Cigarettes Don't Kill People

I'm tired of hearing the myth that cigarettes kill people. It reminds me of the old myth that cold temperatures cause colds.

The smoking issue is not as simple as the anti-smokers portray it.   It can involve more than just addiction to nicotine.

If smoking kills people why do so many smokers live to be over 60?

 Looking at substances that sometimes kill people demonstrates how substances can kill people directly. 

For most of us peanuts are a delicious and nutritious snack.  However, for some people with a peanut allergy peanuts can be one of the world's deadliest poisons.

College fraternity hazing incidents sometimes have someone die from drinking too much alcohol.  Combining sleeping pills and alcohol creates a deadly cocktail.

Overdoses of prescription drugs and drugs like heroin kill thousands  a year.

I have never had any connection to the tobacco industry.  I have never smoked, owned any tobacco company assets or worked in a facility that sold tobacco products.  People I cared about have died from medical conditions associated with tobacco use.
On a personal level I don't understand how people can enjoy smoking, but then smokers might not understand why I like jalapeno slices in my breakfast eggs.  On the scientific level I recognize a genetic condition that many smokers have may make smoking  a virtual necessity for them.  

Smoking is blamed for causing lung cancer even though fewer than 10% of smokers  get lung cancer.  In an extensive British study only half of smokers died of conditions associated with smoking.  If cigarettes killed people why would they kill some, but not others?

Cold temperatures don't automatically cause colds, but may make the body more vulnerable to colds.  Cold temperatures can force the body to divert energy to keeping warm which may reduce the body's ability to fight the cold virus.

Perhaps cigarettes merely increase some smokers' vulnerability to certain medical disorders.  For example, smoking may not actually cause cells to become cancerous.   Instead, the nicotine in cigarettes is capable of aiding  the growth of cancers caused by some other factor, such as asbestos.   Smokers may be more likely to take jobs which expose them  to  carcinogens.   Smoking may accelerate aging of some body parts in older smokers. 

Evaluating the relative health impact of smoking isn't as straight forward as tobacco critics assume because smokers often have a significant genetic difference from non-smokers.  Smokers tend to have what is called the"risk taker" or "trill seeker" version of the DRD4(Dopamine Receptor D4] gene.   Comparing risk taker smokers to non-risk taker non-smokers could produce an inaccurate result. Risk taking smokers conceivably could have a higher life expectancy than non-smoking risk takers, particularly those who are alcoholics or drug users.  .

Research is mixed on the existence of risk takers because how people take risks can vary. Individuals  may not consciously choose activities because they are "risky".    An individual may instead choose activities that they describe as "exciting" or "challenging".

Most people aren't athletic enough to participate in obviously risky activities like mountain climbing or skiing.  Some people take risky jobs like fire fighting.   Others prefer to take risks by gambling or having multiple sex partners.  Some men seek thrills by going out in public dressed as women.  The portrayal of smoking as a dangerous activity makes smoking attractive to young risk takers who don't feel they could physically or mentally handle other "risky" activities..  Young people often feel they can avoid the negative affects of whatever actions they take.   Alcohol and drugs like heroin appeal to other risk takers.

Criticism of smoking focuses on physical health. The risk taker gene and smoking may also impact mental health. The risk taker gene that smokers often have has a connection to mental health problems such as ADHD. (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).    Nicotine can have a calming effect and reduce anger.  

Risk taking isn't the only potential threat to a person's health.  The opposite of risk taking is boredom which can have a strong negative impact.  It might even be possible to be bored to death.  People who attempt to quit smoking sometimes experience depression and suicidal thoughts attributed to nicotine withdrawal. For risk takers these conditions might also indicate boredom due to removal of risk generated excitement

Anti-smokers treat smoking as just a "nasty" unhealthy habit.  However, smoking is actually a complex behavior that some may need because of a genetic brain condition.

Marijuana Kills People

When a mass shooting occurs, some people act as if the guns themselves are responsible rather than the people who use them,  Other people respond with the statement: "Guns don't kill people.  People do." The statement is true because guns cannot independently affect the operation of the human brain.

The brain is a complex system controlled by the interaction of various chemicals. People use marijuana because it is one of the chemicals .that can affect the operation of the brain.      Unfortunately, there is a dark side to marijuana.  In addition to creating the sensation of feeling "high", marijuana can cause behavior that kills. 

