the killers inside you: "To almost universal media indifference, the American Cancer Society released a study reporting that more than 60% of cancer deaths could be prevented if we stopped smoking, ate better, and got more exercise.    That's 372,000 lives, or nearly 300 times the number of American lives lost to terrorism -- and that's just one year.  Cigarettes alone  killed 168,000 people in that year.    Many of us are willing to suspend our Constitution, our democratic values,  and our way of life to protect another 3,000 lives, but are not willing to change our smoking and eating habits to save hundreds of times as many people every year. Why? Because preventing cancer deaths does not give power-hungry politicians more control over the state apparatus, nor does it increase ratings for television news. Terrorists don't have a Washington lobby, either.  So everybody's strung out:  Politicians are addicted to the power that anti-terrorism brings, and the contributions that big tobacco and food companies give.  Viewers are addicted to the drama of the ‘War on Terrorism.'  And without a 'War on Cancer,' diners will stay addicted to their French fries (or are they still ‘freedom fries’?)  The deaths will continue."

(Via Night Light.)