CompuServe Messages

Yes, well, governments like to be in the business of saving people from themselves. I wish it were a simple party or liberal-conservative thing, but it's not. They all want to save you or limit you in one or another way and only differ on which things they want to hit. I just saw a government-paid TV ad that claimed (with no justification and way beyond what even the skewed statistical model EPA used said) that 50,000 people next year will die "because of second-hand smoke. The person smoking near you isn't just hurting themselves, they are killing you and your children, too." So now I'm a murderer…. At least two bills in the Calif. legislature this session, one in NY, and one in Wisconsin sought to define smoking by a parent child abuse sufficient to charge a parent with abuse and remove the children. That's in the land of the free…. With enough statistics and a good PR campaign you can sell almost anything. I think this one will work. I'm not as concerned about it as I am the fact that it will work, and it will mean that other targets will then become both inevitable and more numerous. The mind-set is an ugly trend. In truth, air pollution was at its worst in the U.S. in the 19th Century and early Twentieth when coal was the primary means of fuel. The killer London fogs ran from the early 1800s until the last one in the early Sixties when public outcry forced them to clean up their industry. Autopsies on even earlier preserved remains have shown people from earlier eras also had serious lung congestion from burning wood and coal in indoor fireplaces without proper venting or as sole source of heat and light. While the cigarette is a relatively new invention, cigars and pipes were common and "in" during the 18th and 19th centuries in both Europe and America. There is no indication of an increase in lung cancers from the much denser second hand smoke they put out during that period, nor a major incidence of stomach and esophical cancers associated with pipe and cigar smoking. In general, more people are dying of cancer and heart problems because (A) our modern age has made us chronically out of condition; we no longer even walk a block if we can drive; (B) we are living longer thanks to modern medical knowledge and preventive disease so we're not succumbing to all those things that got us first. Smoking IS in fact an extra nail in the coffin, but you need a great many nails to keep the coffin lid closed. Focusing on just the one while ignoring the rest and all facts that don't fit in with conventional wisdom will save few lives.