The Real Reason Behind Public Smoking Bans

PBS NEWSHOUR ^ | July 8, 2013 | SARAH CLUNE

[Billthedrill]

If we looked hard enough, we could probably figure out a reason why chewing gum harms the environment.

Global Warming. YOU HATE THE BABY POLAR BEARS, DON'T YOU, YOU RIGHT WING GUM NUT??!? (Sound of hyperventilating)

[mylife]

Good thinking.
Gum serves no purpose, it has no nutritional value.

It adds nothing to society and distracts our children!

[Pontiac]

for later

[Drango]

Every age and every society needs its ni**ers. Today it’s smokers...

Playing the victim card? You're not going to cry are you?

[Impala64ssa]

The truth is smoking annoys me and I don't want it where I work or eat.
Same with me. I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke, though I do enjoy a good cigar at times, go figure. Why don't they just declare tobacco a controlled substance, eventually ban it outright and be done with it? Didn't prohibition work so well?

[smokingfrog]

I love baby polar bear. Their meat is so tender!

[Billthedrill]

I love baby polar bear. Their meat is so tender!

Oh, well, that's different, then. I'm awful fond of baby harp seals, too. Please pass the ketchup.

[traditional1]

Abortions kill millions of human beings annually....the deaths from smoking are not even CLOSE to that number.....

We won't ban abortions, though, just because "millions die annually due to abortions", but "thousands die annually because of smoking" is a Progressive control-people mechanism.....

[JoeDetweiler]

Sorry....no time for you. I have to go shopping in Berkeley ;-)

[editor-surveyor]

Nut case!

The fact that smokers (I’m not one) are about 0.1 times as likely to develop dementia appears to be the biggest motivation to ban smoking. It un-does the global population decimation agenda in a measurable way.

[Melissa 24]

I can’t stand it when I have to walk through a cloud of smoke in order to enter a store or a mall.

[man_in_tx]

Thank you for the post.

To the “Puritans” on this thread (although the real Puritans liked their tobacco), I suggest you try watching a few old movies.

The “smokies” won World War II for us. I suggest they were also, on average, far tougher, less selfish, and just plain gutsier than we are today. I would welcome a return to ubiquitous smoking in their honor alone.

[editor-surveyor]

The smoking wars are far from over; the battles are just moving to different fronts.

You statists will ultimately pay the highest price for your willingness to tamper with other’s lives on the flimseiest of evidence.

[Mad Dawgg]

As far as PUBLIC buildings and such (Government owned) I agree there should be no smoking enforced.

But forcing Private property owners to observe a smoking ban is overstepping.

I won several pieces of property and I don't need the government telling me who can and can't smoke on it. Its none of their business.

[Mad Dawgg]

won = own

[IncPen]

Today it’s smokers. Tomorrow? Who knows.

Yesterday, it was smokers. Hugh Rodham, Hillary's brother, got a huge chunk of 'tobacco settlement' money.

No, today it's Tea Partiers. Tomorrow...

[packrat35]

Ah yes, FR’s resident cigarette Nazi!

[Drango]

I don’t mind being called a Nazi by those who pimp death or addiction.

[Graybeard58]

I wish that everybody had the “laid back” attitude that I have concerning smokers. I smoked from age 12 to age 63, yup, 51 years.

I had to go into the hospital for emergency gall bladder surgery for 3 days, no smoking there, I walked out of that hospital wanting a smoke but didn’t take it, 3 days without a cig was a pretty good start. 5 years later, I still haven’t had that smoke.

Yet I still have ash trays in my house and friends and some family members who smoke and when they come to my house, I want them to feel “at home” and by gollies, if they want to smoke, they can smoke here, the house will air out and my smoker friends can be comfortable too.

[packrat35]

Thanks for confirming your shortcomings!