Thanks for the AT Blog item "Nanny State Nevada"  It's all so true. The jihad against smoking, and increasingly against smokers themselves (not unintentional)--has been, more than any other single issue, the cause of my own re-examination and gradual political reorientation over a number of years. (I don't say it's the only issue, but  one that is a perfect example of something happening in so many other areas of life as well, and one which had the benefit of waking me up.) When I realized that this assault on the use of a legal product, and one that has been part of Western culture for 500 years, was coming almost exclusively from the left, I realized that the left was no longer what I had formerly identified with. I always used to think that "liberal" was intimately related to liberty. Silly me!The phenomenon has also had a dramatic effect on my social life. I don't smoke much at all, but when I do, I enjoy it. I am not trying to quit, but will do so if...(Read Full Post)