Smoking Ban Moves Outdoors

[Ernesto]

(snip) As a pioneering public smoking ban went into effect Friday in Calabasas, enforcement came from a higher authority: Mother Nature.
A pouring rainstorm snuffed out renegade smokers' cigarettes and sent them scurrying for cover as security guards began issuing warnings at the town's main shopping center.
"You could get a $500 citation," one of them advised Danielle Wakely of Westwood as she sat at an outside table at the Calabasas Commons mall and puffed on a Marlboro.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nosmoke18mar18,0,7778104.story?track=tothtml

[Drum]

1. Is It Facism Yet?

[Redstone]

2. Sure is. Fat people are next. Then diabetics.

Redstone

[4dsc]

3. Hospital's have banned smoking

on any of their property by employees here in Des MOines. Employees cannot even smoke in their cars if their cars are on hospital property!!

[acmejack]

6. Westinghouse made that policy over a decade ago.

In 1995

[YellowRubberDuckie]

20. I work at a company with a similar policy.

I thought it was total genius.
Duckie

[megatherium]

29. There are too many smokers in hospitals -- dying from smoking.

It takes 14 years off of the life of the average smoker.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/economics/mm5425_highlights.htm

[kestrel91316]

80. Heck, I have that policy at my own place of business -

No smoking inside the workplace (CA law). No smoking out front on the sidewalk (leaves a bad impression, and the smoke comes in the door when it's opened). No smoking out back (same). And no smoking on the property, period, by any of my employees (because I CAN). I don't want stinky smell wafting in here at all, and I don't want my clients to see my employees puffing away and then tossing their butts on the ground.

Of course, I tend not to hire smokers in the first place.

[Scout1071]

4. I'm a former smoker and I think this is bullshit.

It's bad enough people are forced outdoors, particularly in the colder, Midwestern states where I live.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be around it, but this is just too far.

[tammywammy]

5. I'm a smoker

I don't care about being "forced" outside to smoke. That doesn't bother me. But when places start saying you can't smoke outside, it's getting just ridiculous.

[LynneSin]

94. I do mind when I have to walk past the smoke to get into the building

I will not patronize an establishment that can't even bother to have their employees to at least go out back of the building to smoke.

It's not my problem that these smokers have read all the warnings about the danger of smoking and chose to smoke anyways.

[sarcasmo]

106. It's like putting the smoking section of the Restaurant in the front.

You have to walk through the smoke to get to your table. My wife and I don't give money to Restaurants that allow smoking.

[BiggJawn]

40. I'm with you.

Soon, you won't be able to smoke in your own home if there's a chance PASSERS-BY could smell it.

But your bubba neighbour can let his diesel SUV sit outside and idle "Like them BIG trucks do!" for HOURS!

3 years smoke-free as of yesterday for me!

[monktonman]

7. Wow $500 smackers???

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. The new law includes a ban on smoking in one's backyard or on proch

Insane. A law that restricts citizens on their private property.

[Dulcinea]

9. That's bullshite.

The anti-smoking fascists want to restrict what you do on your own property? Give me a break. Someone needs to challenge this.

[Whoa_Nelly]

10. Here are a couple of the parameters of the new smoking ban law

If someone complains...an opportunity to turn your neighbor in...

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1148020.php/Strictest_US_anti-smoking_law_in_force_in_LA_suburb

Or tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/owgyf

<snip>
The ordinance outlaws smoking in all public places when other people can be exposed to secondhand smoke. Smokers can still indulge if they are at least six metres from any path of travel, doorway or place where people congregate. But they must put out their cigarette if someone complains, or face up to 500 dollars in fines.

<snip>
Smokers will still be able to light up in their homes - but only if their apartments and yards are not directly next to a common area, such as a laundry room or pool, the city said.

[truebrit71]

27. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of...

Considering the air quality in the LA area, and the hundreds of thousands of cars and SUV's, they have to ban ciggie's? What a bunch of total wankers...

You have to put it out if someone complains? How about I punch them in the fucking mouth because their cologne offends me?

