Right after the verdict came down and before the sentencing, I wrote to the law firm representing the tobacco industry and suggested that they ask the judge to allow the industry to simply, voluntarily never sell tobacco products in Florida again. :- )

I figured that since the state had made such a good case regarding how dangerous that product was, why wouldn't the judge agree with that proposal and simply decree that no more tobacco products would be marketed or sold in that state?

It's perfectly logical :- ) especially when you consider that the State of Florida generates more than 3x the TAX revenue per pack of cigarettes than does the tobacco industry generate in profits.

My solution would have rubbed their collective noses in that fact... asside from creating a HUGE black market in smuggling these now embargoed products into the 'Sunshine State'.

Bottom line, if people want to kill themselves with tobacco... or milk... or Subway sandwiches... or whatever, this is AMERICA and we have the freedom to be stupid.

If we try to protect people from themselves via mandates for seatbelts, helmets, gun control laws, emission controls, etc., etc., we end up disallowing the dumbest people amoung us to kill themselves off. By protecting the stupid, we allow them to remain in the gene pool where they procreate more stupid people, grow old, move to Florida, over burden our Social Security system, and try to figure out how to poke a hole in some chad on election day.

Jimmy, let the stupid BE STUPID!

There's plenty of places where those folks can go if they want to learn about healthy lifestyles, diet, etc. (such as your blog site)

In the mean time, it's not in our best interest to try to keep the stupid from harming themselves via their poor choices.

Isn't smoking and a low carb diet pretty similiar? Both make you lose weight while shortening your lifespan.