booze next!

[Doug Henwood]

Those of us convinced that the next health fascists' target after tobacco
would be booze have some evidence in the December issue of Multinational
Monitor, "Big Alcohol Puts on a Front," an article by one Hilary Abramson
unveiling the International Center for Alcohol Policies as an
industry-funded front. Less interesting than that piece of info is the
article's general tone - the deliberate rhetorical parallel between Big
Alcohol and Big Tobacco established in the first paragraph, the
mysteriously precise dollar estimates of damage ("alcohol problems in the
United States costs society an estimated $148 billion a year"), and the
alarmed oppressive tone ("pleasure took precedence over risk at ICAP's
first international conference..."). We learn that "consuming three to four
drinks at one occasion" is "at-risk behavior."

Nader could probably do a good business in selling hair shirts; maybe he
should diversify his funding sources away from trial lawyers!

Doug