Tobacco -- U.S. Govermental Shame

Glamorous Photos of Kids Smoking

The elected lawmakers of the government of the United States of America are complicit in the murder of American citizens; they continue to aid and abet the growing, manufacturing, and marketing of tobacco products even though they (and every 21st century American) now know that smoking tobacco kills smokers.

Why? Because tobacco usage is so wonderfully profitable. Tobacco is highly addictive. Tobacco addiction is unbelievably lucrative. The industry provides jobs. The sales provide outlandish profits to multi-millionaire company owners. The taxes levied on tobacco products provide many, many dollars to corrupt government officials and uncaring lobbyists.

That's Why!

Except for the follow the money motive, there is no legitimate excuse for this or any other government-sanctioned wholesale murder.

And History will surely reveal the shameful truth.

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Tucson Weather Today


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Regarding HISTORY: On this day, March 27 in 1973, the actor Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather. The Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather attended the ceremony in Brando’s place, stating that the actor “very regretfully” could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film.

Brando was the second performer to turn down a Best Actor Oscar; the first was George C. Scott, who politely declined to accept his award for Patton in 1971 and reportedly said of the Academy Awards hoopla: “I don’t want any part of it.” Scott had previously declined a Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Hustler (1961).

Interesting details about this subject here

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WORD FOR TODAY

complicit  (kuhm-plis-it)
adjective
Associated with or participating in a questionable act or a crime.

An individual or group of individuals is complicit in a crime if he/she is aware of its occurrence and has the ability to report or stop the crime, but fails to do so. As such, the individual or group effectively allows criminals to carry out a crime despite possibly being able to stop them, thus making the individual or group a de facto accessory to the crime rather than an innocent bystander.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


David Janssen

 Born Mar 27, 1931
Died  Feb 13, 1980

David Janssen was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967), the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–1960), and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.

Mariah Carey

 Born Mar 27, 1970
Age:   42 years old

Mariah Carey is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and philanthropist. Carey released her self-titled debut studio album Mariah Carey in 1990; it went multi-platinum and spawned four consecutive number one singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

With her success with hit records Emotions (1991), Music Box (1993), and Merry Christmas (1994), Carey was established as Columbia's highest-selling act. Daydream (1995) made music history when its second single "One Sweet Day".

In a career spanning over two decades, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Quentin Tarantino

Born Mar 27, 1963
Age:   49 years old

Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor.

His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed My Best Friend's Birthday; its screenplay would form the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs (1992); regarded as a classic and cult hit, it was opined as the "Greatest Independent Film of All Time" by Empire magazine. Its popularity was boosted by the release of his second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), a neo-noir crime film that became a major critical and commercial success, widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Paying homage to 1970s blaxploitation films, Tarantino released Jackie Brown in 1997, an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch.

Kill Bill followed six years later -- released as two films, Vol. 1 (2003) and Vol. 2 (2004) -- a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Chinese martial arts, spaghetti westerns and Italian horror. He released Death Proof (2007) as part of a double feature with friend Robert Rodriguez under the collective title Grindhouse. His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds (2009) became Tarantino's second highest-grossing film to date ($321 million), which tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership. His most recent and highest grossing work is Django Unchained (2012), a western film set in the antebellum era of the Deep South, receiving critical acclaim.

Sarah Vaughan

Born Mar 27, 1924
Died:  Apr 3, 1990

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century." Nicknamed "Sailor" (for her salty speech), "Sassy" and "The Divine One", Sarah Vaughan was a Grammy Award winner. The National Endowment for the Arts bestowed upon her its "highest honor in jazz", the NEA Jazz Masters Award, in 1989.


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A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
--Everett Dirksen
(U.S. Senator, 1950–1969)

Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception.
--Sophocles
 

dies Mercurii

Tucson Weather Today

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Murder, Incorporated Is Legal -- And Thriving

Cigarette Smoke in the Car Breaks Toxic Limit

Smoking in a car, even with the windows open or the air conditioning on, creates pollution that exceeds official "safe" limits, scientists say.Children are particularly susceptible because they have faster breathing rates, a less developed immune system and are largely unable to escape or avoid exposure to second-hand smoke, says Dr Sean Semple, of the University of Aberdeen.

Researchers say, "We believe that there is a clear need for legislation to prohibit smoking in cars where children are present."

But Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, (of course) says: "We don't encourage adults to smoke in a car if small children are present, out of courtesy if nothing else, but we would strongly oppose legislation to ban smoking in cars. Parents must be allowed to use their common sense, and most of the time they do -- there is no need for further regulation”

Common sense? Ha! As I have said many times before, "Common Sense is that faculty that proves the Earth is flat."

LINK


I have often pondered the puzzling concept of evil.

What exactly is evilness?

Aside from the tedious and often downright ludicrous teachings of various religious institutions, it seems to me that Evil is, for the most part, simply a matter of opinion.

Catholic View Of Evil

 

My View Of Evil

A majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are directly complicit in the perpetuation of the manufacture and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products that are known to be dangerous to the health of human beings.

History will show that they all are accomplices to murder.

