Saturday
Mar202010
Painful memory of the Institute of Ideas
Saturday, March 20, 2010 I'll be in London today, attending the Battle for Politics, a "pre-election public summit" organised by the Institute of Ideas. It's at Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, from 9.30 to 6.00pm. Tickets, I am told, are available on the door. Full programme HERE.
The last time I went to an IoI event - in November 2008 - I was on a panel discussing the politics of food. I have rarely addressed such a sympathetic, (genuinely) liberal audience.
That's not my main recollection of the day, however, because a few hours later I was taken by ambulance to hospital where I was told I had a kidney stone. I wrote about it HERE.
Ah, yes, the (painful) memory comes flooding back ...
Reader Comments (15)
Im suprised the anti smoking lobby has not yet claimed kidney stones are caused by smoking.
Its a good job you dont smoke Simon, otherwise you would have been a sitting target for the Antis to point the finger and blame 'that dirty filthy habit'!
I had MY last attack of Kidney Stones back in 1990. Unfortunately, the device they inserted to retract one of them snapped internally, and ruptured my ureter - keeping me in hospital for ten days.
I don't believe I've ever had so much fun !
But at least the League Of Friends (wonderful people) provided a smoking room - in THOSE days.
Which did as much to restore my spirits as the Pethadine did to relieve the occasional bouts of excruciating pain.
With 'friends' like YOU, Deborah.............
I'm disgustingly healthy I havent even had a cold for 6 years.
Never been in hospital.
I think it's because I smoke.
LOL
Specky -
That's grossly irresponsible of you !
Don't you realise that there may be CHILDREN (ie anyone under 35) reading the blogs on here ?
It's a Scientific Fact that EVERYONE who smokes is VERY UNHEALTHY.
And will probably DIE eventually.
I read it somewhere...............
Martin & Specky
You are both quite horribly irresponsible so there!
You both want to go on the ASH site and do some responsible reading.
http://www.ash.org.uk/ash_9aemkp99.htm#8679
What’s it about? Well it’s about something that makes me want to bite all my toes off…
We just don’t think about our pets do we? No, that’s right we don’t!
So, the pair of you read this right now!
‘North West health experts are warning pet owners about the little-known risks of passive smoking on dogs, cats and other creatures.
They say as many as 750,000 household pets in the region could be at risk from illnesses like asthma, respiratory infections or even death as a result of inhaling their owners’ second-hand smoke’.
I’ve called for paramedics…my sides have just burst!
@Chris - it was bound to happen, wasn't it?
"Will no-one think of the little furry aaaanimals!" At a stroke you have (albeit, incredibly stupid) animal-lovers and their charities on side.
Chris -
Point taken - and please do excuse my Moment of Madness.
It won't happen again (today).
Thanks for the link. I didn't know quite what to make of it - so I persuaded my Little Feline Friend to have a look, too. More his sort of territory, really.
I must have lived a more sheltered life than I thought - because that's the first time I've seen a cat laugh !
It is HIS opinion that “All humans are bonkers”, and hopes that they are “never allowed to take over the Planet”.
He then went back to sleep downstairs in a mild huff.
Should I tell him the truth ?
But that probably WOULD be cruel..............
Thanks Simon - was it really two years ago? - you have just reminded me that I am getting older faster than I realised, and, being a smoker, you know what that means..
“If animals could talk, they would probably be asking their owners to go outside to have a cigarette.”
You've got to be fucking kidding?
This is a premature April Fools joke isn't it?
I'll listen to a dog when it stops licking its arse and rolling about in other dog shit, and yes I did once have a dog in a 2 smoker household and it died aged 14, (Human years x 7 for dog years).
1976 - 1990, go do the math ASH.
I too had a dog in a two smoker household that died aged 14, a dogs normal span of life.
Cant believe I'm even defending this normal way of life, but with all the bullshit statistics going around these days, find myself saying things like this more often on nearly a daily basis.
Just goes to show how far the bullshitters of spin have infiltrated even the normal brains of common sense people like us.
But then out of the swamp of journalistic spin pops the odd journalist, like Gene Kerrigan of the Irish Sunday Independent, who's article today puts it all into perspective and gives one hope that they're not all cast from the same stone.
I love small animals.
Escecially when done in a tasty sauce. !
I have had dogs all my life and all of them have lived in a smoking home. None have died of smoking related illnesses, some a little earlier than hoped but then they have all been rescue dogs with various atrocities in their first few months or years.
Most have lived to be between 14 and 16 years old; some were mongrels others pure bred German Shepherd Dogs or Border Collies.
We currently have a retired Greyhound who is now 8.5 years old and in first class health, looking so good that many people think she is still racing!
PS: The tortoise is somewhere in his 70's and he is perfectly healthy too and just woken up from his hibernation and is currently investigating the garden.
Remember the Beagle experiments in the 1970s and 80s?
"...the animal experiments had all failed to induce lung cancers. Whatever the case, in the 1971 Report, the Surgeon General conceded that the experiments with dogs, using smoking machines, had failed."
"...new smoking machines have been devised that subject rats to second hand smoke....exposing rats to continuous concentrations of smoke as high as 4,000 micrograms per cubic meter....Bottom line: no significant harm to the animals has been shown."
http://www.lcolby.com/b-chap9.htm