Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Quit nagging the smokers, will ya?
PhillyBurbs.com ^ | 11-18-04 | J.D. Mullane

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.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: antismokers; bans; butts; cigarettes; fda; individualliberty; lawmakers; maine; niconazis; professional; prohibitionists; pufflist; regulation; rinos; senate; smoking; taxes; tobacco
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260 ... 641-647 next last
To: Terpesman

You are the one persecuting people DU'er. You don't even sound like a FReeper.


221 posted on 11/19/2004 9:35:12 AM PST by TheForceOfOne (Get us out of the U.N.!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 180 | View Replies]

To: Just another Joe
We are not talking about smoking. We're talking about ETS, or second hand smoke, and no, the vast majority of the studies done, including the three largest, say there is no health risk from ETS unless there is a pre-existing medical condition.

Interesting. I didn't know that. This thread caught my eye 'cause I saw an article by Dr. Sally Satel once in the NYTimes op ed. It's no longer on their site (for free) but here's a copy.

From her WSJ article:

Activists have rushed to embrace a new study that seems to prove, at long last, that secondhand smoke is life-threatening. The British Medical Journal reported that after a smoking ban in Helena, Montana, the heart-attack rate dropped by almost half. In an accompanying editorial, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control heralded the finding. And that prompted the Washington Post to blare, "Second Hand Smoke Poses Heart Attack Risk, Warns the CDC."

In truth, the study is woefully unreliable; but its compatibility with widespread anti-tobacco animus gave it status as "fact." Meanwhile, other solid data that tobacco products can improve the health of smokers go largely ignored.

Interesting, eh?

222 posted on 11/19/2004 9:35:38 AM PST by Dick Holmes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: Just another Joe
I've fought the smoking ban battle, AND the 2nd amendment battle and luckily I've won both in my state - so far.

Joe

223 posted on 11/19/2004 9:36:25 AM PST by SheLion (God bless and protect our troops. I love them one and all!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 217 | View Replies]

To: SheLion
But the good Lord knows me, and I, too, have prayed for a sign to help me stop.

Avoiding that "sign" would be the point. I already explained how most people get that sign.

He told me "God doesn't worry about what goes into our bodies, but what comes out."

Straight from scripture. It was referring to keeping kosher, but the idea is the same in some ways. Different in other ways.

I'm glad you are happy. But ya can't blame people for wishing you well.

224 posted on 11/19/2004 9:38:19 AM PST by Protagoras (No wonder we have problems, big tents have lots of clowns inside)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 216 | View Replies]

To: Just another Joe

I'm with you, I just read it. But tell me, where does it say you can do what you want if it infringes upon the rights of others?


225 posted on 11/19/2004 9:38:31 AM PST by Terpesman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 182 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

I was going to say "keep it in the closet", but the phone booth is better!

;^)


226 posted on 11/19/2004 9:39:28 AM PST by JimRed (Investigate, overturn and prosecute vote fraud; turn more counties red!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 1Old Pro

I've always thought that the government should ban smoking in areas where people "have" to go... courts, DMV, government buildings, etc. Anywhere else... I think the law should only require a sign prominently posted outside re. whether the establishment bans smoking, allows smoking, or has sections. That way, everyone can make his/her own choice and gets the info up front. It always seemed to me that the market would take care of the situation. If people wanted non-smoking bars, someone would open one. I'm glad I've never smoked, because I can't get rid of the bad habits I have now... I'd never be able to quit. But all this hyper-sensitivity to smoke gets on my nerves.... the rights of the business owner really seem to me to have taken a beating on this issue.


227 posted on 11/19/2004 9:39:50 AM PST by GraceCoolidge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

Great article but there's one little thing I have a problem with. He said smokers die early and don't collect Social Security.

He should have said,"some smokers" die early-----I've been collecting SS for 10 years and there are quite a few like me.


228 posted on 11/19/2004 9:40:08 AM PST by Mears
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dick Holmes
Interesting, eh?

It's a typical anti-smoking tactic.

If you shout it long enough and loud enough people will take it as truth.

