absolute fortune from us -- the stupid smokers -- that the other stuff, the legal war, is merely a game they enjoy playing," explains Eileen. "And because money is no problem for either side, they are going to keep their legal wars going forever -- and don't the lawyers love that!"

"Do you realize that we -- the stupid smoking Milch Cows -- get slugged with income tax and tobacco tax to pay the other side as well?" asks Eileen. "We are paying for the whole thing! How does that grab you? Doesn't it make you feel uber stupid?"

"In my social work I get to see the real victims of the smoking war," explains Eileen. "Low income and disadvantaged people -- including single moms, disabled people and the elderly -- who are already victimized by society because of their circumstances. On top of this, they then get abused for smoking."

"Most of these people smoke to make their miserable lives a bit better," says Eileen, "and every day I think how much better off they would be if they could stop smoking (impossible, I've tried) or if this stupid smoking war would end and give them back a bit of dignity -- and a lot more dollars in their pockets."

"In my social work I also get to see some of the BIG people involved in the tobacco war from the government's angle," says Eileen, "but of course I don't work with them like I do the victims of tobacco. I just 'see' them swanning around in their power suits, puffed up with importance, believing they're on a crusade to save us from tobacco when everyone knows what they're really doing."

"Oh sure, there are some genuine souls who naively believe that giving up smoking to spare yourself a horrible death is a good thing," sighs Eileen, "but they just don't understand that most of the people I'm working with would die a horrible death in any case, one that is totally unrelated to smoking."

"When they think of a smoker -- if they ever do -- they are probably thinking of someone like me," says Eileen. "Someone with a bit of education who should know better and, with a bit more pressure, might give up the deadly habit."

"Well, if I ever do succeed in quitting it will be to avoid kicking myself over and over again for being milked by these guys," laughs Eileen. "It will have nothing to do with the health benefits I might gain because I know I will suffer far worse health problems by quitting. My life may be better than those of the poor people whose troubles I try to resolve, but it is still miserable in its own way and smoking helps get me through it all."

"I get dizzy trying to count the number of do-goody organizations on the tobacco gravy train -- oops, sorry to mix my metaphors," laughs Eileen. "Every day a new one seems to pop up and our tax payer dollars just keep on flowing for them."

"Can you believe that all this has been going on since 1964 when Congress protected the tobacco companies from the effects of litigation by means of the Surgeon General's warning label?" sighs Eileen. "I was born a year later, so all of my life this rubbish has been going on and it is never going to stop."

"When the first of these do-goody organizations came into being its purpose was to educate the public and hold the tobacco companies to the same degree of accountability as other industries," explains Eileen, "and, as far as I am concerned, that purpose was achieved long ago. But, seeing the dollars rolling in and a life-time career ahead of them, these guys dug in and encouraged a multitude of other parasitic types to join in for whatever other purposes they had in mind."

"I make no apologies for using the parasitic word either," says Eileen, "because that's what most of them are. They feed off our addiction, our desire to smoke and the miseries of our lives that caused most of us to start smoking in the first place."

"Even if their purpose were genuinely to help us stop smoking so that we could save money and live a healthier life," says Eileen, "they can offer us nothing to fill the gap that smoking filled, a gap that we might fill with something far more dangerous."

"These people know nothing about 'gaps' or their myriad causes," confides Eileen, "and that's why they have no right to dictate what is good or bad for us. Like most think tank types, they think of other human beings as cohorts or metrics on a chart, stripped of all humanity. They make pronouncements from ivory towers that even they, in their saner moments, must find appalling."

"It has been said over and over again -- by smokers as well as non-smokers -- that if tobacco is the killer they make it out to be then it should be banned," says Eileen, "but these guys have no desire whatsoever to put the tobacco industry out of business or to make cigarettes illegal. They don't see the inconsistency of what they're telling us and even if they did, they don't care. Why should they? Parasites by nature only feed off hosts certain to keep the milk and honey flowing forever."

"The tobacco industry, as I see it, has fulfilled all of the requirements asked of it and the burden of responsibility has now shifted fairly and squarely to the cigarette smoker," says Eileen. "It's time for these do-goody organizations to go away and find some other milch cow."

