talkmagic.co.uk

It will be noted that on my website section where it says "products for sale" I have produced a little tape on how to give up smoking. It seems to work.

In the several years that this tape has been listed on the website I have sold precisely zilch. I do hope this continues because I can never be bothered sending tapes out for a measly $10. I cannot even remember if I charge postage. I don't think I do and if I were posting this to the UK it would be a losing proposition.

I am therefore hoping that I don't sell any so this post cannot be construed as advertising. However if someone wishes to save their life I suppose I will have to consider it my holy duty to help them to do so. I will have to look into the postage thing though before I lose too much money on the matter.

I do believe that hypnosis (which I don't believe in) is the best method of smoking cessation available. It is of course good to combine this with other methods.

If various suspicious and sceptical people here are wondering why I think hypnosis which I don't believe in can work for smoking cessation I must tell them that I can't be bothered discussing the matter.

I can also recommend Allen Carr's book entitled "The easy way to stop smoking"

Excellent advice but.....
BUMP:

More to the point, can we stick to the original topic please? Alex was concerned about the threats and abuse by those who were too young to buy stuff themselves. The question of smoking or not needs to be kept for another, quite separate debate if possible.

Whew! The debate was getting a little heated there for my tastes! Think im going to go outside for a fag....

Mark, perhaps you'd like to send out free samples of your tape!


Back on topic, there's a real ptroblem with teenagers these days.
Somehow in half a generation, stabndards have slipped to such a level that kids these days think it's cool to be thugs and criminals, and think that they can only be cool by getting drunk at 13 and smoking etc.
I wont divulge the why of my starting smoking, but I can assure it had absolutely zero to do with beng "cool". Especially when you consider that none of my friends smoke.

The problem I find is that there's so many teen parents these days. Which means hundreds of kids are not being bought up properly hence creating the problem we have with the little Ess-Atch-Eye-Tees.

Alas it seems to be getting worse, AJ i feel for you, I too know what it's like to be harassed by kids to buy them fags and alcohol, one even throwing a punch when I refused and walked out with my own.
Luckily, he didn't connect, else he WOULD have had somethign to cry about.

Breeding needs to be illegalised for anyone under the age of 21, on punishment of having the little kids taken away from the bad parents and given to loving families who can't have their own kids.

Just my thoughts, smoker bashing aside

Breeding needs to be illegalised for anyone under the age of 21, on punishment of having the little kids taken away from the bad parents and given to loving families who can't have their own kids.

I second that. Good points there, Ecko.

Thanks Dominick, glad to see someone agrees with me

I would just like to add though that I am not saying every teen parent is a bad parent. I'm just saying it's true in the majority of cases, and even where it's not true, having kids so young is a TREMENDOUS amount of responsibility... I really don't think people should do it on the off chance they're responsible enough...

Everyone has the choice.

I dont smoke and wont smoke. Thats my choice.

Everyone knows the dangers of smoking and everyone knows the reasons why people smoke. (its a secondry school thing - you learn it these days! LOL)

However the fact is. If you are under 16 you shouldnt smoke. You are breaking the law. If you are over then thats your choice.

ANYWAY, BACK TO TOPIC (sorry Mandrake)

I fully well agree. Some kids / teens are pure rude.
Squirt your drink as you drive out the petrol station. (No maybe not...)

Oooo the kids of today.... the trouble with them is they have no fear of anything anymore.. they play the politically correct card everytime you try to punish them and at the end of the day there are no real punishments anymore... ASBO's wow scary!....Bring back Borstal I say hit'em hard...

James Whale from Talksport had an idea that all males should be sterilized at birth and would have to gain a license to have it reversed when they felt it was time to have children...

It would certainly solve a lot of problems I'm sure.. the only trouble is who would decide if they were ready?

Also having just returned from a holiday in UAE staying with friends who have been living there for 12 years I was surprised how apperently lax they were with their children, Aged 13 and 11 (both great well balanced happy kids I might add) Letting them go out alone to the shops etc without a worry for their safety... until they explained that there really isn't anything to worry about over there as crime and the sort of stuff we have to put up with here just doesn't happen over there.. due to the fact they punish crime properly... It may seem barbaric to chop off the hands of thieves or the dangly bits of rapists... but with that sort of deterent it does seem to have the desired effect... almost zero crime and no kids with attitude...