And as to whether I want to smoke in my home or back yard, they can go fuck themselves, I'll do what I damn well please. Or should we pass a ban on cooking anything too stinky on the grill too, because that smoke goes EVERYWHERE...

These anti-smoking fascists get on my nerves...

[eppur_se_muova]

79. only if their apartments and yards are not directly next to a common area

Not good enough. I've lived in too many apts where the smell of cigarette smoke filtering in from the neighbor's apt was just insufferably repulsive.

Tobacco is a chemical weapon. Shouldn't be allowed outside of properly equipped laboratories, no matter whose property you're on.

[kestrel91316]

82. I support this law, and I am anything but a fascist. I DO, however,

believe that your right to smoke ends where my lungs begin, wherever we may be.

[Bushy Being Born]

74. Yeah, 'cause God forbid you wouldn't be able to do whatever you wanted

on your private property! Like sacrificing babies in satanic rituals or run a chinese labor camp in your back yard.

All I'm saying is, a law that restricts citizens on their private property isn't exactly unheard of.

[kestrel91316]

81. Lots of laws restrict citizens on their private property.

It's illegal for me to possess or smoke pot inside my own home. It's illegal for my 16-yr-old niece to drink at home. It's illegal for a husband to beat his wife inside the home.

Not insane. Common.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

91. Apples and oranges, big time.

Smoking pot, underage drinking and domestic abuse are illegal no matter where they occur.

Smoking is not illegal (yet).

[Boomer]

11. But drinking until you're shit-faced is still okay!

I'm a non-smoker and a non-drinker, so these laws don't really affect me. But I don't understand why smoking has become so stigmatized while drunk drivers -- who kill people NOW, not 20 years from now -- don't face anywhere near the level of scorn that our society is heaping on smokers.

[hedgehog]

17. You haven't been around some of the people I've been around

Tolerance for drunk driving tends to vary with the likelihood that you'll end up being a drunk driver. Those who control their drinking tend to view it with attitudes ranging from "get that person to rehab" to disgust to "lock them up and throw away the keys". Those who can't control their drinking try to cover it up by referring to it with cute names as "driving buzzed" or "getting loaded" or telling stories about how much so and so had last Saturday.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

21. Drinking is an upperclass fad, always has been...

That's why our DUI laws are so stupid. Frankly, it's ridiculous that if you've been charged with 5 DUIs you can still get your license back. I believe that if you get behind the wheel of a car when you've been drinking, whether you get into an accident or not, if you get pulled over, it should be an automatic attempted murder charge, and you should lose your license forever. Want to be tough on crime? This is a start. And i'm anti smoking, and I praise any ordinance or law that keeps me from having to hold my breath to get into a building or walk down a sidewalk. I do not want to smell that shit, and I shouldn't have to. IF you want to smoke, fine, but do it at home or in your car. I can't even go outside and get fresh air because some retard is puffing away upwind from where I'm sitting in a freaking PARK! That pisses me off.
Duckie

[Psephos]

22. Alcohol does not care about one's income or social class

A visit to an AA meeting would dispel that idea right away. For more tangible evidence, consider a book like Tastes of Paradise : A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants by Wolfgang Schivelbusch (the classic of the field) or Buzzed: The Straight Facts about the Most Used and Abused Drugs by Cynthia Kuhn et al.

Alcohol abuse is higher among the unemployed than the employed, higher among the poor than the rich, higher among the less-educated than the more-educated. But there are plenty of alcoholics in all walks of life. Plenty.

I understand your visceral reactions, but can't abide them, because they do not hold up in the real world. For example, alcohol cuts reaction time and degrades judgment, which is why it's illegal to drive with more than modest amounts of alcohol in the blood. But so does aging, and statistics about elderly drivers support that. Should we slap gramma and grampa in jail for attempted murder if they touch a steering wheel? Lack of sleep produces similar results - should we have a big round-up at highway rest areas? The world isn't black and white. Unfortunately, our moralistic emotions make us want to treat it that way.