Marijuana has two ways of killing people.   Marijuana reduces the brain's ability to detect and respond appropriately to danger such as when driving a car.   Sometimes the marijuana user dies from a traffic accident.  Sometime the person who dies was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Marijuana is associated with homicidal behavior.   Marijuana violence often involves firearms.   Some of this violence is due to marijuana's tendency to induce paranoia in some people.    Marijuana heightens the sense of fear as it does the other senses.  

The sense of smell can play a role in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD].  Police officers who have had a bad experience with  drug dealers or marijuana users could become overly fearful if they smell marijuana on someone they are dealing with and be more likely to shoot than they would be otherwise.  Government needs to finance research on this  possibility.

How Mark Felt and Leon Jaworski Helped the Commies

I don't believe FBI Associate Director Mark Felt  and  Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski  deliberately set out to give "aid and comfort" to America's communist enemies, but they couldn't have done more to help the Soviet bloc countries if they had been leaders of American communists.   Their misuse of their  positions to undermine President Richard Nixon weakened the presidency and thus the ability of the United States to compete with the Soviet Bloc.

They took advantage of a botched CIA "black bag" operation to destroy Richard Nixon in spite of the fact that the United States was leading democratic nations in a long term conflict with an alliance of communist dictatorships.   The burglary fit a pattern of CIA/FBI operations later investigated by  Frank Church's Senate Committee.  Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin in their book Silent Coup state that someone convinced  White House Counsel John Dean he should have CIA personnel investigate a claim about an acquaintance of his by breaking into the Democratic party headuarters.  

The details about Watergate are not important.  What is important is that it was oneof many operations carried out by government agecies that included the bugging of Dr Martin Luther King .    The misuse of the incident to force Nixon out of office was a disaster for the United States that created opportunities for the Soviet Union and its allies   The Democratic Republic of Vietnam took advantage of the weakened United States  presidency to launch an invasion of South Vietnam that one or two B-52 raids could have ended.   The weakness of the United States  allowed Iranian students to take over the American embassy and the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan.

The strength of the United States depends upon the strength of its president.    Leon Jaworski's over throw of Nixon was a disaster for the United States in domestic policy as well as in foreign policy. The country had economic troubles for a decade after the overthrow of  the Nixon administration.

Roseanne's Tweet Isn't Racist

Slandering apes by comparing them to politicians  isn't racist because comparisons can involve both black and white politicians.   The practice  isn't new.

Who does the following rant describe?  ”This guy is weird! This guy’s, like, an ape. He’s got ape arms! He’s got, like, ape-awkward arms. This guy’s, like, an ape-awkward guy! This guyyy! Is an ape;"

No, it's not President Barack Obama.   He was a president, but he wasn't a Democrat.

No, it's not President George W  Bush.  Many people nicknamed Bush with variations of the word "Chimpy", but this president lived in a different century and had  a long lanky build..

Well would you believe "the Illinois Ape [The Original Gorilla The Orangutan in the White House]" was none other than President "Ape" Lincoln.   I mean Abe Lincoln

Valerie Jarrette  would be in good company if Roseanne had compared her to an ape,  However, Roseanne didn't say Jarrette was an ape.  Roseanne tweeted "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

Johnny Carson occasionally observed that if a comic had to explain a line it wouldn't get a laugh.   Comics rarely analyze situation.   They make observations based on  a superficial view or use an idea that comes from their subconscious.   Sometimes they will get a laugh and other times they may lay an egg.

"The Planet of the Apes" is a series of movies based on a science fiction story set in earth's distant future.   Apes have displaced complacent humans as the most intelligent species.   If Roseanne is making a negative comment about Jarrette then obviously Jarrette would be one of the "dumb" humans rather than one of the intelligent apes.

I realize that those who support the old southern one drop rule consider Jarrette black, but her DNA is more European than African.  The  people of the Middle East are white.   The Europeans originated in the Middle East.  For example, the Aryans are Indo-Iranians.

Roseanne's combining of the Muslim brotherhood with "The Planet of the Apes is interesting because the Muslim culture  is attempting to displace the European culture like apes displaced humans.

The Ultimate John Kennedy Assassination Theory [Updated]

For decades the debate over who killed President John F. Kennedy has involved one group who claims Lee Harvey Oswald did it and another blaming the CIA.  They continue to ignore the possibility both claims are correct.   The CIA is a spy organization.   Some of its agents masquerade as supporters of the enemy so they can get inside enemy organizations. 

[A few hours after posting on this subject I thought of a major reason why many of us believe Oswald might have been working for someone else instead of acting on his own.  I'll add it as a post script.]

Oswald could easily have been such a covert agent.    If so he would have been a logical choice to kill Kennedy.   The CIA might have hoped Oswald's apparent support for Cuban President Fidel Castro would cause public opinion to demand retaliation against Castro.   Oswald might have planned "to give into" expected intensive interrogation  and say the Cuban government had told him to shoot Kennedy.

I don't have any information that Oswald was or wasn't associated with the CIA.  Of course the CIA would never admit if he was with the CIA.   His previous flirtations with Russia and Cuba might have been efforts to gain information for the CIA.  The communists lack of interest in him could have indicated they were suspicious of his motives.

I have always been troubled by the fact that someone with Oswald's background was allowed to be where he was on that fateful day.   The previous school year I had done a research paper on the Secret Service.  My research indicated that the Secret Service would normally have prevented someone like Oswald from being in a building along the motorcade route.

One fact that wasn't known to the public at the time was that one of the last actions taken by the CIA's predecessor, the OSS, was the killing of General George Patton.

I have no interest in pursuing this theory further  I'll leave that decision up to those who are more familiar with the incident than I am.

P.S.  We get our beliefs about subjects such as killers from related historical events and from fiction events in television shows and movies.   The assassination of John Kennedy didn't fit the pattern of other  presidential assassinations and assassination attempts.  Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley were all killed at short range.  President Ronald Reagan was shot at short range.  Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme tried to shoot President Gerald Ford at close range.   The Puerto Ricans  who attempted to shoot their way into President Harry Truman's residence wanted to get close enough to kill him.

The assassination of Kennedy fits the pattern of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King who was shot by paid killer James Earl Ray from concealment at a distance with  a rifle.   Oswald shot Kennedy from concealment at a distance with  a rifle.  On television and in movies professional killers. generally fire at their intended victims from concealment at a distance with a rifle

Typical presidential assassins seem to want people to know what they have done. John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln in front of people attending a play.   Professional killers usually want to get away with their crimes so they try to avoid being identified

The Ultimate John Kennedy Assassination Theory

For decades the debate over who killed President John F. Kennedy has involved one group who claims Lee Harvey Oswald did it and another blaming the CIA.  They continue to ignore the possibility both claims are correct.   The CIA is a spy organization.   Some of its agents masquerade as supporters of the enemy so they can get inside enemy organizations. 

Oswald could easily have been such a covert agent.    If so he would have been a logical choice to kill Kennedy.   The CIA might have hoped Oswald's apparent support for Cuban President Fidel Castro would cause public opinion to demand retaliation against Castro.   Oswald might have planned "to give into" expected intensive interrogation  and say the Cuban government had told him to shoot Kennedy.

I don't have any information that Oswald was or wasn't associated with the CIA.  Of course the CIA would never admit if he was with the CIA.   His previous flirtations with Russia and Cuba might have been efforts to gain information for the CIA.  The communists lack of interest in him could have indicated they were suspicious of his motives.

I have always been troubled by fact that someone with Oswald's background was allowed to be where he was on that fateful day.   The previous school year I had done a research paper on the Secret Service.  My research indicated that the Secret Service would normally have prevented someone like Oswald from being in a building along the motorcade route.

One fact that wasn't known to the public at the time was that one of the last actions taken by the CIA's predecessor, the OSS, was the killing of General George Patton.

I have no interest in pursuing this theory further  I'll leave that decision up to those who are more familiar with the incident than I am.

Is the United States a Democracy or a Police State?

In a democracy elected officials control the police..  In  a police state, the police can tell elected officials what to do.   In a democracy elected officials can fire police leaders.   In a police state police leaders cannot be fired by the officials the people have  elected to supposedly run the government.   

'In a police state Gestapo like police may terrorize political figures by invading their homes in the middle of the night like Robert Mueller did to .Paul J. Manafort.  In a police state KGB like police may plant spies in political organizations like the Department of Justice did to Donald Trump.

Those who talk about the rule of law sometimes forget the most important of our laws are devoted to preventing misuse of the police powers to  harass and intimidate political figures.  One of the most important of these protections is the requirement that those making accusations be identified so the accused can challenge the charges.   The accused may know that the accuser is likely to lie.   Basing an investigation of a political candidate on an anonymous source violates the spirit if not the letter of this constitutional protection.

The most important of our laws is the United States Constitution.  Article 2 of the United States Constitution states:  " The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America."

The Constitution does not allow sharing of power with the Attorney General, the FBI Director or any other law enforcement official.   Article 2 prohibits any law enforcement official from interrogating a president or trying to indict one.  Such an action would be equivalent to an attempt to overthrow the government.   Allowing the sharing of power would take away the people's power to control law enforcement,