Decision on terror -- smoking or nonsmoking?

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | September 17, 2001 | Thomas L. Friedman

[Max McGarrity]

JERUSALEM -- If this attack on America by an extensive terrorist cell is the equivalent of World War III, it's not too early to begin thinking about what could be its long-term geopolitical consequences. Just as World Wars I and II produced new orders and divisions, so too might this war. What might it look like?

[Max McGarrity]

This obscenity originally ran in the New York Times. My answer follows:

Every American should be outraged--as I am--at the New York Times,  columnist Thomas L. Friedman, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, and now the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, for comparing the awful attack on freedom carried out by terrorists to smoking--and smokers. While many brave firefighters and emergency personnel, exhausted and shell-shocked by the horror they've encountered, take whatever comfort they can from a cigarette, these misinformed, unthinking tools of the anti-smoker cartel are trying to further divide the country by equating smokers with the murderous vermin who attacked us.

Even in the aftermath of the shattering event that happened on Tuesday, an event that should bring all Americans together against a common enemy, the shrill screeching of the anti-smokers is heard above the cries for justice and retribution for our fallen countrymen. That such unremitting hatred would be voiced at a time like this is an indication of their own "holy war" against one in four American citizens and a legal American industry. Does anyone believe that only nonsmokers lined up for hours to give blood, that only nonsmokers have worked into the night in unimaginable circumstances hoping against hope to hear  a sound that might mean one more precious life might be spared, that only nonsmokers died?

The attack on America was caused by fanaticism, and anti-smokers are just as fanatic as those responsible for the loss of American lives on September 11th. Anti-smoker zealots amay be more "civilized," more "sophisticated," but they are no less willing to sacrifice others to reach their goal. If the jihad against smokers is allowed to continue with emotion-charged rhetoric and outright lies the way it has been, those who condone it are as guilty of harming innocents as those who aided and abetted the terrorists.

Perhaps neither Mr. Friedman nor Mr. Peres intended the metaphorical comparison to be taken seriously, but like all good propaganda, it creates vivid and simple parallels in the imagination, bypassing rational analysis and going straight for the heart. It should be condemned and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune should issue an apology to every smoker in this country.

[Max McGarrity]

So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. — Voltarine de Cleyre

This answer to the New York Times is from a 17-year veteran NYPD officer:

(I know I've been silent since the NY Times article by Friedman. That may have seemed strange to some since I'm right here with the NY Times right in my own "neighborhood" which discussed an event right in my own "neighborhood" and which roundly attacked my own (the uniformed men and women who just so happen to smoke). I wasn't silent because I didn't care, I was silent while trying to collect my thoughts. Also, I felt it my duty to try to contact the NY Times personnel in a more personal way. That being the case I waited for the weekend to pass. Today I called and after a couple of switches ended up in the voice mail of the head of the Op Ed section. I left a message, describing how I was personally affected by the column as a NYC police officer. A few hours later an assistant called me back. She was pleasant but the undertone was that she was acting more out of a sensitive business relations mode than one more personal. She directed me to send a letter to the editor. My letter runs twice as long as the number of words specified as acceptable (200), therefore I attached a request that instead of a Letter to the Editor it be considered as an Op Ed piece. )

In his Sept. 14th column, "Smoking or Non-Smoking," NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman embraces a third party's sick and twisted analogy. He underhandedly delivers a personal prescription to sustain a civil war that takes place right in our own backyard by admiring an equation that likens terrorism to tobacco companies and terrorists to smokers. In one revolting fell swoop Mr. Friedman has reduced one third of those involved in the rescue attempts and one third of those they are desperately seeking to locate to the equivalent of the dirt they are bloodying their hands upon.

I am a NYC Police Officer but have not personally been to "ground zero." In my private time I run a NYC based grassroots smokers' rights group. By the sheer symbolism of the uniform I've worn for 17 years and my personal efforts in defense of civil liberties I feel the need to speak on behalf of all my fellow uniformed officers, police, fire and emergency service personnel alike, in response to this denigrating column.

Mr. Friedman, and anyone who rallied to his side after his opinion made print, doesn't deserve to stand in the presence of the men and women who now selflessly struggle physically and emotionally 12 hours a day to reach just one of those trapped beneath the very symbol of NYC fortitude. For many their only comfort and momentary relief is a cigarette break. Tobacco hatred has reached its ugly zenith as you've just lumped the living and the dead heroes in with the terrorists without a second thought.

As an active smokers' rights advocate I knew the extent of the blind hatred. Now the whole world knows it too. America has been attacked because of the freedom it stands for. Mr. Friedman's twisted logic is the antithesis of what we are about to defend in honor of what this great country stands for. Painstaking and deliberate preservation of our civil liberties is our first defense in the face of those who hate what we are, yet Mr. Friedman is allowed to print a column that glorifies the anti-smoking movement, fanning the flames of hatred anti-smokers harbor against smokers with his illustrative comparisons and endorsing a movement that seeks to remove the freedoms of one group of American citizens.

Those who will be defending our constitutional rights in the weeks to come will also be smoking cigarettes as a form of comfort. Not for your health, Mr. Friedman but for our health, stay out of the "smoking section" you now associate with evil because it is you and the anti-smoking cartel who are the devils in disguise.  

Audrey Silk

NYC C.L.A.S.H.

[2ndMostConservativeBrdMember]

My dear brother and sister FReepers,

At this, of all times in my lifetime, I would like nothing more than to be able to read these threads and reply to them.  I have much I would like to say.

BUT, I cannot!

Why?

Because I am trying hard to raise the finances needed to keep FreeRepublic up and running so that we can continue to share valuable information and respond to it.

I beg you, if you have not yet donated to FreeRepublic this quarter,  do so now!

I realize you are giving to lots of Relief efforts and I encourage you to do so.  But we need to help FR too.  Where would we be right now without it?

If you have no money, please come and bump the Fundraiser Thread.

I would really like to reach our goal quickly so that I and the rest of the dedicated FReepers who are working the Fundraiser Threads can participate in what is undeniably the most important time in FreeRepublic's history.

WHERE WOULD YOU GET YOUR NEWS FROM IF FREEREPUBLIC WASN'T HERE? <--click here

Support FreeRepublic! Support the U.S.A. <--click here

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

A Comparison between Fundamentalist Terrorism and Plain Old Everday Extortion

The extortionist says, "Give me a thousand bucks, or I'll burn your business down." Or, he says, "That's a nice-looking kid you got there. I wouldn't want her to get hurt. I want a piece of your business." Recall any scenario you've ever seen, on the Sopranos, in The Godfather, on back to The Untouchables. Has there ever been an instance in recorded history where extortion (or its first cousin, blackmail) has ever been a one-shot deal? Where, a few weeks or months after agreeing to the demands, the extortionist says, "I'm really glad you gave me the money and nothing bad happened. I'll be leaving you alone now. Thanks for your cooperation."???

The thing about terrorists is, compared to your garden variety of extortionists, they are much worse. First of all, their demands are unclear. What, exactly does it want the Great Satan to do--stop being the Great Satan? Israel gave in to demands at such a rapid rate, Arafat didn't know what to do. So he sent in suicide bombers.

There are no legitimate demands made, because their true agenda is the extinction of the U.S. and of Israel, and of all the "decadent" powers collectively known as The West. There is no concession that could be made that will change their minds, no compromise that will warm their angry hearts. There is only one response that will work, and, as awesome as the responsibility is, they have left us no choice. The total annihilation of all terrorists, and of all states that offer them a safe harbor or other support. Let the world know that from this day forth, you are either with us or against us. And if you are against us, you will be destroyed.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

A Comparison between Fundamentalist Terrorism and Plain Old Everday Extortion

The extortionist says, "Give me a thousand bucks, or I'll burn your business down." Or, he says, "That's a nice-looking kid you got there. I wouldn't want her to get hurt. I want a piece of your business." Recall any scenario you've ever seen, on the Sopranos, in The Godfather, on back to The Untouchables. Has there ever been an instance in recorded history where extortion (or its first cousin, blackmail) has ever been a one-shot deal? Where, a few weeks or months after agreeing to the demands, the extortionist says, "I'm really glad you gave me the money and nothing bad happened. I'll be leaving you alone now. Thanks for your cooperation."???

The thing about terrorists is, compared to your garden variety of extortionists, they are much worse. First of all, their demands are unclear. What, exactly does it want the Great Satan to do--stop being the Great Satan? Israel gave in to demands at such a rapid rate, Arafat didn't know what to do. So he sent in suicide bombers.

There are no legitimate demands made, because their true agenda is the extinction of the U.S. and of Israel, and of all the "decadent" powers collectively known as The West. There is no concession that could be made that will change their minds, no compromise that will warm their angry hearts. There is only one response that will work, and, as awesome as the responsibility is, they have left us no choice. The total annihilation of all terrorists, and of all states that offer them a safe harbor or other support. Let the world know that from this day forth, you are either with us or against us. And if you are against us, you will be destroyed.

[SheLion]

Hi, Max. Super article!!!

[maxwell]

THIS IS A NEW LOW.

Puff

[Max McGarrity]

My goodness, SheLion...I had no idea you looked like THAT! If we ever get back to somewhat-normal and have another enjoyable weekend in the Lounge, I'm sure you'll be the center of attention.

An aside: Here in the Southern California area, particularly during uncomfortable times like the Prop 187 aftermath, there has been a lot of anger at our Mexican-American citizens who often (inappropriately, IMO) fly or wave Mexican flags. This week they have shown they are not hyphenated, they are true Americans. During a Mexican Independence Day celebration, the field was solid with Old Glory. Even the graffiti has changed from gang messages to the Stars and Stripes and "God Bless the USA." (Well, not ALL the graffiti, but some of it.)

[SheLion]

Oh Max!!!!!!!!! Your a CUTIE!!! Don't forget about me, you hear??? :)

[Boomer]

This definitely deserves a solid Bump.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

[ladyinred]

Oh Please! Now we are being compared to terrorists! I am not sure whether I should be outraged, or amused. Since I find little to be amused about concerning terrorists, and outraged seems too strong a word for anything other than terrorists, I guess I will just have to say, I am insulted and who do I sue for this slander?:)

[HiTech RedNeck]

What, exactly does it want the Great Satan to do--stop being the Great Satan?

Yes! It wants the "Great Satan" to have the stuffings knocked out and to be turned into New Afghanistan. Never mind that this is a ludicrous goal, the fanatics in this pursuit think that if Allah wills it, it must happen... and quickly on a historical scale (~100 years).

[Boomer]

This information was put together by a true freedom fighter; one of our own as a matter of fact.

“Let's stop the feigned ignorance of the effects of the War on Smokers. These are not isolated examples; they are common and they are the result of a decades-long, taxpayer-financed, state-sponsored crusade in which professional activists are paid to promote intolerance and hate. Read them and let us know you are proud of what you have helped visit upon one in four Americans.”

ECONOMIC LOSSES--All of this in the face of the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world, the transfer of $246 BILLION from the pockets of smokers to those of politicians and trial attorneys.

• Nutshell Tavern, Rte 1, Biddeford, Maine closes its doors due to smoking bans
• Mingles Coffee Shoppe, Kitchener, closes after non-smoking bylaw passed--45% drop in business
• Twelve restaurants close in Brookline, MA, after smoking ban decimates business
• In British Columbia, 200 workers in 46 establishments have lost their jobs because of the smoking ban
• Hotelier Don Ritaller, Victoria, fired his entire staff of 12
• J. P. Malone's Pub in Richmond, laid off eight of its 20 employees
• Clyde's Restaurant Group, one of the most popular and successful restaurants chains in the Washington DC area since 1963, suffered a staggering loss of sales after smoking was banned
• A survey of 300 alcoholic beverage serving operations in California, selected at random from a list of 7,216 shows that 60% experienced a decrease in business averaging more than 30%; 7% showed increased business averaging 8%.
• 50.4% of the respondents indicated an increase in customer complaints/fights;
• 65.0% indicated a loss of regular customers;
• 59.0% indicated a loss of tips/gratuities for the bar and/or serving staff.
• The Duluth Grill has closed after 16 years due to the smoking ban
• 130 tobacconists in California have been forced to close since the 1998 smoking bans and punitive tax increases
• On average, sales at local bars, taverns and pubs have dropped nearly 30 percent since the enactment of the ban CA
• Thousands of employees have had their hours cut, and hundreds have lost their jobs because of the loss of the smoking customers who form a majority of their customer base
• A recent study from British Columbia pointed out major economic and job losses after a provincial smoking ban took effect in January: After 80 days of the bylaw, 730 employees were let go, 9 businesses closed and more than $16 million was lost
• A blind newsstand worker hired under a federal job program for blind people has been fired after selling cigarettes to a minor during a sting operation. Mike Redina, 44, was working at the Small Change newsstand at a state office building last week when he sold a pack of cigarettes to a 16-year-old sent in by the Suffolk County Health Department.
• Letter from a waitress in BC: "My livelihood is being jeopardized for my own protection, and I never asked to be saved."
• Three more restaurants have closed in Weymouth, MA: Haijjar’s, in East Weymouth, J.C. Grear’s in South Weymouth and the Aloha in Hingham. A fourth restaurant said business is way off.
• Corvallis, OR: Employment at the Peacock has dropped from 50 to 14. Owner John Carter says the business has lost 38 percent of its lottery income and more than half of its basic bar revenue since the law took effect State records support Carter's lament about lost business.
• Bud's Place in Cambridge and said his sales have fallen 23 per cent since the smoking ban was implemented. His staff has shrunk to 12 from 17 and a full-time employee he's had on staff for 10 years has been cut back to three shifts a week

