tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post8531103871273931349..comments2023-10-17T15:56:22.827+01:00Comments on Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: US smoking rate rises for the first time since 1994Christopher Snowdonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15963753745009712865noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-53421573209158812942009-11-14T23:05:07.146+00:002009-11-14T23:05:07.146+00:00Me and the wife (nice working class phrase) are of...Me and the wife (nice working class phrase) are off to Spain tomorrow for a few days. We have not bought any tobacco in the UK for years, (are we alone?). Anyway, times are hard (recession and all that), and we have been debating our plight.<br />The main conclusions are these.<br />1. How would we have managed without our self imported supply.<br />2. We will most probably manage enough to feed our smoking pleasure until next time we go.<br />3. This is the big one. Even if we had not had our overseas supply, and whatever our cashflow, WE WOULD NOT HAVE STOPPED SMOKING - sorry to shout.timbonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06985165416240833253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-59613104280997430142009-11-14T14:27:54.666+00:002009-11-14T14:27:54.666+00:00I do not believe the smoking rates have gone up, a...I do not believe the smoking rates have gone up, any more than I believe they went down as much as advertised. Most likely what is happening is that people too embarrassed to admit that they smoked when we were being 'informed' are now sticking two fingers up in the face of getting bullied. Taking Ireland as an example it looks to me that the 'increase' is the result of the ever more extreme and bizarre behaviour of the anti smoking lobby. Where once people thought 'ah well, I guess it really isn't good for me and I should try and give it up' now they are more likely to say: 'Yes I smoke, now go to bloody buggering hell you interfering bastard'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-45039933425064192562009-11-14T00:03:03.330+00:002009-11-14T00:03:03.330+00:00From Junican.
I read Brad Rodu's 'excelle...From Junican.<br /><br />I read Brad Rodu's 'excellent blog'. I find that the questions being asked are mostly irrelevent. If the object of these surveys is to count the number of present smokers in the US, what people did in the distant past is irrelevent, isn't it? What is the point of asking people if they have smoked 100 cigarettes or more IN THEIR WHOLE LIFE? There are other questions which involve smoking just ONE cigarette on a particular day. You cannot base smoking on ONE cigarette. ONE cigarette is not smoking. You might as well say that taking a sip of wiskey once a month is 'drinking' or taking one drag on a cannabis cigarette is 'using drugs'.<br /><br />I suppose that the statisticians involved are trying to compare DIFFERENCES, but, even so, the replies they get must be so unreliable as to be nonsensical. How can they claim 95% confidence?<br /><br />The best thing to do is to totally disregard these surveys. The real problem, however, is that governments rely on such shit in order to make decisions (or should that be - governments rely on this shit as AN EXCUSE to make decisions.Junicannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3585028625507474093.post-73707947001130362622009-11-13T19:40:03.648+00:002009-11-13T19:40:03.648+00:00What I sense is happening with smoking, and the wa...What I sense is happening with smoking, and the way it's being viewed on a subconcious level, is that, to some degree, it's moved away from being a habit - something you did whilst doing something else - and has moved toward being an activity in itself. We no longer just 'smoke'; now we 'go for a smoke', and people who were never interested in adopting the <i>habit</i>, do at times feel left out of the <i>activity</i>.<br /><br />Something else that has certainly happened to me, and many other smokers that I've spoken to, is that, in the face of all the bullying and banning, we have gone from regular expressions of a personal desire to quit (at some point) to teeth-clenched determination to continue. The sense of defiance becomes so strong it overrides the concern we have for our own health.Bradnoreply@blogger.com