"We are, of course, still stuck with the government -- the biggest parasite of them all because without tobacco tax it wouldn't be able to fund invasions and do other goods things," sighs Eileen. "So, even if the others disappeared off the scene we are still going to get milked."

"Moo!"

anti-smoking blindness

Cora lives in a small community which got along okay before the anti-smoking propaganda came along. Now, it's not only divided over the issue but it's also blinded by it as to the real causes of death and disability in the community, if not the world.

"Since the so-called war on terror, one young man in our community has died fighting for the freedom of other people in other lands -- and two have come back wounded," says Cora. "All of these boys were smokers or came from smoking families, and I would imagine this scenario fits a lot of our fighting men and women."

"Tell me, why it is okay to waste young lives fighting for the freedoms of Iraqis and Afghans while at the same time they're taking away OUR freedoms," sighs Cora. "And, to add more fire to this argument, don't they know that more Iraqis and Afghans smoke than don't smoke?"

"Why would the Iraqis and Afghans want freedom and western democracy if it means that they, too, will one day be forced to quit smoking in order to join the New World Order?"

"If our soldiers didn't die for freedom -- yeah, even the freedom to smoke -- then what did they die for?" asks Cora. "Big Oil, Halliburton or the Bush family's prestige?"

"None of the anti-smokers I've spoken to seem to understand the irony of this situation and they are totally blinded by their prejudices," sighs Cora. "All that matters to them is that THEY don't get to smell our smoke any more, and THEIR lives aren't shortened any more by our smoke. Freedom is a word that's missing from their vocabularies."

"Well, let me tell you, not one person -- smoker or otherwise -- has died of lung cancer or any smoking-related disease in this community for as long as I can remember," says Cora. "All those smoking death statistics that the health department is coming out with must apply to the big cities where carcinogens other than cigarette smoke play a part."

"I'll tell you what people are dying from around here," confides Cora. "They're dying of alcoholism, road traffic accidents, heat exhaustion in the summer, pneumonia in the winter and just general old age."

"And now we have the death of a healthy young man to add to our community death statistics," sighs Cora. "And it's a death from a totally preventable cause -- war."

"Why are people so blinded as to the real causes of death?" asks Cora. "Why are they believing all those anti-smoking lies about smokers causing their own premature deaths as well as those of others?"

"The deaths of the 3,000 people who were killed by 9/11 were an absolute tragedy -- an unavoidable one, as far as we know," says Cora, ''but can we say the same for the equal (and growing) number of our young people who've died in the subsequent war of revenge?"

"And what about the incredible number of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan who've died in this war -- the so called 'collateral damage'?" asks Cora. "Don't they matter?"

"If the anti-smokers want to bring up the mythical number of 'preventable' deaths from smoking," says Cora, "then they should be forced to focus their eyes on the very REAL number of preventable deaths from war, alcohol, motor vehicles and everything else."

"Could it be that they're too busy raking in the profits from war, alcohol, motor vehicles and everything else to care?"

"All I know is that the anti-smokers around here are just smug-happy to have won their right to a non-smoking environment over our right to smoke and couldn't give a fig about the war or anything else," says Cora. "We are banned from smoking everywhere except in our homes, and even that right is now being threatened."

"Before the bans, we had smoking and non-smoking areas and everyone was happy," says Cora. "Why did the government have to step in and change all that with its anti-smoking propaganda based on questionable health hazards?"

"Frankly, I feel bad talking about my pathetic right to smoke when thousands of people around the world are dying terrible deaths from war, diseases and starvation," sighs Cora, "and yet if the whole thrust of the anti-smoking movement is to eradicate preventable deaths and disabilities then why are they focusing on smokers and turning a blind eye to the MAJOR causes of preventable deaths and disabilities -- wars, alcohol, motor vehicles, bacteria, viruses, poverty and overpopulation?"

"In fact, why did our government start a war that would kill more people than smoking has ever caused?"

