New Scaratings

Yep, it's come to this... Nukes are okay, even though they have the ability to kill everyone on the planet in a heartbeat once somebody pushes the button.

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"The game is afoot."

Worldwide, since 1945. Hundreds of thousands of deaths from nukes (almost all from Hiroshima or Nagasaki in 1945.) Hundreds of millions of deaths from cigs (currently five million every year.)

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

This is from 1604...

http://laits.utexas.edu/poltheory/james ... laste.html

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Malort. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

The Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, wants to ban cigarette sales on all Navy and Marine Corps bases, as well as ships. (He has already raised the price of cigarettes in all places under his jurisdiction.)

http://www.nhregister.com/business/2014 ... s-on-bases

This man is a fool. If he gets his way, it won't stop Sailors and Marines, who want to smoke, from smoking. They will simply buy their cigarettes off base, and when they go to sea they will just stuff a bunch of cartons into their sea bags to have enough smokes to get them through the cruise.

Secretary Mabus's idea is incredibly stupid. Other than pandering to the anti-smoking zealots, his proposed ban will do nothing to decrease the number of Sailors and Marines, who chose to smoke. It will only transfer all of their cigarette purchases from the PX to the closest Walmart.

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"The game is afoot."

Naturally, I like Secretary Mabus' idea. I realize that most personnel would simply buy their cigarettes elsewhere, but I like the message this sends. The military (or at least the Navy and Marines) should not encourage or condone cigarette smoking among its staff due to the health risks involved. They have a big responsibility to our whole country and they need to be at their best, which cannot happen if they are addicted to tobacco (or anything else for that matter.)

But since you don't approve of this idea, do you have a better plan, one that would decrease the number of military personnel who smoke?

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

So, the goal here is to eliminate all health risks for folks whose careers consist primarily of going into harm's way?
Bitterly ironic or ironically bitter?
I miss the good old days when the only smoking related health concern in the military was "three on a match".

I think there is a fair difference between "not encouraging or condoning cigarette smoking" and "eliminating all health risks."

Also, while I question some of the conflicts that the U.S. gets involved with, I would prefer to pay my taxes toward our troops defending this country. I would rather not have to pay for avoidable medical expenses caused by their tobacco addiction.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

I would have no problem with your tailoring of taxation based on not paying for other people's mistakes.
We can start by refunding all of my taxes spent on public funding for children.
Most of my taxes spent on welfare should be coming back my way since those people make consistently bad life choices.
All of my taxes used toward Medicaid will come back, given that those people made the mistake of not planning ahead properly to be insured.
Good call. The solution was right in front of us the whole time.

The sole purpose of government redistribution of wealth is to pay for people's poor life choices.
That's just the way it works.
If I can overlook the 90% that I pay in taxes thanks to other folks' nincompoopery, you can put up with the .000001% of your taxes that go to smoking vets, couldn't you?

Manual delete

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"The game is afoot."

I've got some bad news for the anti-smoking zealots. You are all going to die from something, even if you have quit smoking or have never smoked in your life. Perhaps not from a firing squad, but certainly from something else. Take your choice.

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"The game is afoot."

I quit four years ago. No Thank You.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

Good move Frank, because this is what is likely coming next:

.....................

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"The game is afoot."

This attack on smokers will never stop. It is an insane crusade by anti-smoking zealots to deny smokers any personal freedom to enjoy themselves no matter how much they politely concede to the zealots' crusade. The anti-smoking zealots are never satisfied. They will never stop attacking the rights of those they wish to crush. Even when smokers retreat and wave the white flag, these zealots still attack them.

A teacher's assistant gets fired, because she smelled of tobacco. Many shopping malls don't allow smoking in the acres of their open air parking lots. Even though there is not a scintilla of scientific proof behind it, secondhand smoke is now considered a killer right up there with cyanide. Not joking, thirdhand smoke is a new crisis that they are focusing on. I could go on and on, but that's enough for now.

However, these zealots will never stop...

One would think that these zealots would rejoice as former smokers gave up their Marlboros and switched to totally non-polluting electric cigarettes, that only put water vapor out into the air.

Nope, the zealots are not rejoicing. Their crusade goes on. They hate the non-polluting electric cigarettes too.

How do I know...?

This afternoon I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Middletown, Kentucky, and there is now a large sign on the front door that says, "NO E-CIGARETTES ALLOWED."

