PROTECTING BIG TOBACCO: EBOLA, TOBACCO, AND THE PENTAGON…

...and while we're at it, we might as well talk about the ebola-tobacco connection, this time courtesy of this website's web developer, who shared the following article:

Ebola Treatment: How Big Tobacco and the Military Came Together

Now, the heart of this rather astonishing connection is here:

"The second of those two Americans, Nancy Writebol, arrived Tuesday at Emory University Hospital following an airlift. She and Dr. Kent Brantly each contracted Ebola while treating patients at a missionary clinic in Liberia. Brantly was admitted earlier to the same Atlanta hospital.

 "Both are said to be improving since receiving the experimental anti-Ebola drug ZMapp, developed through a unique alliance between the U.S. military, private scientists, and Reynolds American Inc., which is working to remodel the image of Big Tobacco.

"ZMapp is composed of three “humanized” mouse monoclonal antibodies — one of which was developed at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) — and manufactured in tobacco plants.

"The infected plants were grown by Kentucky BioProcessing (KBP) — a subsidiary of Reynolds American. The tobacco giant acquired KBP in January, said Reynolds spokesman David Howard. Never tested on humans, the drug was shown in a recent study to be effective when given to Ebola-infected primates.

"Though the two missionaries remain in treatment and in isolation, the possible early success of ZMapp could mark a step forward in Reynolds American’s goal of “transforming the tobacco industry” — both in terms of remolding its image and meeting emerging market demands, Howard said.

“Really, the big picture is tobacco consumption in one form, and then you have other utilizations of the tobacco plant — certainly, looking at it from a scientific perspective,” Howard said."

Now, as a smoker (and a heavy one at that), I find all of this rather amusing from any number of points of view. I am old enough to remember the silly cigarette commercials of the early 1960s, with "doctor endorsed" cigarette brands, and wild claims that it was even "good for you." And I am old enough to remember how the ever-so-trustworthy tobacco industry doctored studies, numbers, and even blatantly concocted the numbers, to claim that there was no correlation between smoking and lung cancer and other health issues. So needless to say, I look on these claims with rather a jaundiced eye.

But on the other hand, I also have seen the anti-smoking fascism in the USA reach unprecedented heights of goofiness and hysteria, with federal and state governments simultaneously subsidizing the industry while using smoking as a wedge to leverage ever more governmental intrusion into private life, private property and liberty. Indeed, it's reached such a pitch that I have to wonder why our perpetually corrupt and lying governments are on such an anti-smoking binge? I have actually privately wondered "What good about tobacco and smoking are they trying to cover-up?" The question isn't rhetorical. I mean it. Consider the track record of government lying about everything from JFK to Ruby Ridge, and you get the importance of the question. (I mean... : Health Benefits of Smoking Tobacco  I want a government campaign! "Fight Alzheimers! Smoke a Cuban! [cigar folks, in today's dumbed down culture, you'd have to specify that])

And then along came ebola and voila, my question appeared to be answered, and to put it "country simple": Why bother about an expensive vaccine when a good bag of your favorite blend might be just as effective and much more enjoyable and pleasant? I think of the campaign against marijuana: a good bag of weed is far cheaper than the massively expensive pharmaceutical derivative, Marinol, but no one can make a profit from the latter so long as the similarly effective (and much more pleasant) plant is so cheaply available. What to do? Criminalize the plant, make its active drug prescribable by a physician only, and charge an arm and a leg for the pharmaceutical equivalent. Why bother about cigarettes, cigars, and pipes tobacco, when Reynolds could make so much more money by criminalizing normal tobacco use, and using it in "vaccines"?

Maybe it's time for the anti-smoker and smoker to make common cause, allow bar owners and restauranteurs to allow smoking in their establishments if they want to (and out of health concerns and public safety), and to start asking some difficult questions of big pharma, big tobacco, and big government. We could even have a motto: "Fight Ebola! Support smoking in your favorite bar or restaurant."  If that sounds ridiculous, consider only the fact that that is how ridiculous modern American government, with its tapestry of mercantilism and special privilege for a few rich, and corporations, and none for the liberty of the people,  has become.

See you on the flip side...

