Nearly 60 years ago the concerted government, public health, and parental campaign against smoking began over documentation showing its serious adverse effects on smokers and even those near them.
Since then, overall American smoking has precipitously dropped from around half the population down now to 11 percent.
Among blacks, however, the percentage remains near the 20 percent level. And 80 percent of them smoke menthol cigarettes, which are said to ease the sometimes harsh effects of smoking.
CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) research indicates blacks start smoking later in life, but the adverse health consequences of smoking like heart disease hit harder.
The effort to ban menthol cigarettes has been ongoing for years and seemed to be nearing conclusion last summer.
That's when polls about the 2024 presidential election began indicating that Joe Biden's support among blacks was crumbling, especially among men moving toward voting for the other fellow.
It's conceivable if life was a Hollywood movie that might be a coincidence. But yet another ban delay emerged. What do you want to bet the delay lasts past next November?
That's the topic of this week's audio commentary.
I've been struck in recent weeks with a widespread sense of anger, even despair both online and off, centered mainly on what seem to be a rapidly accumulating mountain of problems and serious uncertainties in our country's outlook. That's what this week's column examined.
Despite our news media, not everything needs to be serious. So, the most recent audio commentary delved into the profound controversy surrounding my most despised holiday song. Some commenters disagreed, if you can imagine such impudence.
I was shocked -- shocked, do you hear? -- that not everyone agrees with me. This was fun.
Using 20/20 hindsight, any one of us could have a grand time writing about the disasters that Joe Biden has created, presided over, and maliciously ignored.
There's the infant-food shortage, supply chain crises, lethal Afghan exit disaster, smothering of our energy independence and -- oh, look! -- the willful breaching of our southern border, allowing upwards of nine million illegal aliens into the country so far with another 10,000 or 12,000 new ones every day.
All that and more after Joe Biden promised a return to normalcy in his presidency.
But the country's media and associated fervent anti-Trumpers aren't waiting for a second Trump presidency. They're already imagining the horrible things that DJT could possibly maybe who knows conceivably do perhaps starting Jan. 20, 2025. My colleague Nick Arama has that delightful read here.
The walls seem to be closing in rather tightly on the Biden Family syndicate's foreign-influence peddling operation as the House Oversight Committee releases more and more documentated details on them. It's fetid stuff.
And then, there's this.
Here is Exhibit 26A on why Americans have developed such widespread distrust of media in recent years. Turns out, that Sports Illustrated, home of some classic sportswriting and the eagerly-awaited annual Smimsuit Issue, was using artificial intelligence for some of its recent articles. Then, comes the comeuppance.
Related Post:
