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SMOKE AND BILE: Artist David Hockney has ignited a debate in the UK media with this Letter to the Editor at The Guardian:

*To say that Ireland's smoking experiment worked - "Look no one smokes in the pubs anymore" - is naive... How do your correspondents (Letters, May 31) know that you save 5,000 lives a year? I do not believe it's possible to know that...

:: From "Smoking is my choice" : June 1st

:: Here are some responses ::

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+ Where I have lived in the US for the last several decades, smokers are now frequently treated liked racial inferiors. There is real dehumanizing contempt, hatred and extreme rage behind the responses. And there is also a flamboyantly sadistic glee about charging confiscatory taxes and extorting as much money as possible from this now unwelcome "filth" in the population. There is an unmistakable undercurrent of violence to the degree that seems like a prelude to something like what happened in Rwanda.

Could a Rwanda scenario occur in the USA? Yes, certainly. And lately it sometimes seems like it is just over the horizon. It would probably be triggered by the smoking issue. This issue is not being covered at all in the conventional media. In Rwanda the media was being used to instigate the scenario.

Another new phenomenon in our suburb is the rather recent arrival of a huge new species of humans, mostly females observed so far. They weigh at least 350 lbs. Following them in a supermarket is like following the Queen Mary. They could probably kill someone just by sitting on them.

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