Slate's Bizbox
the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990
from: Katha Pollitt

Headline

Posted Wednesday, April 15, 1998, at 12:15 PM ET

Andrew,

More in a minute, but I have to question your joy at more kids smoking. You had me up till then, but seriously, Andrew, smoking is really bad for you, and I would not be happy if my daughter, now 10, took up the habit in a few years. Somewhere between the dreary lectures of the health police and the mad cackle of "libertarians" celebrating smoking as a mark of rugged individualism, there ought to be room for a calm evaluation of smoking as one public health problem among many, and for a commonsensical approach to prevention. It's true that people bring the harm of smoking on themselves, except for the secondhand-smoking victims, but that's true about a wide range of social and medical problems. What is it Pascal (?) said about all the trouble in life coming from man's inability to stay in his room?
It's interesting, though, isn't it, how every social policy now has to be justified as being "for children" or "for families" (working families, that is, as the cant phrase goes on both right and left). It's as if everyone's just given up on grown-ups. And single people? Forget it. Nobody cares! So at least until they legalize gay marriage, you can smoke all you want.

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990
from: Katha Pollitt

Headline

Posted Wednesday, April 15, 1998, at 12:15 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Katha Pollitt is a columnist at The Nation. Andrew Sullivan is a senior editor at the New Republic.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
A Grand Tour
David Broder | While the stars align for Obama, McCain is looking like the odd-man-out on foreign policy.
Annette Heuser: A Honeymoon