My Pilfered Take on the Tabacco Lawsuits

I tend to buy what Dave Barry has to say about tabacco stuff. There's a pathetic symbiosis going on between state governments and tabacco companies: governments receive settlement money (though not in this case obviously, since it was a private suit) but they don't use it for anti-smoking campaigns. So tabacco companies continue to make huge profits, which the governments slightly strip through taxes and future lawsuits. Anyway, read the Barry article, it's better put there than I can say it.