If more people smoked cigarettes, it would be better for the environment.

Smoking tobacco – like cutting down trees and having large families – has been entered into the Book of Liberal No-Nos. At least, I’m pretty sure. I sent for a copy a while back, but it hasn’t come yet.

Customer service and flower child-Marxism just don’t mix.

So this may not be quite the liberal dilemma that it appears to be. At least, not yet. Via Boots and Sabers:

Offering clues to why smokers often gain weight after quitting, a new study suggests that smoking enhances the activity of a gene that helps break down body fat.

Researchers found that compared with non-smokers, a group of healthy smokers showed greater activity in a gene called AZGP1 in cell samples taken from their airways.

Because the gene is thought to be important in breaking down fat and controlling weight, the findings point to one possible reason that smokers tend to weigh less than non-smokers — and why people often put on pounds after quitting.

Being fat could be a potential lifestyle choice – and we don’t want to criticize people’s lifestyle choices, do we? Or it’s a result of victimology: genetics and/or the stress of living in this patriarchal hell of a society made me fat. Either way, the average hemp-wearing liberal is duty bound to embrace it.

But here’s the thing: we know that being overweight means consuming more energy. Because we Americans tend to be a little heavier, we use more gasoline than we otherwise would.

Plus, the overweight-ness of Americans in general is evidence of our “fried, fatty, butter-drenched and Super-sized Culture of More.” America’s all-around corruption.

So sooner or later, this has to become problematic. If smoking helps Americans lose weight and/or stay thinner, that’s a good thing.

On the other hand, smoking is bad.

On the other hand, though, smoking and obesity both are serious health risks, which place greater strain on the health care industry, causing prices to rise and, thus, making health care less affordable for more people, thus increasing demand for government intervention, thus bringing “universal” health care closer to reality.

It’s a tough one.

UPDATE – Linked at HotMES, who also reminds us that smoking may save a child’s life.