It's much worse...Obama is currently a smoker while McCain is not. Which one is showing better judgment at this point in time?

and the same fools then say this about Obama's current habit.

"In an age when many politicians seem molded from plastic, Obama's smoking may actually help his image

Politics-watchers have speculated about how the electorate would react to everything from his youth to his pigmentation to his acknowledgement that he had messed around with marijuana and "maybe a little blow." But a far more interesting, if less legally dicey, bullet point was buried in a few of the recent stories about the Illinois senator's ambitions: Mr. Obama is a cigarette smoker.

Bambi has been photographed smoking, you will see very few of these pictures. If he becomes POTUS, I don't want him trying to quit on our time either.

That's right, If PRESIDENT Obama were filmed during his captivity in an Israeli run Death Camp, he would not be smoking a cigarettre, he would be doing Oprah-approved yoga exercises and invoking the Gaia Theory and Deepak Chopra.

I think there was something cut out of the original message to his wife.

He said he loved his wife but only until something better comes along.

Boo hoo...he smokes..whooppee.??

Why doesn't the media mention every time Scott Brison opens his yap that the message is tainted by the fact that Scotty bends for men

Right of centre, let's make a deal:

I won't make moral judgments of you based on the most private matters in your life and mistakes you've made, if you won't do the same of me...or of a man with a chestful of medals and six years in a POW camp, who turned down early release from the enemy, as a matter of honor.

notasocialist...What's more relevant about Scotty is that it appears the media is not interested in investigating the Blackberry issue.

I suppose video of Barry snorting a line of blow won't be turning up anytime soon eh?

Syncro

I suppose video of his angry wife bashing America won't be turning up anytime soon either.

If the fact that McCain smoked a cigarette while in the brutal custody of the North Vietnamese has even the slightest bearing on his presidential chances, then we've travelled down the road to irreversible stupidity much further than I'd originally thought.

The horror!!!!!

Welcome to the Idocracy.

Ralph Klein was a smoker.

I think Scooter Brison is noted for putting more than his foot in his mouth.

Being held prisoner and tortured for years by the Vietcong must be something serious if it could drive a man to smoking.

"""""I think Scooter Brison is noted for putting more than his foot in his mouth."""""

some one else's 6 inches???????

cal2

Priceless!!.....The best line i have heard in ages!

5 years in a prison camp would likely warrant two fingers of scotch, along with the cigarette!

Considering he wasn't simply lined up and shot after a bogus show trial, simply shows that the Communists weren't completely stupid in inviting a death wish.

For lesser mortals, not connected to an admiral's family, perhaps a meaner fate.

Not so cheery reading:

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

Frankenstein Battalion
2nd Squadron: Ulanen-(Lancers) Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von
Baden(Rheinisches) Nr.7(Saarbrucken)
Knecht Rupprecht Division
Hans Corps
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group "True North"

Many Vietcong units were semi-independent, operating mostly at night;[12] many employed terror as a standard tactic.[13] Demand procurement of rice at gunpoint was used to sustain VC forces.[14] Anyone who aided South Vietnamese or U.S. forces was killed or tortured as a matter of policy. Notable Vietcong atrocities include 48 killed in the bombing of My Canh floating restaurant in Saigon in June 1965[15] and a massacre of 252 Montagnards in the village of Dak Son in December 1967 using flamethrowers.[16]

http://www.vnafmamn.com/VNWar_atrocities.html

#12 ^ Zumbro, Ralph, Tank Sergeant, Presidio Press (1986), pp. 27-28, 115: The VC were commonly referred to by the Vietnamese rural population as "night bandits" or the "night government".
#13 ^ Zumbro, Ralph, Tank Sergeant, Presidio Press (1986), pp. 25, 33
#14 ^ Zumbro, Ralph, Tank Sergeant, Presidio Press (1986), p. 32
#15 ^ "The My Canh Restaurant bombing"
#16 ^ "On the Other Side: Terror as Policy," Time, Dec. 5, 1969.
"The Massacre of Dak Son," Time, Dec. 15, 1967. Pictures of Dak Son can be viewed at link above.

What they should do is play film footage of Jane Fonda posing with the AA gun in tandem with it. Not all of have forgotten her little trip to the north.

