I have read that many states have used the compensation from tobacco
companies not to help those with lung disease, not in anti-smoking campaigns
aimed at kids, but as supplements to the general revenue, to be spent on
pork-barrell business as usual. So much for public responsibility. Or take
the money grab after the federal compensation for the 9/11 disaster.
Big this and that make good rhetorical targets, but greed and waste sit on
all our doorsteps. Only big this and that will be able to manufacture and
deploy a new generation of technology.
Some time ago California tried to legislate the laws of physics by demanding
electric or high mileage cars. There is even a movie about the death of the
electric car ignoring the state of available technology. So Toyota made long
term investment in what is the correct solution, hybrid car technology, and
developed the standard against which other efforts are compared.
In the US, who will give up air conditioning and winter heat to get true
high gas mileage? Or give up race-track acceleration in seductive TV ads? I
remember cars from the '30s without air conditioning and heaters so feeble
that lap robes were standard accessories. If you wanted a warm car, you
bought an after-market heater which burned gasoline directly in the
passenger compartment.
Mike Carrell
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kyle R. Mcallister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: California Sues Car Co.s
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jed Rothwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Vo]: Re: California Sues Car Co.s
There is no question that tobacco kills hundreds of thousands of
Americans.
I didn't say it doesn't. Does anyone here actually read the entirety of
what
I post?
Lawsuits against tobacco have been tremendously beneficial. They have
stopped the industry from advertising, and from targeting children. They
have cut >consumption in the U.S. by about half. "People like this" save
tens of thousands of lives every year, and prevent millions of cases of
painful cancer & lung disease.
And ignore far bigger problems which we have to deal with. It is a waste
of
taxpayer money. If these people care so much, let them spend their own
money
on this nonsense, not mine. Here in the once great Buffalo NY, kids are
still getting tobacco products, in fact even more than before. There is a
sort of "draw" to that which is considered the forbidden fruit.
As long as big tobacco and big oil are going to use the government and the
laws to foster mass slaugter and to sell the country out to al-Qaeda, I
favor using the >law to go after them. Any method that works is fine with
me. If some lawyers end up with billions of dollars in their pockets,
that's a lot better than enriching >tobacco and oil execs and bin Laden.
So big tobacco is an ally of Osama Bin Laden? I suppose it was Marlboro
that
started the fires in the towers...
Why not save all the taxpayer money and simply outlaw the sale to anyone
who
is not already a smoker? Just let the ones who already are register, and
allow the sale only to them. I would think that this would appeal the the
far left very much, seeing as they love to make new regulations on
American
freedom. Maybe the far right would also like it, perhaps thinking they are
doing their Holy Duty in keeping bodies pure.
I think it would be far better to spend those billions on fighting a true
war on drugs, not the sorry excuse for one which we have now.
...or spend those billions to find a cure for lung cancer? Now THAT would
save a hell of a lot more lives. But it wouldn't appeal to those wallowing
in the cash from tobacco lawsuits.
--Kyle (who does not smoke)
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