Freeper Mom Has Heartwarming Talk With Kids RE: Smoking

[K8-EEE]

"I am an adult, I enjoy smoking, I am honest enough with myself to admit that I don't WANT to quit, so I won't. When my kids say "you should stop mom", because this is what they were told to do in school, I tell them that I am an adult, I am doing nothing illegal and I don't let children make my decisions for me, as for secondhand smoke I pointed out that if it were as dangerous as the "experts" say then no one from the "babyboom" would still be alive. in the 1950's with 75 percent of the population smoking and pregnant women smoking packs a day, the babyboomer generation should have been born retarded and died in their twenties and even the ones that escaped the afore mentioned landmines shouldn't have had the health or intelligence to actually go to college, invent computers, all modern technology, etc...

If you want to smoke, smoke, if you don't , don't....there are many many more critical issues to spend our time, attention and money on!

=========================================================

The BushCo lovin' tobacco companies would be so proud!!

More freeper smoke chatter (cough, cough...!)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1460261/posts#comment?q=1

[rwenos]

1. Yes, But . . .

Someone should think about the visual images of end-stage emphysema. Not a pretty way to check out, I understand.

[Maru Kitteh]

30. No it isn't, end-stage emphysema, that's how my dad died

He suffocated and drowned slowly inside his own body for almost 15 years after his diagnosis.

First he had trouble with the big stuff. Heavy objects, long walks or sustained inclines. He would have to stop, cough and spit into the handkerchiefs he now had to carry. It made him embarrassed and self conscious. As a WWII vet he was a pretty tough character but those cigarettes turned out to be tougher.

Then came the phase where he had to let go of so much of what he really loved. Camping, vacations with mom, bowling (he once carried an average of 227), and working in his wood shop. He was a great carpenter.

From there, other more mundane bits of life started to slip away. He didn't speak much anymore, using mostly gestures and expressions to communicate. He always loved to joke, but had to cut back on that too, because laughing was too hard on him, he couldn't breathe.

First there were the inhalers, then the nebulizer and then finally he had to have a trachea tube put in and go on oxygen. He no longer had the lung capacity to even bring in air through his nose and mouth. He was now almost fully invalid. He couldn't drive, used a walker and the once booming baritone voice that rang through the house and left me giggling in my bed with it's silly songs or trembling in my shoes with it's unmistakable reprove, was reduced to a pained scratch.

The last stages of the disease left his body in a grotesque parody of life. His skin was as grey as November fog. He had sores everywhere because oxygen deprivation had left him unable to move much at all. His eyes, his eyes used to positively ignite with mischief, but at the end they were sunken deep into his skull, surrounded by the hollow thin darkness of his eyes and cheeks. His voice was gone.

A lesser man, or one less in love would have given up much sooner.



If this SO CALLED mother's children have to die this way because of her selfishness, I hope she rots in hell. She at least has the benefit of available information. My dad quit well before the warnings were put on the packages. What the hell is her excuse?

[Coexist]

55. As a girl scout leader, I had a parent yell at me for discussing smoking

they were working on a badge and discussing the dangers of smoking was part of it. She was mad because her daughter asked her to quit.

Damn that activist child.

[Maru Kitteh]

101. I wonder if she feels that same after

she's hooked up ot a 100 yards of surgical tubing and an little green tank of O2 on a cart, watching her daughter smoke.

[tenshi816]

85. My maternal grandfather died from emphysema

when I was in my early 20s. He'd had it for years - in fact, I used to hate staying overnight at his house because he would be up for hours each night sounding like he was hacking his lungs up. He smoked hand-rolled cigarettes, and coughed the entire time.

My mother died in 1998 from smoking-related lung cancer. I looked after her for the 16 months between her diagnosis and death.

Neither death was pretty.

I don't smoke, and have never smoked, but I do wonder now if there's something nasty waiting for me down the road a bit in the future because of all the years of second-hand smoke I had to live with.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. I won't say it.

Nope, I absolutely WON'T say it. :grr:

#(&$*# (#&$* (#*$&(#*^*@^#*@ @$*&$#( I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM!!!!

[Hissyspit]

3. "Pardon me Mom if I CHOOSE to not visit you in the hospital..."

"...while you are hacking up pieces of your lung, fighting to get the slightest bit of oxygen into your bloodstream, in the last days of your life. I'm an adult. It's my choice NOT to visit you and deal with the emotional and financial devestation of your moronic pseudo-logical rationalization."

[cssmall]

4. *hack* I love my Drum cigarettes.

You want to know the difference? In the 50s and 60s, most major tabacco corporations hadn't developed the formulas they use now. Handrolling tabacco, with the exception of Bugler and Top, are salt brined and then dried.

Modern tabacco companies soak their product in a chemical bath to age it as quickly as possible. Therein is the problem and it does make levels of very deadly chemicals in it. Note: Smoking is bad, inhaling ANYTHING into your lungs habitually is not good for your health. The sooner you understand that, the more educated the decision you make, though I would say that smoking is very hard to quit, especially when you view it as your moment of sanity.

