We live our lives like swimming olive-oil spots on the surface of boiling pasta water, waiting for the starch to break down. No matter if you smoke or not, there are steaming and hot times ahead.
Al dente please!
Just heard on the radio this lovely Sunday morning, that the British government is seriously considering to enact a new law for smokers. Of course all the Pubs and all other public spaces are already smoke free. But now comes this:
Every smoker will be obliged to get a SMOKERS LICENSE!
How do you get one? Well, you will have to go to a doctor first and get a statement that your health will not be seriously affected by smoking for the next year or so. Now that is total rubbish, if not even an oxymoron!
But it gets better yet. After you have been to the doctor and got his or her statement, saying that you will not get lung-cancer or any other smoking related disease for the next 12 months, (hahaha - they don't even know where cancer comes from yet) you need to go and purchase a license for about $20. Every time you buy cigarettes you will be required to show your license of health! No license, no cigarettes!!!
On the other hand, the US, and rapidly catching up in other countries, OBESITY is now the #1 cause of self-inflicted death (heart failure on the top of the list), surpassing the doom and gloom of the 27% of society who still wish to smoke.
So, 58% are overweight (26% thereof obese, that means wider than high) 10% are anorexic, add the 27% smokers to it and you will get the image that 95% of the population are on a murderous track of self-destruction. That leaves us with only 5% of "healthy" citizens. This is how statistics work, and this is the grounds whereupon our lawmakers make their decisions!
I made my own conclusions from these (very conservative) figures, namely that a salesperson should be required by law to have a tape measure and a scale at hand whenever a person wants to "supersize" anything, from a hamburger to a car, to a house.
That would be a healthy "measure"!
Sunday, February 17
an other "smoking" post
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8 comments:
Great Post Zee!.. she said while lighting another cigarette. I suspect that's a regulation of the publicity stunt type. Goodness knows smokers in England might make a better job of really burning down Parliament than Guy Fawkes did.. if they try to enact it. Likely they'll be helped by the ministers whose, pipes, cigars and cigarettes remain in pockets ready to be lit up when the droning stops.
LOL, thats funny Susan!
You know that the other aspect is? This is a free invitation from the government to create a black marked.
And what are they gonna do with tourists - do they need then to go to the doctor first before before having a smoke trotting down towards Piccadilly Circus?
Bahhh!
we then need food license... if you're too fat... you're not eating...
i'm against all things that control people and limit their freedom but i'm totally with anything that would limit smoking these days, being afflicted with the disease myself and dying to quit.
it's crazy though to make people get a licence! i would think your doctor would have to screen you for genetic disposition which could be done by taking a look at some of the genes we have revealed but who will pay for these expensive tests? also diseases that result from smoking are many indeed but all are multifactorial.. since smoking is a factor and not a direct reason to get any disease so the obvious thing that follows is that these diseases, like CAD and cancer, are not to be predicted and really vary from one patient to another. it's vastly environmental on a eco and a molecular level. there's never an answer or a math equation to tell you if you will fall sick soon as a direct result of smoking. zee we do know what causes most cancers (lung cancer is largely a direct result of smoking and genetics) we just don't know how to cure it..
ultimately, we all are getting sicker by smoking. that's the only scientific statement you can make so this law is bullshit in my opinion.
Food is the cheapest "make me feel good" drug there is - Mr. _Z!
Junk food is on the top of the list. Every pack of "Doritos" and equivalent snacks, have a heavy dose of MSG which dehydrates, causes more appetite than your body wants to know, and so on and so forth. In the worst case scenario you might be actually allergic to that stuff and simply flare up or puke.
I don't know what the cure is, perhaps junk food should be banned.
(An other ban, oh dear).
Mirvat
Sorry for putting it that blunt.
Is it really up to the government to put up restrictions while at the same time not giving a helping hand?
What business does the law then have to with the restrictions of my consumption of anything as long as I consume a legal sustenance?
Yes, smoking is not good. It can complicate all kinds of nasty things close to being cancer, awful things indeed.
But what bugs me most these days Mirvat, is the injected factor of fear. That is potent poison by its own rights.
So if you smoke, my advice is to enjoy it to the fullest... or stop the habit. Make no mistake - guilt and fear are as much a cause of cancer than smoking is. Sounds absurd, but it is true!
Or else prove me otherwise!!!!
Fear is the poison of our times.
Let us not bent towards it - smoking or not.
fear is not bad in this case because if it limits your enjoyment, maybe makes you a little less proud of smoking in public, then it's saving others too..
don't forget about second hand smoking. in that case, you can't argue that the government has nothing to do with it!
keep in mind, this is coming from me.. keep in mind i'm against anything that violates our right to free everything.. but i'm totally done defending smoking
let me ask you this, we have the tools very soon to clone your full genome and tell you for sure a bunch of diseases you would be prone to. would you like to know and do the preventative thing, or would you rather not know because you don't want to live in fear?
i think this is good fear. this again doesn't mean i'm loving the government's approach, i think it doesn't make sense.
Hello, Zee.
Recently, I was reading about how pubs in London are experimenting with piping in artificial tobacco smoke. It seems as if the smoking bans have resulted in a loss of revenue through food sales, as the smells of grease, body odors, and sweat have become more noticeable without the "smoke-screen," as it were.
On a similar note, there was an instance in Frisco, where a Scotsman who had patronized a particular pub for well over ten years was banned from its premises.
It seems that the poor Scot had an incredible amount of flatulence.
He was quoted in the article as saying that he had the problem for years, but no one noticed because of the smell of smoke wafting through the pub.
Some things were never meant to be smelled....
But the concept of artificial tobacco smoke really struck me as dunderheaded.
I was thinking, What next?
Now this....
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