At least point out, William, that the free market could have done all this "move toward healthier cigs" stuff on its own. Reporters could have highlighted the problem, cig companies could have gone to war in the marketplace and accomplished their lower tar, lower toxins, angle without taxpayer driven, agency driven nanny statism. Everyone's known cigarettes are killers for a hundred years, but government duped everyone into thinking it plays some vital role in protecting the public by simply claiming so.

So, while this government move is reasonably reasoned, it's still self-serving and insulting to and exploitative of citizens.

Saletan:

Do you think an unregulated cigarette market would have given you warnings on each pack?

Perhaps. For the same reason McDonald's began warning its customers that the contents of their coffee cups is hot.

In any case, how many people pick up a pack of cigarettes today without an understanding of what they're doing to their health? No really...I want an answer to that question.

When I smoked, I knew what I was doing and what was going in my body. I made myself stop because as toxic as cigarettes are, they aren't deadly until you've smoked them for decades. And I figured that things that stress me out now aren't worth getting cancer for when I'm 40, married with kids and a better career and life than I have now.

But I guess I'm young so it's easy for me to be reckless and not care one day, and then decide to care the next day.

Good thing about quitting smoking is that the negative effects don't take as long to reverse as they do to kick in. 17 days smoke free, and I can hardly tell that I smoked.