[skids]

20. Modern tobacco is worse, but the old stuff had its own issues.

I will not go anywhere near the crud they pass off for tobacco in this country. Imports only. Maybe an American Spirit occassionally.

But what you miss is the fact that they *used* to cure tobacco using a gas burner without any heat exchanger. Then at some point they realized, you know, there's a lot less poisonous stuff in the tobacco if we don't expose it to fossil fuel exhaust.

See the NOVA documentary "Search for a Safe Cigarette." It is very informative.

[K8-EEE]

22. Have You Seen The Old CIg Ads

...where the movie stars tell them to smoke menthol "for health?" My friend has a collection of them, Lucille Ball and Joan Crawford and a lot of those stars saying "Doctor's orders, I'm smoking such and such cigarette!"

[skids]

24. My memory is a bit fuzzy...

...but I think that documentary had clips from an ad claiming smoking in general was healthy.

[cssmall]

25. Drum is imported from Denmark.

I'll keep my eye out for the documentary.

[BiggJawn]

89. Not anymore. At least not in the US.

It's made by the Republic Tobacco of Glenville, IL. Has been since about 2000.

And the original was made by Douwe-Egberts, a Dutch company.

I loved that stuff when I was smoking.

[Maru Kitteh]

34. You view it as your moment of sanity

becasue you are an addict. I know, did it myself. I've worn out every rationalization you can throw out there.

When you are a smoker life is one long nic-fit when you don't have one in your mouth.

The world goes on with or without the nic-fit.

What you are thinking of as enjoyment or relaxation is merely the relief of not being without a smoke. Yeah, addiction.

Let the nic-fit do it's worst and realize, you are not going to die, and it DOES PASS.

[K8-EEE]

78. Absolutely, Tobacco Is An Addictive Substance.

I really feel sorry for people who have to plan their lives around their cig breaks.

The tobacco companies absolutely market this product to kids (under 18) because the majority of people start smoking as minors, thus the candy flavored cigs and all that.

I think it's really rare to start smoking after age 21.

[Maru Kitteh]

103. Yes it is, I've never met anyone who had their FIRST smoke after 21

I started at 16.

[K8-EEE]

5. You Know What I Was A Smoker Once Too

But if your kids call you on it you have to just admit that you're an addict and tell them not to follow suit...why they hell would you want to tell kids who are concerned about your health that the "experts" are wrong, when they are in fact NOT wrong. Their gift for denial is truly amazing!

[cssmall]

7. Yes, it is.

Most of the time, it is the addiction. My guess is that the woman is afriad of change, afriad of what it would mean to live a healthier life. But, I feel even sorrier for her kids, mainly because I see exactly how that works. I say we establish a PayPal account now to help pay the bills for therapy, they'll need it after the controlling they had growing up.

[SemperEadem]

49. it isn't that she's afraid of anything--it's that she' s full of pride

which goes before destruction and the haughty spirit before the fall.

[Incitatus]

6. WTF

:crazy:

Actually, I just quit and 'was' having a real bad nic-fit before I read that. Thanks!!

[K8-EEE]

16. Great Chart For DUers Who Want To Quit!

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=A02

BUSHCO DOES A LITTLE HAPPY DANCE EVERY TIME YOU BUY CIGS, CHA CHING!!

[Theres-a]

53. That knowledge helped me quit

I quit back in April and I kept reminding myself of where those tax dollars go.

[raccoon]

50. Hang in there. nt

[AtLiberty]

8. She probably...

...homeschools her kids, too. Bets?

[LeftyMom]

36. Read again

"When my kids say "you should stop mom", because this is what they were told to do in school, I tell them that I am an adult, I am doing nothing illegal and I don't let children make my decisions for me, as for secondhand smoke I pointed out that if it were as dangerous as the "experts" say then no one from the "babyboom" would still be alive."

:eyes:

-LM, homeschooling mother

[TomClash]

9. Good - Kill Yourself

Smoke 80 packs a day and hasten your demise. The only good freeper is a dead freeper.

[sakabatou]

10. I sometimes think SHE inhaled to much smoke...

[TahitiNut]

11. So, am I to understand that anyone who smokes is now a "FReeper"??

Just how many Puritanical, self-righteous issues can we sprinkle over this land? Funny. I thought "liberal" meant respecting other people's rights to make different choices.

So, let me get this straight. Fat people and people who smoke aren't welcome among the "enlightened" DU membership, huh? My, my. :eyes:

[stevedeshazer]

13. *cough*

*hack*

What he said. *cough* :)

[nookiemonster]

15. And I'm not surprised how soon some are quick to jump on it.

Honestly, get off our goddamned backs. You want to ban the shit, fine. Until then, back off.

Signed,
Just another nasty smoker. Ewwwwww....

:sarcasm:

[K8-EEE]

19. LOL!!

DU smokers are welcome of course, however I do hope they would consider quitting as they are supporting bushco with their habit which is also quite dangerous to their health.

The apalling thing about this post was not the fact that the woman is a smoker but that she apparently yells at her kids when they confront her with evidence that what she is doing is harmful.

