During both World Wars, the U.S. government supplied tobacco to our
troops. By 1964, 46 percent of adults in this nation smoked—including
inside public buildings, during commercial flights, and on televised
advertisements. That year, with the help of Surgeon General Luther L.
Terry’s book, Smoking and Health, the winds of change began to blow in fresher air.
In 1965 Congress required manufacturers to post health warnings on
cigarette packs. In 1969 Congress outlawed tobacco advertising on
television and radio. In 1989 smoking was banned on all domestic
flights. In 2000 California banned smoking in public places, including
bars and restaurants. Twenty-six states have since followed suit,
including Minnesota which established an indoor smoking ban in 2007.
Today less than 20 percent of adults in the U.S. smoke. Over the last
half century, scientific research, governmental regulation, and public
information campaigns have combined to alter our society’s perspective
on smoking. While tobacco usage remains legal, what once was widely
regarded as a harmless pleasure is now deemed an addictive health
hazard.
The Witherspoon Institute
The Witherspoon Institute (TWI) recently proclaimed that what the
U.S. has done with tobacco must now be done with Internet pornography.
TWI first met in December 2008 at Princeton, NJ. Its participants
published
The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations, a brief summary of
The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers,
edited by James R. Stoner, Jr., and Donna M. Hughes. It is vital to
note that the signatories represent “every major shade of religious
belief … from atheism and agnosticism to Christianity, Judaism, and
Islam. Both the left and the right in American politics are represented,
including social conservatism and contemporary feminism.” The
signatories also supply a wide range of professional expertise in
“economics, medicine, psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, sociality,
journalism, and law” (p. 10). Continue at
Dan Miller
