It’s been almost exactly 8 months since Alaska Report claimed that Sarah and Todd Palin were planning to divorce. It cause quite a furor at the time, with Sarah and Todd denying both the divorce rumor and the alleged affairs they supposedly had.
I’m happy to report that as of this date, Sarah and Todd are still together, their marriage faring far better than the Alaska Report, which closed its site at the end of 2009. Just another unfounded scandal levied against Palin.
Yesterday I was commenting on the tough times ahead for the tobacco companies. Not to worry, though. If Obamacare isn’t repealed, they will be outlawed by 2020 anyway. There’s no way to afford the plan over the long haul with cigarettes in the picture.
A Florida jury awarded a plaintiff $26.6 million for the death of Nathan Cohen (68) from lung cancer in 1994. The culprits who caused his death? The tobacco giants, naturally; in this case, R. J. Reynolds and Philips Morris. The jury also blamed Nathan Cohen, finding him 1/3 responsible for his own death.
I’m a big advocate of personal responsibility and freedom, so it was heartening to hear a jury acknowledge that someone can be 1/3 responsible for their own actions. That’s a big concession by juries. But look, the first lawsuit of this type was filed 56 years ago:
1954-06-07: LITIGATION: EVA COOPER files first tobacco lawsuit; sues R.J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY for her husband’s death from lung cancer. He had smoked Camels.
Mrs. Cooper’s complaint alleged her husband, Joseph, who had died of lung cancer, “to his detriment relied on advertisements doctors considered its cigarettes healthful and that its cigarettes were harmless to the respiratory system.” She sought to recover damages for pain and suffering and death of her husband.
Back in 1954, I could see that maybe some people would have been confused about the health effects of smoking. But a decade later, that wasn’t at all true.
In 1964, the Surgeon General found that smoking was linked to lung cancer, and in 1965 Congress required the “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health” label on packs of cigarettes. By 1968, cigarette companies were required to put the “The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health.” label on their packages.
In 1971, cigarette ads were taken off of television and radio, and the following year all cigarette ads are required to carry health warnings. Anti-smoking ads such as “Johnny Smoke” and “Dynamite” appeared in the late 60′s and early 70′s.
Nathan Cohen started smoking in 1940 (illegally, at age 14) and never stopped. Even after being subjected to 3 decades of anti-smoking campaigns, he never stopped. He died 54 years after he started, meaning that he had an awfully good run as a smoker.
So I’d say that he deserved quite a bit more credit for his situation than the jury allotted him. Had he stopped at any point, I might be more sympathetic to his widow, but the fact is, if he were alive today, he would be happily puffing away. And nothing the tobacco companies or health officials could say would change that.
Many more of these lawsuits are percolating through the system. I’m wondering if the tobacco companies can survive it. I won’t miss them if they’re gone, but I don’t think that this sort of legal hammering is just or appropriate.
Michelle Malkin referenced this quote about Gavin Newsome, who repeats a standard health care canard:
Newsom argues it’s saving restaurants and taxpayers money, by offering workers preventative care. Newsom argues that this in turn keeps them out of emergency rooms, and on the clock.
I was just wondering how large those emergency room savings could be – will we really save scads of dough? So I went to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), which break out Emergency Room services from other forms of care. The MEPS gives spending numbers that are roughly half the numbers that the Census Bureau quotes – I’m not sure why.
Anyway, here’s what MEPS tells us about Emergency Room spending in 2007 vs. spending on all other types of care:
Yeah – Emergency Room costs are about 3.3% of all medical costs. So even if we eliminated all of those costs, it wouldn’t put much of a dent in the total. Of course, despite Newsome’s fanciful thinking, it’s not likely that Emergency Room costs are going to go down at all. They’re more likely to go up.
I wrote several posts on this 3 years ago (here, here, here, here, and especially here, for example), pointing out the connection between China and Russia and Iran. The question in my mind had been: how did Iran become such a significant PitA so quickly? The answer was that China and Russia had been propping up Iran as a proxy foil for the United States in the Middle East.
I came to that conclusion by looking at arms, technology, and oil deals among the three countries – it was clear that Iran was getting a big boost from its sponsors. But it’s not something you hear in the American press, so I’m always relieved when I get affirmation from the MSM. Today the Washington Times corroborated those findings:
Arthur K. of AoSHQ (and other, less savory sites) linked to this article in the Top Headlines sidebar. Basically Kevin Williamson’s linked article defended the health of the US manufacturing sector, using an old Bruce Bartlett article to support his case that manufacturing in the US was stronger than ever.
He is, unfortunately, not taking a very thorough look at manufacturing, so his claims of its health are baseless.