I just don't have the money to shout as long and loud as the antismokers.
Probably because they're using MY money to shout with.

229 posted on 11/19/2004 9:40:32 AM PST by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 222 | View Replies]

To: No Blue States

Great picture. Great idea.


230 posted on 11/19/2004 9:40:36 AM PST by Conspiracy Guy (Kevin Sites is a terrorist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 219 | View Replies]

To: Terpesman

It's my LIFE, and I take the LIBERTY to smoke because it brings me HAPPINESS!


231 posted on 11/19/2004 9:42:14 AM PST by TheForceOfOne (Get us out of the U.N.!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 210 | View Replies]

To: Terpesman
where does it say you can do what you want if it infringes upon the rights of others?

Post 193

232 posted on 11/19/2004 9:43:04 AM PST by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 225 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

Yep, and I *strongly* support private businesses making their own decision on the matter. No government intervention.


233 posted on 11/19/2004 9:44:28 AM PST by k2blader (It is neither compassionate nor conservative to support the expansion of socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 212 | View Replies]

To: Terpesman

I still think you belong in a Liberal think tank discussion group somewhere in a blue state stink hole debating whats best for smokers with the funding coming in the form of taxes taken pack by pack from smokers. As for the personal attack on me well thats typical liberal debate tactics straight from the DNC manual.


234 posted on 11/19/2004 9:48:03 AM PST by TheForceOfOne (Get us out of the U.N.!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 218 | View Replies]

To: Gabz
Right, the law states that I am not allowed to do it, no matter what the business owner says. The same way the no smoking law says you can't smoke in certain places.

This is something we can go round and round about all day. I say, smoke if you want. Just remember that your smoke affects people all around you. Sometimes it all comes down to the lack of respect people show each other in our everyday lives. It's friggin' pathetic.

I love to crank the radio up when I am driving, I also know that not everyone likes listening to rock music so I turn it down when I am at a stop light or somewhere else where it might offend other people. I don't have to, unless I am in a place that bans loud music, but I do it because I am not an A$$hole. How many times have you sat at a stoplight and listened to someone play music so loud that it drowns out your radio? I wonder how happy that makes people?

Anyway, this is one of those topics where you are never going to change someone's feelings. What's sad is that our society has become so self-centric that we no longer stop to think about other people when we do things, legal or not.
235 posted on 11/19/2004 9:48:15 AM PST by Terpesman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 185 | View Replies]

To: SheLion
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.

Then I must be 109; my cousin told me on my 35th birthday that I was 35 when I was born (due to my conservative nature, I guess), and now I am 64...

236 posted on 11/19/2004 9:48:16 AM PST by Old Professer ( War too often becomes personal; we inure ourselves to the abstract and audit too lightly)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Latte Drinker

Ther's no smell in the world that compares to dried coffee and spoilt milk.


237 posted on 11/19/2004 9:49:34 AM PST by Old Professer ( War too often becomes personal; we inure ourselves to the abstract and audit too lightly)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: iconoclast

(Me, as devil's advocate...)

But those people are allowed to be as loud as they want, they are paying for their meals just like you.


238 posted on 11/19/2004 9:51:16 AM PST by Terpesman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 186 | View Replies]

To: Latte Drinker
I personally love the fact that I can go out Saturday nights in New York and Boston now and NOT come home reeking from cigarette smoke.

I'm sure you always could. It's just that you wanted to go to the places where smokers hung out. Now, of course you get a triple benefit: hanging out in the cool places, coming home reek-free, and the Adrenalin rush obtained from knowing you've forced your will on others. Seriously, does it get any better than that?

239 posted on 11/19/2004 9:52:51 AM PST by laredo44 (Liberty is not the problem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Terpesman
But, in states where it is illegal to smoke in public places, that means that I don't have to complain to the managers of the business.

Businesses are not public places.

240 posted on 11/19/2004 9:53:27 AM PST by Protagoras (No wonder we have problems, big tents have lots of clowns inside)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 201-220221-240241-260 ... 641-647 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson