Posted on 11/19/2004 5:35:36 AM PST by SheLion
Today is the day we set aside each year to badger, harass and pester that marginalized subculture of Americans, the Doorway People.
You know the Doorway People. They stand in doorways at work or at the mall smoking cigarettes because lighting up in mixed company has become as distasteful as nose-picking.
Yes, today marks the 27th anniversary of the Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, where modern incarnates of pinch-mouthed prohibitionists attempt to further ghettoize smokers.
Now, it's not that I think smoking is good. I have friends who smoke. I wish they didn't. On average, they will trade 10 years of their lives to enjoy their habit. But we're all grownups. Smoking is their demon and I have enough of my own demons to wrestle with.
But, unlike anti-smoking zealots, I sympathize with smokers.
That's because I was a smoker. When I quit for good in 1996, I was burning through 2 1/2 packs a day. I ditched the habit because each time I coughed, my lungs rattled as if someone had backed into metal trash cans.
Still, I loved every puff. I still miss it. In fact, I still have nicotine cravings.
So I'm sympathetic to smokers and believe they should be free to enjoy their addiction, which, last I checked, remains legal. Which is why I dislike the anti-smoking scolds. They are trying to criminalize smoking.
From New York City to Dallas, from Toledo, Ohio, to Eugene, Ore., anti-smoking zealots have racked up successful campaigns to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, the last bastion of peace and acceptance for smokers.
Eventually, the anti-smoking "movement" will have won enough smoking bans in enough cities in enough states to introduce national no-smoking legislation, said Zoe Mitchell, co-founder of Ban the Ban, which recently defeated efforts to enact similar no-smoking legislation in Washington, D.C.
"Ultimately, their goal is to make it a national issue based on their success at the local level," she said.
Anti-smokers say they're acting in the best interest of public health.
They say all those smokers burden the healthcare system with their cigarette-related maladies. It costs all of us more in healthcare premiums, they say.
Nonsense. Smokers die sooner than most of us nonsmokers, never collecting a cent from Social Security, which they've paid for decades.
Also, smokers pay outrageous cigarette taxes on each pack of smokes, which pours billions of dollars annually into government coffers.
At best, the money argument is a wash.
When an anti-smoking nut steps into a place like the Puss N' Boots Tavern in Fairless Hills, all they see is the blue-gray cloud of smoke hovering over the patrons crowded around the bar.
When I walk into the Boot, I see it differently.
I see a local cop who's seen more than his fair share of tragedy.
Or an emergency room nurse who was up to her elbows in blood just a few hours before.
Or a construction guy who's sacrificed years of Saturdays to work overtime so he could save for his kid's college tuition.
Or a middle-aged father worried about his son, who's fighting the war.
These are the good people the anti-smoking zealots want to stigmatize as public health leeches.
And if they accomplish their goal, they won't go away.
They will persecute the overweight, stigmatize SUV drivers and haul into court those who don't recycle.
They've got the money and the time and the lawyers.
LOL! Well, I hope you don't mix up the birth control patch with the nicotine patch. hehe!
All my friends drink beer. I have tried and tried to get into beer. I just can't acquire a taste for it. And two beers, and I have a horrible headache. It's not fair.
Okay, show me where in the Constitution it says that smoking in public is an Right.
I have my link ready....
http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/usconst.html
...now point me to the page you're looking at.
The wind swirls the snow around like that. Northern Maine receives on the average 127 inches of snow a year. It's mind boggling.
And in January, February and March, we have high winds, and sub-zero temperatures. Wind chills of -60. Have to really cover up when we have to go outside.
Don't you think the parents of a child who is screaming should take the child outside or to the restroom until the child calms down?
Or should they just sit there and let everyone around them listen to the screaming?
INteresting. My Grandfather smoked for almost 70 years. It was about the only thing he didn't die of. Grandma, who was with most of that time, outlived him by fifteen years.
All luck of the draw, my friend.
Equating hot dog/bleached coffee filters/hair dryers/etc. with smoking is just laughable. Smoking will kill you if you do it for long enough.
This is the lamest argument!
Show me where it says it isn't.
Really, then why are only 30% of lung cancers smoking related?
Emphysema is also virtually unheard of in non-smokers.
Not so, nearly everyone is born with it, but it doesn't manifest itself in everyone.
I didn't say smoking was not a risk factor for some health problems, I'm not stupid, my point is that tobacco DOES not CAUSE everything they say it does. Does it increase some risks? Yes. But correlation is not the same as causation.
I don't know what rumors on the internet you are talking about, because I am talking about research and medical knowlege. I don't happen to be at my own computer right now and so do not had files and links at my fingertips - but they are out there and have been posted here at FR time and time again.
I do not trust information coming from people that earn their living by receiving grants from Left-wing foundations seeking to destroy the hospitality industry and improve their own bottom line.
My mom smoked for at least 40 years and quit when she was in her sixties.
She lived into her 90's, healthy as a horse except for the Alzheimer's from which we all suffered for the last 15 years of her life. Those "extra" years she got were anything but "golden".
We can control our fate only to a very limited point.
They will persecute the overweight, stigmatize SUV drivers and haul into court those who don't recycle.
They've got the money and the time and the lawyers.
I have come to the conclusion it would be best if you stayed home more often and bought a plastic bubble to live in.
I've been around people who are senile or have Alzheimers.
I've heard them talk as if they are in the past..as young adults..as kids.
Even though it's hard on the family, it might comfort you to know that even though they are not in the present, in their minds they might be in a type of heaven reliving good times when they were children.
He still is a smoker, just not cigarettes. All these people who don't smoke cigarettes and think they don't smoke.
Do you drive a car? You smoke. Do you use electricity? You smoke. Did you light a fire in your fireplace, heat with wood or oil? You smoke. Did you burn the fall leaves? You really smoke.
Smoke from those sources consitutes far more smoke and is far worse for everyone than a small paper wrap of burning leaves from a cigarette.
You misunderstand cause and effect. If you're struck by lightning, does the bolt kill you, or do you die of a heart attack? Both answers are actually correct. Smoking causes cancer. Period. End of story. If you need a recap of the history of that relationship being distinguished, here's a good one I found.
http://www.txtwriter.com/Onscience/Articles/smokingcancer2.html
The Tobacco Settlement Money is being paid for by the taxes smokers pay on cigarettes 110%.
NOT the government and NOT Big Tobacco. The smokers.
Oh yes! Smokers are paying for all the control, restrictions and bans. Aren't we just a little tired of this personal abuse that is thrust upon us by our own money??
You are of course correct - but by some magic twist in the minds of the smoke gnatzies because those things don'e contain tobacco they are no threat.
Okay, show me in the Constitution where it says that you are allowed to do something you like, even though it may not be acceptable to everyone around you.
The fact is, smoking does not just affect you, it affects those people who happen to be near you. Your argument here is that it doesn't matter what the other people around you think, you should be allowed to smoke anyway.
I also read the statement on here that "smokers are disillusioned by democracy." For crying out loud, can we be any more melodramatic?
How many smokers feel strongly about my second amendment rights to carry a gun wherever I go. Half? 30%? 60%? What do you think? And that is a CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED RIGHT!
Maybe disillusioned smokers should think about the rights of other people before getting so disillusioned.
Somebody has to be a troll because they disagree with you? Maybe it's YOU who needs to head over to the DU site.
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