Ooh, Scary Government Warnings

by Karen De Coster, LRC Blog
Jun. 22, 2011

Our nation's Sergeant at Arms on all things health-related, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is going to make us ascared of smoking cigarettes with the new mandate forcing tobacco companies to print spooky pictures on cigarette packs.

Announcing the first change to cigarette pack health warnings in 25 years, the US Food and Drug Administration unveiled nine graphic warning labels Tuesday that cigarette companies will be required to print by the fall of 2012 on the top half of every cigarette pack and 20 percent of every poster or ad.

These graphics will include a cadaver (who smoked, of course, because non-smokers don't die), smoke drifting in a child's face, and a grey, damaged lung. Government economists have said that almost a quarter million people will stop smoking in the first year of this mandate due to this government scaremongering that will save lives. Several economists with math degrees and 2.5 GPAs gathered 'round an office dart board and threw several darts, with most of those landing in the circle marked "quarter million." So a quarter million lives it is! But the government mandate does so much more. Here's a snippet from the article:

Although this number represents only half of 1 percent of the 40 million smokers in the US, antismoking advocates say it could save 60,000 to 70,000 lives if the tobacco-users quit for good. "Very few actions save 70,000 lives," says Mr. Myers.

Yes, only government totalitarianism and force can "save" so many lives. Here is the FDA website on cigarette health warnings. The quasi-governmental American Lung Association--- and I do not make this up -- is asking for increased government funding to man the hotlines because so many people will be calling the "quit smoking hotlines" that they won't be able to field all of the calls.

Meanwhile, as the government is attempting to "save" all of these human lives by making everything illegal and enforcing its wars against all behaviors deemed dangerous, it continues to counter that campaign with its massive killing sprees overseas by conducting and escalating its bloody, murderous, imperialist jihads within the borders of other nations that refuse to lick the boots of BushObama exceptionalism. Save some, kill others, control the message -- but the underlying message is always consistent: let the United States government sort 'em all out.