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

31 Comments

  1. Sandygirl on November 7, 2014 at 8:57 am

    With the State’s making 31 billion dollars a year from taxes, I don’t see our govt banning tobacco any time soon. There is some weird reason why they don’t like smokers. It might be they can’t do their mind control or maybe the Drakos don’t like the flavor. Seriously, the Third Reich is alive and doing well within the American cancer society, U.N., NATO and the World Health organization. Hitler’s eugenics programs did not die but spread throughout the world as did his scientists. 2nd hand smoke is a joke. Media never publishes OSHA research on environmental tobacco smoke.http://forum.smokersclubinternational.com/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=16614
    Why did Reagan ban research on marijuana? http://americanmarijuana.org/pot.shrinks.tumors.html



  2. Elm on November 7, 2014 at 2:52 am

    If any indication of, “something wicked this way comes,” then the Rockefeller’s among their many other “trusts,” controlled THE GIGANTIC Tobacco Trust. Posing & often depicted as philanthropists, the Rockefeller clan beginning with “BIG BILL,” were actually some of the most prolific and unprincipled con men of American Corporate and so-called “philanthropic” history. Indeed, it seems whatever the Rockefeller’s embraced, they turned to gold & the “dark side.”
    http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/rockefeller.html

    That the Rockefeller’s were also supportive of eugenics, brings the question whether their interest in tobacco was a healthy one. Like allopathic medicine, one wonders what actually happened to tobacco with Rockefeller’s “philanthropic” support? Probably nothing good.

    Like the difference between certified raw milk derived from healthy grass grazed cows, and factory pasteurized & homogenized milk, neither is all tobacco grown, or processed equally, that is, in accordance with traditional practices. Flu-cured tobacco for example, is comparable in its adulterated form to pasteurized milk — both being processed at high temperatures and each respectively adulterated with hormones, proprietary “sauces” etc. To be sure, as reported by William Dufty in his book Sugar Blues, the leading British tobacco research institute determined, unlike artificially flu-cured tobacco, that tobacco grown, processed & cured in a traditional manner, produced no identifiable correlation between smoking tobacco and lung cancer — none!

    It does appear, commensurate with Dufty’s research, white processed sugar — both as a natural constituent of raw tobacco, and as an added adulterant, is a major factor in a cause of dis-ease among tobacco smokers. So basically, an adulterated tobacco laced with fixed & added sugars plus accelerants like saltpeter was gradually introduced, whereby under a cloud of marketing few people picked up on the transition until it had taken its toll. Like pasteurized milk, for decades the American people still imagined they were receiving the real thing. Maybe a “High Octane” speculation, like milk, tobacco too was “tweeked” as a vector for an introduction of dis-ease, and all ends — Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, Big Agra etc., met in the “middle,” at the center of cartel profits.



  3. Gaia Mars-hall on November 6, 2014 at 9:43 am

    Best to quit before enjoyment becomes a liability ~

    Here is a Joe Vialls article about a hypothesized protective aspect of smoking: Increased mucus forming against radioactive fallout….

    http://www.sott.net/article/226999-Smoking-Helps-Protect-Against-Lung-Cancer



    • Elm on November 7, 2014 at 3:05 am

      If TPTB wish to suppress and demonize tobacco, then by a counter-intuitive deduction, even in its compromised state, tobacco must have an up-side. Apparently, psychologists are replacing smoke breaks as work place stress relievers. Much of an alleged societal “cost” of tobacco, can be traced to so-called “lost Corporate productivity.” Pills are OK, because they’re quick. However, the problems of a demeaning work place, can not be mitigated by obfuscating their negative effects with pills & psychology. For millions of Americans, the once popular smoke break – a small pleasure, made work bearable.



  4. johnycomelately on November 6, 2014 at 3:42 am

    Smoking’s number one advantage is that it increases serotonin, which increases confidence and reduces fear.

    Number two, there is a deliberate attempt to slowly kill smokers via the filters, it’s filter acetate cellulose fibers that clogs up the lungs.

    http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2505928167-8189.html



  5. kitona on November 5, 2014 at 6:15 pm

    Is there a hierarchy to the avatar on this site? I know that I’m relatively new here but I find it curious that that I have 1 eye shut and a sealed mouth.



    • jedi on November 6, 2014 at 10:44 am

      And your head is a stop sign….a sign from the NSA, through a back door in your operating system you were assigned a serial number based on you DNA sequence code which selected the appropriate avatar as a visual signal for human agents of intelligencia to steer you.



  6. Robert Barricklow on November 5, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    It’s beginning to look like the line between Big Business & Big Brother is A Big Blurrrr. The kind of line between who votes & who counts the votes. The kind of line between research data and its interpretation. It’s a kind of proprietary twilight zone where Rip Van awakens to find the latest cure from deadly diseases are puffs from packs of magic camels.



