Ah, but smoking IS cool!

I got a big kick out of this story:

Parents to Smokeshop: Smoking Not “Cool”

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) _ A sign outside a discount tobacco store in Hutchinson is raising a few eyebrows.

For the past several days, the marquee outside The Smoke Stop reads “Smoking really is cool!” Some parents don’t like the message that the sign sends to children. Missy Hoffman said “We’re telling our kids this is cool when it’s a leading cause of death among Americans.”

Store employee Zac Lovett says no promotion is connected to the slogan, one of several the business posts to attract customers.

Hutchinson City Attorney Carolyn Patterson that while the sign may be objectionable to some, the wording is not against the law.

The Reno ounty Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition says it focuses on teaching kids to recognize tobacco ads that are targeted at children in order to avoid it.

So why would I actually invoke the ire of so many angry mothers by having the audacity to say that smoking is indeed cool?

Because it is. Not the act of smoking or tobacco use, mind you, but the choice that is made to do so. It is an exercise in individual rights and freedom, and when somebody makes the conscious choice to smoke, they are saying that they are willing to buck popular opinion that goes to such lengths to tell them what they can or can’t do, and ddo something on their own.

After all, let’s get serious about this. If any breathing human being truly believes that people who take up smoking are unaware of the risks, they need to be committed for psychiatric evaluation. In 2008, we are a little beyond that. But as I like to say, if we are not allowed the right to do things that may be dangerous, what freedom do we really have?

So with that, let me repeat myself. This time in big, bold letters:

Smoking is cool! Get over it.

Any questions?