If It Weren't for Cigarettes, No One Would Ever Die

I usually try to avoid watching television due to the fact that it tends to make me somewhat apoplectic. But it was a slow Friday evening and (in addition to the IPTV program I commented on below) I saw a PSA by the "Just Eliminate Lies" people.

In it, teenagers in open caskets talked about how the evil tobacco companies kill 1,200 people a day in this country. Very dramatic, the clean, young faces staring back from the grave.

The message? I guess it's: Don't smoke and you'll never end up dead in a casket. I suppose that's more effective than: Hey, if you choose to smoke, there's a reasonable chance that you'll a nasty maglignancy and die from lung cancer at 45. However, there's also a better chance that you'll just ding your cardio vascular system and die at 70... instead of 73.

Have you ever noticed that when the public service people talk about "deaths caused by (fill in the vice)", that the unspoken supposition is that the people who die from (fill in the vice) would have never died had they not indulged in (fill in the vice). Longevity is everything. With a diet of brown rice, kale, tofu and green tea and you'll live to be 95... and be begging for death at 60.