  7. lazer-eye on November 5, 2014 at 2:18 pm

    The real issue behind smoking is one of personal responsibility. Anyone who wants to inhale a product with 41 known toxic compounds, including 13 pesticides, should have the right to do so if they want. But please don’t ask the rest of us to pay for your medical expenses when you get lung cancer. This is not Fascism. It is common sense. Post a $200,000 bond to take care of your medical expenses first, and then go do what you want. I’ll bet you guys even avoid GMOS and eat organic food too. Well, maybe not GMOS, since Monsanto has cornered that market in the tobacco industry ten years ago.



    • TRM on November 5, 2014 at 7:29 pm

      I’d like to say I advocate everyone who does smoke to keep trying various ways to stop until you find something that works for you. Seen it in my family and the sooner you quit the better.

      Being a true libertarian (individual liberty AND individual responsibility) I favor letting smokers smoke if they want to as adults. They (and extend this to any drug) should be prepared to pay a higher insurance rate.

      All money collected by the government from cigarette taxes goes into de-addiction treatments for smokers (free to the smokers) and treatments for their diseases. None of the tax revenue goes to “general funds”. You have to keep it segregated or you never get a true accounting.

      The huge problem is that most get addicted way before they are old enough to legally use it. The companies target the under 18 age group because they know almost nobody starts smoking after the age of 20. I’ve personally known of only 1 person who started after the age of 20 and if you look up the stats it is massive. 90-95%.



    • Elm on November 7, 2014 at 3:12 am

      Does this also apply to gluttons and diabetics? How about those who abuse alcohol and develop liver cancer? The list goes on. Shouldn’t everything people put in their bodies be their personal responsibility? To be sure, many people who over indulge in foods laced with processed white sugar, are going to develop cancer long before those who smoke tobacco. There’s wisdom in, “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet.” The sugar industry sure complained about this one.



  8. DownunderET on November 5, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    Groucho Marx sang a song called “Whatever It Is I’m Against It”, and so it seems that governments look for things to ban or heavily tax.
    In Oz, if everyone who smoked, stopped smoking for a month, the government would have a heart attack on the lack of tax dollars.

    Today governments have tooooooo much power, and we have given it to them, the only way to stop this madness is to get some people into government who represent the people, so the next time an election comes around, I’ll be voting for independents who TRULY have the peoples views in their sights, I HOPE !!!



  9. Jon on November 5, 2014 at 1:25 pm

    Smoking never bothered me, and my father smoked a pipe. Sometime in the 80s, I noticed a rahter sudden change in the smell of tobacco smoke and it began to give me headaches to be around it.

    I would be willing to bet there are many things about natural, uncorrupted tobacco which mithg very well be beneficial, at least used in certain ways at certain times.

    I recall reading that un-cured tobacco was psychoactive, and that is why it was used in religious ceremonies.

    Given all the good things we know about pot, it should come as no surprise that there are healthy aspects to tobacco as well.

    Just consider all the monstrous lies about saturate animal fat, and how exclulding that from our diet is causing the lion’s share of our current major health problems.

    These people do not have our best interests at heart.



    • Jon on November 5, 2014 at 1:26 pm

      “saturated” animal fat . . .

      sorry



    • Elm on November 7, 2014 at 3:29 am

      The change was likely initiated long before the 80s.

      The indigenous peoples of North America regarded a properly cured tobacco as a sacred plant. Tobacco was used both as a currency, & for creating sacred space. Indeed, the naturally air-cured tobacco leaf contains the highest & most complete concentration of “B” vitamins of any other plant on earth.

      Cowpokes sitting long hours on horseback on the range received their “B” vitamin quota from chewing properly cured tobacco. It’s doubtful they would have benefited from today’s factory processed and flu-cured brands. Like pasteurized milk, there are no health benefits to factory processed tobacco. Why? Because, when tobacco is flu-cured, leaf enzymes are destroyed and leaf sugars fixed. No leaf enzymes, no conversion of leaf sugars into “B” vitamins. Thus, an air-cured tobacco produces a mildly alkaline smoke, whereas a flu-cured tobacco produces a harsher acidic smoke. Like raw verse pasteurized milk, each of their effects are a fundamental contradiction of the other. Certified healthy milk, from a health perspective, is comparable to an organically grown traditionally air-cured tobacco.

