I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Greg and I like to read the letters to the editor in the Sunday paper, because it seems to bring out the extremists and wackos, and is right up there with the restaurant inspections in terms of a good read. I just got around to reading this one from last Sunday's paper. Now, normally they're a bit more right-leaning (which is usually part of what makes them so entertaining to me). But you gotta love this guy's completely unsubstantiated "facts," as well as his intuitively obvious link between smoking and food prices. You also gotta love the paper's publishing this nonsense. I think this must be the Fox of newspapers... Don't get me wrong: I'm completely in support of the ban on smoking, and can't believe that it has taken this long to do something about the 7 cent tax on cigarettes, but don't get me started...

Some background: The city recently reinstated (after instating, then un-instating due to a court battle, now reinstating) a smoking ban in restaurants, that applies to bars, etc.

The Greenville City Council hath wrought [note: I AM NOT making that part up.... 'hath wrought' ... who does he think he is?] a very good thing by passing an ordinance that makes it illegal to smoke within 10 feet of a door.

Smokers are the No. 1 litterers and if you do not believe it, just look at all the butts off the I-385 ramp at Woodruff Road, which looks like the county dump for cigarette butts. Smokers are the No. 1 cause of unnecessary greenhouse gases. They use up more than their share of oxygen and emit more than their share of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide [perhaps he is a scientist...] They are therefore worldwide, an important factor in global warming and a shortage of food and clean water, which normally is replenished by rain but the warming processes have cause [not sure if that was a typo or just southern English] droughts of late which also has helped caused [same thing here] food shortages.

That's the craziest part. It gets a little less crazy (and therefore less entertaining) as he goes on to say that it is immoral for the state to encourage farmers to grow tobacco (though there is no indication of how the state is 'encouraging' this). Just when you though the crazy went away, though, he wraps up with this:

So something needs to be done to force both the state and smokers to not only get rid of their addiction but also live a healthier life. The state should remove all subsidies and encourage farmers to grow food instead such as tomatoes and other vegetable, berry, and fruit crops.

Whoa. I didn't know someone that left-leaning existed in South Carolina. "Something needs to be done" to make people give up bad habits? Are we going back to suing McDonalds for making people fat? You do realize that this is SOUTH CAROLINA, don't you? And that people here don't like rules and laws? The state with no vehicle inspections? No helmet laws? The state where you can't be arrested for hitting your spouse until the third time? And you want a law to make people stop smoking and "live healthier"? You want the state to give farm subsidies preferentially, only for some crops? Go for it, buddy.