Brazil’s president quits smoking after 50 years

Started by jimmy olsen, March 10, 2010, 03:03:10 AM

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jimmy olsen

March 10, 2010, 03:03:10 AM
That's hardcore willpower

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35787907/ns/world_news-americas/
QuoteBrazil's president quits smoking after 50 years
No nicotine patches, no medication — just sheer willpower, Silva says
Image: Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva smiles as he attends the opening of the judicial year at the Brazilian Supreme Court in Brasilia
Ricardo Moraes / Reuters
   
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updated 7:57 p.m. ET March 9, 2010

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil's president said Tuesday that he kicked the smoking habit he had for 50 years after a recent health scare sent his blood pressure soaring.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in an interview with The Associated Press that he stopped with sheer willpower. No nicotine patches or gum, and no medication, the 64-year-old leader said.

Silva was just about to take off in his presidential plane in January for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland when his blood pressure rose dramatically.
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He spent the night in a hospital. On Tuesday, he characterized the hospitalization as a nuisance, "but the good thing is that I quit smoking." He blamed the scare on an exhausting schedule over three days.

Silva favored cigarillos, small cigars often made without filters. But he was never seen in public smoking since he assumed the presidency in 2003.

Silva said he quit before, but thinks it will be for good this time because of his age.

"I haven't smoked for 40 days now, and I'm feeling good," he said.

Silva said he won't try to persuade U.S. President Barack Obama to follow his example.

Obama had his first physical last month as commander in chief, and it revealed he hasn't kicked his smoking habit, though he has talked about his struggles. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said March 1 that Obama does occasionally fall off the wagon and is aware of the example he sets for America's youth.

"On these sort of things, you don't give advice," Silva said. "Everyone can do what they want if they're of age. Everyone knows that it's not good for your health."

Added Silva: "I don't have any more time to experiment with my life."


Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Martinus

#1
March 10, 2010, 03:38:06 AM
Jesus H. Christ. Seriously. Why are you posting irrelevant crap like that?

Razgovory

#2
March 10, 2010, 05:59:44 AM
Both my parents quit smoking without the patch or medication.  Tim, you should letters to them telling them they are in fact: Hardcore.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Viking

#3
March 10, 2010, 06:01:11 AM
First he takes the Olympics from Obama, now he quits before Obama. Lula's punkin' Obama again and again.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

jimmy olsen

#4
March 10, 2010, 06:02:22 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on March 10, 2010, 05:59:44 AM
Both my parents quit smoking without the patch or medication.  Tim, you should letters to them telling them they are in fact: Hardcore.
So did my Mom, not after 50 years though.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

MadImmortalMan

#5
March 10, 2010, 06:22:14 AM
Grandma looked in the mirror one day, and said,"Holy crap! I'm an old lady with a cigarette!"------She quit the same day. And lived for twenty more.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Razgovory

#6
March 10, 2010, 06:48:46 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 10, 2010, 06:02:22 AM
Quote from: Razgovory on March 10, 2010, 05:59:44 AM
Both my parents quit smoking without the patch or medication.  Tim, you should letters to them telling them they are in fact: Hardcore.
So did my Mom, not after 50 years though.

So how many years do you have to smoke before becoming "hardcore"?
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

CountDeMoney

#7
March 10, 2010, 06:53:16 AM
Cigarettes are so not cool anymore.  Back in the day, it was instant pussy appeal.  Now it's all "Clueless" Eewww reactions.

Viking

#8
March 10, 2010, 06:56:55 AM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on March 10, 2010, 06:22:14 AM
Grandma looked in the mirror one day, and said,"Holy crap! I'm an old lady with a cigarette!"------She quit the same day. And lived for twenty more.

I like.
First Maxim - "There are only two amounts, too few and enough."
First Corollary - "You cannot have too many soldiers, only too few supplies."
Second Maxim - "Be willing to exchange a bad idea for a good one."
Second Corollary - "You can only be wrong or agree with me."

A terrorist which starts a slaughter quoting Locke, Burke and Mill has completely missed the point.
The fact remains that the only person or group to applaud the Norway massacre are random Islamists.

DisturbedPervert

#9
March 10, 2010, 08:44:54 AM
I quite smoking every Sunday.  Never had a problem.

garbon

#10
March 10, 2010, 12:22:26 PM
Quote from: DisturbedPervert on March 10, 2010, 08:44:54 AM
I quite smoking every Sunday.

I'm somewhat smoking every Sunday.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Grallon

#11
March 10, 2010, 03:09:12 PM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 10, 2010, 06:53:16 AM
Cigarettes are so not cool anymore.  Back in the day, it was instant pussy appeal.  Now it's all "Clueless" Eewww reactions.


The time when you can reasonably expect to have some, with or without a smoke in your mouth, is getting short.  So keep on smoking - otherwise you'll take 30 pounds.




G.
"Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself."

~Jean-François Revel

Josquius

#12
March 10, 2010, 03:15:55 PM
Smoking is only cool in black and white movies. Especially French ones.
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sbr

#13
March 10, 2010, 06:40:29 PM
I got a DUI about 2.5 years ago, I had been smoking for ~20 years at that point.  At the assessment interview with the guy for the diversion program I snowed him enough that he told me:  "I am not that worried about your drinking, your biggest problem is tobacco."  That pissed me off so much I never smoked again.
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