OT cigarette taxes

[Guest guest]

I agree with everything you said except that " now-a-days, very few

upper and upper-middle class people smoke. "

 

I think that is a misnomer. I believe a lot of the upper and middle class

people

who smoke just have a tendency to hide it better, or care about hiding it

better, than people who care less about what everyone else thinks about what

they do.

 

Witness first of all that the President of the United States " supposedly " had

given up smoking only recently....and had this to say right before the election:

 

During his interview with NBC News' Tom Brokaw over the weekend,

President-elect Barack Obama acknowledged that he has had some trouble kicking

his smoking habit but promised that the White House would remain a smoke-free

zone.

 

" There are times where I've fallen off the wagon, " Mr. Obama said when asked

if he had stopped smoking. " I've done a terrific job, under the circumstances,

of making myself much healthier, " he continued. " And I think that you will not

see any violations of these rules in the White House, " he said of the ban.

 

The Associated Press notes that Obama told Men's Health magazine in an

interview before the election that he had smoked a couple of times on the

campaign trail. " But I figure, seeing as I'm running for president, I need to

cut myself a little slack, " he told the magazine.

 

I certainly don't think we can consider Obama either poor, or lower class and

my guess is that he is still smoking but does not want that information out to

the public.

 

Not to mention all of the Hollywood types who also smoke:

 

Leonardo DiCaprio

Kate Hudson

Mary-Kate Olsen

Kevin Federline

Ben Affleck

Jack Klugman (smoked until he was diagnosed with throat cancer)

Patrick Swayze ( who still smokes despite his battle with pancreatic cancer)

Michael Jordan (smokes cigars)

DL Hugley

Ex-President Bill Clinton ( I found several photos of Clinton smoking a cigar)

Whoopie Goldberg

Keith Richards

Elizabeth Taylor

Kate Winslet (who prefers to roll her own cigarettes)

Nicole Kidman

Holly Valance

Mel Gibson

Britney Spears

Shakira

David Carradine

Russell Crowe

Avril Lavigne

Meg Ryan

Pat Benatar

Bob Dylan

Al Pacino

Claudia Schiffer

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Jerry Springer

Diego Maradona (one of the best soccer players in Argentina)

 

This is just a partial list of people who I found pictured (in private life,

not while

acting in movies) who smoke and I would say that not one person on this list

would

be considered poor and I don't think we could even consider even one of them

to be

middle class people.

 

As it becomes more and more unacceptable to smoke in public, more and more

people will continue to smoke at home or " on the sly " .....just because they

don't

want people to know they are still smoking. You have to remember, just

because

you don't SEE someone smoke, doesn't mean that they don't smoke.

 

The cancerous tumor in my mother's upper right lung lobe, that was the size of

a dime, when discovered, had been

there most likely, the oncologist told me, for at least 10 years when

something triggered it's growth and spread. My

mother lived 5 months and 22 days after the initial diagnoses even with chemo

and radiation treatments....she was

58 years old. Carol Burnett's daughter, Carrie, died at 37 from lung

cancer....she started smoking when she was

15 years old but had quit months before she was diagnosed.

 

 

You also might want to check out this website about movie stars and smoking in

the movies and how it effects young

people:

 

http://www.mascotcoalition.org/education/movies/hollywood.html

 

So, once again, I have to totally disagree with your statement that only a few

middle and upper-middle class people still smoke although I do

believe that more and more people today are quitting and are trying to

quit......Thank God for that.

Nancy C. (I guess I am a true oddity in today's world......I have never smoked

cigarettes never felt the need to either.)

East Texas