[skids]

21. Don't assume all cigs support BushCo.

Some of us have taste.

[Lorien]

32. No, I think the point of the OP was the woman's insensitivity

towards her children's pleas, her paranoia about propaganda in the schools, and her invented science and history lessons. It's Freeper logic at work.

[phylny]

38. Back in the 70s when I was young, I told my mom that she was

addicted to tobacco. I must have learned it in health class. She adamantly protested, saying she wasn't an addict.

RIP Mom: 1931 - 1988

[marions ghost]

63. Not freeper logic so much as

an addiction. My mother was liberal so she spun her resistance a different way...but it's all just the addiction talking. Liberal moms are NOT ANY more receptive to quit smoking campaigns than Freeper moms.

I talked my Dad into quitting somehow (mainly because he got tired of being relegated to 'smoking sections' outside in mid-winter (he hates the cold and has a thing about being singled-out, which worked in his favor). Dad is still with us. My mother died in 2003 of the most hideous end-stage emphysema you can imagine, very similar to the first poster's dad in this thread. And when she died I knew we had tried as hard as we could to get her to stop. But tobacco won.
My anger is reserved for tobacco companies and the powerful lobbies that support them. No anger or blame for the victims.

[Touchdown]

65. Actually, although I'm loathe to admit it, she's right about that.

The EPA study was doctored, and cherry picked, to come to a conclusion about second hand smoke that is ultimately much less dangerous that we werre led top believe...

The key points leading to the Court's decision included the following considerations:


Epidemiological studies of ETS and lung cancer do not qualify as science because these studies cannot test the hypothesis that ETS causes lung cancer with the rigour required by science.


The Court noted that the EPA switched to opposing arguments in different chapters, choosing whatever was momentarily expedient-at times, for example, maintaining that the mainstream smoke that smokers inhale is comparable to ETS, while at other times contending that this smoke it is not comparable.


The EPS ignored most of the literature indicating there are dozens of risk factors for lung cancer that, unless accounted for, may affect the results of ETS studies.


The EPA used statistically insignificant studies and meta-analysis trickery to reach arbitrary assumptions-such as the unsubstantiated assumption that ETS causes 3,060 cancer deaths each year in the United States.


While there were 58 studies that examined the risks of lung cancer in ETS-exposed populations, the EPA based its analysis on only 31 of these studies. As a result, evidence that was not helpful to the EPA's desired conclusion was eliminated.


The EPA asserted that ETS is similar to the smoke that smokers inhale and therefore carries a similar, yet reduced, risk. In fact, ETS is chemically different in a number of ways.


The Court found that the EPA disregarded a statutory requirement for an advisory committee broadly representative of the interests concerned, and instead used an advisory group with members most deferential to the agency.


http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore.asp?sNav=nr&id=386

More on the fixed data.

http://reason.com/ogmyt.shtml

5. Secondhand smoke poses a grave threat to bystanders. The evidence concerning the health effects of secondhand smoke is not nearly as conclusive as the evidence concerning the health effects of smoking. The research suggests that people who live with smokers for decades may face a slightly higher risk of lung cancer. According to one estimate, a nonsmoking woman who lives with a smoker faces an additional lung cancer risk of 6.5 in 10,000, which would raise her lifetime risk from about 0.34 percent to about 0.41 percent. Studies of secondhand smoke and heart disease, including the results from the Harvard Nurses Study published in 1997, report more-dramatic increases in disease rates—so dramatic, in fact, that they are biologically implausible, suggesting risks comparable to those faced by smokers, despite the much lower doses involved. In any case, there is no evidence that casual exposure to secondhand smoke has any impact on your life expectancy. (See Chapter 5.)

6. If secondhand smoke really is dangerous, smoking ought to be banned everywhere, except in private residences. Since almost all of the epidemiological evidence about the health effects of secondhand smoke relates to long-term exposure in the home, the fact that this is the one place exempted from current and proposed smoking bans suggests a residual concern for property rights. Yet business owners have property rights, too. If the government respected their right to establish rules about smoking on their own property, potential employees and customers could take such policies into account when deciding where to work or which businesses to patronize. Whether secondhand smoke is a health hazard or merely a nuisance, such a voluntary system is the most appropriate way to deal with the conflicting demands of smokers and nonsmokers, since it allows for diversity and competition, rather than simply imposing the will of the majority on everyone. (See Chapter 5.)

I'm not saying that people should start, and if you smoke, then by all means try to quit, but let's look this issue honestly instead of the crusading evangelism that's been going on since the 70s. The EPA report is laughable on it's face. In the 50's, roughly 60% of people smoked. Non-smokers had ashtrays on their coffee tables for their visiting friends. The only places that you couldn't smoke were elevators and operating rooms. If second hand smoke is as dangerous as the EPA suggests, then literally half of the population would be dying of emphazeema and lung cancer today. The woman, as crude as she is, does have a point.

I expect the messenger attacking any moment now...:hide:

[ProfessorGAC]

68. I Personally Peer-Reviewed The 2nd Hand Smoke Study

For one thing, the study does not say 2nd hand smoke is carcinogenic. It just doesn't. The data supports absolutely no link between cancer and exposure to secondhand smoke, and the study does not try to make such a link.