Our current laws are not ideal regarding alcohol, but they seem like a rough compromise between severity on one hand and practicality on the other, and I'm ok with them as they are. Attempted murder charges for drivers with any measurable blood alcohol level seems like something out of Puritan days. As a template for society, Puritanism gives you something like the Taliban had in Afghanistan.

As for outdoor smoking, again this is an issue of moralistic impulses, not health. There are many things floating around in the air that someone or another dislikes. You dislike even the faintest smell of cigarette smoke. It doesn't really bother me when it's not concentrated, but other things do bother me. However, I'm not going to support laws banning outdoor barbecues (I'm vegetarian) or harsh jail sentences for homeless people urinating in the alley behind my building, although I smell the ammonia of their decomposed pee when I walk back there. There are, btw, studies showing that polycyclic aromatics (from grilled meat) are carcinogenic. I hardly need mention that puddled urine can create some biological hazards as well. Second-hand smoke is dangerous according to its concentration. Below a certain level, it is not dangerous. That level is achieved very rapidly outdoors. So what's left is not a health risk, but a cause of someone's dislike. I get the same effect from smelling certain people on the bus. What should we do with them?

Life does not come with legal guarantees that we'll never be exposed to something unpleasant - it astounds me how many people think it does. Life is messy, full of smells and sights and sounds. We should work to keep the worst of these in check, but when we start using harsh laws to punish those who don't think just like us, we're headed to a nightmarish society of cameras, cops, and snitches. Legislatures become addicted to the cash flow of fines against every human weakness. Consider the debacle of automated red-light traffic cameras already...nothing but a way to strip cash from motorists. Statistics show they actually INCREASE traffic accidents, as drivers slam on the brakes to avoid getting photographed passing through an intersection with a changing light. So much for the safety argument.

Laws and fines create far more serious problems than they solve when they attempt to regulate behaviors that are more properly the domain of civility and community-mindedness. I put tolerance and a mild attitude toward others among those traits that civility requires. I would like to see our energies directed less toward imperious laws and more toward building a sense of belonging to the same team.

Peace.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

28. My point: Since upperclass people drink...

there are very lax laws....If upperclass people regularly smoked crack or pot, drugs would be less of a big deal.
Another point: DUI Laws need to be enforced and stricter penalties are needed. Attempted murder was an over-dramatization, yes, but it was used to make a point. A friend of ours was killed on a rural stretch of highway near Stillwater Oklahoma one lovely May night by a drunk driver who got onto the highway going way too fast on the wrong side of the road without his headlights on. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but served three because the judge decided his sentence was too harsh. Krystle was majoring in child psych, and who knows how many children she would have saved and helped? We will never know because this little selfish bastard killed her. And he only got three years? People get more time for killing a cat.
Smoking killed my father. I think that with all the reseach and knowledge that we have today about how deadly smoking is to us, anyone who starts or continues to smoke is not that bright. Not to mention the fact that everytime you buy a pack of smokes, the money is going to your favorite Republican administration. I know people freak out when I say that, but it's the truth. Big Tobacco lobbies and you know is run by republicans. Most of the people here at DU won't freaking shop at walmart for that reason and because of how they treat their employees. But they still smoke, despite the fact that cigarettes kill people. I don't know how cigarette manufacturers treat their employees, but something tells me that the employees are union.
The other examples you use I'm not even going to comment on. Some of them are a bit like comparing apples to oranges.
Duckie

[shanti]

35. it was obvious

that your response was because of something personal, but every thing isn't so black and white.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

38. Your comments about smoking are EXCELLENT!

I love it---!!
some people are going to get so pisssssssed!!
and this might not be so good--
b'cause you know what they'll reach for ...

...a cigarrette !

P.S.
--- your comment about the money going to the Republicans is so true.
Billion dollar industries that kill people- all owned by the Republikans.
over the table ones like Defense Contracts to Pharmies to Cigarettes--the full gamut
then the under the table ones--Cocaine imports from S.America/ Heroin from Afghanistan/ Meth from Biker labs

and they aso own many billion dollar businesses that just plain "harm" people--

[Starbucks Anarchist]

68. They own every industry.

No matter what you buy, it will end up in the hands of the Republicans at some point, so you can't just blame cigarettes.

