On the KNSI Morning Show -- on which I will guest-host 21-23 January -- Don Lyons and the gang discussed a rather disturbing story from Germany.

A T-shirt using a yellow Star of David to liken the treatment of smokers in Germany to that of Jews during Nazi rule has angered German Jews.

...The shirt features a yellow Star of David similar to the one Jews were forced to wear under the Nazis. The world "smoker" is written across the star instead of "Jew."

Graumann said the sale of the T-shirt did nothing to help German smokers. Instead, it reminded Germans � Jews and otherwise � of worse times, he said.

"It is unimaginative, brainless and tasteless," he said.

...A statement on the site said the shirt had been designed to highlight what it called the "disgraceful exclusion" of smokers by society.

"After decades of tolerance, the smoker is being denounced as an outcast, a second-class human being," the online statement said.

The office of the public prosecutor in Itzehoe said Friday that it was investigating whether the shirt broke any German laws.

"We are checking if this case can be treated as a criminal offense," prosecutor Ralph Doepper told The Associated Press.

The story should disturb both pro-smoking and anti-smoking groups. Please use the comment box to discuss the story; if I'm wrong and it doesn't disturb you, please tell me why. If it does, how does it?

Labels: smoking