Secondly, the only evidence from that study, indicates that 2nd hand smoke is, indeed, injurious to people that already suffer from some respiratory illness, as severe as emphysema and as mild as sinusitis. Thus, it was declared, by the EPA, to be a Class III irritant. That would be similar to working in a dusty environment like a sanding room in a furniture factory. Not toxic, but irritating to many, and severely so to some.

So, the study didn't say it was all that dangerous. And, i didn't ask to have my name removed from the peer review list, because they didn't claim anything that wasn't there.

Had they made it out as dangerous as you suggest they did, i would have asked to have my name removed. The data are obvious and clear. It's not a carcinogen, teratogen, or mutagen. It's not a high IDLH aerosol. It's an irritant. That's all the EPA claimed.
The Professor

[TahitiNut]

71. That's how I've understood it.

Nonetheless, the ETS claims are akin to the Iraqi WMD claims and the proponents are every bit as rabidly assertive. When the proponents of such claims influence the public dissemination of the claims (mere mention virtually assures prominent publication, even in unrelated studies), it's no surprise that so many are drawn to unsupported conclusions. (I'm particularly impressed with the mental agility that concludes ETS is more carcinogenic than direct draw.) Even when the facts are laid bare, the proponents typically insist on the (fallacious) proof of the negative.
But I guess that's the difference between science and politics. :shrug:

[ProfessorGAC]

74. Apparently So

It took me 2 months to review the analyses performed by the researchers. (Not 8 hours a day or anything. An hour here, an hour there.)

And, i know at least 75% of the reviewers agreed with the final conclusions that appeared in the EPA report.

The important thing that i want people to know, is that the EPA declared it a Class III irritant. That's what chlorine bleach is at household concentrations. (Industrial concentrations are approximately 4x higher). Won't kill anybody. Won't cause any correlatable long term health effects, but if you're sensitive to it, it will be a drag.

I don't know where i stand on the issue of banning smoking in workplaces, bars, restaurants, etc. From a workplace safety POV, i see it. From a "who's freedom is more important" POV, i'm concerned that public health is not really being served, but the APPEARANCE of public health is being served. But, no matter what decisions are made, they ought to be based upon the truth.

The Professor

[K8-EEE]

77. People Who Smoke Around Their Babies & Kids Are Jerks

Please...tell me that it's good to blow tobacco smoke in a room with an infant. You can sit there and list a thousand things it DOESN'T, do, hell, if I walk into a smokey room I start coughing. The air is dirty enough with Bush's "clean skies" plan why do you want to make it dirtier?

I don't care what "studies" conclude it's common sense to not raise children in a smokey house!

[Touchdown]

86. I'm not saying anything of the kind.

All I'm saying is that an 80% likelihood of those who never smoked end up with emphysema and lung cancer is not plausable. The Professor shed some of his light on the actual EPA findings. I see no reason to distrust him. What people did with the study afterwords is an altogether different scenario.

Smoking is bad for you. Second hand smoke cannot be good for babies. I am not going to defend cigarettes if you think that's what I'm doing. All I posted was a court case where the EPA's findings on second hand smoke were wildly exaggerated, and the political movements taken since then amount to mountains out of molehills.

Thank you for attacking the messenger, just like I predicted. If you don't care about science, then quit citing bogus studies.

[K8-EEE]

97. What Bogus Study Did I Cite?

What messenger did I attack? I am saying this FreepChick is an ass because she has no respect for her children's concerns about her smoking, which there are valid health concerns, no? Also she assumes that it isn't bad for them either. Did I say what specific diseases they would contract? Who knows? SIDS, asthma....breathing smokey air is not good for babies & kids it's only common sense that smoking parents should smoke outside and be up front about their addiction & not tell their kids that there is nothing wrong with it.

[Touchdown]

105. Are you Lorien now, Miss Dipper?

I was responding to her. Try to keep up.

You said "I don't care what any research says..." or some such. I was posting about science. I agree with you about the common sense when around young children, but the fact of the matter is that the science doesn't require this vitrolic political crusade. This is what I was saying when I mentioned that you didn't care about the science. You emotions have taken over.

You attacked me, for posting a lawsuit that debunks some of the second hand smoke hysteria and myths. Nobody, especially me, is defending this woman's attitude, nor am I saying that second hand smoke is good for children. So either read me in complete context, or move along.

[Mnemosyne]

47. Well said TahitiNut! It certainly appears to be the truth anymore. n/t

[msongs]

52. no, you can understand that anyone who smokes is a Drug addict :-)

[Theres-a]

57. I better get

My fat ass out of here! I sure hope smoking doesn't turn into a wedge issue.It's far too personal for that.We've got bigger to fish to fry!

[Bandit]

64. Do you feel the same about the helmet laws?

:shrug:

[TahitiNut]

72. Yes.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

67. You earn the "Most Far-Fetched Misrepresentation of a Post" award

of the week.

[TahitiNut]

73. Until yours, I guess.

Try reading the entire thread at the point I posted. The implications are very clear.

