Smoking is the number-one mass murderer on the planet. It kills more people than any plague, more than AIDS, famine and all the natural calamities, more than car accidents, more than wars.

Of course we know very well that smoking is really bad. But as smokers we live in denial. While acknowledging the danger of contracting a fatal disease, the deteriorating quality and longevity of life, and causing harm to the people we love or other people that happen to be around us, as smokers we develop rationalizations that allow us to continue to smoke. Or we religiously stick to denial.