If Big Gov is going to nag us, why the tunnel vision?  Cigarettes are still very much legal, aren't they?  But, hey, they can do all sorts of nasty things to your body, and Big Brother wants you to know that -- big time.

From a March 15 story at the website of The Wall Street Journal:

Uncle Sam wants you to quit smoking.

Federal health officials are unveiling a hard-hitting national antismoking ad campaign Thursday, hoping that graphic spots portraying people with stomas, limb amputations and other gruesome effects of smoking-related illnesses will persuade more adults to quit.

The $54 million, 12-week campaign, called 'Tips From Former Smokers,' is the first paid national antismoking media effort by the government, which normally leaves such campaigns to state and local entities-whose budgets have been sharply cut in the past few years....

Gosh, since the Obama administration is shelling out the big bucks for a graphic anti-smoking ad campaign to help promote good health, how about a few million dollars to show the public the gruesome reality of abortion, which, after all, has ended many more lives than smoking? 

The administration could also, in light of the now-infamous contraception mandate, spend a few million dollars to advertise that 1) birth control pills have been declared a Class 1 carcinogen (the most dangerous type) by the World Health Association in June 2005; and 2) the most recent meta-analysis published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings (October 2006) noted that taking the birth control pill before pregnancy results in a 44 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer prior to age 50.  (Source)

I won't hold my (non-smoking) breath.