[MindPilot]

43. I want sugar to be a controlled substance because

diabetes killed my dad. :sarcasm:

My g/f recently lost a co-worker due to a SUV driver on a cell phone crossing the centerline. Let's make cell phones and cars illegal too. More :sarcasm:

Gee, if everybody just stopped smoking and drinking, stayed home in a plastic bubble and became vegan, we'd all live forever in perfect health. Still more :sarcasm:

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

49. should we just never question the old ways? maybe becoming vegan is good

this post has nothing to so with smoking except for the screens- and the butts--
answering your vegan dis remark with QUESTIONS:

Questions of the day:

How many on a Progressive discussion board
think that this planet of 6.6 Billion can sustain itself just fine
if we humans continue to consume with the same frequency
that we did with a much smaller World population?

How many realize that the U.S. consumes 60% of the World's beef,
yet comprises 6% of the World's population?

How many think that what they do personally has any effect at all on anything?

How many people beieve what they've read about the world's water supply
being slowly purchased by multi billion dollar corporations?

How many people care to believe that the world's rain forrests (oxygen)
are being wiped out at an alarming rate to make way for grazing land?
(ever been to the Hard Rock Cafe?-there's a meter that measures it)

How many people think there is no reason to vote?
...or to protest?
...or to speak out against exploitation?

My answer:
Money talks- You DO have an effect- your consumer choices dictate
the corporate decisions-

What's your answers?

You think that I iz funny?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

54. Excuse me...

But sugar only hurts the person who eats it...Hands free devices and driving while on a cell phone has become illegal in some states, and I think your logic is fowled up on the last one.
Duckie

[dionysus]

62. CHING!!!!!!!!

n/t

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

66. BOINK !!!!!!

ZZZZZZZZZ

[gauguin57]

76. Oh BROTHER!

I do think they should ban cell phone calls while driving. We know they are often a harmful, even deadly combo.

Other than that ... your sugar consumption does not affect my health. Your cell phone or your car doesn't affect my health (unless you misused them or combine them in the way mentioned above).

But your cigarette smoke DOES affect me. Even outside.

I am sick of not being able to go to outdoor concerts because as soon as I choose my seat, a damned smoker sits down near me and blows cancer-causing, second-hand smoke into my face. I change seats, and ANOTHER damned smoker sits down near me. And so on, and so on.

I went through HELL to quit smoking 20 years ago ... so keep your murdering, second-hand smoke to yourself.

[jus_the_facts]

78. Cars definitely DO affect your health.....

"Each car spills a witches’ brew of dangerous gases into the air each year, including an average of:
4,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide
300 kilograms of carbon monoxide
30 kilograms of nitrogen oxide
35 kilograms of ozone-forming hydrocarbons as well as lesser amounts of methane, lead and particulates."

http://www.rco.on.ca/factsheet/fs_b02.html

Thats 9625 pounds of exhaust per car per year. Nearly 5 tons!

...so keep your murdering car exhaust to yourself! :eyes:

[Exiled in America]

86. Hypocrisy and Hyperbole are fun aren't they?

Refering to the poster you are responding too.

[jus_the_facts]

90. They know no bounds it seems....

....sigh. ;-)

[LynneSin]

96. Some states are starting to pass laws about cell-phones

Remember the cigerette industry has been around for ages whereas cell-phone availablity at reasonable costs only started happening in the past decade. I know that New Jersey has passed laws about using Cell phones while driving. I say give it another decade and you'll see these kinds of laws across country although hopefully sooner than later.

[shanti]

34. thank you

and peace back at ya

shanti

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

39. ever seen the smouldering cigarette ash cans after an AA meeting?

I have- it's un friggin believable how "ok" nicotine addiction is for a "kick addiction" group.

People everywhere--upset, beaten down, just grasping for something!

It's a shame that businesses take advantage of them.

[MindPilot]

44. And the enormous qualities of caffeine they consume.

I had the "pleasure" of being in drug treatment in the 80's. Long story, but the point is for the first few days I wasn't even allowed to have coffee--caffeine is a DRUG!! But the smokers still got regular breaks to go outside and suck down a few.