McCain, who was filmed smoking, was emotional during the interview and showed little respect for French reporter Francois Chalais and the media the world over by not sitting up, the Sky News reported ... After landing in the lake, McCain said he was picked up and taken to the hospital, where I almost died. Asked to comment on the obvious campaign ploy, Presidential hopeful Barak Obama simply stated he was disappointed by his opponent's inability to walk on water. When confronted on his own lack of military credentials the Senator said, "Hey, whichever way the wind blows...I was, um, only 7 at the time, but I was, um, thinking about blowing things up."

Obama's VP pick, Senator Joe Biden, speaking at a Scranton rally yesterday brought up the newly-discovered footage saying, "When I saw this WWII movie, my first thought was what a clean and a nice-looking guy. I'm not joking. I wanted to yell 'Stand Up John!'--but what was I thinking?--God bless him. But mark my words, to find out Barak America won't be the only candidate in this year's election to have gone down in flames...I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Okay...I made that last bit up.

everyone here knows how to spell stupid right. why won't people say what they mean and mean what they say? it just gets farther out there day after day. i didn't do drugs when i was young but some days it sure feels like i am doing drugs now.

Cal i will be laughing & thinking about that line everytime i see brison yapping in QP or duffy
good one

'Anyone else totally convinced that we've lost ALL perspective, that we live in ABSOLUTELY CRAZY, MORALLY PATHETIC times?

'Anyone else noticed that the "greener" we get, the more we worship "the planet," the more "holistic" we get, the less we see of common sense or decency ?

'Anyone else notice that the further we get from the faith of our parents, grandparents, and all of our other ancestors--which would be our Judeo-Christian faith, which sponsors most soup kitchens, clothing depots, and food banks--the more we become moral/ethical pygmies?

Just an observation. Something to consider.

Frankly, the timing of this docu-film release, is a pathetic play for sympathy votes for McCain - and by golly.. he needs'm doesn't he?? Desperate measures such as these intimate details of something that happened to him over 40 years ago.. turned me off.. and pissed me OFF!! I know war veterans from "Nam" and not one of them, would have resorted to such low-level desperation for a sympathy-vote election!! Pisses me OFF(sorry, said that already, didn't I?) In lieu, to me; if McCain needs sympathy to win an election; what "WILL" the man do.. if elected?? Release honeymoon footage to his 2nd wife, after he left his first, disabled/disfigured wife when the pooor old POW came home?? awww.. poor baby, somebody give McCain some sympathy and respect, because he just isn't getting any!!(from me, that is)

The PC band of self righteous fanatics must have their 'whipping Boy'; right now that group of shrills have all cigarette smokers. Smoking tobacco is worse than being a criminal these days. I smoke cigarettes, I know. I like smoking and it is legal. I never patronize places where the establishment does not cater to tobacco smokers and I do not endure long patronizing speeches from fanatics who think that I should quit.

I do not like Obama's ideas or his 'pals'. His cigarette smoking is of no interest to me since it affects me not at all.

Most soldiers smoke because smoking tobacco is, and always has been, a way to stop and sort out thoughts and emotions with a relaxing, enjoyable habit. If a soldier is in a battle zone the last thing the shrieking 'public' should be concerned about is the soldier 'poisoning' the air of the enemy! Great Balls of Fire! 'They' are really winged out now!

Almost all the Viet Nam soldiers I have met smoke or smoked tobacco - they, unlike their critics, know what it means to have to deal with stress. In WWI, WWII, and Viet Nam the soldiers always gave a man who was dieing a last cigarette. This tradition is ignored in the PC media today because they cannot figure out a way to present this tradition as a very nasty thing and make the soldiers into criminals for doing such a thing-they are 'murdering a dieing man with a cigarette AND poisoning the air of the men attending him...oh wait those soldiers are smoking too!! - spinning on mud the msm just 'edits' to stop the spinning and ruin the story. PATHETC.

And what would the self rightous say about Mr. Winston Churchill? Hitler and Lenin, of course, did not smoke tobacco and banned it for all the rest of the people unlucky enough to be forced to suffer the presence of those last two monsters.

McCain smoked in public - Obama hides his habit - that is all we need to know folks.

I totally agree, batb--and with Jema54 too.

We're living in really crazy times. Everything seems to be inverted.

Kyrie eleison.

The MSM believes this will villify John McCain to help ensure The Messiah is elected POTUS.

MSM, are you seriously believing these tactics will have an effect? You are truly believing your own horsepoops if that's the case.

Kate is correct, it's suicide.

Marlboro Man has nothing on McCain.

