Obviously unconcerned about his future health
About 30% of all US military personnel are smokers
The US military should be smoke-free within the next 20 years, says a government-commissioned report.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) said 30% of army personnel are smokers, leading to "very high" economic and health costs.
But it acknowledged that the change could be hard to introduce, as smoking has "long been associated with the image of a tough, fearless warrior". ( Not quite, it has long been associated with guys who have been scared shitless and need to calm their nerves so they can do the next God awful thing asked of them.)
The Pentagon has said it supports the idea and believes it is "achievable".
The report, commissioned by the Pentagon and the US Veterans' Administration (VA), says the US Defense Department spends more than $1.6bn (£1bn) every year on tobacco-related medical care, hospital treatment and lost days of work.
It said that rates of tobacco smoking in the military have increased since 1998, and may be as high as 50% among service personnel returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. ( I wonder why?)
Soldiers who smoked were less fit, had worse night vision, and recovered more slowly from wounds.
"These troops are essentially putting their lives at risk twice: once in service to their country and once in service to tobacco," said Stuart Bondurant, chair of the report committee.
"Tobacco is a long term engagement - it kills slowly and insidiously." (as opposed to riding in a humvee)
'Achievable'
The report said the armed services already "acknowledge that tobacco use impairs the readiness of military personnel and results in enormous health and financial costs". ( Whoever wrote that was obviously never shot at.)
But it criticised them for allowing smoking on military sites, giving less attention to tobacco use than alcohol abuse and for selling tobacco products to troops at reduced prices. ( Are we still talking about the military?)
A spokesperson for the Pentagon said the department was in full support of the goal of a tobacco-free military.
Cynthia Smith told the AFP news agency that the goal was "achievable through the development and execution of a comprehensive plan as recommended by the IOM report". ( Of course they are. There are more ass kissers per square meter in the Pentagon than any other place on earth)
"We look forward to using the committee's findings and recommendations as we address this challenging health and readiness issue," she said. ( Challenging, you have no idea.)
They always were nominal Republicans, the leadership of the military, like the den mother's Ranger.
ReplyDeleteRepublican senator seeks to outlaw tobacco
By Alexander Bolton
Posted: 06/05/09 07:28 AM [ET]
A Republican senator who is also a doctor is calling for a new era of Prohibition — outlawing cigarette smoking and other tobacco use.
The unlikely demand comes from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), one of the staunchest free-market conservatives in the Senate.
Coburn, one of two doctors in the Senate, is well-aware of the health risks that come with smoking cigarettes and chewing tobacco.
“What we should be doing is banning tobacco,” Coburn said in a recent Senate floor speech he gave during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill. “Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine. And even if they are not addicted to the nicotine, they are addicted to the habit.”
Well, These are the guys that can do it. Read This:
ReplyDelete• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation's drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who "contribute to social deterioration" (i.e. undesirables) "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility" -- in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational "Planetary Regime" should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans' lives -- using an armed international police force.
Who IS this batshit crazy loon?
It's your new Science Czar - John Holdren.
There's a LOT more at the link. Where did he say all this? In his Fucking Book.
By making smoking and all of the illnesses associated with the addiction "Service Related", duece, you'll just bankrupt our VA health care system, ruining what my dad thinks is a great deal.
ReplyDeleteLooks like another PBS intellectual, rufus, this John Holdren.
ReplyDeleteThe US being in conflict with Mother Earth, the Science Czar wants to implement the conflict resolution SOP.
Those $1.10 cartons of Winstons did come in handy.
ReplyDeleteAdding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control. Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today, nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock.
ReplyDeleteThis is from the "Science Advisor's" Book. He wrote it.
Well, at least he don't want to hurt my Dog.
ReplyDeleteHis co-author Paul Ehrlich, of "Population Bomb" infamy.
ReplyDeleteSuch an intellectual, he. Predicted linear population growth, not seeing the societal trends in the "West" that led to birth rates declining below replacement levels.
It was required reading in High School, though. All in all, the intellectual rage of the day.
Holdren did write those things in 1977, maybe he has "grown" since then.
Involuntary fertility control
ReplyDelete...
A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement than trying to sterilize men.
...
The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births.
MORE Great Ideas. Kinda gives you the warm, and fuzzies, don't it?
The tax free Jim Beam was a big hit with the mamma sans, in Korea. The also liked the Chivas Regal.
ReplyDeleteOgyma, I guess is how you spell it.
I got to look at that when not so bleary eyed.
ReplyDeleteThese kinds of people do "Grow, Rat.
ReplyDeleteJust not in the kinds of ways you, or me, would like.
Little asshole tyrants, and bullies become big asshole tyrants, and bullies.
The hippy scum calcifies.
ReplyDeleteIf some individuals contribute to general social deterioration by overproducing children, and if the need is compelling, they can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility—just as they can be required to exercise responsibility in their resource-consumption patterns—providing they are not denied equal protection.
ReplyDeleteAnd, again, The Number is John Holdren
As the unnamed author of your link states, rufus:
ReplyDeleteHoldren wrote these things in the framework of a book he co-authored about what he imagined at the time (late 1970s) was an apocalyptic crisis facing mankind:. ...
He felt extreme measures would be required to combat an extreme problem.
Whether or not you think this provides him a valid "excuse" for having descended into a totalitarian fantasy is up to you: personally, I don't think it's a valid excuse at all, since the crisis he was in a panic over was mostly in his imagination.
Totalitarian regimes and unhinged people almost always have what seems internally like a reasonable justification for actions which to the outside world seem incomprehensible.
Lot of truth to that.
Or, as he's known at the Royal Court:
ReplyDeleteDirector of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
Now he just wants us all to freeze to death.
ReplyDeleteRabid Wolves don't "turn into" poodles, and
ReplyDeleteBatshit Crazy don't turn into sane.
I guess the NY Times, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post "Overlooked" this story, huh?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they'll cover it now that we've brought it to their attention. Aren't you?
Can you imagine if Bush had tried to appoint this guy?
ReplyDeleteOh, and Coburn's cut out of the same "cloth."
ReplyDeleteAll these assholes are scum.
Just another "little Eichmann", toiling away in DC, for all of US.
ReplyDeleteThat "for all of us" sent a chill down my spine.
ReplyDeleteA lightweight punk for POTUS, surrounded by a legion of "little eichmanns."
Jeez
Rufus, you got your post
ReplyDelete