Dumbest Statement of the Year Thus Far

Here’s PA representative Bob Belfanti in a Philadelphia Inquirer article:

Quoting Rep. Bob Belfanti:

"Face it, cigarettes are part of the military," Belfanti said. "Those guys and girls who come home, maybe without an arm or a leg, want to go to the VFW and have a cigarette."

That statement is all kinds of dumb, not least because 70 percent of the military are non-smokers.

Conversely, an intelligent comment by senator Stewart Greenleaf, from the same article:

Quoting Sen. Stewart Greenleaf:

You wouldn’t allow people to blow asbestos in other people’s faces.

Why not?  Because it’s a carcinogen, exactly as tobacco smoke is.  The only difference is that asbestos lacks the rich and powerful lobbying forces that tobacco has, and states aren’t collecting millions of dollars in tax revenue from asbestos sales like they are from tobacco sales.

More from the article:

Quoting The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Cigarette maker Philip Morris spent $275,000 seeking to influence lawmakers in 2007.  The Breathe Free Coalition (American Lung Association, American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society) staked out a spot in the Capitol this year where they set up a large poster reminding passersby that six people die each day in Pennsylvania from the effects of secondhand smoke.