Posted on 11/21/2010 6:59:45 AM PST by mattstat
As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake.
When they used to tell me I would shorten my life ten years by smoking, they little knew the devotee they were wasting their puerile word upon---they little knew how trivial and valueless I would regard a decade that had no smoking in it!
Mark Twain made that first quip at a public lecture more than a century ago, a time in which bureaucracy was still a benign social disease. Indeed, the disease was thought relatively harmless, so it was left untreated. The fullness of time might yet reveal that the inaction of our ancestors will cause a fatal reaction in the body politic.
A hundred years ago the nascent malignancy was so weak that Twain was able to give that speech freely and in the open air, without having to insert a mandatory warning about the evils of tobacco. But try that kind of lecture now, at a time when the disease has grown into a menace, and if the speech were to be filmed, it would require an R rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Kiddies' ears would have to be plugged, lest they hear an unapproved message. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...
“The Government Loves You And Wants You To Stop Smoking”
Bullsqueeze.
Even democrats know this is BULLSquirt..
The "government" wants you to SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!...
Love is an emotion or feeling that is shared between individuals, sometimes many have the same viewpoint, but love itself is not formed in mass, the love the government spews is something they want to control, not a one on one relationship..
The more they control, the less is it possible for individuals to live the life they consider meaningful...it is not up to others to decide what is a meaningful life, if it was the population would look like lemmings jumping off a cliff in conformity..looks like the world today..concrete it, make more money, gather power..it does not celebrate diversity as virtue..
Our government no longer has laws based on the 10 commandments, they are based on control...see Rome fall..come Lord..
Don't believe it? Go to a town hall meeting some day when the politicians are threatening to put tolls on the roads. Their complaint is almost always that since people are driving less and using more efficient cars the revenue from the gas tax is down. It's the same principle at work.
You nailed it.
The Government Loves You And Wants You To Stop Smoking,unless your last name is Obama.
Well so you say. But what else but love could lead the government decide it knows what is best for you?
I agree it’s all about the revenue. But smoking also helps sustain the health care system. I have many patients with COPD, lung cancer, and heart disease who require my services specifically because they smoke.
The quest for power, and ambition..control the masses..love does not herd people like cattle..we are all made differently, thank God..
Smoking 1 cigarette on average costs a smoker about 10 minutes of life expectancy. Thus, entirely ignoring discounting (which would make this lost life expectancy even smaller, since it may occur decades in the future), a smoker essentially gives up 1 minute of life expectancy for every minute spent smoking (assuming a typical cigarette lasts about 10 minutes).
As a rough approximation, this means that a rational smoker values 1 minute of smoking as at least as valuable as 2 minutes of non-smoking. That is, in order to smoke, they give up 1 present minute of non-smoking along with sacrificing another future minute of non-smoking. In keeping with Mark Twain’s view, it does not strike me at all implausible that most smokers get that amount of pleasure out of smoking, i.e., that their habit is a rational act as opposed to an “addiction.” It’s not unlike a mountain climber who recognizes that his sport increases his odds of death but believes the pleasure of the sport outweighs such risks.
As a practical matters, the evidence suggests that smokers OVERESTIMATE the mortality risks associated with their habit. Thus, societal paternalism regarding smoking cannot be justified on grounds of smoker ignorance. It is purely a case of the “We’re right, you’re wrong” attitude that seems pervasive among progressives.
If society can paternalistically trump individual choices about how to weigh the benefits and costs of an activity, then it’s hard to see where one could theoretically draw the line. Society could just as easily decide that ANY risky activity was the “wrong” choice and take actions (carrots or sticks) to “steer” us to the right behavior.
Such a society by definition is not a free society. It’s certainly not one the Founders ever envisioned. My guess is they would have been most reluctant to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to bring about a society of that ilk.
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