Ok, I am going to try one more time to explain why I was interested in the cause of death numbers I posted a while back.

Here is the train of thought that caused me to post them (remember you are dealing with computer geek here) as far as I can remember.

1. Woah, lady get out of my way so I can turn onto Providence and drive home.
   (This actually happened, she was standing in the middle of the turn lane waving at someone WITH HER BACK TO ME!)
2. Oh, she has a sign, it says that almost x,xxx Americans have been killed in Iraq.
   (No, I don’t remember what the number actually was.)
3. Ouch, that many dead, that is just under a thousand a year.
4. Wait a minute, didn't the news say that thousands and thousands of people died last year on Americas highways?
5. I wonder how many people Americans die each year and what's killing them.
   (What's likely to get me? See #2 on the list, and remind me to get off my ass next time you see me.)

Bam, that was it.

When said I was looking for context, the above is what I thinking. What I should have said (hindsight is 20/20) is that I was looking for a sense of scale.

Personally I think we should see more protesters. We need the war protesters to remind us what is going on over there and what it is costing us, but we also need people protesting against alcohol and tobacco.

Can you imagine someone trying to bring tobacco to market today? They would be laughed at (and I am pretty sure we have laws against selling against anything addictive.) I think it is pretty stupid tobacco gets a green-light just because it is already on the market.

And yes, it MUCH more complicated than that, but damn it, this is an personal blog, not a peer reviewed scientific journal. Please compare it to the [sarcasam] important and socially significant content [/sarcasm] of other personal blogs, not to an episode 60 minutes.

So... If you take anything away from my list, let it be that I am anti-alcohol and anti-tobacco, and that after looking at the numbers, I think everyone else should be too.

PS. I am turning on comment moderation, but I only plan to edit out F-bombs and the like. F*** is fine, but let's at least try. My daughter is still a minor. Looks like I can't do anything about the existing one though. If you know how to edit existing comments, please let me know.

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