Geeze, can't a guy go on a little vacation without his congressman going batshit crazy?
My plan today when I got back from classes was to catch an episode of The Daily Show on hulu and then check up on my local politics and news and then figure out what story to update the site with. Much to my hilarious suprise Mr. Stewart did it for me. Apparently Purdue's congressman Steve Buyer seriously talked about smoking lettuce on the floor of the House and argued that lettuce was just as harmful as cigarettes and that nicotine doesn't kill (the Daily Show video is here the hilarity begins at 20:38).
I can't believe I actually feel his argument needs refutation beyond its own absurdity but here it goes: Even if nicotine wasn't a poison that can be lethal in doses as small as 40mg, Buyer's argument is still ridiculous because it ignores the overwhelming addictive properties of nicotine which perpetuate the harmful practice of smoking. If smoking anything causes health problems (as Buyer says), then a chemical which makes people develop physical and emotional dependency on smoking is a significant contributor to the cause of these problems.
On what is certainly
CSPAN video here
Congressman Buyer was re-elected to represent the IN 4th (Lafayette, Monticello, Bedford) in 2008 by a 20 point margin.
Steve Buyer is the recipient of the largest amount of tobacco money in the history of the state of Indiana. He is nothing but a spokesman for his corporate donors.
ReplyDeleteHe's the same guy who said we should use nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and who lied to Congress that he had been called to active duty in Afghanistan and then took a 3-week paid leave of absence in his home in Monticello.
You read the Indianapolis Times blog don't you?
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