The Wars End

Interesting news:

Congress struck the government's strongest anti-smoking blow in decades Thursday with a Senate vote to give regulators new power to limit nicotine in cigarettes, drastically curtail ads and ban candied tobacco products aimed at young people. [...]

The 79-17 Senate vote sends the measure back to the House, which in April passed a similar but not identical version. House acceptance of the Senate bill would send it directly to President Barack Obama, who supports the action. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that "from what I have seen so far, I believe it will be possible for us to accept their bill and send it right on to the president."

During the 90s, smoking was something of a big culture war issue. Republicans and Southern Democrats generally opposed action to bring it under control, and lots of smokers insisted that smoking bans restricted their freedom--a fair point, but not so fair as the point that smoking forces everyone else to breathe your smoke, and freedom to breathe seems to outweigh the freedom to smoke. There was a full-on red vs. blue backlash over this issue, Denis Leary became famous, and in retrospect it all just seems silly. (By the way, Leary seems to be a phenomenally successful actor/comedian, and I can't for the life of me understand his appeal. If you want generic charismatic d-bag for a particular role, which is Leary's only real role, Mark Wahlberg seems like a better choice, though that's also the only role that Wahlberg can play.) But, anyway, times and issues change, and now roughly half the Republican Senate caucus now supports clamping down on tobacco. Just a reminder that nothing in politics is permanent.