      But of course, the entire food supply and our means of producing more, has been compromised. Whereas the Noble Lie is a quest to feed the starving masses of the world, the real goal is to create a total food dependency.



  10. Aridzonan_13 on November 5, 2014 at 11:28 am

    Wow, FedGov.Inc incarnate. Big Tobacco and the MIC looking out for our good. The check is in the mail and we’re from the Government and we’re here to help.



  11. DanaThomas on November 5, 2014 at 9:51 am

    I’ve had trouble accessing the link, either it must be getting millions of hits or maybe somebody (the usual suspects) doesn’t like what was published there…



  12. marcos toledo on November 5, 2014 at 9:33 am

    The problem isn’t government the people that have been place in charged are as miss educated as the rest of the population. It for want of a better word the Corportcracy (legitimate gangsters) using government as their front and muscle to carry out their crimes and their plan to create Mobster Dark Age World their fantasy paradise. As for alcohol, tobacco, etc. they all have legitimate uses when used properly and there not for casual constant use and stress control. There for relaxing at the end of the day and celebrating something joyful and important.



    • Elm on November 7, 2014 at 3:37 am

      The “golden rule” is, too much of a good thing, is most often good for nothing. “Eat all you can eat” is a fools paradise. One must indulge in small pleasures ritually, not habitually. One should never allow one’s treats to become a diet. 50 years ago, most people still seemed to understand this.



  13. Frankie Calcutta on November 5, 2014 at 9:12 am

    Nice of the oligarchs to throw big tobacco a bone like this after beating up on them so mercilessly these last couple of decades. I guess now that they have undoubtedly consolidated that industry and got majority control of the big US tobacco operations, it is safe to push cigarettes on the masses once again (That is unless tobacco truly does interfere with certain mind control technologies.) Maybe this is part of the North American retrenchment scenario: bolster native industries to improve the economic strength of the US. Maybe it is even just the oligarchy’s nostalgia for the old days when tobacco, rum, opium and slave trading were their bread and butter.

    I would also guess that tobacco is being rolled out as the latest delivery system for the oligarchs’ covert assault on the global populous because of the cultural barriers in places like China where marijuana smoking is considered taboo but tobacco smoking is still embraced by a large portion of the population. It may be another generation or two before the Chinese take to smoking pot and that may be dependent on the western oligarchs being able to make great inroads in getting control of either the Chinese airwaves or the minds of the Chinese elite and thereby poisoning the China culture to their liking. Maybe the western oligarchs will initiate a Chinese hippy movement one day and use that to turn the Chinese youth into pot smoking hedonists? (Could the Chinese give up the safe sounds of their beloved Kenny G for the electrifying chords of a Chinese Jimi Hendrix?) Would the western oligarchs gain from damaged Chinese worker productivity? (No doubt Wal Mart would lose if the average Chinese worker was disabled by non stop giggling and the munchies). But the question many old time Chinese will probably ask: why smoke foreign weed when you can smoke local opium? And without a substantial Chinese pot culture, the nefarious western elites will not be able to assault the Chinese covertly with the mysterious toxins bound to be in the GMO pot. Thus, the need to weaponize tobacco.

    But could there be another reason tobacco is now being redeemed? Could there be a conspiracy within the conspiracy to protect the human population form electronic mind control? (I refer all to Dr. Farrell’s most recent Member Dialogues) Could that self-created haze of tobacco smoke be an effective shield against mind control technology in this day and age? Are we looking at an old remedy to a new problem? Or have we been down this road before and has our most ancient priest class, the shamans, preserved the merits of tobacco smoke for just this purpose? Will tobacco smoking replace tinfoil for those concerned with protecting their free will? Certainly smoking a cigarette, while frowned upon in the west, is by far more socially acceptable than walking the streets in a tin foil hat. The derision is truly unbearable. (Thank you Dr. Farrell for releasing me from this constant ridicule. I bought my first pack of cigarettes last week). In fact, I actually enjoy blowing smoke in peoples’ faces because I know now it is for their own good. And this probably has turned me into a tough guy by default. And I certainly feel a lot more stylish when smoking because I know my brain is being protected from the bombardment of electronic mind control. If free will isn’t chic, then what is?

    And what a coincidence that the major manufacturer of tin foil in the US is a company called Reynolds and the one of the largest tobacco concerns in the US is also called Reynolds. If you are looking for the men with white hats, I suggest starting with the name Reynolds.