[BoneDaddy]

71. When your drug of choice is

heroin, nicotine ain't no big deal.

[Ernesto]

108. ?

[Seabiscuit]

36. The truth is you can't go outside and get fresh air anywhere except in

some remote mountain or desert area because there is no fresh air anywhere else thanks to the combustion engine. That fact of life has nothing to do with smokers. If you drive a vehicle you're contributing to that fact of modern life.

How would you like it if a smoker told you if you want to turn your car engine on, fine, but do it in your garage with the door closed?

Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.

[BoneDaddy]

70. You would look good in a brown shirt

nuff said

[shanti]

33. it's because

the alcohol industry rules :eyes: :shrug:

[LynneSin]

95. Last time I checked, it's illegal to drink & drive

Let's put it this way, if I was caught smoking inside a public place I would get a fine, pay it off and go about my life.

If I get caught drunk driving I would not only get a ticket, get points and my insurance would go up several thousand dollars, I'd be damn lucky if I'd have a drivers license for about 3-6 months.

And in the state of Delaware, along with more states out there, if I'm pulled over for drinking while driving and maybe not surpass the 0.08 legal limit, I could still get a ticket (which again - would have points and fuck up my insurance).

Just because people drink & drive doesn't mean it's legal. Just means they got lucky this time.

[donco6]

12. Being republican is surely bad for one's health.

Can we ban that?

[Psephos]

24. LOL n/t

[hedgehog]

13. Here are two considerations

1. We do have air pollution controls and smoking is just another form of air pollution albeit a very small point source.

2. Believe it or not, I can walk down the street and tell that a smoker has been through there 5 minutes ahead of me. Smoking is an obnoxious habit. There, I've said it. I know the laws make smokers feel like lepers. Guess what? Cigarettes stink. For non-smokers, it's like being asked to stand around an open toilet. Forget health concerns or effects of second hand smoking. Cigarettes are just plain nasty.

[The Straight Story]

14. Well, let's keep on making laws then

Until everyone is happy.

I have reactions to many perfumes, but that is just something I have learned to deal with in life. I don't need a group of people making it illegal.

Sometimes I shudder when thinking about how pampered people are becoming here in the US. Thank god these lawmakers were not around during WWII or our soldiers would not have been able to smoke either.

Pretty soon we will need a law that tells us what is legal by posting a small sign on street corners (and it will be small because 95% of us will somehow break a law somewhere today...)

PS - Not ranting at you, just in general.

[hedgehog]

18. I should add to my post above

The reason for regulating outdoor smoking is that cigarette smoke is dumb. It doesn't know about property lines and is apt to drift from your balcony or backyard onto mine.

[yasmina27]

50. How about peanuts?

I (and my recently diagnosed 8yo daughter) are severely allergic to peanuts - airborne. That means that if we just SMELL peanuts, we may become severely ill to the point of death. Yes, I've learned to live with it, and I'm teaching her to also. I once had a reaction on an airplane where they served peanuts, even though I did not eat any, and had the air flow directed away from me. I don't expect the world to outlaw peanuts.

I'm sorry, but the inconvenience of smelling outdoors a bit of stale smoke (not walking through a haze of folks currently smoking), doesn't seem to me to be equivalent, unless you're going to drop dead at that moment from it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

103. I can't stand chocolate

It honestly makes me ill. The smell is nauseating to me.

Who do I write to first? My state reps or city council? I can't possible be happy until chocolate is illegal.

[NashVegas]

15. "You Can't Legislate Courtesy" BEST QUOTE EVER on Anti-Smoking Laws

Smoking is a filthy habit? So is cutting someone off in traffic. And that's equally, if not more, dangerous.

[hedgehog]

16. It's also illegal

It's called reckless driving.

[SOS]

19. It was amusing

watching this on TV last night.
The goody two shoes were busily putting up their "Clean Air" signs by the side of highway as SUVs roared past.

