Second hand smoke does cause death!

An article entitled, "Passive smoking's death toll quantified" submitted by the Associated Press, was in the Friday edition of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times.  The first line of the first paragraph states, "Secondhand smoke kills more than 600,000 people worldwide every year".  I have been saying this for a long time now and the study, that was lead by the World Health Organization's Tobacco-Free Initiative, finally provides the proof.

The last paragraph of the article is really interesting, it says,

"It's almost as if people are in denial, she said. (referring to Helena Shovelton, the Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation) "They absolutely would not do something dangerous like leaving their children in the middle of the road, but somehow, smoking in front of them is fine."

It feels good to finally have the scientific community confirm what I have believed and have talked about for some time.  Now if they would only conduct a study on how smoking damages brain cells, both of my theories about smoking would be proven.

Graphic warnings on cigarette packages are a good idea!

The FDA (U. S. Food and Drug Administration) wants to "feature vivid images as part of the war against smoking" onto all packages of cigarettes.  One picture has shows a man smoking a cigarette with smoke coming out through a hole in his throat with a "WARNING:  Cigarettes are addictive", while another shows the foot of a corpse with the caption, "WARNING:  Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease."  A third picture shows a frail pale man in a bed with the caption, "WARNING:  Cigarettes cause cancer."  The fourth image shows a mouth of an adult holding a baby with smoke in floating through the air with the "WARNING:  Tobacco smoke can harm your children."  An article about these graphic warnings with the fore mentioned pictures appeared on the front page of  the Thursday, November 11th edition of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times.  I applaud the FDA on this plan.  This should have been done many many years ago!

What we really need is a law that denies any health insurance or any kind of financial assistance to smokers and former smokers for any treatment for damage to body parts, tissue and/or organs caused by smoking.  The same should be true for anyone who drinks alcohol.  Sure, I have said that as Americans we should have the freedom to choose to smoke or drink if we want to.  It is their decision to pick up the cigarette or bottle.  So it should follow that any damage caused to their bodies due to these choices should be the sole financial responsibility of that person.  If they can't afford it, IT WAS THEIR CHOICE to smoke, so they will need to deal with the resulting consequences.  Why should we have to pay for their poor judgement?  Come on, we have known about the dangers and addictiveness of smoking and drinking for decades!   Let's put a stop to the lawsuits and put the blame where it belongs, on the person who chose to smoke or drink!  The U. S. taxpayer has to pay enough without having to pay for foolish choices people make.

I will admit that I am not without flaws.  I have a weakness for pizza, Big Mac's, Whopper's, Cokes, potato chips and just about anything that involving chocolate.  However, after peaking at 210 pounds, I have decided to reduce my consumption of these things and try to eat healthier and to exercise regularly.  I am proud to say that I am now averaging about 190 pounds.  I realize what my bad habits are doing to me and am trying to change my habits.  At 51 years old, I have decided that my next fifty years are going to be better than the first fifty!  Keep an eye on this blog as I am sure that you will hear more about my struggle if the news is good.  If you don't hear anything, feel free to give me a kick in the butt and tell me to shape up.

President Obama's plan is starting to help revive the economy!

I don't care what anyone else says, I think that President Obama's plan for the economy is working.  I am really encouraged to see a lot of new businesses starting up.  There is a new Wal-Mart being built in the Central Business District of St. Petersburg, Florida.  Several Wal-Mart stores in Pinellas County of Florida have been converted to Super Wal-Marts.  There are many other large chains opening up new branches in this area.  Personally, I have seen two new Save-A-Lot stores, a new HobbyLobby in Port Richey, just to name a few.  It is also really great to see some new small businesses starting up.  It takes a great deal of courage, effort and hard work to make a small business work, but more people, including me, are going to make it work.  You can't give any credit to Governor Crist, he was to busy saying anything and everything so he can be elected to the U. S. Senate.

This is so much different from just a year ago!  We were still in the "Dark Times", the time during George W. Bush's first four years as an "appointed President" by the U. S. Supreme Court, then when in 2004 when he actually won an election.  The policies and decisions made during his administration caused a major economic meltdown and the nation is finally starting to come out of it.

During the campaign, the Republician's were screaming about the national debt.  What a bunch of hypocrites!  When President Clinton left office, there was a budget surplus.  Bush's tax cuts for the multi-millionaires and the massive war he started (against his father's advice-President Bush, Sr. adviced not to go to war without an exit strategy in place!) caused the massive deficit.  President Obama had to take drastic measures to fix the mess.

 

Don't let another year slip by until every American has equal representation in Congress

As another election day comes and goes, I am still saddened to see that not every American has equal representation in Congress.  It is every American's right to vote, but unfortunately, more than 200 years after the American Revolutionary War, the citizens of the District of Columbia still don't have the ability to vote for a representative who can cast votes in Congress.  The citizens of D.C. therefore, do not have representation in government.  Why?  Because fearing that a majority of the citizens of the District of Columbia will favor Democratic Candidates, some drastic Republican's use stall tactics such as former President George W. Bush says that "the District isn't a 'state'!" or they add ridiculous riders about hand gun legislation to the bill to kill it.  Democrats and the majority of the Republican party should stand up and vote to allow the residents of the District the right to vote for representatives in Congress who have full voting privilages.   Check out the DC Vote website to see how you can help!  Every American should have this right!  These American's have been ignored for to long.