I see where you are coming from Leap, but that won't stop medical people (me :), extolling the virtues of not smoking!
I have looked after way too many people who have told me they bitterly regret smoking, as they slowly gasp their way to an untimely death.

Your story of the father who went to the TAB instead of the corner store, brings to mind my own Dad. He used to tell my Mum that he would take the four of us kids for a drive on a Saturday arvo, to 'give her a break'.

Excitedly, we all piled into Dad's car, knowing full well that if we kept Dad's 'secret' from Mum, we would get chips and icecreams to eat in the park next door to the local TAB!

Your story of the father who went to the TAB instead of the corner store.....? My story...lol... haven't you read the article? My father ever gambled in his life, smoked the odd cigar in the 70ies, but thats about it. Philip Morris's campaign in the Courier Mail said yesterday that the profits from Australians smokers was to the tune of 27.2 billion dollars.

I,ll quote this.....Anti-smoking advocates are in-censed with the "sneaky" campaign ,given Philip would reap significant financial rewards by having any future smoking bans halted....and goes on to say, " they know the sale of which is a highly addictive product, a product that kills 15.000 Australians a year to the cancer " they know it causes.

And with your story......" Excitedly, we all piled into Dad's car, knowing full well that if we kept Dad's 'secret' from Mum, we would get chips and icecreams to eat in the park next door to the local TAB!

And your story is just how the chain continues.

I hope you didn't pick up any Bad habits yourself.

Yes the Morlocks of this world really do have a good grip on humans in this example, and thats some of the parasitic I talk about some-times, and all for almighty dollar.LOL.... Makes you wonder how they sleep at nights, and I,ll bet they do it with ease.

Have a great day.

LEAP

I can’t stand the smell of cigarette smoke I grew up with it and I work in a place that still allows smoking. I have never understood what makes people take that second puff, when the first puff would have been violently rejected by your lungs.

One thing that trumps smoking on my “can’t stand” list is “thought police”. It seems every day though police make a rule of behalf of us, so that we can cruise through life never needing to make a decision.

I sit in my bubbling bath of apathy with the majority of Australia and I get to read in my newspaper the latest rules passed by the though police.

Easter is cancelled, no smoking in space shuttles on Saturdays, schools are no longer allowed to teach children, father Christmas is no longer allowed to call women Ho’s three times, prison inmates are allowed to vote, your not allowed to swear in front of your pets.

Ok I might stop…………now

No Leap, I have absolutely no bad habits at all :)
Cheers,
Suze.

One thing that trumps smoking on my “can’t stand” list is “thought police”. It seems every day though police make a rule of behalf of us, so that we can cruise through life never needing to make a decision.

Are you finished?...:) If it wasn't for the thought police as you call it, making a fair-for-all world you so love to enjoy, well............... we would have nurses puffing away in hospitals:), schools with ash-trays on every desk-top, wouldn't be able to enjoy a meal, with-out some tool trying to be cool, you would see all the things that most people cant save-themselves from, in the morgues long before they should be.

It would be a killing zone with people stoned out of there minds, doing 180ks with a bottle of beer in each hand, while blowing a joint.

The world would go from Champaign to sh!t in a heart-beat.

A 50/50 world is not a perfect one, but at least one will live longer:)

A world with-out thought police...lol......Yeah! I know one.....its called the stone-age:)

And you can see all the Mad-Maxes out there right now, with the biggest smiles you ever seen, for a world with NO THOUGHT.

Must be nice on your planet...lol....

LEAP

lets be honest
bad smells abound in this world

be it from cheap perfume..on old woman
[or hormoan based stuff on boys
designed to seduce young femails]

or the smokey diesal or the stink of industry
anyone deliberatly smoking in your face is assult
call a cop..dont colectivly lable or punish the lot of us

I NEVER SMOKED IN YOUR FACE
i dont complain about your stinking car or your perfume
to callup on smoking in busses is living in the past..get real

as for me not paying my way
i dont visit docters..have paid my medicare levie
have paid my tax on my smokes...
and dont complain about you getting its use..mainly to ridicule me

dont make up numbers
20 percent of all aborigonal deaths is the latest claim
GIVE YOUR PROOF..[as no autopisies are conducted..its a GUESSTIMATE]
based on hate/spin..and to make your point

just like the other points made

31 billion is the total costs

quotes from
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=4307&page=0

[quoted from govt speeches]

ALP
Chris Hayes

""Leaving aside the emotional costs..of that toll,

...*the social costs...*
are estimated at $31.5 billion...""
[lost labour/income tax guestimates]
and plenty of other lard/spin

[social costs..
[attributable guesstimates]..not REAL COST]

this new law
raises 5 billion

ALP
Melissa Parke

""has a double purpose:it adds a significant price disincentive to the purchase of tobacco products,and it will generate an additional $5 billion..over four years to be directly invested*..in better health and hospitals""

yet costs
669 million

smoking..""was responsible for 753,618 hospital bed days,
and for $669 million in hospital costs..*.""

the spin dont add up

laurie furgessing[alp]
smoking responsable...for
""...*20 per cent..!
of all cancer-deaths..in general""