A pic I'd love to see is McCain kicking Hanoi Jane square in the cootch in front of the AA gun.

North--Your arguement is foolish. The French National Archive released the footage. You know...the same country that supports an Obama presidency by a 90 to 1 margin. You think they did it because they want McCain to win? The French National Audiovisual Archive INA posted the interview on its web site, http://www.ina.fr, for one week. It was first broadcast on the French television program Panorama in January 1968. Surrender monkey attention whores desperately seeking web traffic is more like it. And Donna, I seriously doubt you know war veterans from "Nam"...grow up and quit fibbing. But then again, perhaps you just have the old hippie draft dodgers you march with confused with real soldiers. Be gone troll.

How stupid! This was 1967 - everybody smoked back then.

Dave in PA

Why Dave dont you think it is important to really know what kind of person John Mac is?

Just because he was a POW it doesnt make his character out of bounds.

I admire his courage as a POW but he doesnt get a free pass for the rest of his life because of it.

wingwalker,

Seeing as the percentage of people who smoke is 50% larger in France than it is in the U.S., I'm not sure how they would expect this to hurt his campaign. I think the media are the only ones who think this will hurt his election chances.

Right of Center

Absolute slimeball.

contrary to your assumptions wingwalker; to have to resort to "namecalling" someone a troll reveals I hit a "nerve" a chord of truth perhaps if one wishes to percieve truth as such. To be truthful, the Department of Lands and Forests in Ontario, Canada; employed me for 3 consecutive seasons planting trees. I worked side by side with a vet; whom had tomb-stones in his eyes. He was young, perhaps mid-twenties, a wife and child he brought with them!! In 1989, I hosted a Christmas dinner for 10!! I invited a man, whom "ran" from service.. I admired his admission to not want to kill, maim and torture another human being. I have a picture. He lived in our apartment building in Brooks, Alberta at the time. He lived in hiding; and his family, friends sent him money to survive on. Once again, this can be "legally confirmed" so.. troll-away your angering name-calling elsewhere please? I thought adults posted here?

wingwalker - people have "friends" in every corner of the world, why doesn't McCain?? hello?? you are quite the cynical sort, aren't you? whew!! the names you called me.. please seek active support for your obvious hyper-tension issues at hand, dear wingwalker!! Lastly(to you) the majority of voters in any country are older.. that film will pretty much tweak mccain a sympathy vote or few thousand.. perhaps enough, to unbalance the scales of solid win though.

This is my last word on this wingwalker et al?

Where do you think your vets are accepted when they come home, broken of body, mind and spirit; when tombstones of emptiness reside in their eyes, down to their heart?

Being as, the US condemned Vietnam vets in the late sixties when I were a teen to current date; they come to Canada.. moronic plague that you are!

cal2: I do believe you won this thread (and a couple of internets) good one to save.

I remember seeing a film about Eisenhower. God that man smoked like a chimney! So what?

But I don't appreciate the gay jokes. We don't have to go there.

My only comment is that when you see the clip it is very moving (I think most Americans will see it that way). This guy has no idea what he will be doing in 40 years. He is just trying to survive and get back to his wife and kids. The thing that also strikes me is that you can immediately tell from his look and voice as to who he is and you can see that he is very honorable and polite to the interviewer.

The downside is that this guy looks like James Dean or Marlin Brando taking a drag - he's in serious times and he needs to contemplate stuff with a long denied smoke - and so maybe it might promote smoking.

I am starting the think that McCain is going to win this thing in spite of the media and hysteria.

I think it's foolish to "choose to believe" that the French National Guard released this possibly election-potent sympathy-vote getting archive; so as to make McCain "look bad" just because he is a smoker? Besides, it takes endurance to run a country; McCain is too old, and of ill-health; being as one of "ill-health" it is impossible to remain totally grounded 24/7; especially if sleep is deprived!! Hey, let's drag in his wifes addictions too... hell's bells; they are just like "the rest" of society.. aren't they? sans poverty though...

north "- people have "friends" in every corner of the world, why doesn't McCain?? hello??"

You just revealed your age,north. Only teens think 'popularity' is a measuruing stick of worth.
The fact that 'most' of the world is expressing anti-American rants, and turning a blind eye to what America has represented and contributed to our present civilisation, coupled with the endorsement of Obama by the 'enemies of America' is unsettling.
What is more unsettling is that American voters would see Obama's pouparity with the enemy as a good thing.
You'll grow up some day.

