Beaches & Buttheads: Don't bother packing your smokes.

National Review Online ^ | June 24, 2004 | Robert A. Levy

[SheLion]

[Centurion2000]

They better ban campfires and beach parties too while they are at it ....

Idiots.

[Redbob]

Yes, by all means let's defend our God-given right to strew the landscape with cigarette butts!

After all, those filter tips will biodegrade in, oh, about 6 or 8 months - what's the problem?

[Huck]

One argument for the beach ban goes like this: Cigarette butts are a major source of litter. On cleanup days, volunteers say they pick up an average of more than 300,000 butts along the beach. If so, that's a powerful argument — but against littering, not against smoking.

I disagree. It's a great argument for banning smoking AND littering.

[codyjacksmom]

Let's protect them from those wicked wisps of smoke. Just let the skin cancer take them instead...much better. These idiots don't have a clue.

[kevao]

. . . defend every grain of sand along the 1,100-mile coastline against cigarette litter.

I wish people were as adamant about defending our borders.

[CSM]

Did you even bother to read the article? If so, try comprehending it.

[headsonpikes]

Over here!

Someone's questioning the right of the government to stamp out bad habits again!

Cotton Mather placemarker.

[CSM]

Per your logic we better ban all activity that has a potential to cause litter. No more babies in diapers, no more eating, no more reading books, in fact we better ban clothing. I often see articles of clothing strewn on beaches.

Heck, people disturb the sand, we better ban all human life from the beaches.

[markman46]

Road-apples, most of the butts come down stream from the rives/sewer system. not from people on the beach it's just more lets ban this cause it for the children!!

[Lokibob]

Great, then lets ban soda pops, diapers, food, (the list is endless).

[Looking4Truth]

I wish people were as adamant about defending our borders.

Agreed. This beach crap is right up there in importance with the transgendered freaks wanting their own bathroom or whether Shreck promotes transvestites. Get a CLUE people we've got a whole LOT more to worry about than crap like this.

[bannie]

Better check your Styrofoam at the gate, too. What else?

Damn, I guess we'd better hire a whole buncha' beach cops--maybe one for each half mile of beach.

Since they couldn't cry about second-hand smoke at a beach--what with the ocean BREEZE--they had to figure out some other reason for making smoking a crime.

[bannie]

BTW: I've never smoked.

[kstewskis]

They already have on many L.A. beaches for some time now, unless it's changed in the last 12-13 years.

[Huck]

Baloney.

[Huck]

Per your logic we better ban all activity that has a potential to cause litter.

Nope. That's not my thinking. Simple case of cherry picking. Cig smoking is easier to ban, easier to catch offenders, and judging from the stats, a MAJOR source of garbage. It's a quick win. Demanding "logical" consistency to the point of absurdity is a silly debating tactic. In truth, common sense should work. Got half a million butts on the beach? Restrict smoking. Easy.

[Huck]

I think bottles are definitely banned on some beaches. Diapers should be in the bathroom, doncha think?

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Did you even "read" the article, or are you so set in your attitude that it was all just words, words, words...