Every time a smoker dies an angel gets its wings.

[wanton_bliss]

Guess what? There are plenty of people (and in particular children) out there contracting cancers that we do not know how to prevent. Don't shed a tear for Peter Jennings who died at the ripe old age of sixty-seven from a lack of self-control.

Comments

[neuroxin]

Yeah I guess he just deserved to die. ... WTF are you listening to yourself?

[thesadpunk]

I don't know, I think stupid people deserve to die. Is that wrong?

[wanton_bliss]

Is that wrong?

Only if they are celebrities.

[thesadpunk]

I get it now. What if they are famously stupid?

[senhor]

I agree, even as someone who constantly battles his own addiction to smoking. Preventable deaths such as from alcohol-related liver disease, drug overdoses, and smoking shouldn't be viewed as tragedies. The only thing tragic about them is that the person didn't successfully fight the addiction. It's really a "well, that's what you get" type of situation.

[senhor]

Though, I should add, at least Peter Jennings did stop smoking long ago (aside from that relapse during 9/11), which probably extended his life quite a bit. So, yeah, he smoked heavily until he was about 50, I think, so making it to 67 isn't really too shabby.

[wanton_bliss]

I am not faulting him for living so long. I am just saying no one's death is a national (or international) tragedy when he smoked for fucking decades, knowing full well the consequences (just as every smoker does).

Although, now that I think about it, the fact that he lived so long sets a bad example for people who can point to him, like that fuck Magic Johnson, as proof that you can get away with reckless self-destructive behavior while still living a happy long life.

What a role model...

[wanton_bliss]

Thank you.

I wouldn't have pissed and moaned about my traffic accident half as much as I did if I had actually been drinking when it took place, instead of stone cold sober and driving the speed limit after it had ceased snowing.

It's called personal responsibility and it's something thoroughly lacking in a culture that sues Big Tobacco and Ronald MacDonald for targetting children, rather than accepting that, in the end, no one forces you to smoke any more than any one crams another goddamn Big Mac into your sausage fingers.

[die7fox]

What about those of us who don't care how he died, but care that he died at all?

[wanton_bliss]

I don't think celebrity's merit greater recognition than other people for having passed on. Nor do I toss out such acclaims as "erudite and wise" when referring to people who cannot figure out the cause and effect relationship between inhaling tar and dying.

[die7fox]

Sorry, but that's awfully cynical, even for you.

He lived, he made an impact. I don't care whether he died of cancer or because North Korean organ thieves hijacked his liver. He brought an expertise to his profession that was lacking after Cronkite. I couldn't care less about his vices.

My father drank himself to death. I suppose it was wrong of me to mourn him last year.

[thesadpunk]

Was your father a celebrity?

[acolyte13]

after all that..i need a cigarette.*puffs away*

[wanton_bliss]

Is that a menstruating cotton ball?

[protonboy]

that's what I was thinking!
or a cloud of vagina

[acolyte13]

HA.it's actually from my anus is bleeding a short animation by Michael Heilemann..i got a kick out of it.

[jdhorner]

well THIS entry has certainly been a read.

got my blood all pumping and such.

[wanton_bliss]

That's probably just the arterial thrombosis.