I think if I went through what he endured, I'd START smoking, plus maybe several other bad habits.

@ bluetech; you pretty much covered everything I didn't talk about.. bravo! Btw.. I am 52. click my name to peep my site; it's all there.. who I am.. why I am.. the important thing though; is "I am!" I am a digital artist; whom does commission work.. with an interest in political hypocricy(and pointing it out)

actually, if you had read my previous posts bluetech I reveiled I worked with a vet for 3 years planting trees; which makes me at least over 50!! fuzzball

Bluetech,

It's a real shame that you equate age with experience... and it's a further shame that the idiot youth backlash to your condescension is voting for Obama.

Thanks for hurting the cause.

Bravo Jon!! needed to be said..

bar_jebus, you're quite correct about it being the media jumping on the smoking angle, not the National Archives. Actually I don't think I said it was them that did--just that they took the most opportune moment to post it for a week, for whatever reasons no one can be sure. Sorry if I wasn't clear. My guess was that INA saw it as free advertising for services i.e. British Pathe, Movietone News, Getty Images, Film Australia. What happened next, as they say, is history. The "smoking man" attack seems very silly but I suppose there's that chance that some anti-smoking undecided out there is scanning the interwebs looking for a shot of McCain in the green room at the RNC pulling hard on a coffin nail. Nevertheless, this nonsense wont work in Obambi's favor IMO. In fact, the opposite--it makes McCain look tougher and the outlets reporting it that way look like asses. Cheers

North, given a confessed disability, I might have thought you would have more compassion for a Vietnam Vet, or at least the young man that he was in 1968.

Whatever you may think of the man by today's (well, at least, your) standards, he was at the time, injured, brutalized and then captured on film in his hospital bed by a prying French media.

I have every confidence that the John McCain of 1968 in that video had no idea that in 2008 he would be in the running to become President of the United States.

It ain't 2008 political spin. It's what was. Too bad you have trouble dealing with that reality.

Would you be more moved watching a video of the Bill Ayers and the Weatherman circa the same era?

It must be close to Halloween....Moonbats everywhere I turn....

Syncro

@Jon - just because I feel the release of the video was pre-meditated for a sympathy-captivating vote; in no way implies I have less sympathy for a vet.. like I said, I worked with one for 3 years!! Actually, his nams was John.. I had an "American-runner" over for Christmas; because I believe, one should not have to be "forced" to fight wars they feel they canot partake in!! I do not believe in forcing teenagers to fight my battles like leaders do.

Not sure where/how you deduced, I have no sympathy for McCain as a vet?? I merely mentioned(again) that I thought the release of his capture was a lure, a worm on an obvious, desperate political-hook.

My uncle Joe was a vet, was half-deaf; we'd be sitting to dinner, a bbq, sitting in the yard; and all of a sudden, he'd be on the ground in "commando flashbacks" I know only too well; the realities of vets, and the lives they often come home to.. what Americans did to Vietnam Vets.. curled my toes of anger-even at the age of pre-puberty; we had social classes in school; where we talked of the vietnam war, politics, religion and social consciousness... I think, in large part, it made me a human rights, womens rights, elderly rights, childrens rights, and disabilies rights...activist for the past many, many years. btw-tnx for taking the time to peep-it

Ahh syncro. You know how it is. North Korea,North Vietnam,Northbay,all the same moonbat stuff.Hey...maybe North can go write for Regina Mom. They both seem to suffer from the same,not real-woman, harboring criminals and sucking off gubbermint tit,instead of achiving something themsleves.And no,having a blog isn't achieving something.

I think there was something cut out of the original message to his wife.

He said he loved his wife but only until something better comes along.

Posted by: Right of centre at October 24, 2008 2:43 PM

POND SCUM SMELLER ALERT! Notice how 'Liberal Ron' retards?

Once again, you Neocons are entirely missing the point. The issue isn't just that he was smoking, it's also that he was shirtless and not wearing shoes.

Ever heard of "No shoes, no shirt, no service"? Well if McCain wouldn't even be allowed in a restaurant dressed like that, why should he be allowed to serve as President? Do you at least sort of see what I mean? That the cigarette is just part of the issue here?

Have you ever seen Obama giving an interview without a shirt or shoes? Right? Am I missing something here? Alright? Okay?

opppsss...shoulda read "They both seem to suffer from the same,non real-woman psychosis,that being that if you are female AND NOT harboring criminals and sucking off gubbermint tit-money,then you arne't their type. But then success and anything useful never was their type.