[Pithlet]

108. The implications are that this particular woman is an idiot.

You are the one who is taking the comments rightfully calling this woman on her idiocy and defensively reacting to it as if the comments were about all smokers. Not to mention she IS a Freeper! Referencing that fact is a far cry from saying all smokers are freepers. She is an idiot freeper who doesn't give a shit what her own kids think, and is in deep denial. I'm not condemning all smokers by pointing that out, and I don't think anyone else was, either.

[Zorra]

12. "And I remember, that's just what mama said a year before she died of

lung cancer. Me and Molly, my twin, we wuz only 7 when she died. It was a funny thing, with mama all kinda goofy on her pain medication -she would stare up at those white flourescent lights above her bed in the cancer ward, and say 'look children, look up at the lights, those are what ya call Marlboro lights'...and she'd laugh, and cough up some more blood....yeah, I remember my mama...."

[SheilaT]

14. Aside from the fact

that this woman is completely mis-stating the dangers of tobacco addiction, she ought to look in the mirror.

It's very easy to spot the smokers by age 40. They look much older than their non-smoking contemporaries. I was at a high school reunion this summer (class of 65) and it was quite amazing how easily I could spot the smokers before seeing anyone light up. One class mate looked at least 70, I exaggerate not.

[skids]

17. Funny, people tell me I look young. n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

35. Funny, you probably are. n/t

[K8-EEE]

18. Yeah The Sun & The Cigs Really Show At The HS Reunions!!

That's really true -- at my 20th the tanners really looked old, and the smokers were getting those up and down lines around your mouth? Not smile lines like everyone gets but the pinchy kind.

[SheilaT]

42. Oh yeah, the tanners, I almost forgot about them.

Those who tan and smoke are generally the worst.

The aging process is a function of many things, including heredity. And it can take longer to catch up with some people than with others. But smoking shows up in the face really fast.

At the 20th everyone is still under 40. Give it anther ten years and you'll be amazed.

[Samurai_Writer]

56. My 30th High School reunion is in 4 years

I'm considering going, even though I haven't been to one before. Should be interesting.

Yes, you can tell the smokers and the tanners. Another thing that people don't mention though -- fat people (ones that don't smoke) generally look younger, because their faces are more filled out... thus, little to no wrinkles. There are a few positives about being fat.

Peace,
Bella

[Maru Kitteh]

23. SMOKE FREEPERS SMOKE! For the love of GOD, please keep smoking

don't quit freeptards, you know you love the tobacco companies! Somebody needs to support the murderous evil sons of bitches of the world and you're already SO GOOD AT IT.

[Lorien]

31. Lol! My first thought as well

Darwinism at work. How ironic. ;-)

[Maru Kitteh]

37. Lorien, I covet your kitties...............

They just look like such sweet babies.

No shit about Darwin, you just couldn't make this stuff up.

[blue sky at night]

26. Personally I am glad that people smoke.......

especially if they are freeper neocon death cult worshipers. They deserve a cruddy life of ashtrays and coughing and smelling like shit.

[kitkat65]

27. I still smoke. My niece (who once took the cigs from my purse and threw

them away) recently asked me why I smoked. I jokingly said cuz I'm a bad girl. She's so sweet. She said, "you're not bad, you just have a bad habit." She's 13 and already smarter than me.

Who wouldn't want to quit? It's an addiction.

[ucandoit]

45. at least you don't pretend it isn't bad for you n/t

[K8-EEE]

79. Good For You...

for being honest about it. In that way you can help her not make the same mistake, she is at the age where many smokers start.

[JDPriestly]

28. I can understand how a person stupid enough to smoke

would also be stupid enough to vote for Bush. But, Democrats should be too smart to smoke if for no other reason than the fact that when you buy tobacco products you support corporations that support Republican candidates. Stop smoking = stop supporting right-wing big tobacco.

[MsTryska]

62. how exactly does choosing to smoke and being stupid

correlate?


i'd say following any groups propaganda is a more accurate sign of stupidity.

[JDPriestly]

69. Would a smart person

choose a 50% chance to get a debilitating if not deadly disease? That's what you are choosing when you smoke. A lot of people justify their addiction by saying, "Oh well. Everyone dies sooner or later." The diseases smoking contributes to like lung and badder cancer, heart disease and emphysema don't just up and kill you. They eat away at your body slowly but surely and make your life miserable. In exchange for smoking, you not only get a shorter life, you get a far more painful end.

In addition, when you purchase a package of cigarettes you make an automatic donation to Republican causes.

So it's two for one: bad health and bad government. I think you have to be pretty stupid to make that choice.

[etherealtruth]

76. So, by necessity, all addicts are stupid (?)

Smokers tend to start smoking young ----- where basic intelligence is challenged by a sense of "invulnerability", a sense that they will live forever ----- this is immaturity, NOT stupidity. Following this, addiction ----- when one becomes addicted they are not merely making a choice to engage in an activity, they feel a strong, often overwhelming compulsion to engage in an activity.

