You are so right! Which reminds me of the following cartoon:
Posted on 03/26/2007 7:38:53 AM PDT by SmithL
Doesn't bother me a bit. I keep the windows open so the car doesn't smell like smoke as a courtesy to any non-smokers I give a ride to. I do use my ashtray, but that's because it is in a convenient place for a smoker. Many new cars have "ashtrays" which can't possibly be meant for cigarettes, because you can't reach them without leaning way over and taking your eyes off the road. I think they're really for coins for the tollbooth, where you'd be stopped anyway.
If you want to toss fast food litter out of your car window, it's fine by me. As long as it's illegal for you to eat that fast food in any public place or around children.
I have become callous to this nonsense. I'm paying over $2 a pack in "special" taxes, these taxes are wasted on public employees- let them pick up the butts. And after listening to all the whining of non smokers, I guess I just don't care any longer if the smoke blows there way. sorry, but the obscene, punitive taxation and the junk science whining has just turned me into one who no longer cares.
What's your point? It's an option to smoke, too. If I want leather seats I have to pay extra, based upon that choice. If you want to have an ashtray, you get one. I don't think it's acceptable or intended that because you choose not to get an ashtray that it's ok to throw the butts outside.
You can often smell it. That's not that big a deal, but if you enjoy the smoke, and it costs so much, why would you let it out? I do confess that in some outdoor settings, smoking nearby still can be bothersome (although cigars are the bigger problem). I have never made much of it, but that didn't make it less bothersome. Still, I have never advocated laws on the subject. The market should control.
no point. you said you thought they could still get them, i was confirming that yes you can, and its a nominal fee. when spending $20k-$30k on a vehicle, $30 isn't really anything.
You said: I have become callous to this nonsense. I'm paying over $2 a pack in "special" taxes, these taxes are wasted on public employees- let them pick up the butts. And after listening to all the whining of non smokers, I guess I just don't care any longer if the smoke blows there way. sorry, but the obscene, punitive taxation and the junk science whining has just turned me into one who no longer cares.
***
I understand the fatigue, but don't lump non-smokers with anti-smoking zealots. I have never advocated for anti-smoking laws, and I suspect the majority of non-smokers haven't either. Your anger is misdirected, largely. I didn't tax you. I occasionally drink beer, wine and other alcohol, all taxed heavily. I don't throw cans and bottles out of the car.
And forgive me for asking this, but is the pleasure of smoking really worth the $2.00 a pack, or whatever it costs these days? I see people having to stand outside in bad weather smoking, and I wonder if it really such a wonderful experience. If it is, I am glad I never started. I don't think I could handle that much pleasure.
Sorry, I think I misunderstood your post. I took it (wrongly, it appears) that one shouldn't have to spend $30 for an ashtray, and therefore the carmakers intended you to throw the butts out.
Forgive me.
You're right. We need to get rid of those mandatory car seat laws. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. I survived just fine without them, and so did my two grown children.
Smoking with kids in the car is a bad idea, but do we really need another law to regulate it?
I say that as someone whose asthma and bronchitis was undoubtedly exacerabated by having two parents who incessantly smoked, everywhere. I eventually became a smoker myself. And if I had kids I would not smoke in the house or car with them, if I was still smoking.
"Smoking with kids in the car is a bad idea, but do we really need another law to regulate it? "
Exactly. And the next step? A law that says no smoking in a home where kids are present. Then a law that says no drinking in a home where kids are present. Then a law that says no firearms.... and on and on.
There are lots of bad ideas in the world, I don't think it's the government's job to keep people from being stupid.
"If you want to smoke in your car, enjoy yourself. I just prefer you not waste your hard-earned money by letting the smoke out for others who don't care for it."
I was going to write you a serious response, but it's obvious that you are irrational about this subject. Complaining about cigarette smoke escaping from someone's car while driving is just ridiculous - the other vehicles around you are spewing toxic chemicals in much larger quantities than a whole busload of smokers could produce. The smoke dissipates within seconds of hitting the great outdoors.
I do agree with you on the subject of the disposed butts, but when I was a smoker I used to do it, too. The lack of an ashtray and a desire to keep the car's interior smelling nice were part of it, and just plain thoughtlessness another part of it. When not in my car I always made sure my butt ended up in an ashtray or garbage can, even when one wasn't handy and I had to field strip my cigarette and carry the butt until I could get rid of it. Of course, there are a lot of people who seem to think its OK to throw coffee cups and fast food packaging out the window as they drive, too, and I never do that.
I'm not irrational about this. As I have said many times before, both on this thread anothers before it, I can tolerate cigarette smoke. I don't like it that much, but I can tolerate it. I don't ask people not to smoke around me, and I oppose laws restricting smoking. How much more rational can one be?
My observation about venting cigarette smoke is that even smokers don't seem to really like the smoke around them, so they roll the car window down. Smokers don't want smoke in their cars making them smell bad. I actually agree with them, but THEY are the ones who cause the smoke to be there. And smoking has become a pretty expensive habit (and if people want to spend their money on tobacco I am ok with that too. It's their choice, and it should be their choice.)
I do question some of the logic of smokers, though. And that may be because I, having never smoked, just can't appreciate the pleasure and joy that it provides. Otherwise, why would people stand out in the rain and cold to smoke? Why would they avoid certain otherwise really good restaurants just because they require the smoker to postpone their habit (or custom, or pleasurable experience, if you like) until they leave the building? Why would they smoke around oxygen tanks, as the elderly lady not too far from here (Winston-Salem, NC) did, with explosive and deadly results? Why would they smoke around their children, even if there is no evidence that second-hand smoke is harmful (and I agree that it probaby is not harmful, except to those who may be allergic or hyper-sensitive), when is uncomfortable for them? I have my suspicions, but I don't know. There just seems to be holes in smokers' logic. I still support their right to smoke. I just don't get why they choose to do it (if it remains a choice).
Close. It's not the butt, itself, though; it's the total motard who's such a complete and total social Philistine that they can't bring themselves to actually USE THEIR OWN ASHTRAY! Millions of cars and trucks on the roas and they ALL have an ashtray, but "people" -- and I use the term loosely, here -- STILL stuff their cigarette butts out the window, most of them still lit.
If the penalty for that was INSTANT DEATH, the carnage would blow your mind.
To clarify, I would keep a window open when smoking because I didn't want my car to get all crudded up with bad-smelling smoke residue, not because I was worried about getting the smell on me. If you consistently smoke in a car with closed windows the inside of the windshield will get very dirty very quickly, and other surfaces too, which affects the resale value. I've had people get in my car who know that I smoke assume that I don't smoke in my car, because it doesn't smell of smoke at all (or very little, anyway).
Smoking does provide some pleasure, or people would never stick with it long enough in the first place for it to become a habit. Once established as a habit and reinforced with many thousands of cigarettes, the habit can become hard to break. As an addiction I would personally call nicotine addiction fairly trivial. Withdrawl involves minor discomfort and passes in a few days. But that habit, the way it gives you something to do with your hands and your mouth, and that little chemical hit of pleasure you get when you smoke (sometimes, many cigarettes are smoked out of habit and yield little pleasure - they just satisfy the chemical craving), is hard to break.
Yes, some smokers, but not most, are so heavily nicotine dependent that they have difficulty to go a couple of hours without a smoke. Personally I never let the smoking ban prevent me from going to and avoiding restaurants that I like. They did sort kill the enjoyment of drinking beer at the bar for me though, since beer was always so closely tied up with smoking for me - the first time I drank enough to get drunk, when I was 15, I also smoked to help deal with the taste of (warm) beer which I didn't care for at the time.
then who would pay all the taxes that our governments so easily waste?
Let's just face facts, this has nothing to do with protecting anyone.. its all about getting people to STOP smoking. They figure if they can stop you in the car with your kid, thats less that you have smoked and they "win"
Sorry.. thats how I see ALL of these laws. Its all about getting people to not smoke.. if they wont quit on their own big brother will MAKE you quit.
Well, gee, I guess the taxes would have to be covered by us non-smokers, and those few remaining smokers who actually have the mental capacity to apprehend the concept of using their own ashtrays.
At least the shoulders of our highways would have a fresh chance that they might, one day, be home to more pebbles than cigarette butts.
You are so right! Which reminds me of the following cartoon:
So,.....there are other ways to smoke a legal product and not fill up the state coffers............
Can't stand the high taxes?
Afraid to order off of the Internet?
Then start rolling your own!!! I find everything but the machine downtown at the local Smoke Shop. Also, Rite Aid and grocery stores also sell the bags of tobacco and the filtered tubes.
I roll out a beautiful carton for a little under $8 dollars. Premiums in my state are now up to $45-$50 a carton. Can you imagine the money I have saved over the past 4 years since I now roll my own? It's mind boggling.
under $50.00
Check StuffYourOwn for prices on tobacco
$1.99 for 200 filtered tubes
Make your own cigarettes for as low as $6.99 per Carton! Smoke Quality FILTERED cigarettes that you make yourself using cigarette tubes (like a cigarette without the Cigarette tobacco), our cigarette making machines, and our "roll your own" cigarette tobacco.
-Stop Paying High Cigarette Taxes
-So Much Easier than "Roll Your Own" cigarettes!
and
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