"we had social classes in school; where we talked of the vietnam war, politics, religion and social consciousness... "

You mean "socialism" classes .... seems to have stuck.

So are we to assume that you feel a person's past life experiences have no bearing on the people they are today? Do we give some weight to the John McCain video, however we come to view it, or do we ignore it as wormwood?

I suggest that you know very well the weight that can be measured by life's experiences and if that weight provides one with a greater eye to the suffering of others, I believe it will guide that person to act more fully in the service of others.

PS - Ageism in 2008 is also considered to be a prejudice.

McCain is too old, and of ill-health; being as one of "ill-health" it is impossible to remain totally grounded 24/7; especially if sleep is deprived!!

North, you're talking to an ex-serviceman (a "vet" I guess you call them) and I resent that you name American soldiers as torturers. You slag John McCain's wives and dis his honour and service, I say troll, you rant incoherently in successive posts about name-calling and harboring deserters and Cindy's past drug addiction and seven houses--and I'm the moronic plague? "Foolish to believe" the French National Guard released it to hurt McCain because he's smoking? WTF? Man, you are one crazy lady. Do you even read what you write? Or what anyone else does for that matter?

Justhinkin

Thanx for the correction cause I read that three times and got lost every time ;) Good point about where worth is found. Mostly by earning it through the struggle called life.

Our new friend North appears to have some talents judging from the site but is apparantly so caught up in the dynamics of victimology that sensible conversation is beyond reason.

So be it. The biggest handicap one can bring to SDA is leftard relativism.

Syncro

Libby--that was good. I wanted to work the shirtless thing in there verus us banned smokers somehow. I drew a blank. You aced it.

@wingwalker-you started the "slam-dunking" norths views.. with namecalling; I thought it was your "style" .. notice, your style isn't cool at all.. not even on someone elses back??

Honestly, like I said.. I have relatives who are VETS - so lets not assume, that just because you didn't torture someone; that others didnt... small thinking that like; belongs in a box..

I'll tell you what belongs in a box...

...and ya, it is pretty hard to torture someone in the middle of the North Atlantic. BTW, if now you're implying your deserter friend would be forced to torture people, you're even loonier than I thought.

I usually equate age with wisdom.... obviously, not always.

North...your age isn't as much an issue as your anti-American bent. You are in good company. As I said: Obama is quite popular with that crowd.
And as you said McCain 'has no friends.'
Not from your perspective.

"I merely mentioned(again) that I thought the release of his capture was a lure, a worm on an obvious, desperate political-hook."

I guess you missed the comment about who released this video.

True North. And tha Gestapo didn't hate all the Jews,homos,gypseys,retards,etc either. Just the ones they couldn't get their filtyh paws on.

Not anti-american, and not anti-veteren(vet), not anti-mccain, nor did I disclose "anywhere" my choice for President of the USA?? sigggh

Obviously; my views rubbed some of you folks wrong; your attempts to bully via immature name-calling; which I merely happily resonded to in kind and my inept ability, to confront such unfounded confrontation really; support the fact, America is screwed, because of such "americans behaviours." which back to "my point" as being the release of the vid was a sympathy-getting election "for" mccain!! Anyone has the right to disagree, in this we agree; however, to be blasted the way I were here - could only result in my re-acting in the same proposed, obviously, acceptable manner.. here?!! ; ) Thus far, my posts are being withheld; I see, freedom of speech, is as per usual- one-sided?? Being as the need to lay down armour of suit-accomplishment; might I add, to save you finding it in my blogs on my site; that I were President-Elect, of a Legion, Ladies Auxillary?? as well as other positions of trust in my ability.

Bottom line, I came in; made a brute, truthful comment. Some of you didn't like it. Now, you are playing cats, and I am "the lone mouse."

Nothing in politics, society, nor human communications.. has changed much in my 52 years of living!

I like this site, and hope this post goes through; after all, if I am not allowed to defend my principals, and excercise my freedoms of speech online.. where can I?

Where can "we?"

This too, is a human failure and communication-obscurity!!

