Smokers get a lot of grief but we should face the reality: we need them to puff away! Every puff they take is another tax dollar spent on saving a school or a cop or a firefighter. Or yeah, a soldier in Iraq.

Problem is, we have become so politically frightened of creating new taxes that we have piled on the old ones – creating dependence and debt.

Reality is that thousands die every year from smokes but a single bad egg or some dirty spinach kills ONE person and they are all pulled from the shelves.

Truth is we let them inhale because this is America and it is your right to kill yourself slowly if you choose. Something about ‘knowing’ that it can kill you which makes it okay. Something else about doing it slowly that makes it acceptable as well, sorry Kervorkian.

But really, we let them puff on because we rely on their addictions to pay for that new highway or cultural arts center or more importantly, that new stadium, baby!

So, shut the fuck up and thank a smoker for a change…the spark on the end of their naughty may be the only fire left burning in the US of A, the fire of revenue…Puff on, puff on, you’re taking one for the team.