Tobacco Nazis

First I would like to say I am not a smoker - well, umm, after a few beers a packet of Malboro's (royalties this way please Mr Cowboy LOL) starts looking attractive - but at most, a social smoker. But is tobacco illegal yet? No? Well, would someone please tell me why the anti tobacco brigade have so much power nowadays? The proposed new rule that got me most annoyed in an 'it's their own bodies isn't it' way was the fact that yes, there will be smoking areas in beer gardens in Queensland next year, but no, there won't be any entertainment or any food allowed in those beer gardens. Like, if people want to put ash in their food let them go for gold, it all goes down the same throat anyways LOL. Well, at least without access to pokie machines, smokers won't be problem gamblers anymore.



I just find it so hypocritical of Western governments to go all out about the evils of smoking etc, but if they really hated it, why not ban it, that would be more understandable to me. Then who would pay the shortfall in taxes - well, in George Bush's America, deficit what deficit, but you know what I mean. And beer is just as evil a drug, and yes, playing devil's advocate here, I like beer LOL, but it does just as much damage as tobacco does. Where are the anti alcohol nazis, and not meaning the anti drink driving brigade...



Oh gods, have to change the channel, or am going to be drawn into this show like a car crash LOL - the Secret Life of Fleas on SBS. The female gets on top during reproduction and the male is the complex one LOL, and the female can store male flea reproductive materials (again with the suppression LOL) for up to several months. Too late, I have to go find a link for this show LOL. A flea can take fifteen times it's weight in blood in a DAY. And that's about enough of flea information methinks.



The Red Sox got a pasting yesterday 19 to 8, and playing sudden death baseball today managed to snatch a 12th innings win, after being down a run in the ninth. Still hard to see them winning three in a row - or more to the point, the Yanks losing three. Wellington versus Canterbury in the NPC Final back home, go Lions :) And that's enough of the sport for today at least.



Guardian article wondering out loud how mentally astute Dubya is. Just thought I would give the source in the first two words so if you do go in and read you can't blame me for knowing the angle the site is aiming from :) whatever you think about the article, you have to admit that Bush didn't look comfortable in the debates. And when did he last see a Democratic or undecided voter, apart from the St Louis debate?



And whatever I think of the Administration, Bob Herbert of the New York Times umm is both a much better writer and more on the attack than I am - '...obsessively hawkish middle-aged men who ran and hid when they were of fighting age...' - now THAT'S harsh, though true LOL. Very good article, please read. And he has also been attack dog on moves to disenfranchise black voters, especially in Florida.



And isn't the phrase President Kerry getting more and more comfortable? Although, purely in a hypothetical sense, it would be interesting to see how much more of the international system the Bush Administration could shred with another four years - hypothetical only please - still too damned close to call and too nerve wracking to think about.



'After the Saxonburg rally the crowd were greeted by a handful of Kerry supporters. One man wore a hood with wires on to imitate the victims of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Arguments broke out and abuse was shouted. One woman, driving an SUV, twice steered her car off the road, apparently aiming at the protesters. In 2004, American election rallies are not for the faint-hearted.'



Oh, and here is a smattering of love sent the Guardian's way for suggesting foreigners write emails to Ohioans to try and change their minds about who to vote for. Limey bastards indeed, goodness what do they think of the New York Times or Washington Post LOL. And this is to a newspaper in one of the few countries that have sent troops to Iraq - lol, what about Poland you may ask :P - one of the writers says remember the War of 1812, hmm was a draw I thought, with both Toronto AND Washington getting burned to the ground LOL. Not a place for the faint hearted indeed... remember, this is to an ally that seems to believe in the First Amendment even though it doesn't have it...



Oh, and finally, thanks to theGirl's comment, first on my entire journal woohoo, on the previous posting. And strangely, after my first link to a sexually based website, my daily readership goes way up - who woulda thought :)



Later taters

Paul