Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette
As you might have heard, much has been made about Barack Obama's smoking habit. I don't know who decided to make a public fuss about it, but I'll make a wild and completely unfounded accusation that it was a Republican who wanted to cast doubt on his moral character. All Obama needs is a goatee and we'll finally understand just how evil he is.
This popped up in the New York Times today. If ever there was much ado about nothing, Obama's supposed smoking habit is it.
Mr. Obama’s heaviest smoking was seven or eight cigarettes a day, but three was more typical, according to an interview published in the November issue of Men’s Health magazine.
Three cigarettes a day? That barely qualifies as recreational. Has he ever sat in a bar and smoked an entire pack in four hours? Has he ever walked to the corner store in the pouring rain to buy a pack? Is walking to the corner store for a pack of cigarettes in the pouring rain the only exercise he gets?
I can smoke three cigarettes in the first 45 minutes I'm awake. I've been up for just over three hours, and I'm on my sixth cigarette of the day. I have a smoking habit. Obama's smoking is an occasional stress reliever. I doubt he sits in the family room and smokes while watching a movie with his kids.
Any stress he has experienced before is nothing compared to what he's headed for. Let him have his three smokes a day.
Comments
At the risk of sounding even MORE of a TV whore than I actually am, I have to invoke "The West Wing" regarding this post-- President Bartlet smoked... RARELY, but it was acknowledged (and used dramatically) as a stress-related activity, and was featured as a VERY humanizing bit of "business," as they say in the theatrical world.
Look, I want President-elect Obama, Maura, and all the other people in the world I admire and/or love to give up cigarettes-- PERIOD, PARAGRAPH, AMEN. I admire and/or love them, and I'm concerned for their health and well-being. But I ALSO know that there are habits and so-called "vices" that the people who love ME wish I would abandon.
So, yeah-- let the Prez have an occasional stress butt; I'm in no position to judge anyone, let alone the first candidate I've actually let myself feel actual hope about (and I'm not using that word in "campaign" terms) in my entire voting life.
There's what's ideal, and there's what's possible. I know that ideally we'd have a comprehensive Dept. of Agriculture/FDA effort to transform our tobacco industry into a much more ecologically-sound and more-profitable commercial hemp biz; I know that ideally we'd stop our wack-ass farm subsidies for boneheaded bullshit like corn-based ethanol, and instead channel that money toward multipurpose farms like this one: http://www.polyfacefarms.com/; I know that ideally we'd give up the "war on drugs," decriminalize narcotics, regulate and TAX (thereby taping into a HUGE revenue base) the "industry," and deal with the actual HEALTH CARE issues that lie at the heart of the problem.
Okay. I've got to find a ladder now, 'cause I've been on my high horse for WAY too long, and I'm starting to get altitude sickness...