DOMESTIC TERRORIST--Paid for by the victims and condoned by our government

• Action On Smoking And Health (ASH) promotes a book, Gasp! A Novel of Revenge, on its web site which contains a tested and proven way to tamper with cigarette packages to insert cyanide.
• Four incidents of tobacco product tampering in Virginia, including the use of explosive devices, was reported by the Washington Post.
• Miami--A man attacked a woman for smoking inside a building. America Mena, 30, was standing at the north side exit door on the third floor of the building smoking a cigarette when a man in his 50s came up to her and started screaming at her about smoking. He then pushed her outside of the exit door and attempted to close it while her hand was in the doorway.
• Cancer specialist Dr. Bill Evans believes many Canadian doctors think it's a waste of time to treat lung cancer. "In many situations, physicians have decided that lung cancer, being a self-induced disease, is not worthy of the kind of effort that one applies to many other health issues," Evans says.
• Some doctors have refused to perform transplants and other lifesaving operations on smokers on "moral" grounds. At least one person, a 56-year-old man, has died as a result.
• A 60-year-old New York City restaurant patron was set upon by five waiters, kicked, punched, and thrown out into the street for the crime of smoking. He has remained in a coma since the attack. His attackers were not charged.
• A woman who was eight months pregnant was assaulted because she was smoking at an Illinois shopping mall
• A Head Start instructor in Modesto, California, tortured and physically abused her own daughter because she had tobacco products in her possession
• A local radio talk show host in Seattle advocated that persons who smoke outside sports arenas be assaulted and battered * Three police academy instructors in Huntington Beach, California, lost their jobs after ordering two cadets to eat cigarette sandwiches as punishment for smoking. The cadets vomited. One collapsed and was taken unconscious to a hospital.
• An unopened pack of cigarettes and an unused pack of matches was reason enough for Carnival Cruise Lines to throw four people off the Paradise in a foreign port and fine them $250. It cost them thousands of dollars to return home.
• After lighting a cigarette 20 feet from the nearest spectator at a Little League game, a Los Angeles father was detained by authorities and his son beaten up by the rest of the home team, then permanently kicked out of the League
• In Canada a reformed smoker attacked his wife of 30 years, with a 12-inch kitchen knife, repeatedly stabbing her in the neck after finding out that she had broken her promise to give up smoking.
• In Texas a high school student who went searching for her cat in her own yard was stopped by a police officer who said he saw her smoking. He told her to empty her pockets, which she did. Finding nothing, he got down on his hands and knees, and he dug around on the grass with a flashlight. Still finding nothing he told the girl she was a minor in possession of tobacco and gave her a ticket.
• At an engineering company in Indiana, a secretary was fired for failing a "drug test." Her crime? Smoking six cigarettes the weekend prior to the test
• A 78-year-old Canadian senior who stepped outside on the balcony of her seniors’ complex to have a smoke froze to death when the door locked behind her and she couldn’t get back in.
• A 15-year-old Iowa boy caught with cigarettes in his possession during a school trip to Texas was put on a bus alone for a 31-hour trip back to his home. During the first of the six stops and layovers, his wallet was stolen, leaving him with no money to buy food for the rest of the trip.
• In Wisconsin a 14-year-old girl, a grade A and B student who was active in athletics and cheerleading and the choir, committed suicide rather than tell her parents she had been caught with one cigarette in her backpack at school

QUOTES FROM THE CRUSADE AGAINST SMOKERS--No doubt many among the paid professional anti-smokers agree with these verbal assaults since many have said similar things.