What I AM; is anti-hypocricy! I am not afraid to admit to being victimization-responsive, to disabled womens needs.. I advocate for all of us; or did you all just read "me, me, and me" in my political-blogs; which btw, has been intensified of late; to the eye of a Canadian MP. Perhaps, if some of you had better mannerisms and patience, tolerances in your approaches to a newbies views among you.. some of "you" may have grown today.. instead, you made yourselves.. much smaller; in your opinions, views mattering much to me.. now??

the u-turn couldn't have been quick enough for me.. actually; and profoundly find the title of this lovely blog.. quite be-fit-ing?!(wink)

please.. continue.

Hep....Halloween.

Syncro

North

Is that the Dionne Defense?

Syncro

Only three redos North!!

I admire his courage as a POW but he doesnt get a free pass for the rest of his life because of it.
Posted by: Right of centre at October 24, 2008 6:35 PM

But Barack Obama gets a free pass based on hope, emotion and "change" with a completely lacklustre history, not to mention TWO autobiographies at the age of, what, 47?

Sorry, that sounds like a media-fabricated and promoted personality to me.

Jan wrote: Would you be more moved watching a video of the Bill Ayers and the Weatherman circa the same era?

Heh. As Spider-Man says, 'nuff said.

Piper Paul

I think you missed the point. Any man who is worthy of two autobiographies before he takes the White House was surely destined for the White House.

Audacity is a powerful force when used by a carny like Barry with the whole Barnum and Baily machine behind him.

Syncro

Thanks for setting me right, Syncro.

Has Kate kicked out our verbose but incomprehesible posters like "new" or have they/it transformed into something else.

Just askin.

@Synchro; I rather found the question asked of Dionne during his campaign interview; to be rather - pre-meditation; with the notion knowling being; Dione's cultural-language deficiencies would garner a giggle, or ousting. What irked me on this political-move; is the fact the station "promised" not to release "that segment" of the interview!! The broke that promise. IN my legal-view; it is a breach of trust; and it cost Dione public shame, emarassment, and an opportunity for Harper.. to go in for the "kill."

oh dear me - typo alert!!

"rather pre-meditative" NOT pre-meditation;

I think I just revealed what I had been "doing"

just.. breathe

Piper Paul

Asked and answered by the last two posts.

North

The Dionne Defense refers to a strategy involving delusional realities and multiple scapegoats.

Wiki has a decent explanation of the phenomena which happens when theoretical ideology meets practical pragmatism.

I'm warning you it ain't pretty.

Syncro

Tnx syncro - I consider myself for-warned

ciao!

Thanks Syncro... you nailed it.
I guess North was trying to cover all bases by spelling Dion so many different ways...
and he missed the part about Iggy-Rae going in for the kill.
He must have meditated thru it.

sarge here old mccain looks pretty tough with and busted up but most of his fellow pows didnt make propaganda films for the vc old sarge calls that less than heroic in any case sad to see the poor mans campaign go down in flames pathetic really palin and jonny probably shouldnt a called that texas wacko poor dear scribbed "B" backwards in her face, what happens when ya do it in the mirror sarge says could it possibly get worse unless yer red carpet took out a hockey player that is

well, so much for human unity, and freedom of speech!! No wonder Canada cannot secure a mojority government; when the intelligent, educated; exploit the lesser intelligent and educated; as to the point of being condescending.. what a waste of intelligence and education!!

North

Demonization of smokers is something that I find incomprehensible. I used to smoke and quit in 1975 but I still enjoy nicotine; I just get it from a patch or nicotine inhaler when I need it. The problem with smoking is the delivery system not the drug. CO + nicotine is a bad combination but nicotine alone is quite benign.

The following analysis is speculative so be warned. Early in my medical career I noticed that virtually 100% of schizophrenics smoked. This has been noted by others and it appears that the schizophrenic brain performs better with nicotine in the bloodstream than without. Schizophrenics make up 1% of the population and, a simplistic analysis would imply that 10% of the population would exhibit some schizophrenic traits such as improved cognition with nicotine (this is assuming that there is a single gene responsible for schizophrenia and that one needs 2 copies of the gene. If 1% of people are schizophrenic then 10% of the population would carry the gene). Since schizophrenics are obviously better on nicotine than this would suggest that 10% of the population would find they function far better mentally when they smoke.

In my practice I've found that there appear to be two primary classes of smokers; the social smokers in whom quitting is easy and those smokers in whom nicotine appears to be essential. The latter group do well when they are placed on safer forms of nicotine. Interestingly, nicotine can also be used to treat sleep apnea and some patients who feel much worse after they quit smoking turn out to have sleep apnea that they've been self-treating with nicotine.

