I've been rolling my own now for about 4 years. I can roll a beautiful carton for a little under $8.00. Maine wants $45-$50 a carton, depending on where I bought them. So the savings has been fantastic!
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.
I've been rolling my own now for about 4 years. I can roll a beautiful carton for a little under $8.00. Maine wants $45-$50 a carton, depending on where I bought them. So the savings has been fantastic!
You sounded almost rational, til you couldn't resist the "second hand smoke" canard...
People who want to control others and are rigidly uncompromising alienate themselves from other people. Nobody wants to be with them.
Why they would want to do that, on purpose, to their children and grandchildren, I will never understand.
So I have to do something that the majority says even if I don't like it?
Hmmm... interesting.
No we aren't.
We own the highway.
No we don't.
You're kidding?! Wow! Good for her!!!!! 
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
Tell me how it fits in the Webster'd definition of Fascim.
I'll check back with you after my meeting.
You are full of chit with that thinking.
Cigarette smokers, cigar smokers, chewers, dippers, whatever are JUNKIES, period!
Junkies? LOL! That's a good one. So. What do YOU do for relaxation? Alcohol or prescription drugs?
And smokers act so incredibly confused with the wave of anti-smoking sentiment sweeping the country and courthouses.
One small example of how smokers are their worst enemies when it comes to Public Relations.
If someone asked me not to drink in their store (which they have many times), i'd put the cap back on the soda, not smash it on the floor.
Oh No!
Ah, which one? hehe! I lost track.
They've got the money and the time and the lawyers.
This is where it's headed if something isn't nipped in the bud now. Our rights are being eroded.
Next thing you know they will be outlawing marijuana, opium, and drinking alcohol in public.
We better nip this cigarette thing in the bud, and quick!
What right do they have to tell people what to put into their own body?
That hasn't been proven. I'm sorry you fell for the rhetoric of the highly paid Anti-Smoking Zealots.
Spraying MACE in the face of people hasn't proven to beharmful either, just irritating.
I'm still glad it's not legal.
You can belittle me all you want for my smoking. But don't you DARE say anything about NASCAR! I LOVE NASCAR racing!
I am just as entitled to my opinion as you are to yours. To us non-smoker you smokers STINK. You REEK of smoke and it's okay that you want to live that. It's your life.
REEK? I'll have you know I do not REEK. There is such a thing as personal hygiene, don't you know?
When a person has a good hygiene regimen, there is NO REEKING thank you! When I go to my Doctor for check-ups, he never even mentions smoking because he can't even smell it on me. So there!
Re: "Ah, which one? hehe! I lost track."
How long have you been tracking my grandsons?
You aren't one of my former wives, are you?
I never flip my cigarettes out of the car window. I love animals, and grass and forest fires scare me. I could never live with myself if I knew I had caused animals and birds to parish in a fire because of my cigarette butt.
I knew I could get comments. I would never do what I said I think about doing. I was smoke gnatzie fishing.
exactly
Especially when it's still a legal commodity.
Ah.........no, don't think so. hehe!
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