This will never stop until...


p.s. I smoked a half pack of cigarettes while making this post. I'm 68 and still alive. Duncan, my 16-year-old cat, is right here next to me, and he's still alive and well. Unfortunately, the dozens of pantry moths that flit around, are all still alive too.

p.p.s. Anti-smoking zealots have NO sense of humor.

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"The game is afoot."

I'm sure that "anti-smoking Nazis" don't find death by lung cancer or emphysema or COPD to be very humorous. Especially when the death is of a non-smoker breathing second- or ever third-hand smoke.

As for the e-cigarettes, I'm not sure that they're as safe as it's proponents would make it appear. It seems that their vapor contains some carcinogens, based on the Wikipedia article on e-cigarettes in the link below. Until their safety can be better documented, if I managed a business where children would be present, such as any restaurant, I would not allow their use either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cigarette

You're right Cloudy about one thing: This will never stop.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Thanks for confirming everything I said.

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"The game is afoot."

It was nothing. Now, see if you can do something about your moths, preferably without setting your house on fire.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Oh, you do have a sense of humor. Pretty funny. If burning my house down would wipe all pantry moths for all time, I might think about doing it. However, pantry moths are ubiquitous. They are everywhere, and nothing seems to be able to wipe them out, since the government banned Shell Pest Strips, that passively killed all of the insects that invaded your home, back in the 1960s.

By the way, happy birthday my good friend.

p.s. If I get a bad surprise, and the cigarettes kill me, could you take in a good cat called Duncan...?

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"The game is afoot."

Thank you for the Happy Birthday, Cloudy. Of course that day was yesterday, but I'm using it as an excuse to take today off of work. My current age matches the length of a famous hitting streak. Or, if anyone asks, I'm 29, and have been 29 for the past 27 years. (As you can see, my alleged sense of humor is a work in progress. )

No, you don't want me to adopt Duncan. I've got a cat, and he thinks he is Genghis Khan; maybe he was on one of his eight previous lives. So (and this makes it an on-topic post), you should quit the habit until you've outlived your cat.

Then, get another cat and try to outlive your new pet. Good luck.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

To quote Mark Twain...

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"The game is afoot."

Here's some good advice. Marry someone, who smokes, and might die. You could be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Check this out:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fla- ... s-24634294

A jury awarded a woman $23.6 billion in punitive damages against the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a longtime smoker, who died of lung cancer.

Hell, I've been a longtime smoker, but damn I'm still alive. (Age 68) Dang, if I just could develop lung cancer and die, my kids would never have to work a day in their lives again, if they could find a jury like the one that handed down a verdict like this. (Yeah, the lawyers will probably take half of it, but even if they do, I think my three kids could split up $11.6 billion dollars, and get along pretty well on it.

p.s. Yep, that's billion with a "B", NOT a measly million.

p.p.s. Perhaps it might be time for some tort reform.

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"The game is afoot."

I was surprised to find out that both SCAR and DANTE have quit smoking, when I saw them at SCAR's recent welcome home party. My hat is off to them, because this is something that is very hard to do. If anyone else is going to do the same thing, I have a simple request. Please don't throw the carton(s) of cigarettes that you have sworn off into the trash, as many do. Just mail them to me. I will reimburse you for the postage, and toss in a little thank you money for taking the time to send them to me.

Let's all hope that SCAR and DANTE don't balloon up to become fatso blimpos, and become pudgy faced sumo wrestlers the next time we see them, after kicking the unhealthy, socially unacceptable, filthy habit of smoking.


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....................................."SCAR san, konnichiwa, this is more honorable than trivia combat." ........"DANTE san, honorably prepare yourself to be squished flat on the sumo mat."

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"The game is afoot."

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

No, I do not speak or understand Japanese. (Isn't that obvious?) I used an online translater to generate a translation of the following:



How close the actual output came to that message is anyone's guess!

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

I believe this is a better translation:


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.............................................. 傷跡さん、こんにちは、これはトリビアの戦闘よりも立派です...........ダンテさんは、立派に自分が相撲のマットの上に平らに踏み付けする準備します

You must admit that it has better grunting inflections. However, perhaps we should get liljol over here. He's the go-to-man, when it comes to replacing English words with Japanese Kanji characters.

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"The game is afoot."

Seems like I am missing something in the translation.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."