You communicate a basic lack of knowledge about addiction ... hopefully (for you) this is because you have never experienced addiction ... for this you should be commended for making good personal choices, but also, be thankful that you have not inherited genetic material making you prone to addiction.

The woman (freeper) speaking in the OP was an ass ... because of her attitude ... not because she fell prey to addiction.

(google some stats about the odds of "recovering" from specific addictions...)

As a post script: I am a former smoker ----I'm not stronger than anyone else ---- I'm lucky!

Upon edit: deleted repeated phrase

[JDPriestly]

95. I've obviously made my point.

Smoking is stupid. No, I've never had an addiction. I believe in leading a balanced life. When I was in my early thirties, I read a book by, of all people, John Paul Getty. He is certainly not my hero, but he told a story that impressed me. If I remember correctly here is what he said. Apparently one night he woke up and wanted a cigarette. When he realized that he wanted it so much that he was willing to get up in the night and go out and get one, he decided to quit smoking. He said he did not want anything in his life that wielded that much control over him. That impressed me so much that I decided that, from that day on, I would live my life without being controlled by addictions or overwhelming wants. It was simply a decision that I made. That was a long time ago. Since then, I don't smoke, drink, overeat, overmedicate . . . . For the benefit of young people who may be reading this, I'm glad I made that choice.

[etherealtruth]

96. Congratulations on your life choices ...

I mean no sarcasm in that.

Education and life experience have taught me, that for most, it is not that simple ---- it is truly a gift that it was that simple for you.

Many addictions are attempts to self medicate ... the tendency toward alcoholism and other addictions IS heritable ... Addiction is NOT as simple as "choice" for most. Again, this is something to be very grateful for.

I posted earlier that I was a former smoker ... I've never been a drinker, have no interest in drugs (excluding my morning coffee, but not much)... I run a couple of miles most days of the week and lift weights an equal amount ... for this I am GRATEFUL ...

Perhaps you do not mean to sound "self important" (I do apologize if I have gotten the wrong impression) ... I can only hope that educating yourself more about the nature of addiction will help you develop compassion for this human frailty.

[JDPriestly]

98. Did you see the film,

What the Bleep Do I Know. Its science is questionable in some respects, but it explains addictions rather well. I do read and study a lot. That is probably the closest thing to an addiction that I have.

[etherealtruth]

99. Saw the thread you started in GD ...

r/t the American Cancer Society. I thought it was a great post; giving information and directing toward help. I am sure it will be found useful

I have had formal education in the area of addiction (the biochemistry, the genetic components, as well as the psycho social aspects of addiction). I worked as a hospice nurse for years ("retired" to have children and now have changed careers completely) so I've seen the horrors that can result from a number of addictions (smoking related disease was the most prominent) ----- I came away from these experiences with only compassion.

Human beings are very frail creatures. We all have areas in which we "fall down" (every single one of us). I'd rather help others than criticize them -----your thread in GD did just that (helped)!

Upon edit: changed American lung assoc. to Cancer Society

[JDPriestly]

100. It's hard to strike the right balance

between compassion and enabling. I do not criticize my friends who smoke, but I encourage them when they try to quit. I feel freer to speak out on DU, especially now because people are really aware of the problems of smoking at this moment. There is nothing personal about addressing this problem on DU. The fact that smoking is an addiction makes it all the more important to remind people as to why they should quit. Smokers need a stronger rationale for quitting than they have for continuing. It takes a lot of strength to break an addiction as strong as smoking. Most people can't quit unless they work at it. Once a smoker has cancer, saying, "I couldn't help it. I was addicted," won't help him or her much.

Anti-smoking discussions are not my obsession, but if I can be helpful and discourage people from smoking, I will do so. I think people are opening and reading and responding to the threads on smoking because they know they need to quit. Anything I can do to nudge someone over, I will do.

[marions ghost]

87. people do not "choose" to smoke when they are

more mature and better able to reject marketing and peer pressure. People don't take it up later in life. They take it up when they are young and impressionable, often using it as a mild rebellion. But sometimes they just take it up casually and become hooked very quickly.

People are not rational about addictions. Smart people don't "choose" to get a deadly disease. Peter Jennings was smart. To call all smokers stupid is divisive and just plain false.

Everything a smoker says to justify smoking can be translated into one sentence, "I am addicted and I'm not ready to quit."

Smokers need help and understanding, NOT a heavy guilt trip from non-smokers. Superior attitudes help nothing. There is a wide range of factors contributing to a susceptibility to substance abuse. Doctors are smart, right?--and they don't waste time calling their patients stupid. They try to work with them to quit or treat their diseases.

We ALL have our addictions, even mild ones.

[MsTryska]

94. You've got just one set of circumstances that may occur from smoking.

another interesting set of circumstances is the beneficial effect of smoking on the brain.

Smokers are less likely to get alzheimers.

smokers are less likely to get parkinsons.

Something like 99% of schizophrenics smoke as self-medication.


A recent study found non-smokers are more likely to be affected by allergies.


Don't just take one side of the health affects of smoking without taking the other side into account too. Some people are far more likely to choose smoking as a prophylactic against alzheimers if they've got a stronger history of alzheimers in their family than cancer.

