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PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 14:12 
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Pete317 wrote:
... and passive smoking.


I'm in two minds about this. I don't like people lighting up near me because it stinks, but on the other hand, I quite like people to smoke because, on the law of averages, we'll get to pick up their pensions when we out live them, so we can spend more on gadgets and cars and stuff now!

Also, because they die off fast, there'll be no long-term welfare costs, and they extract less benefit overall from the health system. So in some ways, although smoking is bad for you, it's good for me, especially in view of the high taxes which pay for services.

On the other hand (I have three hands, you know!), I am a catholic, and such thoughts are a grievous sin. So in the balance, I'd prefer it if people gave their lungs a break and quit. Have you heard of that pub in Dublin that has head and hand holes cut in the door so that smokers can stand inside and smoke outside!?! What a great idea!

As an elaboration on that, one could have fully contained ‘smoking masks’, with their own air filter and disposal tubes. It would make the ideal Christmas present for the ‘smoker who has everything’!

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 05, 2006 14:26 
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basingwerk wrote:
I hope you are right, on climate change, but you are part of a dwindling band - even George Bush has seen the light now. I think those “more and more massive than ever” hurricanes and floods of biblical proportions in New Orleans did it, you know?


It's only the scaremongers who suggest a link between hurricanes and global warming. Not even the most pro-GW scientists make this connection, and for a very good reason. Hurricanes are extremely well-documented events - there are accurate records of their frequency and severity going back at least a century. And there is categorically no correlation, either in frequency or severity.
Katrina was indeed a severe hurricane, but most of the devastation resulted not from the hurricane, but from man-made factors - such as the strength (or lack of) the levees designed to prevent the flooding of NO.
The scaremongers often go one step further and say that there's been a huge increase in insured damage from hurricanes in recent years. they're right, of course, but that has little to do with the hurricanes and a lot to do with the fact that there is now much more, and more expensive, development in the hurricane-prone areas.
If George Bush is stupid enough to listen to the scaremongers, well that's his problem. But I don't believe that the american govt is that stupid. I think it's more a case that, as a large chunk of the american population do believe the scare stories, the govt has to be seen to be making the right noises at the risk of losing votes.

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