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Why I Smoke Cigars (Conservative Cigar Smokers Club Alert) [Dennis Prager Joins Rush Limbaugh]
Townhall.com ^ | 11/21/2006 | Dennis Prager

Posted on 11/20/2006 9:08:17 PM PST by goldstategop

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To: fabian
From the American Lung Association:
It was estimated that 2.2 percent of the United States adult population were current cigar smokers in 2005.

In 2004, 12.8 percent of high school students were current cigar smokers. In 2004, only 5.2 percent of middle school students smoked cigars.

Among all age groups, cigar use is higher among men than women. Hispanics are also more likely to smoke cigars than other race/ethnic groups.

Cigars contain the same addictive, toxic and carcinogenic compounds found in cigarettes. In fact, cigar smokers may spend up to an hour smoking a single large cigar that can contain as much tobacco as a pack of cigarettes.

While almost all cigarette smokers inhale, most cigar smokers do not. Therefore, the risk of lung cancer is lower for cigar smokers than cigarette smokers. However, the risk increases with the more frequent cigar smoking and depth of inhalation. Studies show that men who smoke at least five cigars a day and report moderate inhalation, experience lung cancer deaths at about two-thirds the rate of men who smoke one pack of cigarettes a day.

Cigar smokers experience higher rates of lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive lung disease than nonsmokers. Studies show that men who smoke at least three cigars a day are two to three times more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers.

In addition, studies have shown that cigar smokers who inhale are 6 times more likely to die from oral cancer and 39 times more likely to die from laryngeal cancers than nonsmokers.

In addition, when saliva containing smoke constituents is swallowed, the esophagus is exposed to carcinogens. The death rate from esophageal cancer is 3 to 4 times higher in male cigar smokers than in lifelong male nonsmokers. Oral and esophageal cancer risks are similar among cigar smokers and cigarette smokers.

Secondhand cigar smoke has much higher concentrations of toxins and carcinogens than do cigarettes. Health effects on nonsmokers exposed to cigar smoke have not been studied, but it is assumed to mirror or be greater than that seen with cigarette smoking.


61 posted on 11/21/2006 6:24:54 AM PST by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: Silly

I always enjoy spending an hour in the lounge in Nat Sherman's on Fifth Avenue when in NYC.


62 posted on 11/21/2006 6:25:43 AM PST by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: chilepepper

..also you won't find all the chemical additives in cigars that are commonly used in cigarettes.


63 posted on 11/21/2006 6:32:04 AM PST by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: Williams

I smoke cigars but only about 3 a year. I doubt the few moments I spend with a cigar are going to hurt me or anyone else.


64 posted on 11/21/2006 7:00:19 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Williams
I agree its a dirty disgusting habit. It doesn't matter that you don't inhale your still exposing your body at a high level of absorption of the chemicals in the cigar. I don't care if Prager smokes or not I won't stop him but he is disingenuous when he makes a point to bring to the topic up saying its much more harmless then cigarettes.
If it gives you pleasure to smoke great! I'm sure it is very relaxing, but you shouldn't try and fool yourself about the dangers.
65 posted on 11/21/2006 7:01:19 AM PST by miliantnutcase ("If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it." -ichabod1)
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To: TC Rider

I think you mean March for Justice.


66 posted on 11/21/2006 7:01:43 AM PST by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: miliantnutcase

Show me some proof of the dangers and please do it from someone who doesn't have an anti smoking agenda.

BTW, my favorite at the moment is El Rey de Mundo.


67 posted on 11/21/2006 7:14:27 AM PST by Moolah
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To: AppyPappy
I think you mean March for Justice.

You're right of course.

What was I smoking?

68 posted on 11/21/2006 7:19:17 AM PST by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: miliantnutcase

I spent the last week in the suburbs of Boston (Peabody) with my girlfriend.

She was babysitting a niece and 2 nephews and I was along for the ride. We picked up the twins at their Elementary School every day at 3 and it afforded a nice opportunity for a smoke as we walked to picked them up.

The girlfriend warned that I was begging for trouble as we joined all the mommies waiting in a gaggle for their babies as I was smoking away.

I tried to stay downwind of everyone and never heard a peep.

It might have had something to do with my attire, I tended to wear shirts I get from attending various IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) matches. They all had a 1911 prominently silkscreened on the front. The lettering was actually pretty small.

I suspect they thought I had some position of 'authority' since the idea of handguns for fun is foreign to many of them.


69 posted on 11/21/2006 7:25:34 AM PST by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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To: nevergore

Yum, I love Macanudos and have been out for a while.


70 posted on 11/21/2006 7:28:17 AM PST by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
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To: goldstategop
I used to be a 2-pack a day cigarette smoker, but I finally kicked that habit almost 20 years ago. A few years ago, I started having the occasional cigar. I'm not even a 1-a-day smoker. More like 3 a week.

