Smoking Kills

France's National Library has airbrushed Jean-Paul Sartre's trademark cigarette out of a poster of the chain-smoking philosopher to avoid prosecution under an anti-tobacco law.

"Smoking," the Left-wing existentialist wrote, is "the symbolic equivalent of destructively appropriating the entire world."

I have absolutely no idea what this quote from Sartre means and I'm not sure why it's relevant that he was left-wing. Should we conclude he smoked because he was left-wing or that he was left-wing because he smoked?

Let's rewrite some history to suit current tastes. I suppose we should be glad that they didn't airbrush in a lollipop or something (oops no good, that's got sugar in it).