The "addictiveness" of nicotine has a simple explanation assuming that 10% of the population has improved cognitive function on nicotine. Why would someone give up a drug that made them think so much more clearly? I've seen similar things in methamphetamine "addicts" who turned out to have ADD and putting them on a legal amphetamine was all that was necessary. It's much easier to get people off heroin because people don't function particularly well on heroin (ie often being comatose most of the day) and once they come to this realization they stop the drug. It's a lot harder to get people off drugs that improve cognitive function like caffeine and nicotine. Fortunately the new puritans haven't gone after caffeine yet but it wouldn't surprise me if this drug was the next one targetted.

Loki: Early in my medical career I noticed that virtually 100% of schizophrenics smoked.

[1] No we didn't smoke.

[2] Well, I did.

[1] Shut up, I'm in control here.

[3] Both of you forget that *I* was here first.

[1] Oh crap, it's [3] again. [2], please shut him up.

[2] If you tell me what to do one more time...

cause I read that three times and got lost every time

Typical tactic of leftists. Create multiple, dubious "legitimate" (AKA government funded) study fields that can be quoted by the MSM and run with it.

When challenged regarding facts (which of course rarely happens), remain silent or create distraction, point fingers/create chaos elsewhere.

The engine of the left always seems to have a new crisis on the back burner, ready to redirect attention.

Now that Global Warming has started to be ignored, it'll be fresh water supplies that they'll be all panicked about.

In my mind, lefties are not always bad, it's just that mental disease they seem to have that is communicative and dangerous. And the mainstream media is a major vector spreading the condition.

Was just reading the Mens Health Magazine interview with Obama. They asked him about his smoking. He said he quites frequently, but relapses on a frequent basis as well-don't we all? Didn't seem like he was hiding anything. Are you all sure this smoking thing is a issue with regard to either candidate, or are y'all just trying to forget what a bad week McCain is having? Good christ, what with his brother calling 9/11 to complain about traffic, Jon and Sarah calling up that nutty texas girl who slashed herself during some sort of fantasy about large black men(Did Drudge really put such an obvious fraud on his website?), or the news about Palin's makeup artist getting payed more than the person that tells her where to find Iran on a map...holy 400 dollar haircuts, Batman, did she really spend 150k of the campaign money on clothes? Is that legal? Wow. Maybe you guys should just congratulate yourself on a win for your PM and call it a day? I mean, you're embarrasing yourselves!

Ok to dehumanize people for smoking, but if you ever dis, in any way whatsoever, a homosexual or a Muslim, you're treated as if you're dehumanizing them, even if you're not.

The ciggy comment of the report is clearly intended to diminish McCain's hero status.

Besides, "gays" and Muslims smoke, too, don't they? Guess they can't be considered heroes, either...

Kinda makes a person want to vote for the candidate that isn't favoured by the MSM, regardless of issues and positions that might be facing the nation and who you might think could do the better job. Stooopid MSM!!!

In 1967 everybody and their dog smoked, fer chris sake. This was at least a decade prior to the confirmation of the link between smoking and cancer and the consequent upturn in the numbers of non-smokers.

Liberals have so little faith in their own ideas that they truly think the only way they can gin up their people to vote for them is with hate for their own countrymen. Just read this thread, if you doubt me.

BTW, North.

Hypocrisy is spelled like that, not the way you spelled it.

If you want your site to have any credibility, you need to learn to spell correctly ('cause if you can't do something as simple as spell words right, what other mistakes are you going to make--on your clients' dime?)

If you smoke a cigarette they'll fine you $2000, if you use heroine they'll give you a free needle.

Stuff like this is why I only watch Discovery Channel (I like How Its Made), I don't subscribe to any papers or magazines, and I rarely go to the movies any more.

Why the hell would I read things written by people who think "smoker" trumps "war veteran"?

Holly Molly, after trying to read through all the excretera being flung around here I must confess y'all missed the obvious: Bush did it. (that was humour btw)

I believe that North is an old peace loving hippy that never got over the 60's. Her comments regarding not making soldiers fight in an unjust war says it all. She knows a vet because she planted trees with him. Big deal, although it does sound like he was suffering from PTSD(without being a doctor). I have and still do work and have friends who are vets from most the conflicts canada and the US have participated in. Most have made the transition to civilian life okay although most if not all are changed. Reality does that to people who serve so their countrymen can have the right to protest.
I also served my country for that matter and back in the day most people smoked.