I do not smoke pipes, because you do get a lot of tobacco runnoff junk in your mouth, which cannot be good for you.

71 posted on 11/21/2006 8:01:43 AM PST by Sans-Culotte ("Thanks, Tom DeLay, for practically giving me your seat"-Nick Lampson)
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To: nevergore

5 Vegas Gold bump


72 posted on 11/21/2006 8:03:27 AM PST by Osage Orange (The old/liberal/socialist media is the most ruthless and destructive enemy of this country.)
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To: Williams

Obviously you know little about cigars..........


73 posted on 11/21/2006 8:04:35 AM PST by Osage Orange (The old/liberal/socialist media is the most ruthless and destructive enemy of this country.)
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To: nevergore

Nice post.......


74 posted on 11/21/2006 8:13:05 AM PST by Osage Orange (The old/liberal/socialist media is the most ruthless and destructive enemy of this country.)
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To: goldstategop
Thanks for the post. I knew it would be only a matter of time before the Safety Nazis showed up on this thread, and I was not disappointed. Well, perhaps a bit disappointed in that the natural home for the anti-tobacco crowd is on the Left side of the aisle, not over here on the Right.

I love cigars, and generally smoke one a day. In a historical sense, all of my favorite people were cigar smokers: Winston Churchill, Groucho Marx, Mark Twain, George Burns, Sid Caesar. Rush Limbaugh waxes poetic about them, and so will I. Cigars are an enormous source of pleasure and relaxation; in my experience they improve the quality of social gathering and conversation, stimulate creative impulses, and provide a worthy companion to an after-dinner libation.

A cigar has virtually nothing in common with its sickly cousin, the cigarette. Cigars are actually made of tobacco; cigarettes are composed of dried, coarsely chopped, flavored, chemically treated leaves that once upon a time were tobacco. Cigar tobacco is not only pure, but picked and aged in full leaf form, thoughtfully blended to create a balance of flavors, hand-rolled, and wrapped not in some chemically-infused paper, but in a natural tobacco leaf, some of the best of which comes from Connecticut.

I used to smoke cigarettes, and quit more than ten years ago. I never wish to smoke another. Inhaling that God-awful stuff not only caused a physical addiction, but made me feel ill on numerous occasions, owing to a reduction in lung capacity. When I quit cigarettes: I stopped coughing, my clothes no longer stank, I began exercising again and got my wind back. Those of you who have succeeded in quitting cigarettes will relate to the experience.

I had also been smoking an occasional cigar during my cigarette-smoking days, but now I was really enjoying them because I could actually taste them (as well as a lot of food whose actual flavor had been affected by the stench of Merit Ultra Lights). Cigars not only taste good, but if they are of even adequate quality, they smell far better than cigarettes. I know there are people who disagree, but I would far rather be in a room filled with cigar smoke than cigarette smoke, any day.

Out of deference to my family, I tend to smoke outside, or in my garage/workshop, unless I am at one of the fine establishments that have sprung up for the benefit of us enthusiasts in which cigars may be purchased and consumed without fear of reproachful looks and sneers. And that is the most fun of all, smoking with like-minded friends. For those of you looking for recommendations, particularly if you are searching for a more full-bodied smoke, I would suggest: Arturo Fuente Hemingway line, Opus: Opus X, Padron 5000, Anniversario 1964 or Series 1926, or the La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero.

    "My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

     - Winston Churchill

75 posted on 11/21/2006 8:15:10 AM PST by andy58-in-nh
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To: go-dubya-04

Second your post........


76 posted on 11/21/2006 8:15:52 AM PST by Osage Orange (The old/liberal/socialist media is the most ruthless and destructive enemy of this country.)
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To: itsamelman

cigar porn ping!


77 posted on 11/21/2006 9:54:09 AM PST by chilepepper (The map is not the territory -- Alfred Korzybski)
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To: goldstategop

Firing-up-an-A.Fuente-Don-Carlos-Doble-Robusto-right-now-BUMP.


78 posted on 11/21/2006 7:24:30 PM PST by clintonh8r
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To: andy58-in-nh

Thanks for sharing.....I gotta get my garage heated or something so I can enjoy my occassional cigar year-round.


79 posted on 11/21/2006 7:33:59 PM PST by SW6906 (6 things you can't have too much of: sex, money, firewood, horsepower, guns and ammunition.)
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To: Moonman62

thanks for the info...that must translate into many thousand of cigar smokers coming down with some type of cancer due to the smoking. It's not worth it...almost everone has some type of pleasure escape from the pain of conscience...I don't want to be a hypocrite. I eat sweets and get resentful at times. But I just think it's below Dennis Praeger to encourage people to smoke cigars. Maybe he really isn't aware of all of the cancer that it causes?


80 posted on 11/21/2006 11:14:14 PM PST by fabian
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