Global health fascists sem to have decided their New Year Resolution for 2025 is to demonise alcohol in the way they have demonised tobacco over the past few decades. A new campaign aimed at highlighting the link between alcohol and cancer. is being planned and will be abbounced soon we have heard. The driving force behind this mantra of misery is the soon-yo-be-ex US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy (pity his name isn't ‘Murphy,’ he'd have a very different outlook if it was,), who says that there is no safe level of alcohol, even the one glass of red wine per day that is often proclaimed as health-giving and life-prolonging.
Mr O'Miserybollocks wants the public to be aware that alcohol causes cancer and
is, allegedly, responsible for 20,000 deaths annually in the United
States. Alcohol-related cancer, therefore, kills 0.006 per cent of
Americans per year. To put that in perspective, dementia kills 0.09 per
cent of Americans per year and heart disease 0.21 per cent. Similar ratios of UK and EU citizens are similarly affected.
There is no doubt about the existence of a link between alcohol and cancer, the demon drink is known to be a contributory factor in seven types of cancer including breast, mouth,
throat, pancreatic and liver. But, without appearing too flippant, with approximately 200,500,000 Americans consuming alcohol
and only 20,000 per year dying from cancer related to that drinking, and likewise 300,000,000 Europeans and 45 million Britons regularly enjoying a bevvy or two, with similar fatality rates, it
could be said that an overwhelming proportion of people who drink
alcohol do not die of cancer related to their consumption. Of course,
they might fall downstairs, crash their car or get into a fatal scrap.
But so might many teetotallers. And of course nobody has done any research into what proportion of non drinkres kill themselves / other people because they can't think of any other way to relieve the boredom.
Miseryguts Murthy wants to make the labels on booze bottles more explicit about the dangers. Currently US containers carry warnings about alcohol-related birth defects and not operating machinery while under the influence. In the UK we have a warning about birth defects in the form of a cryptic depiction of a pregnant woman (could be a man, of course) with a red cross, often jokingly misinterpreted as a warning that drinking may lead to pregnancy although if pregnancy reults from a drinking session it indicates that the male involved has not drunk enough..
Dr Murthy has not specified how ‘informative’ the labels should be
but I imagine he has in mind a campaign similar to the one whereby all
cigarette packets in the US must carry explicit colour pictures
related to tobacco-related cancers. We followed suit in the UK. In
Australia they send the anti-smoking message so strongly that you can
barely tell which brand of cigarettes you are buying, so festooned is
the packet with pathological images. These draconian laws about cigarette packaging do not apply to contrabnd cigarettes smuggled in from Eastern Europe and North Africa and are sold outside or often in pubs by shifty looking men who carry large backpacks. Word on the street has it that most cigarettes consumed in the UK now are marketed through this tyupe of operation.
But what has Murthy has in mind for wine bottles? Given the almost evangelical fervour of the extreme elements of the health promotion brigade, we can well imagine that it is. The wine label business is competitive and can be lucrative. A well-designed label can cost upwards of $1,000 but some of the best labels are described as priceless.
Can we look forward to our admiration of the artwork on the label of an expensive bottle of wine being ruined by the inclusion of depictions of cancerous tissues and dying alcoholics? Will the tasting notes referring to ‘hints of cinnamon’ and ‘notes of lime and melon’ with a ‘fragrant finish’ have to include information on how much you will increase your chances of popping your clogs from breast/mouth/throat/liver cancer if iyou pop the cork and have a sip? It is more than likely they will.
In the duing days of the abysmal Biden administration Murthy has thrown down a gauntlet for the
Trump administration to pick up, or not. The incoming President is
teetotal and his chosen Health Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr, is a
recovering alcoholic but as libertarians it's more likely they will stick with warning about alcoholism and let people make up their own minds. After all populism is all about being popular and busybodies, especially in government, have never been popular.
They may realise that, while alcohol can be dangerous and there is no definable safe level this is because as individuals we have a wide range of tolerances, as is described in Monty Python's Philosopher Song:
Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel
There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'bout the raising of the wrist
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill
Plato, they say, could stick it away
Half a crate of whiskey every day
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle
Hobbes was fond of his dram
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart
"I drink, therefore I am."
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
(Copyright Monty Pyton's Flying Circus)
Were all the great philosophers really drunks? Sorry, no idea but most of us are aware that alcohol is enjoyed by billions of people around the world, mostly in moderation. It is
a relaxant, a social mixer and the alcohol industry supports millions
of jobs worldwide. If there is ‘no safe level’, the Vivek Murthys of
this world presumably envisage zero tolerance and wish to ban
consumption completely, akin to the campaign against tobacco.his is because they are contol freaks, a highly dangerous addiction from which there is no cure.
As Homer Simpson said, alcohol is ‘the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems’. It may, indeed, be the cause of a few problems but some of our major national and international problems are currently coming from adherents to a religion that prohibits alcohol. One is bound to wonder: Could there be a link?
MORE HEALTH FASCISM POSTS:
Food health fascism: Salt, Sugar, Saturated Fat, Alcohol, Cheese, Fizzy Drinks, Chocloate, ... if you enjoy it, it will kill you - maybe.
We are all familiar with those health scare stories that seem to pop up in mainstream media at least once a week claiming this that or the other will kill us. Few people spot the irony in that a few days earlier the same sensationalist rag will have carried a story under a similar screaming headline, claiming that scientists have found the stuff being demonised is in fact good for us ...