'Nuff said?

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WORD FOR TODAY

Quran [English pronunciation: kor-AHN]

The Quran (literally meaning "the recitation"), also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Al-Coran, Coran, Kuran, and Al-Qur'an, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: Allah). It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language.

The Quran is composed of verses that make up 114 chapters of unequal length which are classified either as Meccan or Medinan, depending upon the place and time of their claimed revelation. Muslims believe the Quran to be verbally revealed through angel Gabriel from God to Muhammad gradually over a period of approximately 23 years beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Mae Carol Jemison

Born Oct 17, 1956
Age: 56 years old.

Mae Carol Jemison is an American physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992.

After her medical education and a brief general practice, Jemison served in the Peace Corps from 1985 to 1987. She resigned from NASA in 1993 to form a company researching the application of technology to daily life. She has appeared on television several times, including as an actor in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She is a dancer, and holds nine honorary doctorates in science, engineering, letters, and the humanities.

George Wendt

Born Oct 17, 1948
Age: 63 years old.

George Robert Wendt III is an American actor, best known for the role of Norm Peterson on the television show Cheers.

Montgomery Clift

Born Oct 17, 1920
Died: Jul 23, 1966

Edward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men". He often played outsiders, often "victim-heroes". Examples include the social climber in George Stevens's A Place in the Sun, the anguished Catholic priest in Hitchcock's I Confess, the doomed regular soldier Robert E. Lee Prewitt in Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity, and the Jewish GI bullied by antisemites in Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions.

Later, after a disfiguring car crash in 1956, and alcohol and prescription drug abuse, he became erratic. Nevertheless important roles were still his, including "the reckless, alcoholic, mother-fixated rodeo performer" in John Huston's The Misfits, the title role in Huston's Freud, and the concentration camp victim in Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg."

Tom Poston

Born Oct 17, 1921
Died Apr 30, 2007

Thomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950. He appeared as a comic actor, game show panelist, comedy/variety show host, film actor, television actor, and Broadway performer.

In the 1950s, Poston gained recognition as a comedic "Man in the Street" (along with his colleagues Louie Nye, Dayton Allen and Don Knotts) on The Steve Allen Show. Poston was a recurring guest star on The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s. He later played the role of Franklin Delano Bickley on Mork & Mindy. A longtime friend of Bob Newhart, Poston played George Utley, bumbling country handyman of the Stratford Inn, on Newhart.

Poston also had regular roles on many other television series: Family Matters, Murphy Brown, Home Improvement, Cosby, Malcolm & Eddie, ER, Grace Under Fire, That '70s Show, and Will & Grace.

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"If she survives this time, she won't next time. We will certainly kill her."
--spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban
re: the shooting of 14 year old Malala Yousufazi
 

Thoughts And More Thoughts

Tucson Weather Today

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Fry's Supermarket provides two wood-slat benches outside the building for the convenience of customers and store employees who wish to smoke during their rest and lunch breaks. A huge pot filled with sand sits chained between the two benches, and it fills rather quickly with cigarette stubs of varying lengths. Since this area is located roughly half the distance of my daily two-mile walk, I take advantage of the benches to sit and rest for a few minutes before heading back down the return leg of my walk.

While seated there yesterday, I watched as an old lady approached and sat down close to the gigantic ashtray, upon which she latched her attention, carefully examining each discarded butt and putting in her apron pocket all of the bent and broken stubs of a size seemingly satisfactory for later re-lighting.


Not being particularly reticent in my old age, I struck up a lengthy conversation and told her that I had once been a cigarette smoker but had quit the habit in 1985. She said she knew she should quit but she was 47 years old and didn't have the will power to stop. Now, that surprised me greatly, as I had thought, because of her heavily lined and wrinkled face and her overall elderly appearance, that she was at least 70.

She told me that she had started smoking at age 12 but cigarettes have now become so expensive that she could not afford to buy them very often on her SSI (welfare) check (that was almost a hundred dollars more than my Social Security benefit.) I told her that back when I'd stopped smoking 26 years ago they had cost $1.00 a pack. She said that now the cheapest ones were more than $7 a pack, and that's why she came over to the store several times a day to salvage the butts.

One can learn a lot simply by observing and listening to people.

Don't know how much value to put on some of that information, though.

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Neuroscience Challenges Old Ideas about Free Will is the title of an intriguing article in Scientific American wherein celebrated neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga explains the new science behind an ancient philosophical question.

At one point in the interview is the statement: ". . . neuroscientific experiments indicate that human decisions for action are made before the individual is consciously aware of them."

That was a difficult idea for me to understand and prompted me to read the entire piece, and I am glad that I did.

Again, here is the link.


Another interesting bit I recently read:

No matter what the Occupy Wall Street seems to have now become, the New Yorker has an article about how it all began. Arts & Letters Daily introduces the article thusly: "How a Canadian in a bathtub, together with transgender radicals, and a 'mystical anarchist' organized a revolution on Wall Street..."

Read about it here.

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The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.

--Franklin P. Adams, columnist (1881-1960)