Piper Paul

You nailed it regarding fresh water being the left's new battleground issue and our very own Maude Barlow is leading the charge.

Recent headlines proclaim her the Al Gore of Water.

Syncro

Funny, everyone skipped right over the "war hero" stuff and went straight to the smoking part. McCain was a go-to collaborator for the Communists who "confessed" to "intentionally bombing women and children." Admittedly, this confession was coerced through torture, and while I suspect all POW's broke under severe torture to offer confessions, none of them converted their "heroism" into the political capital that McCain has.
Douglas Valentine not only knows much more about the subject than I, he also offers an interesting class analysis dimension to the question of war heroism. If McCain was so unambiguously a war hero, I suspect there wouldn't be Vietnam Vets Against John McCain.

Bill, with sufficient torture you can make people do anything at all. McCain lived through that and came out the other side alive. That's pretty good. Heroic, one might say. Personally I think it made him a little twitchy for my taste, but then I'm not voting in the US election.

Compare and contrast with John "I served in Vietnam!" Kerry, who parlayed a superficial cut into a Purple Heart.

Compare and contrast with The One, the Obammesiah, who not only has never served in the military, he most likely does not know which end of the gun the bullets come out. Oh, and he [gasp!] smokes!

Just sayin'.

Incidentally, given the tone of American politics the last 20 or so years, I'm quite sure there would be Vietnam Vets Against John McCain if the guy won the whole friggin' war single handed and had a halo to boot.

cal2 - That was the best one-liner.

J.McCain was tortured, he smoked cigs, he fought in a war in Vietnam 40 years ago, survived, came home and later divorced 1rst wife to marry rich 2ncd wife. Does it get better than this.

Seems to me that the Dems are getting desperate.

Lets dig up something about Obama. All he is ever done is worked for government since he started to work. Life experience. Zero. Will be and always will be a useless tool for government.

just sharing...

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking." - A.A Milne

A.A. Milne? Winnie the Pooh...

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I ... etc.

Here is the original link, from Sky News in the UK:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/US-Elections-2008/John-McCain-Footage-Of-Presidential-Candidate-As-Prisoner-Of-War-In-Vietnam-Released/Article/200810415126616?lpos=US_Elections_2008_Top_Stories_Header_3&lid=ARTICLE_15126616_John_McCain%3A_Footage_Of_Presidential_Candidate_As_Prisoner_Of_War_In_Vietnam_Released

I agree that the comment about smoking is stupid, but I and 95% of the North American population would think it was stupid first upon reading. I hardly think that some idiot reporter in the UK serves as a savage indictment of all media, particularly of North American media.

There are different and better reasons to condemn them,

Obama did it the right way, he became a Senator, then got a million dollar grant for his wife's employer and they then more than doubled her salary. That is the proper way to get rich. The Democrat way.

Never mind how Obama got his house cheap from a convicted felon who was trying, at the time, to get a contract from the US govt to build power stations in Iraq.

Wow North....an artist and a slum lord of Brooks! You are sooo connected....haha!

I lived in brooks once... I've had a few slumlord issues as per my site.. I see you peeped-it?

I am only landlord to my own mind, as you are to yours.

I own nothing but my brains prairiedog; however slimed you may see it; the rest is owned by god and government..

it's called: Human Enslavement via Government Rule after all: Government is Just Another Big Gang.. isn't it?

well.. isn't it?

@prairie dog - no, I am not connected; and those are the issues I raise.

I am sure if I googled praire-dog, I"d get lots of information too.. you seem over-climaxed by your ?? achievement tho...

@batb.. I had to look UP that version of Milne.. I see; you knew it by heart tho

Lastly, I have closed my site to private; it bothers me to know, that men whom emotionally, verbally and menatlly abuse women are reading it; as that form of abuse, is thin-line production towards ability to physically abuse. And, well, our jails are already filled with men such as here..

The main point here for me to drive tho; is that, your views and opinions lost interest for me days ago.. I find most of you arrogant, probably sexually frustrated, and abusive towards women.

Now, what kind of value, can a place like "this" possibly hold for me, unless I desire to be your nit-picking verbal punching-bag..

grow up. you aren't that smart, or great!!

ciao children, batb will teach you the childrens song by Milen after all, batb knew it by heart.