And on another point - why do you suppose Big Tobacco gives so much support to Republicans? You think it's just because they like Bush or whatever? They give more to the Republican Party because it's not actively trying to put them out of business. And I don't blame them. Nor would anyone with even a slight Capitalist streak. Do I agree with their marketing or manufacturing? Not necessarily, but do I believe they have every right to act in their own best interest? Hell yes.

[Toots]

107. You think it isn't stupid to burn your money up smoking a leaf

that does nothing but damage to you. At least Pot gets you high. Why not just take your money and burn it instead, at least the GOP doesn't get their cut then. Smoking is quite stupid no matter who does it. That you would even make an attempt to justify it shows a lot. It is one thing to argue for your right to smoke but quite another to argue that smoking is not a stupid thing to do. I have no problem with people smoking in the privacy of their homes but when you bring it into the public domaine then you must put up with the public attitude about it. Most people won't tolorate it. The human being needs three things to sustain life. Food, Water, and Air. You are not allowed to poison public food supplies or public water supplies but for some foolish reason you think you can poison public air supplies. You are wrong on this issue.

[MsTryska]

112. Actually my point is that

it's not really your place one way or the other to decide another's stupidity.



but apparen;ty you aren't sharp enough to realize that.


thanks for the idiocy with the side of condescension. and people wonder why "liberal" is equated with "nanny-stater".

[PassingFair]

88. Ex-smoker here, haven't had a puff in three years, but

I still LOVE and admire every smoking friend I have. They are NOT stupid, they are, like I was (and still AM, in other ways...) somewhat hypocritical when it comes to THEIR habits.
Of course I knew it was DUMB to smoke. It was the stupidest WILLFUL thing that I did.
Now, I overeat. Still chronically stupid!

Try watching the move "The Insider" with Pacino and Crowe. It really helped me to quit. The cigarette industry is populated with criminals.

[etherealtruth]

90. Nah, NOT "chronically stupid" ....

... just human, with all the foibles and frailties that go along with it.

For some of us arrogance / hubris are our failings ... for others greed ... others, overeating ... we all do something ...

[PassingFair]

92. Thanks, Ethereal!

Put on 40 lbs in the year after I quit. I've lost about ten of that, but am stuck at present weight.
Smoking stokes metabolism. Unfortuantely sitting on my duff typing does NOT!

[etherealtruth]

93. So you've been forced to acknowledge imperfection ...

I still maintain, there are worse things.

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. Did bush** write this?

That was painful to read. :banghead: Stupid is as stupid does. That is all.

[mediaman007]

51. I'll bet that all of these "freeper confessions" that show up in

pyramid e-mails are developed in right wing think tanks. Then they are passed off to the freepers as original thought. I get them all the time from a friend of my wife. He feels so proud of the fact that he can provide these things to his "liberal" friends.

[raysr]

33. These jerks

are so fucking stupid, I am almost amazed.

[hayu_lol]

40. Some of us choose to smoke...

For those who don't, have you considered giving up your booze?

[JDPriestly]

70. Don't do one or the other.

Never did. Life is not long enough to waste on addictions.

[fujiyama]

39. Freepers don't believe in science?

Wow what a surprise.

[VOX]

41. Classic example of the freeper "Me FIRST, and Screw the Rest" attitude...

This person apparently loves her kids so much that she doesn't care if she's around long enough to see them grow up.

This is the **same** type of attitude that makes dipshits drive whale-sized, gas-guzzling Hummers, or silver-spoon-fed sons bomb the hell out of third-world countries -- "I'm gonna do what I want, and the rest of you can go to hell." :grr:

[Ganja Ninja]

43. "If you want to smoke, smoke, if you don't , don't"

Funny, I feel the same way about pot.:smoke:

[ucandoit]

44. Most smokers know better

They don't quit because they're addicted, but they know it's hurting them and those around them.

[Brewman_Jax]

46. Most smokers I know

actually want to quit, but they're addicted. Some have succeeded, unfortunately, most have not. :(

I wish that more freepers would smoke. The tobacco companies give more to the GOP, so they can help their party by smoking more.

Smoke, freepers, smoke!

[SemperEadem]

48. I wonder if she' d like it

if while she was lying in a bed, dying of lung cancer, those very same children of hers whose concerns she is dismissing decide that they don't want to come around her and comfort her while the cancer is eating her lungs.

Turnabout is fair play, you know.

[GoldenOldie]

54. A CON who CON'S her own kids????

As an individual who lost my vocal cords - laryngeal cancer - due to smoking and having been a member of a larngectomee support group -people who have lost their vocal cords and now communicate with the use of electronic devices, prothesis's, or esphogeal speech ----for the past 18years, this CON lady is doing a great disservice to her children.

Not only is she wrong about baby boomer smokers getting through with no ill affects, the majority of the laryngectomee's that I started out with and many of them during the past 18-years have not survived all but one of them were smokers. The other was beleived to have been a passive smoker, meaning her husband was a chain smoker and she inhaled his smoke.