"If you can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke, guys, then put a peg on your noses or hassle the tobacco companies to produce perfumed cigarettes," says Cora. "Just don't insult my intelligence -- and blind those with less intelligence -- with your exaggerations about smoking hazards and how much you care about human lives."

tobacco tax funding ASH ads?

When the government raises tobacco tax -- saying it's to pay for the health costs of smoking -- Pilar begrudgingly pays more for her cigarettes, but when she sees government funded anti-smoking advertisements similar to those used by ASH on television, radio and in print she quite rightly fumes!

"Who is running the government, ASH or our elected representatives?" asks Pilar. "And how dare they spend revenue raised from smokers to fund disgusting advertisements designed to beat us up."

"You would think that the ASH activists would have better things to pour their energies into, wouldn't you," sighs Pilar. "They are 100% dedicated to stamping out smokers and it wouldn't matter if a terrorist bomb dropped near them -- they'd still focus their attentions on smokers because it appears that we, not the terrorists, are always going to be the main enemy, the main scourge of the Earth."

"Damn it, even drug addicts shooting up heroin are better treated than smokers are," says Pilar, "and all of this vilification appears to be due entirely to the propaganda against smoking put out by ASH. Starting out with little lies and repeating them endlessly, they eventually become irrefutable truths. It's brainwashing at its worst."

"I watch television, read papers and listen to the radio purely for entertainment and news," says Pilar. "I don't expect to be confronted with bullying, vile and untruthful advertisements against smoking -- and especially when they are put out by the government and paid for by my smoking tax dollars."

"Where are these billions of tobacco sin-tax dollars going?" asks Pilar. "Straight into the pockets of the anti-smoking lobby, that's where -- or straight into the pockets of pharmaceutical companies designing more and more dodgy products which are supposed to help people stop smoking."

"Well, hello? Tobacco is my drug of choice, smoking is my only vice, I have no intention of quitting and I demand that these moral crusaders get off my back!"



Read more by Pilar on this issue:

taxes diverted to the rich

ASH goes MADD

Crazy government priorities

health nuts, geriatrics and smokers

Sapphire is 19, an arts student, and a sad example, perhaps, of the total ineffectiveness of anti-smoking propaganda and a bad reason, perhaps, for the government to ban the sale of tobacco products completely.

"I drink, take drugs and of course I smoke," laughs Sapphire. "The more I come across propaganda designed to make me stop doing something the more I want to do it, and if they banned alcohol and cigarettes tomorrow it wouldn't bother me because there's nothing you can't get off a dealer."

"If the aim of the anti-smoking health nuts was to get us out of your workplaces, restaurants, bars and clubs then you've won," says Sapphire, "but in doing so you've created a generation gap and a social chasm like no other one before – except, perhaps, for the Prohibition on alcohol years. Smokers and non smokers are being divided, as are young people and older people. Are you happy now?"

"Well, guys, eat up and pump up in your nice, clean smoke-free environments -- and enjoy your liquor for as long as you can afford it," says Sapphire, "because as more smokers quit, or if tobacco is banned, all those taxes the government has ripped off smokers have to be made up somehow – think carbon tax, guys!"

"And, while you're thinking about that, think also about the next wave of health nuts who may ban alcohol and all the nice sweet and fatty food you enjoy so much," laughs Sapphire. "Right now, the health system may perform operations on 80 year olds and older, but it can't possibly afford to do so forever.”

“Who is going to look after you if you ever do live longer than smokers?"

"It ain't going to be me and my smoking friends!”

Read more by Sapphire:

unruly teen alienated by stepfamily

street government

We’re all gonna die!

drugs create genius?

health and safety madness

smoking and boiled frogs

Deira, a closet smoker, likens the slow but spectacularly successful gains of the anti-smoking movement over the freedoms of smokers to boiling water and cooked frogs.

"I honestly believe it is far too late to undo the damage," says Deira. "We did nothing but grumble when they turned on the heat 25 years ago -- and increased the heat a degree higher with each passing year -- and now we're cooked."