Long Term Use of Paracetmol Can Injure or Kill
More news from the great healthcare scam and it isn't good. Independent research (i.e. not funded by people who profit from your doctor making you addicted to painkillers) shows that long term use of high doseage parcetamol can damage your liver more than heavy drinking. makes one wonder how much of the current 'liver disease epidemic' is due to prescription drugs rather than booze.
This is a British website so we are rather better off than our American cousins. Even so, there is good advice here for those who are
rightly wary of what the conglomerates are doing to our beer.
Long Term Use of Paracetmol Can Injure or Kill
After years of Medical professionals and pharmaceutical industry executives dismissing patients worries about the cumulative affects of the Drug paracetamol, recent research now shows +Scientists were wrong again. Long term use of paracetamol to treat chronic pain can be harmful ...
Doctors Cautght Lying Again - Long Term Paracetamol Use Can KillFor years doctors and health scientists have mocked fears that long term use of paracetamol can harm heath and even be fatal. A new study proved the punters were right and the doctors were lying again ...
Scientists And Politicians Attack The Food We Love, But Is It Science Or Just Control FreakeryA sustained campaign of misinformation by politicians, scientists, bureaucrats and the media have tried to brand fat and salt as the twin demons of the modern diet. Both however are essential to our wellbeing. So what are the bureaucrats, government and science lobby up to. What is the politics of food fascism. Are they just behaving as control freaks must or are they softening us up for extra taxes and government regulation of our dinner plates and the food we eat.
Acohol Abuse Will Kill 250,000 A Year Unless Governmnt Acts say Control Freak DoctorsThe Health fascists have been out in force this week. With reports on the dangers of alcohol, meat, salt and obesity published our resistance is being tested. The Daily Stirrer is on your side whether you like a drink, a bit of meat, a sprinking of salt on your food or you are a shade overweight. We are always happy to expose the dodgy scence and rigged evidence behind theses control freak fear and panic exercises.
Malawi: Where Farting Is A Crime.We in the west have endured the gradual erosion of our civil liberty, human rights and personal freedom in the name of politically correct thinking but while we look to the developing world as offering a simpler, more common sense approach to life it seems their situation is worse. A new law in Malawi has made farting a crime. At least in the west we can still fart at will.
* Does Smoking Cause Lung Cancer? It Appears Not In The Eyes Of The LawIt is, is it not, a scientific fact hat smoking causes lung cancer. Apparently not and once again we se there is no such thing as the science is settled. In a ruling that exposes the scientific method as simply building ad case that provides the amswer you wanted, a court judgement in Scotland shows that smoking cannot be identified as the cause of a case of cancer. This is a victory for smoking and the rights of smokers, a blow to the nanny state ...
Alcohol Related Hogwash
The latest in the campaign to demonise drink by misrepresenting the number of alcohol related hospital admissions.
Proud To Be PissedBoggart Blog has always been a staunch defender of drinkers rights.
Alcohol AwareThe government has launched one of those nanny state campaigns to raise public awareness of alcohol. This Boggart Blog in depth report finds the public don't need their awareness raising, they know all they need to know about every kind of booze and drug on the market and drink, smoke or snort what they like best...
Cardiff To Pioneer Drunk Friendly StreetsThe news that Welsh capital city Cardiff is to expreriment with making its streets drunk friendly gave us plenty to speculate about.
Every Day In Every Way Tyranny Creeps A Little CloserThe NHS has come up with a scheme to deny care to people whose behaviour has contributed to their ailments. Smokes lung problems will go untreated, alcoholics livers will remain enlarged and fat people's bad backs will get no sympathy or pain killeres. But how far will this health tyranny go. 'No, you can't have a midwife, you got yourself pregnant, deal with it. We've got paperwork to do?
Five A DayA recent survey on our understanding of a portion of fruit and veg shows that 25% of the surveyed adults thought orange squash counted as a portion of fruit. A can of Tango must count as two portions then. Add a portion of lemon meringue pie and you're almost there! Somehow we supect Nanny State's nagging about the health benefits of five a day ae falling on deaf ears
Before The Pubs CloseWith religions having such a downer on sex one might think they would be in favour of booze, I mean if you drink enough alcohol you are going to be too busy choking on your own vomit to bother about shagging. In spite of that religious leaders continue to promise hell and buggeration to people who like a bevvy...
A Career In Substance AbuseThere are some weird jobs advertised in the government and public sector but a full page in a newspaper recruitment supplement dedicated to careers in substance abuse deminded investigation. Did they mean you get paid for yelling at a lump of lard 'You're a horrible, greasy disgusting substance' or did they mean recreational use of substances such as alcohol, pot and speed? (drink, booze)
Childhood Drinking Put Us On The Slippery SlopeWill the odd sip of booze, wine or beer from the parents glass for young children or a small glass of watered wine or lemonade shandy for older ones lead to moral decrepitude, alcohol dependency, living in a carboard box and early death as a government survey claims or will children included in this adult activity develop a heathier attitude to drink
Murder: I Suspect The Drunken Elk In The Orchard With The ApplesStories of drunk animals, booze raddled badgers, sozzled squirrels and maunged moose reported at this time every year by Boggart Blog, are usually amusing. Now however, in keeping with the degeneration of society in general we must report a darker side to alcohol related animal behaviour problems. This story, from Sweden, will make even the fearless think twice about confronting the most docile of species .
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