"Each car spills a witches’ brew of dangerous gases into the air each year, including an average of:
4,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide
300 kilograms of carbon monoxide
30 kilograms of nitrogen oxide
35 kilograms of ozone-forming hydrocarbons as well as lesser amounts of methane, lead and particulates."
http://www.rco.on.ca/factsheet/fs_b02.html

Thats 9625 pounds of exhaust per car per year. Nearly 5 tons!

But you can't have a smoke in your own backyard?

:eyes:

[jus_the_facts]

23. Yeah most people who're so anti-smoking never consider those stats.....

...when complaining about the stench and health risks of a cigarette. :eyes:

[burrowowl]

25. Plus mercury from coal plants (doesn't smell but ...)

overzealous use of fire starter on bbqs you can't smell the meat from the fumes, gas powered tools stink and pollute, snow mobiles stink up and pollute the forests (stinks lingers on long after they are gone), etc.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

30. and why on earth would you want to HAVE a smoke after absorbing all that?

would one have to be brain dead?
or just suicidal?
which is it?

[Exiled in America]

42. No smoker needs to answer that question for you.

Because its none of your business in the first place.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

58. now THAT is an intelligent response

you must be a real "thinker"--
WOW!

[Exiled in America]

85. I'm enough of a thinker...

that I don't have to respond with an ad hominem attack. :)

A smoker's personal decisions are not up to you to evaluate or judge. One of the beautiful things about living in a free society and being a liberal advocate of civil rights and personal privacy is this: we don't have to recognize your right to judge someone else, and we don't answer to you. Smoking is legal. A person's choice to smoke is legal. What you think about a person's right to make a legal choice is irrelevant. We have a constitutionally protected lack of obligation to make our personal choices accountable to your scrutiny or judgment.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

87. I don't care what you put in your mouth really

nor do I care what comes out of it-
But do be careful.

[jus_the_facts]

56. So what about people who continue to DRIVE and POLLUTE worse?

...are they just BRAIN DEAD or SUICIDAL...killing EVERYTHING in their wake with only a tad of remorse because BY GOD WE *HAVE* TO KEEP DRIVING regardless of what it's doing to the entire planet? Which is it? Don't even get me started with PAPER MILLS and other industrial pollution that WE ALL SUPPORT regardless of the environmental HAZARDS or HEALTH RISKS because that's just the way it IS and no matter how hard we bitch and moan NOTHING gets done about it in the GRAND SCHEME of things...so next time you want to nit pick on a smoker THINK about all the CANCER people are going to get because of that toilet paper you HAVE TO wipe your ass with or the tailpipes on all the vehicles you see or the industrial chemicals you HAVE TO HAVE to clean your household with...which includes the paint on the walls and the carpet...or the chemicals added to the processed FOOD you eat...it goes on and on and on...because whatever you BUY it's causing POLLUTION AND BENEFITS REPUBLICANS because they OWN AND MANUFACTURE ALMOST EVERYTHING!! :think: :eyes:

We're all walking DEAD regardless of how we choose to live our lives.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

59. life is just to die?

why are you on a progressive board?
we're here to save to save the world..not surrender to it!

[jus_the_facts]

64. Yes...you are born and you will die regardless of being HERE or not.....

....and it's gonna SUCK no matter what the cause...cigarettes are very minor in light of all the other pollution that's much more dangerous to our health...people choose to smoke and they're gonna do it no matter what you think or say...sorta like REPUBLICANS will keep on doin' what they do regardless of you trying to *save them* from themselves or the rest of the world...participating on DU hasn't solved much of anything no matter how much is protested or ranted about...the state of our union it's STILL F.U.B.A.R. regardless of all the hopes and wishes posted around here that it wasn't. :banghead:

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

65. with optimism like yours its no wonder we have a dork in the White House

give it up-
D.U.ers are not yet ready to join in the hopeless/ helplessness you're promoting...or D.U. would end.

here's a plan:
---we take charge of our bodies->
-->we take charge of our actions->
-->we take charge of our country

[jus_the_facts]

67. My cynicism is because of accurate observation.....

...and I don't SEE a whole helluva lot o'change happening...good luck with your plan...it's never happened in the hisorty of civilization but you just keep tellin' yourself it'll work and eventually you'll go batshit crazy. :smoke:

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

75. go away amd hide in your hole

[jus_the_facts]

77. You'll end up in one eventurally....about 6 feet under.....

....no matter what your *plan* is...reality what a concept huh?