Havings spent 12-years talking to school kids from 4th - 12th grades, these kids know that their parents are addicted and the majority of them are scared to death that their parents will die (my talks did not make any attempts to scare them, only give them tobacco facts and what happened to my and my support friends). These kids know that their parents are lying to them because of their addiction.

[Gormy Cuss]

60. Keep scaring the kids, please.

The most effective anti-smoking program I remember from school were the speakers like you. The photos of blackened lungs, wrinkled faces and wheezing people with oxygen tanks did not make anywhere near the impact of watching someone speak adaptively. That scared the daylights out of many of us. :thumbsup:

[K8-EEE]

81. God Bless You For Your Good Work!

Yes, keep talking to the kids.

[Mutley]

58. I like this line...

"The smoking gestapo got away with it, it'll encourage other gestapos to sprout up and do away with other peoples pleasures next time."

How do they like having their rights taken away? Not fun, is it freepers?

I don't remember the freeper name, it's near the bottom of the thread.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

59. It gets better

"There's a lot of nonsmokers that will have to feel pretty silly someday laying there in a hospital bed... dying of nothing."

:wtf:

[WoodrowFan]

66. someday "nothing" will be curable.

But until that day please continue to give generiously to the American Nothing Foundation, the life you save from nothing may be your own...

[MsTryska]

61. i agree with her on everything

except the second hand smoke part.


you are certainly entitled to do whatever you want - provided you're not infringing on anyone else while doing so.

[Ilsa]

75. I really hate this spew about

"in the 1950's we all should have been born retarded," etc and using that as a rationalization for doing the unhealthy thing. I've heard another about seatbelts, babies getting alcohol on their gums (seizures) and other goddam tripe to justify stupidity. This woman is an idiot. If we don't want to grow and do things better, then we shouldn't bother with advances in medicine, either.

If someone wants to smoke, then smoke. I don't care. But don't market it to kids and tell it's cool or really okay. Don't try to sell it as glamorous when we know it isn't. And don't blow the smoke around me because second hand smoke is at minimal a nuisance, at worst a health hazard.

[Midlodemocrat]

80. Wow. Intentionally exposing her kids to second hand smoke

My candidate for Mother of the Year.

[K8-EEE]

82. And Arguing With Them When They Object

Breathe my smoke you little rugrats!

I think anytime smokers are bothering air-breathers, they should go outside, I say this as an ex-smoker, I always asked "do you mind..." and if they did no problem. You can be a smoker without being a jerk!

[Midlodemocrat]

84. I never smoked, but my mom did.

for over 50 years. It is what killed her, eventually. I am horribly allergic, but frankly, after years of breathing that crap, maybe it is psychosomatic.

I have a neighbor who routinely smokes in her house and her car with her kids. She wonders why they always have sinus issues, or colds.

Hmm, maybe it's allergies? you dumb shit.

[seabeyond]

83. why dont yawl just get the f* off smokers butts

yawl want to jsut stone us and get it over with.

bad smoker bad. evil. die. spit cough up blood, we dont care you filthy disgusting smoker. we have no empathy

and what. this makes you tough, uncaring, ugly. and we are proud of this

we look at the nazi pictures as they boldly walk out of the closet

oh ye,.....smoker basher. come out come out. i see you have

i am not going to reply to this post. just thoroughly disgusted with the ugliness. this little smoker is going to take my ass outside. enjoy the sun and nature,.....my children and laughter, and hope, ..... i do not die today, cause i smoke

thanks
for the love, wink

[Pithlet]

109. No. Not all smokers. Just the one being discussed in the OP.

She's being castigated because she's an idiot. I know plenty of smokers that aren't stupid like this woman.

I guess Freepers are supposed to be immune from criticism because they're smokers? It isn't the fact she's a smoker that bothers me. It is her total disregard of her children's concern, and her denial about the dangers of smoking to herself and others. Her hugely flawed logic is astonishingly freeper like.

[ComerPerro]

91. Im guessing her mom smoked AND drank while pregnant with her

because, apparently, she was born retarded.

[ISUGRADIA]

102. Lung cancer doesn't occur overnight...it can take decades

"experts" never said it woul kill everyone who smokes, jesus christ. But tens of thousands dies from lung cancer each year and 95% (I think that's close to the #) are smokers.

[kodi]

104. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Math 7:8

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

106. She better have a good health care plan

I'm not paying for this bitch's agonizing final years......

[Pithlet]

110. Attention defensive smokers

This woman is an idiot. Calling her an idiot is not condemning all smokers. Just this one. Calling her a freeper isn't painting all smokers as freepers, because she IS one. I'm sure there are smokers who would agree. Not every smoker I know dismiss their own children's concerns in such a self-centered way the like this idiot does; in fact, most don't. Not every smoker I know uses idiot freeperish logic to convince themselves that they aren't harming themselves and others. She isn't an idiot because she's a smoker. She's an idiot because she's self centered and ignorant as was displayed by her post.

[tk2kewl]

111. I'll agree with this statement...

babyboomer generation should have been born retarded and died in their twenties

emphasis mine :P