Without wasting any time on the propaganda about the 90,000 deaths / 35,000 new cases of lung cancer (that cannot be proven to be caused by tobacco), or on the passive smoke trash, I will go on with some more realistic considerations.

• Italy has the stiffest laws for speeding, with tickets often reaching 3,000 euros (1 euro = about 91 US cents), but the average speed on the Italian freeways is better than 160 Kph (100 miles per hour), although many drivers well exceed 200 Kph. It is relatively quite rare to get a speeding ticket, and the photo-radar is seldom used. Some static, automatic ones are even disabled with black spray paint over the sensors.

• Italy has the safety belt law, but nearly the majority of Italians does not wear belts because it does not like the interference of the state in personal affairs. The consequence is that safety belt tickets are as rare as Ferrari cars, and the cops who do not wear them are as common as Fiats.

• Italy has over 250,000 laws (not counting the EU ones), compared to Britain’s 9,000 or so, and most of them must be broken just as a fact of mere existence, and I will not bore the readers with the infinite list of transgressions. What the United States are becoming thanks to the "health & safety" gangs, Italy has been since time immemorial: an over-regulated, bureaucratic monster.

The way Italians perceive the state, fortunately, is as the entity to beat. Through our long history, we were never victimised by the naive illusion that the State represents Italians and "takes care of us," but we most realistically perceive government as a powerful intruder to wrestle with, in order to carry on with our lives. With this view, a huge number of Italians sees most fines for what they really are: a random, hidden, and exploitative tax on the exercise of liberty.

The resounding words of our minister of health may have impressed some gullible and spineless citizen (they certainly have impressed the international antitobacco androids!); however, it is quite likely that the overwhelming majority of people, smokers and "non", will simply ignore this new harassment. Police and carabinieri, among which there is a huge number of smokers, certainly will not stop chasing criminals to go after smokers because of snitch calls from some bigot – in the same way they cannot fine but an infinitesimal part of motorists who speed, or do not wear the safety belts: there are simply too many of them. It is very possible, however, that the number of victims of a state that is dishonest enough to use scientific frauds to extract money from its citizens will go up; but, as I said before, that is just another tax to pay for the exercise of liberty.

Differently than the antitobacco cons, I love to verify my statements with reality. So, today I went for a stroll downtown. Although the big media "splash" is only two days old, the new fines actually started on January 1^st (have you observed how Jan. 1^st is the favourite date of the antismoking nazis? The Duce loved that date too, by the way). Well, with the latest minister of health "big bang" still echoing in the galaxy of junk science, I have found no bar or restaurant without smokers smoking in it; inside the big train station, people smoked under the no smoking signs, as usual. Driving back home, I encountered two police and one carabinieri cars, all speeding like hell, while most of the passengers had cigarettes dangling from their lips and -- of course -- they were not wearing safety belts. A friend of mine, living in Rome, walked into a restaurant last night and asked: "Can I smoke here?… You know, after what Sirchia (the minister of health) said…"  The answer was: "Of course you can smoke! Why not?"  Life simply goes on; it just costs a little more to be free, that’s all. Too bad, the prices will go slightly up in "public" places to make up for the new fines, but the economy will eventually absorb it.

The bottom line is, we know how to deal with fascism. Unfortunately, we have created it – and there is nothing to be proud about that. However, we are proud that we have been the only nation that has actually hung the pig dictator upside down. In other nations, dictators had to be killed by external forces, commit suicide, or they simply died in their government beds. Although, unfortunately, the memory has somewhat faded with time, the spirit remains, and we can still smell nazis, their lies and their tactics – whether they wear black shirts, or have bleach them into white ones.

That is something international and home grown health fascists have to keep in mind. Although famous for our tolerance, we do know that relaxed complacency on personal liberty and rights is what the fascist scum waits for, to establish itself; and many of us are still willing to use whatever force is necessary to keep that at bay.

I will light one up to that – in a public place, of course – and blow smoke right in the face of any zealot who wants to control my behaviour, as I own the public land as well; the sad part of it -- damn it -- is that I won’t even hurt him.

Gian Turci