• In October of 1991 Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis P. Sullivan, labeled smokers and smoking "Public Enemy No. 1."
• Minnesota's 1984 PLAN FOR NON SMOKING: "Any means necessary must be used to de-socialize smokers, smoking must be equated with drugs sex and violence, the smoker must be isolated from the rest of society."
• The "outside group of smokers is a great isolator and identifier of the selected-to-be-loathed smoker." Kathleen Harty, former leader of the Minnesota Department of Health's anti smoking division, now an employee of the US FDA.
• "Round up all the smokers in California and truck them to a fenced in area in Utah."
• "Place a bounty on anyone seen in a Joe Camel or Marlboro T-shirt, baseball cap, etc. They may be shot on sight and a $1,000 reward will be given when delivered to the state Capitol lawn in Sacramento."
• "The state should require bar owners to furnish cellular phones and Polaroid cameras to nonsmokers so that scofflaws can be reported, identified and executed." *
• "When smokers buy a pack of cigarettes, one will have an explosive in it--so the smoker will be afraid to light up, fearing a facial laceration."
• "If smokers are so eager to die, then the answer must be to capture and exterminate them. The only solution is to remove the problem; smokers."
• "You greedy bastards deserve the lung cancer, emphysema, immune system deficiencies, cardio-vascular and stroke problems you bring on everybody."
• Nothing makes me happier than to intubate a pathetic smoker with an FEV-1 of less than 800 cc. Don't expect any morphine to relieve your sensation of dyspnea, either."
• "Your bodies are a means of production, as such they belong to society, and the state holds them in trust. You don't have the right to engage in any behavior that could reduce the productivity of your body."
• "We have to treat them like human beings, I suppose."
• "You filth. I'll rejoice the day the doctor sticks a traech tube in your throat and you scream from the pain and agony of chemo!! Burn in hell."
• "I vote to kill all smokers...perhaps then, and only then, will the putridness of their disgusting habits be truly understood."
• "if Democracy allows poeple (sic) to throw away their lives (or at least considerably lower the quality of their lives) by smoking then democracy isn't a good thing."
• "So, not only justifiably taking their children away from them, we could treat all smokers and defenders of addictive nicotine as slave labor and legalize paying them wages of two packs a day.until the remaining tobacco products are used up and there are no more!"
• "You should see the segregated small glass rooms that the Addicted Smoker Losers must sequester themselves into, by law, to fix their wretched addiction. Like dirty monkeys in a cage on display, their faces sullen and depressed with the pathos of their junkie addiction."
• "May i see the day when those kids get over their forced addictions and when grown look back at the parents, when the parents themselves are on deaths door and in pain, may they laugh in your face and tell you that you have gotten what you deserved and then tell you to go to hell and walk out on you and leave you to pathetically die in your bed. "
• "Nice restaurant you got here. Hate to see anything bad happen to it." (Head of anti-smoker group ASH, John Banzhaf)

  Boomer here again and I just have one thing to say to my fellow freedom fighter for putting this all together; WELL DONE!

  It should be noted that not all terrorists are from without, we have our own brand of domestic terrorists right here in our own country.

[Boomer]

See my previous post and all shall be made clear.

[ladyinred]

Oh my gosh, not to sound like Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm, but this is just chilling. Thank you for posting this, I had no idea it was this bad. I know some people think anyone who dares smoke deserves to die, but this is much more diabolical than I ever imagined.

[Gabz]

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fiddlstix]

......It should be condemned and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune should issue an apology to every smoker in this country.

Well Said!
Bump!

[RSmithOpt]

BUMP!!

May I will even go back to puffing (10 days now cigs now after 20 yrs. but I got determined and got through 9/11 with no problem) as a form of protest...nawww.....Guess RJR, Phillip Morris, and American Tobacco are the real enemies? Guess freedom of choice no longer matters in this country? Guess it's not worth fighting for? Let's just all roll over to them and appreciatively take it up the old shooo-fly. That's what a lot of sheeple on the left seem to believe is best for America.

[Gabz]

I think it would be a great idea to use that as a thread in and of itself - what do you think Max?????