Quote Of The Day: >HACK!< Edition

"The following voluminous findings of
fact demonstrate that there is
overwhelming evidence to support
most of the government's allegation
[that tobacco companies violated
federal racketeering laws by
defrauding the public on the dangers
of tobacco]" (WSJ)
U.S. Judge Gladys Kessler

A bit of a "duh!" there, eh? Early in my career, I was tasked to write the handbook for one tobacco company's middle and senior management to use when asked tough questions about smoking, cancer, second hand smoke, lung disease, and just about all the other banes except bad breath.

One featured player: A pathologist from one of the Dakotas who couldn't tell the difference between a dead smoker's and a dead non-smoker's lungs. Must have been the only blind pathologist in the nation.

Kessler didn't force the tobacco companies to fund smoker cessation programs, which is just fine with me. Just about every smoker in America today who is young enough to still want to quit is old enough to have known quite well what smoking's risks were before they started.

Note: The cartoon is by Ali Shah Ali of Iran. It was the grand prize winner of a 2001 global anti-smoking cartoon contest.