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it. I sympathize with those who consider it a healthcare issue and refer them to the preponderance of evidence that in every other industrialized nation with universal healthcare, the incidence of heart disease or cancer that can be attributed to smoking is a fraction of what we're told in America. What do these other nations know that we don't? Is all their data flawed? Or are we inflating the data to support a national hysteria against smoking? Not to belabor the point, but we went to war and attacked Iraq on "evidence" of WMDs while the rest of the world told us it was grossly unreliable information.

The smoking issue is a politician's gift. What lazy politician can lose advocating no smoking legislation? It's an easy platform absolutely irrelevant to important issues of job creation, immigration, taxes, war, and presidential foolishness. The billions awarded in recent years to states and families of smokers have done nothing but made attorneys rich.

There will always be many of us who feel we have a lock on what is right for some of us. Nevertheless, the "opinion" of the majority carries no legislative weight against the rights of a minority. Should we shut down a monster American industry with millions of jobs at stake in order to restrict a few of us from our chosen vices? Reflect for a moment on the fact that while about 25% of Americans still smoke, almost 45% fall into the "new" medical and legal controversy of being dangerously overweight.

I suggest that folks who remain concerned about the smoking issue transfer their energy to prohibiting french fries and pizza.

Learn more about this author, Michael Patrick.
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