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

84. hide and do nothing--we don't need help from people like you

to save this planet-
but you WILL benefit when we go out on a limb while you hide

[jus_the_facts]

89. Good luck with all that....you'll definitely need a LOT of it...but....

...you won't get much if all you can do is tell people to go away when you can't debate them with anything but your own personal indifference. :freak:

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

101. bye bye

[ripple]

26. Citizen, meet your nanny state.

The irony is that compared to auto and industrial emissions, cigarette smoke barely registers on the graph when it comes to overall airborne pollutants.

This is nothing but an effort to modify behavior that's considered immoral and unhealthy. It's also the predictable fall-out from legislated smoking bans all across the country. The pink-lung-police are tired of walking through a cloud of smoke and seeing ciggie butts laying all over the streets as a result of the indoor smoking bans they themselves advocated.

Since they can't talk empirically about the dangers of second-hand smoke in an outdoor environment (with a straight face, at least), this just exposes the motives of the smoking ban crowd for what they have been from the beginning: They don't like smoking and they don't want people to do it at all. That's fine and good, until they begin to legislate lifestyle choices for others out of some misguided sense of moral high ground.

[Seabiscuit]

37. You hit the nail on the head. Bingo!

As an ex-smoker, I'm disgusted with the BS spewed by the pink lung fascisti.

[Placebo]

31. If politicians worried half as much about POLUTION...

imagine how much healthier the world would be.

[currents]

32. To all you smoke hating pussies:

You must be very lucky to live in the only century in human existanse that people didn't crowd around a burning fire to keep warm and cook to survive.

[4dsc]

41. Not to mention future generations

that will have to gather around the burning fire to keep warm as we use the last of our natural resources aka oil and coal.

[Terran1212]

45. W..t...f

[Dutch]

51. Yes, people who dislike smoke are clearly pussies...

Becasue nothing proves how manly one is more than setting light to a small, thin stick of easily available dried weed and puffing on it...oh, how TOUGH and MASCULINE, and....COOL!!! With something like that, who even needs physical strength or a large penis!

And kudos on making such a totally un-moronic point about how we should put up with dangerous and unpleasant things because people had to put up with even worse in the past. In the days before flushable toilets aristocrats often urinated in corners of rooms- so I hope you are happy to at least have the odd good natured passer by take a piss up against your front door.

Or are you a urine-hating pussy?

[currents]

63. Smoke is good, piss isn't

Perhaps I should have stated that people ENJOYED sitting around fires for 100000 of years, and I still do. It is kind of tough and masculine and cool! too!

[megatherium]

69. You're just a hit-n-run troll, I'm sure, but you're going to die 14 years

before the rest of us, if you're like the average smoker. And you can't spell either.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/economics/mm5425_highlights.htm

[currents]

100. Who said I was a smoker?

I not a smoker, I just hate uptight pricks.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

102. so you're saying you hate yourself?

[hedgehog]

46. I have a new theory about additive personalities

Whining is a high indicator

People won't let me smoke anywhere I want to anymore!

Whine, whine, whine.


Man, I thought the meth addicts were whiners, but I think the nicotene addicts tkae the prize!

[MindPilot]

47. Concern about government poking its nose

into the most intimate aspects of our lives is whining? Riiiiiiight.

Whining. That's the same thing the pukes say if you complain about something like terror suspects being tortured or your vote not getting counted.

You probably meant to say "addictive". Typos offend me; I shake and break out in hives went I'm forced to look at them. I think keyboard users should be required to keep their typos where I can't see them.

[High Plains]

48. I have a new theory about fascistoid personalities.

Whining is a high indicator.

Wah, wah, wah, I saw a puff of smoke. Let's make a new law.

[Dutch]

53. Yep, whining is a high indicator

Another is screaming "fascist" at every oppurtunity in a cowardly effort to try and silence people that disagree with them. It's an insulting trivialisation of the term fascist and what it constituted for its victims, but that's not to get in the way of the pity-party.