"I'm a closet smoker because I'd lose my job, my home and respect in the community if my secret habit became known," confides Deira. "I never smoke outside my home and even then I only smoke in the kitchen next to the exhaust fan over the cooker so that my neighbors can't smell the cigarette smoke and get me evicted."

"I notice more and more smokers are now coming out angrily demanding restitution of their rights," says Deira, "but they're wasting their breath -- what remains of it after years of smoking -- and can't possibly catch up with the spectacularly successful efforts of the anti-smoking movement in changing community values."

"The anti-smokers are now in government -- from the top right down to the lowest minion of the public service," laughs Deira, "and no pro-smoking political party will ever gain the ground that the anti-smokers took from them years ago."

"Don't they get it?" laughs Deira. "The time to have stood up and spoken up for smokers' rights was 25 years ago when the anti-smokers coughed their first disapproving cough."

"It's like everything else that's gone to the dogs in our community," sighs Deira. "We stood by in a spirit of tolerance and fair play and let them take away our rights one by one."

"Sure, it was fair to have non-smoking areas -- people who don't smoke shouldn't have to put up with smoky rooms," says Deira, "but who would have thought that in giving them these areas they would take away ours?"

"Sure, it was fair to have warning labels on cigarette packs -- tobacco companies need to protect themselves from litigation," says Deira, "but who would have thought that these labels would turn into ugly, gory graphics of diseases no smoker I know has ever had or is likely to have?"

"Sure, it was fair to increase taxes on cigarettes -- the health risks of smoking need to be paid for," says Deira, "but who would have thought they would deny us medical help when we needed it?"

"Sure, it was fair to smoke outside in the snow and sleet when there's nowhere else to smoke," says Deira, "but who would have thought they would then deny us this place to smoke when summer came and they wanted to be outside?"

"Sure, it was fair to smile and act chastised when someone you knew voice their disapproval," says Deira, "but who would have thought that total strangers -- even people who sell you cigarettes -- now have a God-given right to sneer at you?"

"I could go on and on," sighs Deira, "but I got the message years ago and I am angry that smokers who were in positions of power years ago chose to ignore what was going on and did nothing to stop the situation getting worse."

"A whole generation of young, vigorous people raised on anti-smoking propaganda are now in those positions of power," says Deira, "and I have nothing but contempt for all those old fogies, pushed out to pasture and stripped of their rights to smoke, bleating on to each other about civil liberties."

"No pro-smoking politician or activist will ever be able to preach to anyone other than fellow-smokers," says Deira, "and since so many of us are now closet smokers, who are they kidding about being able to turn the tide?"

"The tide's gone out and it ain't ever coming back in!"

"Nobody can have a reasonable discussion about freedom to smoke with any of these young people in positions of power," says Deira. "They have been brainwashed -- literally fed with anti-smoking propaganda since they started school -- and every time I have tried to put forward my position, with reasonable evidence, I have been contradicted with propaganda and abuse. It's like trying to argue with a religious fanatic -- you just don't bother!"

"What really hurts about these anti-smokers in positions of power is that they do not wish to make smoking less harmful by encouraging the tobacco industry to come up with a benign cigarette -- and they do not wish to delve into the myriad of reasons why anyone would take up smoking in the first place," says Deira. "They just want to stop everyone from smoking, and that's that. They know best. They're God or God's on their side."

"Even those who make their living off smokers -- the tobacco companies, the club and bar owners and the tobacco shops -- are bowing to the New World Order and meekly accepting the government's bullying tactics, telling them what they can and cannot do on their own premises," says Deira. "They are diversifying, trying to find a new way to make money. Not one of them, as far as I know, has come out in front of the media and supported the smokers who support them -- but then what media would give the time of day to lost causes?"

"Damn it," curses Deira, "even when you get online and try to find a site that supports smokers you check out their links and find that they are moles for ASH."

"Face it guys, you're cooked," laughs Deira, "and NO, you're not welcome to come join me in a closet smoke under the kitchen exhaust fan."

"If you had been on the ball, doing your job and protecting our rights over the past 25 years -- rather than partying and enjoying the perks of power -- I wouldn't have been forced into becoming a closer smoker. Okay?"