Maybe you hate me right now, because I am blowing smoke in my son's face. I am a obviously a terrible parent, and a weak, vile, awful all around person. Not quite the case. Look closer. That is an electronic cigarette I am smoking. That's steam blowing out of my mouth. My son has his hand over his face because he is eating a cracker. When I found out I was pregnant, I quite smoking cold turkey. After I had my son, I started smoking again. Six months later I quite using the electronic cigarette. But why do I feel like I have to explain myself to you? The stigma that society has created for smokers is overwhelming. Everyone has vices, weaknesses, and faults, yet smokers have been singled out (again, by the current trends in society, publicity, and law) as the Frankenstein monster the villagers are chasing. I hardly smoke this thing at all anymore (in fact, for 6 months it lay completely dormant), but I still feel awkward smoking it in public with my son. Because, even if you know that I am smoking a harmless, nicotine free, steam stick, the damage is done: I am holding an object that makes you question my ability as a parent. My husband still smokes, about 2 - 3 cigarettes a day. Good for him. He never touches a cigarette inside the house, car, or anywhere else near our son. He washes his hands after he smokes. He'll quit eventually, when he's ready. One day we were out driving, and we stopped at a store so I could run in and pick up something. My husband was parked with my son, he wanted to have a smoke so he stepped outside of the car to do so. A woman pulled up and told him what an awful person he was to be smoking outside of the car with our son in it. She drove away, saying something about how irresponsible young parents are. If I was there I would have punched her in the face. During the current age of "death-to-the-vile-smoker-and-abusive-parental-smoker", I also think of an anti-smoking advert I saw on TV a few years ago. The tag line was, "They say smoking is a choice...but what choice does she have?" There's a mum smoking in her car in the front seat with her baby in the backseat. This baffles me, considering all of the outrage and propaganda geared toward "freedom of choice" in this country (you know what I'm talking about). The creation of this PSA about a choice a parent can make that may cause health problems for their child, as opposed to the PSA that was not created, about a choice a parent can make to definitely and intentionally kill their child, shows a glaring inconsistency in the way we care for the next generation. I created this image for a few reasons. For one, please don't pass judgment at a glance. Look again. Not everything (including this image) is as it seems. Reserve your judgment, as God alone, in his omnipotence, has authority to judge. For another, consider the glaring hypocrisy in the way we defend and protect wanted versus unwanted children in our society. Something has gone very wrong here.

After 3 days of sitting in front of the dealership they decided to take the car back. It was less than 6 moths old under 3,000 miles and in for service 36 times! Replaced catalytic converter, transmission, radiator core, front brakes, driver' s seat etc. Had a honk for support sign and about 700 folks a day beeped the dealer on the Pacific Coast Highway. We bought this $15,000 (after payments) piece of junk from Peninsula Pontiac in Torrance, CA. at 7:30PM in January. The next morning we discovered the entire paint job was covered in scratches and swirls in the new paint. Bad wash job? This should have been a tip-off I asked for my trade -in back a 10 month old Chev S-10 Pick-up and they said sorry it sold last night! 36 times in for major service in the first 5 months. A 4 weeks old car and I lost almost a case of oil getting the car the last 100 miles into Las Vegas. The driver's seat would collapse if you hit the accelerator to hard (more than a slow creep to start) and we had to fold down the read seat to support the front ones. This was hard with a 16 month old baby. I picked up the car after 3 days service and 200 feet from the dealership it stalled and would not restart. Had to leave it in the middle of the street while I waited for AAA the dealer said they had no tow. The Catalytic converter failed and plugged after a 3 day service job and 90 days old. I could say a lot more but why? Crap is Crap. Guess that is why I have had Toyotas since. Lest you think this was just a bad dealer it was a Factory Owned and run store. Sadly it was 10 months before the newly enacted Lemon Law went into effect. I dig get out of the deal with $0 after parking it in front of the dealership for a weekend like this and NBC news stopped by. Peninsula Pontiac opened in the 1950's by GM as a Factory Owned store. A showroom full of beautiful Pontiacs in 1969. Over the years the store deteriorated to a dank smelly showroom was jammed with desks for salesmen desperate for a sale. A sweetheart deal with Good Buick of Wilmington gave them the opportunity to move to Torrance and auto row: Mercedes Range Rover Lexus Jaguar Porsche Sadly the kept the 'service' staff.