[High Plains]

55. Yep, that's why I didn't call him a fascist--just fascistoid.

Although actually, authoritarian may be a more apt term. I don't have much use for people who seek to impose new laws for every little thing that bothers them. I think we have more than enough laws already.

[jus_the_facts]

57. Seems to be an increasing problem all the way around....

...because of all the whining going on about the whiners...prizes all around I DARE SAY! :eyes:

[QC]

72. And the sanctimony addicts are worst of all! n/t

[fshrink]

52. Comrads smokers,

let's dodge the militia's patrols and gather underground or in our homes after curfew.

[last_texas_dem]

60. I believe this is extreme

Regulating smoking outdoors seems like a severe overreaction IMHO. At the same time, this is probably at the bottom or very near the bottom of the list of issues I'm going to waste any passion on.

[w4rma]

61. This law seems whacked. (nt)

[Sin]

73. I Say Let them Do it.

They just need to hermetical seal off there town in a big bubble then we can ship the smokers out so they don't add to the air pollution you know to keep the air clean + no other air filters for out side air getting in just the air in there(you don't know what any pollutants getting in there) hell even set up a few air locks so they can get food in. Then then can be all happy in there bubble for about a day or so.

But really Now $500 who is going to report this or even ask the person to put it out because id really think they should increase the fine to about $2000 to at least cover the assault charges when the smoker puts his/her butt out on there head.

[mmonk]

83. As long as I can fine drivers $500

for driving automobiles. Buses too come to think of it. They are screwing up my health and my planet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

104. And I want to fine fat people for overeating

They are messing with my health because watching them eat too much makes me too sick to eat myself.

[High Plains]

88. I'm pro-choice.

[Buns_of_Fire]

92. "So, father, if I quit smoking, drinking, eating at fast-food joints,

and associating with women of questionable virtue, will I then live forever?"

"No, my son. But it'll seem like it."

(Just a plug for us hedonists out here. :evilgrin: )

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

93. so, Doc...how long have I got?

"How long have I got" ?
said the helpless patient in pain to the physician...:smoke:

"it's not looking very good" said the doctor.

"But f I quit smoking now and exercise and stop eating garbage do you think I'll Iive?

"Naaaa" said the doctor--"you shoulda thought about doing that before..now it's too late...
Your lungs are like charcoal,
your veins are like lard in a drain pipe,
and your heart is shot from having to pump overtime to an overweight body"
"We don't even want your donated organs"

"but why me?" said the bewildered patient in excrutiating pain.

The doctor said "wish I could tell you"-"I still can't figure it out"!

( just a plug for any reaists out here)!:smoke:

[annofark]

97. Doesn't this put a lot of power in a Mayor's Hands

How can a town have the power to outlaw this?

[clspector]

98. Ex-smoker here

Hate the stuff, but this is asinine.

clspector

P.S. Don't tell me about people you know who've died of cancer from smoking. Not only do I have several relatives who died of lung cancer, my grandmother died a slow fucking awful death of emphysema because of her smoking. But this goes too far.

[oblivious]

99. Ten people at the bus stop today. One lit up. The rest left.

Well, they all moved 10 yards away, upwind.

Are these smokers so incredibly oblivious that they don't see the effect they have on people around them? Is this their way of saying 'I don't give a shit!' Or is it revenge for people taking away their right to smoke indoors?

[proud2BlibKansan]

105. It's an addiction

Most addictive drug on the planet. Smokers don't purposely light up to annoy anyone. They light up because they are addicted to nicotine.

[Ernesto]

107. "A smoldering cigarette is suspected as the cause of the blaze,"

said Horace Peterkin, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, who toured the ship after it docked here.
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (AP) - A fire apparently started by a cigarette broke out aboard a cruise ship early Thursday as it sailed through the moonlit Caribbean, injuring 11 people and scorching about 100 rooms. One elderly American passenger died from a heart attack, the cruise ship company said.


http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/front/story/3238442p-11986931c.html