UN Smoking Police

Consistent with the ongoing trend to demonstrate the dominant influence exercised by radical special interests on the United Nations, a treaty called The Framework Convention for Tobacco Control has been formulated and presented to member nations for ratification. If it's like other documents produced by the UN, it should be called The Latest Plan to Fleece United States Businesses and Taxpayers.

Editorializing aside, apparently this document provides justification for sending nasty grams to people they feel smoke too much, which is what they did to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Mark Steyn reports in the UK Telegraph that:

". . . Hun Sen was "told by the United Nations he was the biggest smoker among world leaders." [and]

"The UN has asked the prime minister to stop smoking."

Excuse me, but I have to ask. What the hell is going on? Somehow the UN seems to not bother with pesky problems like genocide and terrorism to concentrate on Being-Bathroom-Monitor-at-the-High-School. This makes no sense.

Digressing, I want to pass along a couple of Mark Steyn's paragraphs that I thought were interesting regarding the UN's anti-smoking efforts.

Are the UN's smoke detectors their version of arresting Al Capone for tax evasion? Were they ready to nail Saddam for some tell-tale ash on his tie when it turned out to be merely anthrax? Were they set to move in on Mullah Omar after they got him on tape telling his child-bride, "Ooh, I could murder a pack of fags, luv," only to discover it was just another Gay Execution Day at the Kandahar soccer pitch?

Hard to say. But, as a general rule, whenever a great international crisis runs up against an anti-smoking policy, bet on the latter. That's been true ever since Hillary Clinton made Yitzhak Rabin go outside to smoke when he was at the White House for negotiations over the Oslo peace accords. (Mrs. Clinton's husband remained in compliance with her smoking policy by keeping his cigar famously unlit.)

All this and there are still many folks in the US political arena that think we should give up our sovereignty to the increasingly irrelevant UN.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[Thanks to Common Sense & Wonder.]