A new product for smokers

[Tmy]

For the same reason society doesn't get worked up over automobile drivers not wearing crash helmets as they do about motorcycle drivers, even though it would save thousands of more lives.

I'ts a large group of people forcing their percieved solution, to a problem, created by a small group of people.

Dont forget a strong lobby! There are many states that have no cycle helmet laws yet they have mandatory seatbelt laws. Makes no sense. Unless you throw in a strong motorcycle lobby.

 

[kourama]

I'm a reformed smoker and let me tell you, it is without question one of the most difficult things I've ever done. And, believe me...no matter how long you've quit, you still get cravings. I think I'll have them for the rest of my life.

I didn't mean to imply disdain for smokers. The target of the satire is the attitude that a deadly product is OK, if the death is spread out over many years. It seems silly.

Not to seem impertinent, but, I remember ads for condoms when AIDS was everyone's biggest fear that went along the lines of "No one ever died of embarassment"; couldn't you also argue "Quitting smoking is easier than dying of cancer"....or am I stretching it here?

related anecdote: I have asthma, and when my parents would smoke in our tiny little renault-5 with the windows rolled up when I was a kid, I came close to puking on many occasions. I would bitch and moan and complain and cough, but my parents would just get tired of hearing it. They quit smoking many years ago. Recently my father was riding in a truck with an acquaintance who was a heavy smoker, and he told me it was agony. He imagined what it must have been like for me as a kid, and he was on the verge of tears when he apologized for it. Of course, I'd forgotten all about it. Anyway, I guess he did his pennance.

 

[Ladyhawk]

I didn't mean to imply disdain for smokers. The target of the satire is the attitude that a deadly product is OK, if the death is spread out over many years. It seems silly.

Not to seem impertinent, but, I remember ads for condoms when AIDS was everyone's biggest fear that went along the lines of "No one ever died of embarassment"; couldn't you also argue "Quitting smoking is easier than dying of cancer"....or am I stretching it here?

No offense taken. I guess I just went off tangent a bit...(but, I wasn't alone! Honest! They made me follow them....)

Anyway, as for quitting smoking being easier than dying of cancer, I'm sure it is. But, I gotta admit, I still have days when I wonder.

Guess I'll go have a smoke and give it some thought

 

[Skeptical Greg]

....couldn't you also argue "Quitting smoking is easier than dying of cancer"....or am I stretching it here?

"... stretching it?"
Semantically, definitely....


Choosing to smoke in the face of certain( even if it were.. certain..) death may be irrational, but ' easier ', seems to be a poor choice of words.

It is a lot easier to die than it is to choose any number of irrational alternatives.

I suspect you are not a former smoker.

To say that quitting (smoking) is ' easier ' than anything, does not sound like the voice of experience.

 

[kourama]

<snippity-doo-dah>

I suspect you are not a former smoker.

To say that quitting (smoking) is ' easier ' than anything, does not sound like the voice of experience.

True 'nuff.

hmmm. I wonder....if quality of life is more important than quantity of life, then could an argument be made that smoking makes your life better if shorter?

Choosing to smoke in the face of certain( even if it were.. certain..) death may be irrational, but ' easier ', seems to be a poor choice of words.

OK, how about "Quitting smoking is easier than curing cancer."

no...'easier' is the problem. Oooh! How about:

"No one ever smoked out a tumour".

ick. these sound really awful.

 

[Bjorn]

Personal choice is the difference here. Newborns can't make decisions.

It wouldn't matter. They would be dead in 100 years anyhow.

So, '100 seconds or a hundred years, what's the diff'?

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Re: Re: Re: A new product for smokers

.... snip

Personal choice is the difference here. Newborns can't make decisions.

Thanks Bjorn, I was looking for that quote... I had wanted to comment...


I would have to say that anyone who is blowing smoke into the face of a newborn, if it is their own, is probably giving us the benefit of a little gene pool skimming..