    • moxie on November 5, 2014 at 9:54 am

      There are people allegedly resistant to mind control and have a distinct genetic makeup..
      I read somewhere that coconut oil helps with neurogenesis and repair. Also essential fatty acids. Apple cider vinegar can loosen fluoride and detoxify



      • Guygrr on November 5, 2014 at 12:07 pm

        The single best fatty acid for the brain is alpha lipoic acid. The treatment I received for the infections I had/have was primarily iv vitamin c to kill infections, iv glute to grab the dead infections, iv ala to push the toxins out of fatty tissues (brain, nerves, connective tissue) by binding to these tissues in their place then iv glutathione to grab those toxins before they can be re-absorbed or impact the body, then recycle the process. It’s the removal of the toxins we are all saturated with that allows our brain to regenerate all on its own not the fatty acids. At the same time, one needs to be careful, because if there are too many toxins in there flushing them will cause an adverse reaction. If one does not access to the iv route of administration supplementing with either the ala or glute or anything for that matter will be mostly useless unless it is in its liposomal form allowing to bypasst the extremely acidic stomach environment.
        We literally live in a toxic soup, mycotoxins, industrial chemicals, roundup (glycophosphate) (which is also a fatty acid however an unatural one, hence it binds to our fatty tissues slowing down the rate that our nerves fire and is responsible for why gmos make us ill morons) bacteria, parasites, weaponized RNA slices of long extinct infections, the list is endless. Most of these toxins are fatty molecules that bind just like fatty acids to fatty tissues, the ala is strong enough to push them out taking their place. Throw in the emfs from electronics, especially cell phones and wifi, that surround us everywhere we go now and we have a recipe for disaster. But it’s expensive to eat all organic natural and healthily, the pace of our modern lives and the cultural and philosophical brainwashing we recieve courtesy of the PTB leads most people to believe that money could be better spent elsewhere, say like on a psychiatrist or some anti depressants. Well I’m telling you from experience, I was suicidal and the meds didn’t make me any better they only zombied me out and killed my imagination. Of course zombies don’t want to die, they are already dead. The first step is getting off all the medications, while concurrently improving nutrition with organic non processed foods. Anyone that hasn’t taken these steps I think will be amazed at their results. No one said it would be easy, you will most likely get sick from gmo withdrawal (I swear it happens to some degree) but your body and your unborn or even born children will thank you for it



        • moxie on November 5, 2014 at 12:49 pm

          Good to know Guygrr.. sadly, its true that not everyone can afford to buy organics. Nevertheless, do what you can to protect and nourish your transducers..



      • Sandygirl on November 8, 2014 at 2:33 pm

        And here is the research by Yale: “It’s genetic, Some Smokers Have Biologic Resistance To Anti-tobacco Policies”.

        http://www.healthcanal.com/genetics-birth-defects/34574-Its-genetic-Some-smokers-have-biological-resistance-anti-tobacco-policies.html
        “This study is an important first step in considering how to further reduce adult smoking rates, said Fletcher. We need to understand why existing policies do not work for everyone so that we can develop more effective approaches”.



    • jedi on November 5, 2014 at 4:53 pm

      Chewbacca…chew tobacco, you become Hans solo….
      All the lung cancer wouldn’t happen to be caused by say the asbestos being airborne in brake pads? I observed what appeared to be sand accumulated in street car tracks and turned out too be asbestos. Or used as asbestos insulation in your home…..then there was my great granny, started smoking when she was in her teens and passed away at. 112 years of age…remember aluminium being used for wiring….chaos….order….this is a government that floridates you….



    • Elm on November 7, 2014 at 3:41 am

      Insects and pathogens like the plague instinctively avoid smoke, especially tobacco smoke. In fact, honey bees are having difficulty with tobacco based insecticides. But what do they care? Mission accomplished.



  14. chimera on November 5, 2014 at 8:15 am

    It isn’t the tobacco that harms health. It is all the additives and preservatives. Tobacco in its natural state when smoked tastes rather nasty. So the tobacco industry makes a lot of chemical additions to make smoking palatable as well as assisting your body to tolerate better the other poisonous additives.

