>>Fox News fired two reporters because they didn't want to tweak their findings about the contents of the milk - the dairy industry is heavily advertising there. The burger industry successfully avoided the enforcement of federal inspection against escherichia coli, by some high court ruling.

>Still, it makes no sense to me whatsoever to blame the hamburger for the fat kid. Where's the notion of personal responsibility in all of this.

That's a separate matter - the litigative mentality. I'm talking about the almost complete lack of coverage on what we're eating, drinking and breathing, in blatant contrast with the media hype against smoking. I'm surprised they didn't come up with the story that the Native American nations haven't been slaughtered, but have actually died off because of smoking :).

>As I mentioned, while I do not smoke anymore (I quit in 1972) and while I also find the smell of smoke distasteful as Tamar does, I do not agree with what seems to me to be the over-demonization of smokers. I think it's quite rude but apparently it 'fits' the "everyone is a victim" mentality.

I think there's also another strain in the mentality at work here. You see, there was always some category of people anyone could pick on - through history, you had slaves, serfs, Jews, lepers, hobos, black slaves etc. Anyone could treat them as bad as they liked and get away with it, because such a behavior was actually legal. Now with all the political correctness and politeness, there's not a single category of people that you can push around without risk - except smokers. And after a few millenia of civilization which was taking an existence of such a group of pariahs for granted, there's a common reflex that such a group be created.

>Why not restrict life as everyone dies from it. <bg>

In the Dark Ages, sex was lethal. Proof: no survivors.