What's this blog about?

Stand Fast. Fight back.
I’m a smoker. I don’t light up in the homes of non-smokers, including the homes of my children who have chosen not to smoke Their house; their rules.

I’m a smoker. I have three children and seven grand-children. I am not a child abuser.

I’m a smoker. I do not pay the extortion demanded by my governments in the form of confiscatory taxation. But, I am not a criminal.

I’m a smoker. And I’m getting awfully tired of listening to the shrill ranting and ravings of anti-smoker activists and tobacco prohibitionists who seek to whip the public into a hysterical frenzy with their bullshit, bafflegab and outright lies. I will not let them turn me into a social pariah; at least, not without a fight.

The following paragraphs come from a website run by Dr. Michael Siegel. His organization is called The Center for Public Accountability in Tobacco Control. We are on opposite sides of the fence, he and I, for he is a physician with 21 years of experience in tobacco control who is opposed to smoking. Fortunately, he is not a fanatic bent on trampling the rights of smokers underfoot and supports his opposition to smoking with reason and sound science.

“The tactics being used by many anti-smoking organizations have become questionable, including misleading and deceiving the public, improperly attacking individuals, and improperly using kids to promote a political agenda. The agenda itself has become less and less public health-based; it now includes efforts to deny employment to smokers, treat smoking parents as child abusers, and ignore basic issues of individual privacy and autonomy to coerce smokers into adopting healthier behavior.”

“In order to restore the movement, the Center for Public Accountability in Tobacco Control hopes to highlight the tactics currently being used, bringing these tactics to public attention in order to hold public health groups accountable to their primary constituency: the public.”

I support Dr. Siegel’s efforts to hold the extremists accountable, albeit for different reasons. I’m getting a little too old for a real knock down drag-em-out brawl. But, I know how to use a computer and have a basic understanding of the English language. So, I’ll post to this web log on a regular basis, to help expose the lies and distortions of dishonest anti-smoker organizations.

Statement of Purpose
This web log is intended neither to promote nor discourage smoking. That is a matter of choice that educated, adult consumers should be free to make without interference or coercion.

But, anti-smoker fanatics and tobacco prohibitionists are intent on stripping smokers of basic personal freedoms. For our own good, of course. Extensive public smoking bans, campaigns to have smokers fired from their jobs, to brand them as “child abusers” and even to deprive them of a place to live.

Since truth is a subjective matter, this web log will not confound you with our version of the truth. Instead, we will point you to the facts.

And, the facts are that the lunatics have been let loose from the asylum. They have launched a campaign of discrimination and intolerance which would not be permitted against any other minority.