    There are more than 4,000 ingredients in a cigarette other than tobacco. Common additives include yeast, wine, caffeine, beeswax and chocolate. Here are some other ingredients:

    Ammonia: Household cleaner
    Angelica root extract: Known to cause cancer in animals
    Arsenic: Used in rat poisons
    Benzene: Used in making dyes, synthetic rubber
    Butane: Gas; used in lighter fluid
    Carbon monoxide: Poisonous gas
    Cadmium: Used in batteries
    Cyanide: Deadly poison
    DDT: A banned insecticide
    Ethyl Furoate: Causes liver damage in animals
    Lead: Poisonous in high doses
    Formaldehyde: Used to preserve dead specimens
    Methoprene: Insecticide
    Megastigmatrienone: Chemical naturally found in grapefruit juice
    Maltitol: Sweetener for diabetics
    Napthalene: Ingredient in mothballs
    Methyl isocyanate: Its accidental release killed 2000 people in Bhopal, India in 1984
    Polonium: Cancer-causing radioactive element

    So, if you want to smoke tobacco, either buy organic tobacco (untreated) or grow and process your own tobacco to roll your own. I grew up in a rural farming community where tobacco was king. We grew acres of it. Anyone in my family that smoked, rolled their own from what the family produced. Not a one of them died of ANY tobacco related cancer (NONE from lung cancer). They all lived to be in their late 70s to 90s.

    In addition, my family is descended from the Cherokee and Sioux Nations. They new the health values of tobacco.

    What passes for tobacco in cigarettes today in most major brands made and marketed in the US don’t even contain leaf tobacco (which is what you actually grind and use for cigarettes if you do it yourself). Today’s cigarettes are made from what is called sheet tobacco, which is plant stems, stalks, roots and waste product from the wood pulp industry. This is ground up and pressed into sheets that are colored and treated with hundreds to thousands of other chemicals, most toxic, then shredded into something that resembles tobacco.

    There are tobacco companies out there (very small ones) that produce cigarettes that are totally all natural tobacco and they also sell the ground tobacco so that you can produce your own cigarettes.

    In my opinion, the tobacco industry has worked hand in hand with the government (CorpUS which is a Foreign Owned Corporation), and the medical, insurance and pharmacology industries to make people sick so they can treat/cure them of the diseases that are caused by using the tobacco products that are causing their diseases via the additives and preservatives.

    From the taxes generated for CorpUS and the Corp States to the production of the products, to the treatment for the generated health issues of the end users…..it is all about making money. The added bonus for CorpUS is the control mechanisms that they use against the people who smoke.



  15. Lost on November 5, 2014 at 6:34 am

    There are safer methods of delivering a stimulant like nicotine into one’s body than through inhaling burning tobacco.

    I don’t grind up coffee beans and put them in a pipe to smoke them.



  16. kitona on November 5, 2014 at 5:56 am

    I’m a non-smoker, have never tried it and I come from a non-smoking family. Having said that, I actually do miss the smell of smoke in certain public places and have become quite nostalgic about it. Certain bars, restaurant, bowling alleys, etc…simply should have an air of tobacco about them. These universal bans are ridiculous. America today is so sanitized that when I know think of the ballpark of my youth with it’s dingy corridors and heavy scent of roasting hot dogs, smoke and piss it seems as exotic an an African bazaar these days.

    And then there is Dr Farrell’s point, if the government says it’s bad for you then what is their motivation? This is the same government that gives us fluoride in the public water and mysterious approves artificial sweeteners (aspartame) and GMOs for consumption in spite of the evidence. I don’t want to start smoking as I still think it’s a bad habit, but given my contrarian streak it is tempting.

    Previously my best guesses for the anti-smoking movement were the following:

    1- Smoking breaks add up to a lot of lost man-hours per year. I can easily imagine large corporate employer trying to eliminate this perk in order to further squeeze pennies out of the working class.

    2- There a very social element to smoking. It’s easy to strike up conversation with strangers under the guise of looking for a light. And within large companies, I’ve always been amazed by the informal communication smoking breaks creates as it is often someone from both the executive suite outside chatting with a kid from the mail room, for example. Excellent for gossip. Compare that to heavily surveilled communications of the Facebook era and you might guess why smoking is a threat.



    • kitona on November 5, 2014 at 5:59 am

      Oh, and one more thing on the topic of smoking. Even though I don’t do it myself. I do buy cigarette and keep stocked up on them. Not that I have a lot of smoking friends per se but rather just in case the financial world totally goes to hell and all those fiat notes are suddenly seen as truly worthless. In such circumstances, I figure cigarettes have a high probability of being useful barter, much like in the cashless world of prisons. If money is worthless, a pack of smokes just might get lunch.



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