In that case we better also ban backyard bbq's, lawn mowing, driving cars, burning incense and candles. You are a typical newbie nannystater. I doubt you will last very long on FreeRepublic!
Yep!!!
Posted on 02/15/2005 8:24:48 AM PST by SheLion
Do people who enjoy smoking have any rights? Increasingly, the answer is no. It is essential to keep in mind that smoking cigarettes, cigars, or pipes is an entirely personal choice. No one is required to smoke. Millions voluntarily stop smoking every year. People have been smoking, and enjoying tobacco products for a very long time, but now they have been demonized and ostracized.
Using the power of government, to tax, smokers are being ripped off at every level. Recently, New York City sent letters to 2,300 residents giving them thirty days to pay the taxes on the cartons of cigarettes they had purchased over the Internet. It's the law.
A single pack of cigarettes in New York City comes with a state tax of $1.50, a city tax of $1.50, and a federal tax of 39 cents. A pack of Marlboro cigarettes will cost you $7.00. A ten-pack carton will cost you more than $55.00. Purchased at an international airport's duty-free store, the same carton retails for just $16.00.
There are few, if any, people who do not know there is an element of risk involved in the decision to smoke. There is risk involved when any American gets into his car and goes anywhere. Driving kills over 40,000 Americans every year. It is the price we pay for the mobility, and other benefits cars and vehicles provide. There is, in fact, risk in every human activity, including the enjoyment of alcoholic beverages and even the simple act of eating.
The U.S. engaged in a hugely failed experiment, called Prohibition, to stop people from drinking alcoholic beverages at their favorite saloon. It took a Constitutional amendment to end it. For many years now, the same thinking that imposed Prohibition has been at work to achieve the same outcome with smoking.
It is un-American in the most profound sense of that term. In a nation founded on the individual right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, preventing people from the enjoyment of smoking runs contrary to the inherent right to enjoy this lifestyle option if you want.
Consider, however, some events in 2004. The first worldwide antismoking treaty - the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - was ratified, and is now in effect. It is yet another example of the United Nation's intention to control every aspect of the lives of everyone on planet Earth. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is the lead organization in America, and it has promised to "now concentrate on enforcement efforts."
During 2004, six nations imposed a no-smoking ban. Among them were Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden. These nations are notable for their liberal, i.e., socialist political agendas. Here in the U.S., so-called "nonsmoker's rights" became law in Idaho, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. At the local level, thirty-two jurisdictions passed comprehensive workplace smoking laws in 2004, along with "less comprehensive smokefree workplace laws."
There's more. Eleven States, including Virginia, where historically tobacco was the crop that encouraged its establishment and growth as an American colony, substantially increased their cigarette taxes. Consider the example of New York City, and multiply it by other cities and states, cashing in, while at the same time, banning smoking, indoors and out. That is obscene.
Now imagine a similar level of taxation on a candy bar, a cup of coffee, or soft drink. Think it can't happen? Think again.
ASH has big plans for 2005. It plans to "take advantage of a new ruling which now makes it possible for sensitive nonsmokers to sue states which do not provide them with reasonable protection from tobacco smoke pollution."
These suits will eventually cost taxpayers millions, draining vital financial resources from serious needs such as infrastructure improvements. ASH will push for more and more bans, on people who smoke outdoors on beaches, and elsewhere. In California, it is already against the law to light up on the beach.
Let's say you've just bought a condo, or moved to an apartment. ASH intends to encourage and assist lawsuits by apartment dwellers who object to neighbors smoking in their own apartments. In the name of protecting children, ASH will pursue laws that ban parents from smoking around their children, by getting courts to issue orders to ban smoking in custody cases, or by a foster parent, or in a car, while driving children anywhere.
All this is happening in the "land of the free, and the home of the brave," as well as around the world, where the U.N. antismoking treaty bans any advertising for tobacco products, requires health warning labels similar to those on products sold in the U.S., bans any secondhand smoke in workplaces, public transport, and indoor public places.
It empowers a vast law enforcement program against smuggling, and there will be smuggling, leading to cartels that rival illegal drugs. There's more, but the ultimate objective is to eliminate smoking anywhere on the face of the Earth.
This is pure fascism - using the power of the state to deny this simple pleasure from being enjoyed anywhere. And, when the national and global antismoking campaign is successful, these same people will turn their attention to banning the consumption of meat, fish, cookies, candy, potato chips, soft drinks, or anything else they decide you should not enjoy.
Do smokers have any rights? Apparently not.
NO!
SHOOT "EM ALL.
WORSE THAN JIHADIS.
A recent survey showed more Americans would rather get blown up by a nonsmoking jihadi than be in the vicinity of a smoker.
PROVE it!
Common, you can do. Copy, paste and upload on a remote server and drop it into this thread for all of us to see.
Surely you don't think anyone will take YOUR word for this, do you??!
Does have a ring of plausibility, doesn't it?
Plus, everyone knows jihadis don't smoke when carrying bombs.
If you make your stand based on a fiction of reality, you lose before you start.
Why not? On my Freedom Island, all people who have common sense are welcome. ACLU-ites will not be welcome.
Coming in really late on this, but I would LOVE to make adjustments to that 11th with an eye-opener that SMOKE DRIFTS... so there is no such thing as someone smoking on their property keeping the smoke on their property. In close residential communities and neighborhoods, if one is smoking on his/her property, or even in their home with the windows open, that smoke is not remaining with them, it's drifting right into their neighbors window and property, and it's creating a nuisance, to anyone allergic, or sensitive to it! Those who have anosmia (no sense of smell) are even more in danger of it because they don't know they're breathing that harmful stuff. I wonder when they're going to catch on and be more realistic about this, that SMOKE DRIFTS! There is no way to keep smoke in one place, unless the smoker was smoking in their home with the window SHUT! This should be added to the local town ordinances, just like noise is a disturbance to the peace during night time hours, so is smoke! I am not only allergic to it, I am bothered by the smell of it. It smells so deadly, so cold, so toxic! And it is my right to not want to breathe it... especially during the night when I'm trying to sleep!
The only rights smokers have is to destroy their own health, but not to destroy the health of others around them!
In that case we better also ban backyard bbq's, lawn mowing, driving cars, burning incense and candles. You are a typical newbie nannystater. I doubt you will last very long on FreeRepublic!
In that case we better also ban backyard bbq's, lawn mowing, driving cars, burning incense and candles. You are a typical newbie nannystater. I doubt you will last very long on FreeRepublic!
Yep!!!
Good one. I don't expect an answer from the other...
You can't be allergic.
Allergic reactions require protein. There is no protein in tobacco smoke.
What you're experiencing is hysteria.
What a wimp---how on earth have you survived this long with those brutal smoke allergies?
The smell of smoking drifts,the smell of cooking cabbage drifts,the smell of lilacs drifts(I'm allergic to lilacs).
So what ?
Welcome to FR !
.
Boy! And how!
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