[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Colin, for the sake of balance can I comment on your views on smoking. I don't >really want to reactivate the smoking thread but I feel the need to respond in this >case. > > <<Not all smokers die from it. In fact only 11%. Yet the proportion of people who >get some form of cancer is 33 1/3%>> > > I do not have the figures to hand so I will presume that this is correct. However it >is not just those who die who are affected by it,it is also those whose health >suffers indirectly. Smoking can cause other diseases too. (I shall leave aside the >passive smoking issue). > > > <<There is a huge propaganda machine about smoking and most of it is crap. >> > - There is also a huge propaganda lobby from the cigarette companies still saying >that smoking is not proven to be harmful despite evidence to the contrary. Maybe >saying that the propaganda machine is crap is propaganda itself. > > <<No it isn't a good idea to smoke>> > - It's a bit more than just 'not a good idea' Colin, it can be lethal. > > << but smoking does NOT equal death>> > > - I have yet to see any advertising that says smoking equals death.Most advertising >says that smoking CAN cause death or that smoking kills, both of which are true. > > <<I think perhaps the energy put into anti smoking attitudes would be better spent >on pollution>> > - Which would increase your 11% dramatically.
no it wouldn't because the 11% is of those who smoke, not 11% of all people. > > > << but then we all like our electricity, gas, cars, planes and trains don't we and >they of course don't harm any of us.>> > - Of course they do, but at least these have given some benefit to mankind. so that makes it alright? you are also assuming that smoking benefits no one. > > > Colin, I hope you do not take this post the wrong way. you disagree with my pov -that is the right way to take it yes? ;-) > I defend your right to choice when it comes to smoking. The issue as far as I see it >is the education of the young, many of whom given an option which is 'not a good >idea' by their elders will take the wrong option. were you young? if so, do you remember what it was like? the more important points I was making were these: if i choose to smoke that is my business not anyone elses. smokers are harangued about their choices and in the USA it has got ridiculous(and we are following suit). 2. we all die. 3. many of us die from diseases that are said to be smoking related even tho we don't smoke 4. polution must be a major cause of illness but it is swept under the carpet becasue it is too diffiuclt to face. smokers are scapegoated because it is easy and makes the sacpegoater feel they have some power over it whereas the mass pulltuion of our planet is way too big a problem so we ignore it. 5. no matter what we do, we are going to die. no matter what we do we are going to die. no matter what we do we are going to die. there is no way to prevent it. no matter what the scientists say. have they ever thoguht that the constant barage of information about what will kill us will just kill us sooner because of stress? who the hell wants to see in ads everyday, many times, that 1 in 3 people will egt cancer? don't eat butter, eat margerine. now it is thought that butter is best because hydroginated fat is bad for you. seems to me that butter is natural and hydroginated anything isn'yt so the latter is likely to be bad for you! 6. life should be lived to the full, each day enjoyed because none of us know if this day is our last and because we are damned lucky just to be alive. we do not have a right to health or to life. we are lucky if we have them. would I encourage anyone to take up smoking? no i wouldn't. do i regret ever having started? of course. someone I know, a well to do older man, smokes once a year-on No Smoking Day. my aunt who was a vegie, tee total and non smoker died riddled with cancer. ,my friend sean died of lung cancer at 25yrs of age. non smoker. The point is the anti smoking brigade lie. doctors give everyone false hope and now people expect if they follow the 'rules' that they will not ill and die. when they do get ill they feel guilt and shame and blame. they ARE blamed in many instances. I remmeber on this list when Tanny Wynmette died someone wrote in and said that it was her own fault becasue she smoked. Such reasoning squashes down fear of death and gives a false sense of security. it boils down to 'if i am a good person and do as i am told, i will not die'. so when george dies from lung cancer, non smokers can yet agian push their own death away by balming him. I don't know if i habve explained what i m trying to sy here. i am not attacking you or anyone. i understand the fear of death very well, intimately. I also undertsand fairly well the lengths we go to to deny it. bw colin > > > ~ Kevin -- bw colin DAK,BRO GC, 950i, 940,860,864,890, 260,Silver 830,860, 580 and 270, Passap 6000, Duo80. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tantra-apso.com
