THE NICOTINI NAZIS
Cathode Ray, the Ft. Lauderdale gay bar, has introduced a truly disgusting-sounding concoction called the Nicotini.

"It tastes like a cross between vodka and chewing tobacco," said Fort Lauderdale resident Jonathan Cook after trying his first nicotini. "That's not necessarily a bad thing."

Er... yes it is, Jonathan. But I digress.

You will never find me with a Nicotini in my hands, but... to each his own. (Bottoms up, Jonathan!) What's disturbing in this Sun-Sentinel article isn't the disgusting drink, though. but the reaction of the Health Thugs. Don't they always tell us that they want to ban smoking in all public places because they're battling second-hand smoke? Well... guess what? Here, in their own words, see how the Health Thugs react to the Nicotini:

* "To me, it sounds likes a cocktail of death," said Elise Lindborg, who runs an Internet-based project called the Gay American Smoke Out.

* "This is craziness," said Glenn Singer, a lung specialist at the Broward General Medical Center. "It's crazy to give people nicotine-laced cocktails so they don't have withdrawal."

* "We tried to think of what places might come up with to get around the amendment, but I never would have dreamed of something like this," said Sandra Kessler, executive director of the American Lung Association of Florida.

I smoke, and I wish I could successfully quit, and some day (with a bit more motivation and a lot more willpower) I will. But the over-reaction of these people -- ostensibly concerned with the dangers to employees and non-smokers, but really concerned with running our lives -- demonstrates that the 'second-hand smoke' argument they use with regularity to ban smoking in bars, parks, etc. is nothing but their Trojan Horse.

Elsie, Glenn Sandra and their fellow Health Thugs should at least be honest about their intentions. If they want to ban cigarettes and nicotine altogether, then they should say that, rather than hide under the guise of protecting people from 'second-hand smoke.' Because no innocent, pink lungs are going to be damaged by spillage from a Nicotini.

Until they decide they are going to be honest, they're more disgusting than... well, than a Nicotini.
(original article via 601am, which is not responsible for the commentary...)