Thank You For Smoking

Good afternoon.



The news and blogosphere were frothing at the mouth this past weekend as a series of emails were released from a Norwich Climatic Research Unit that appeared to imply global warming fraud. So, today, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to talk about global warming without actually using the phrase at all. How? Well, let's talk cigarettes.



In the 1950s, a scientist named Richard Doll was able to link consuming tobacco to lung cancer. His research was able to get him a sizable backing, and an informational blitzkrieg was started. Organizations such as Action on Smoking and Health formed. At the same time, however, people weren't ready to give up smoking, and neither were the big tobacco companies behind it. They formed their own group, The Council For Tobacco USA, (no, I'm not kidding you.) whose sole purpose was to belittle, harass, and oppose the anti-smoking companies. They said that the whole concept of smoking could not and never, ever, ever would cause lung cancer, and there was no way it caused heart problems, either. I'm pretty sure they even pinky swore. They said that this whole campaingn against smoking was just politics as usual, and that the big, bad government was just trying to scare you away from years of good health so that they could pad their pockets with Benjamins. And it worked, for a short while. Then, over the next decade or so, more and more people died of lung cancer, some who'd never smoked a cigar in their lives. This whole mess was affecting everyone, but it was too late to save some of those people, maybe give them sme extra years. Gradually, most people shyed away from smoking, and programs like DARE cropped up in schools. The next generation got relatively better. Only about a third of the US smokes now.

But, what if we hadn't listened? What if tobacco companies and partisan pundits had provocatively proceeded pestering people? What if it was too late? Are you really willing, when a crisis comes, to just plug your ears and hide under the covers? Mayybe I'm a Chicken Little, imagining that the sky is going to fall when it isn't. Maybe I'm just a gullible kid who listens to propaganda.

By the way, Shell just called. They'd like to thank us for smoking.



Tomato

SIDENOTE: Princess and The Frog came out on Friday! I've not seen the movie yet, but I've listened to the soundtrack and it's excellent. I'll be seeing it soon, and you should, too!

Tomato