Modern Martyrs

In the Times today I read that Europe is confronting a demographic time bomb from an ageing population. link

Meanwhile, in England a smoking ban in public places will be introduced in a weeks time, meaning that all those smokers who pour money into the public purse, selflessly throwing down their lives before they become a drain on public pensions, only taking back a small fraction of what they've paid in to ease them through their inevitable painful death, will be cast out from public places and treated as pariahs, scorned, mocked, and abused.

How will future generations look upon smokers? Will they be bizarre and reviled figures, like witchdoctors or medieval torturers? Or will they be looked upon as misunderstood martyrs, selflessly throwing down their lives for the good of the majority? More pertinently, why is the government so keen to throw away such a huge tax revenue only in return for an even greater tax burden?

Where Tunnels Lead

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Proof of Intelligent Design