It appears we're all doomed!

I find this incredibly funny and anger-inspiring. At the same time.
I am completely in awe about the cycle of bullshit involved with Big Tobacco... it's absurd. Like your crack dealer offering rehabilitation services (for a small fee, of course). I'm just amazed that these people can get you hooked on cigarettes, then give you the solution to quitting, and you have to pay out the ears for it either way. I'm not sure which thought is more disturbing--that tobacco companies are allowed control of this cycle, which can easily be manipulated to serve their benefit (would you trust a guy who stabbed you in the gut with a knife to patch you up with a first aid kit? or call the hospital?), OR the fact that it essentially costs more for nicotine patches/gum than cigarettes.
Even if Philip Morris were to wear a little halo and angel wings and give us big puppy-dog eyes, somehow convincing us that YES, they are desperately trying to fix the awful mistake they made in distributing all those harmful cigarettes, that whole "nicotine patches costing more than cigarettes" thing is still REALLY effed the eff up. Why can't they make the solution to the problem cheaper than the problem?
Oh yeah. Cause its Philip fucking Morris. And if you swirl those letters around for a while you might just end up with E-V-I-L.

In recent news, there is now a BIG OL' STUDY about the international effects of smoking on pregnant women. This is yet another thing that bugs me. We sit here in our shiny country, watching shitty television while we eat our crunchy Doritos and comfortably drift into the oblivious state of mind that most of America suffers from today. All the while, our flabbergastingly unhealthy lifestyle choices are oozing all over the world, infecting other countries like VDs, or STDs, or STIs, or whatever you call them these days. Slowly but surely, I predict that the tables will turn. More and more people outside the U.S., Europe, and other supposedly developed countries will begin smoking, while the citizens of the United States of Apathy slowly reduce their risk factors by putting down the cigs. We'll probably have hundreds of charitable organizations dedicated to helping people outside the country quit, but you won't see me there.
The hypocrisy would be too embarrassing.