And when I made this observation to the gaggle outside my office building, they replied, "We are persecuted." Poor devils.

As the Surgeon General's uncompromised edict swirls around our bombarded heads, let us note once more how lame that Times magazine piece was about the Philip Morris flack Steve Parrish. It had, at first, the deep, satisfying pull of a principled stand, then became so much hot air.