Just some thoughts

...i blame the punk generation personally, the whole fake "i don't care" and "i do what i want" attitude and spread down to their kids, who in turn spawn more with the same philosophy...

...and contentiously, smacking or rather, the lack of it...i got 3 warnings as a kid, first one with an explanation and a please on the end, a second with another warning, third a light smack on the arm or back of the leg...a short sharp shock..

i learnt, i didnt (often) ever do it again, i understood why i got smacked, i understood why i shouldnt be throwing plugged in radios into the bath and so on...

everyone wants to be seen in their teenage years as grown up to certain extent, but the rush to be adult nowadays is over the top. And the parent(s) who think its somehow wrong to to tell their kids off, or not allow them to do what they want is ridiculous...

spoil your kids, with love and fun and all the good things...not sweets, designer clothes and fake tans at the age of six...

but i think that the urge to identify with something is even stronger these days for some kids who might not of had the best upbringing or are missing a parent for whatever reason - thats not their fault, unfortunately if they see a little gang all dressing the same (as every youth culture does be it goth/mod/hippy or whatever), and more importantly acting the same...well, there's the rub...

years ago, a council estate was just that - a working class area of flats and so on, nowadays its the "ghetto innit"...but its still the same place...if they had any sense of what real ghettos were/are or indeed lived in one, they'd never use that word again to describe their habitat of mobile phones, sky plus dishes and designer trainers...

so, in summing up - stick them all up the chimneys again...do them the world of good...

...the smiths lyric springs to mind "the day that your mentality decides to catch-up with your biology..." ...oh i wish...

And these, well, louts (or, I suppose, "disaffected youths" - John Shuttleworth anyone? ) I suppose are, in part anyway, the future.

I wonder how they'll mature as they grow up?

...what i also find odd is that a few of the people that go on those anti-capitalist marches in central london that attend the local universities, will end up as our future lawyers, doctors and politicians...

Even more worrying, many of those 'long haired layabout unwashed hippies' who went in peace and other protest marches in the 1960's and 1970's are now the elder generation with grown up families. Despite the econoimic changes, some perhaps will still have jobs & mortgages and are probably quite boringly ordinary!

Cardza wrote:And these, well, louts (or, I suppose, "disaffected youths" - John Shuttleworth anyone? ) I suppose are, in part anyway, the future.

I wonder how they'll mature as they grow up?

Some of them probably won't. They will spawn the next generation of idiots.

I'll be the first to point out that some teenagers are rude, ignorant, anti-soical. But so too are some older people. Lots of older people are racist, homophobic etc etc (No I don't buy the 'they're set in their ways/too old to change') Not to mention lack manners, don't get me wrong, I'll gladly give up my seat for an old person on the bus...but just because they're going to die sooner than me, doesn't give them the right to shove me, talk to me like I'm stupid, or be downright offensive. No, not all old people are like that. But quite a lot are. Just giving some perspective.

I've had a kid swearing at me when I won't buy them alcohol. I've had a middle aged person who said very offensive things to me, believing I was a Satanist due to my manner of dress, I've had an old person literally shove me out of the way.

But I will agree, that young people are definitely less subtle and more aggressive in their behaviour.

at shool there taught that expressing themselves in the key component of there education not logic or common sense.

after school there taught that the more kids they produce the more benefits they get and the bigger there housing allowence is.

as they get older they are taught that the more disabled and dependants they can claim for the less chance they need to get a job.

rent, food , playstations are there right and don't need to be earnt.

the police are to busy with paperwork to prosecute and when they do the courts are so leanient that petty crime, another bad use of a word, is acceptable and is condoned to supliment there rights.

the criminal justice system is just that justice for criminals after all they have human rights and can sue there offenders.

is it any wonder that they belive anything goes and that there untoucherbal and expect everything to be given to them without any responsibility or need to earn it.

and the media renforces the steriotype, the govenment talks about it but does nothing and if someone breaks the party line and actualy makes a difference they are stomped on, what do you expect.

I'm going to be my father now.

Okay here we go:

"I'll tell you what the problem is today! It's all that violence in movies! And the yo-yo-yo rap music! Talkin' 'bout killin' and pimpin' and stuff! That's what's affected the youth! Why can't be like the days where kids went bowling and saw family friendly movies?"

Me:

"Those days are gone."

Okay...End scene.