From this CNN article:

A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.

According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.

I read the entire article and never saw what friends of mine with military backgrounds have told me repeatedly: if you smoke, you get more break time.

"Hey sarge, I'm gonna go light one up. Back in ten minutes."

And you're off. You're still on the clock, you're still technically "on duty," but you're taking a paid break. And it's only available to smokers.

"Hey sarge. I'm gonna go lean against that wall with my hands in my pockets. Back in ten minutes."

That'll probably get you laughed at or worse.

Now I'm sure this will differ from unit to unit, base to base, deployment to deployment, and branch to branch. Please! If you read this and have military experience, I'd love to hear your take on it.

If it's as broadly true as I've been anecdotally led to believe then the military has one more really good reason to ban smoking - it will increase productivity.

Of course they should then employ some decent management practices so that the overworked, undercompensated men and women in uniform can find healthy ways to decompress, blow off steam, take five, or whatever. Because let's face it... whether or not you smoke, sometimes you just need to take a break.

Tags: politics

Yesterday morning (and Sunday morning, and THIS morning) I weighed in at a recent-record-low 179 pounds. That's down 13.5 lbs from my holiday high of 192.5, and having done it three days in a row (each morning following an entire day of fairly normal eating), I'm pretty confident I've hit a new "fat equilibrium" point.

In short, the low-carb dieting has been working. Granted, I'm not taking my usual "eat whatever you want, just keep carbs below 30g per day" approach. I decided to actually COUNT CALORIES for the first time in my life, and that's afforded me worlds more control. The low-carb dieting keeps my appetite under control, and the calorie counting helps me decide when to and when not to eat, regardless of how hungry I'm not.

My rest caloric burn is probably about 2200, maybe 2400. I'm assuming that even with what little exercising I'm doing, I'm effectively "sedentary." So for calorie counting I keep it under about 1800 per day, which isn't actually that hard. Small portions, four times per day, and I'm usually only around 1500 or 1600 calories. Oh, and lots of water (and faux Crystal Light drink mix.)

Anyway, to celebrate I took myself to a movie Monday morning. I saw 300, and I had popcorn (there's 400 calories right there, mmmm butter-flavor). This film was a very curious blend of comic-book stylization, politics, and patriotism. I enjoyed it thoroughly. From a historical standpoint there were obviously some glaring errors -- most notably, the spartans probably never broke ranks to rush forward and play "solo berserker careening through Persian fodder." That's just poor discipline. The reason 300 spartans held the pass at Thermopylae for as long as they did was because they maintained that shield wall, conserving their strength and forcing the enemy to rush THEM. Superior tactics, superior training, and superior discipline won the day -- not a few impossibly acrobatic warriors.

Still, I enjoyed the film. Historical inaccuracies aside, there is little doubt that Leonidas and his small army prevented Xerxes from absorbing and enslaving Greece. Democracy and Western Civilization were pioneered in Greece, which means that without Leonidas the world would have ended up looking a lot different. Anywhere freedom flourishes, it is in large measure because rough men stand ready to defend it to the death.

We probably didn't need comic-book style heroes in a hollywood gore-fest to remind us of this, but we do still need to be reminded.

Tags: health, movies, politics