Quit Smoking Now

Olivia Wilde, also known as ’13′ plays a sultry bisexual temptress on House, and even though she’s a gifted physician who also has Parkinson’s Disease, she seems pretty well balanced. Now we find pictures of this gorgeous woman smoking cigarettes! What would ’13′ think? Those things are disgusting!

Olivia Wilde Smoking Cigarettes

This square-jawed beauty also appeared in the flop… I mean… block-buster Tron – the remake of course, where she played a computer woman than inexplicably leaves the machines and gets to the real world. Fun for the hero, but strange.

Anyways, I guess this picture was taken so that she could work on her image; she can get away with the hat, but the cigarette is a little too much.

Madonna’s daughter Lourdes has been in the news lately, mostly because she was seen smoking a cigarette. It certainly wasn’t to boost her burgeoning entertainment career, although it could certainly use it. Madonna, of course, sharply denounced her daughter’s smoking, portraying herself as a ‘normal’ mother concerned about her brood’s well-being. While I’m certain that she cares (a little, at least), Madonna has been using tobacco for years and years to promote herself, mostly through the associated sexuality. Check out this picture:

Madonna smoking a cigarette

Lecturing her daughter about smoking can be difficult when pictures like this one are all over the internet. Moreover, I read an article in which she dismissed the cigarettes she was holding as a ‘prop’, which may well be true, but denotes that she condones their use as a marketing ploy, at the very least. There is no doubt that the Material Girl abandoned her cigarette smoking years ago: she’s too much of a health nut to be a real smoker. On another topic, now would probably be a good time for her to start aging gracefully.

Nice way to give mixed messages to your kids, Madonna. Now make sure the little kicks the habit before it’s too late!

Apparently, Hollywood heartthrob Matt Damon no longer smokes cigarettes! He is rumored to have quit smoking using hypnotism, which would certainly not be my first choice to quit smoking (I would just stop), but whatever works is the right method!

Matt Damon Not Smoking Cigarettes

Matt Damon’s buddy Ben Affleck is still a serious smoker, despite having little ones around. Can’t imagine why Jennifer Gardner puts up with it. Matt Damon is taking his role as a father seriously and not exposing his children to these poisonous fumes. Good for you, Matt.

In the United States, as well as in Canada, it is illegal to sell cigarettes one at a time, although it is always possible to purchase them like that if you know a sympathetic convenience store owner. The logic behind this is that it makes it more difficult for youngsters to start smoking, as they may not have the money to buy a full pack, or even the desire to do so. They may, after all, want to buy a single cigarette to try it out.

Pretty girl smoking a Cigarette

That is a valid position, assuming that your goal is to minimize the number of young people that start smoking cigarettes every year. But governments are duplicitous about this, as they one the one hand try do dissuade people from smoking cigarettes, and on the other read handsome revenues from the sale of cigarettes, revenues they could not do without.

Some people have suggested that smaller cigarette packs, like 10 cigarettes for example, would be appropriate, since smokers may wish to cut down, buying less cigarettes and therefore buying less. You are supposedly less likely to smoke a lot if you only have 10 cigarettes, or so we’re told.

This theory, while valid on its surface, ignores the fact that smoking is addictive and habit-forming. As a former smoker, I can guarantee you that having 10 cigarettes in my pockets when going out was cause to buy another pack, not cut down!

Another theory takes full advantage of the fact that governments are out to milk us through cigarettes, even as they pretend to want to make us quit smoking. 20 cigarettes are obviously more expensive, and thus generate more taxes, than a pack with 10 cigarettes would. If a mythical smoker was comfortable buying 10 cigarettes at a time (which I’m not sure is widespread) then why would the government reduce its revenue?

In conclusion, I don’t believe that smaller packs would lead to less smoking from established smokers, and I’m certain that it would increase the number of smokers, overall. Such cigarettes would be labeled ‘trial packs’ or some such, and could very well be named ‘starter packs’, because that’s exactly what they would be.