Smoking foes try to stop parents from lighting up

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | December 16, 2005 | Tarron Lively

[kingattax]

Anti-smoking activists who are driving cigarettes from public places across the country are now targeting private homes -- especially those with children.

Their efforts so far have contributed to regulations in three states -- Maine, Oklahoma and Vermont -- forbidding foster parents from smoking around children. Parental smoking also has become a critical point in some child-custody cases, including ones in Virginia and Maryland.

In a highly publicized Virginia case, a judge barred Caroline County resident Tamara Silvius from smoking around her children as a condition for child visitation. Mrs. Silvius, a waitress at a truck stop in Doswell, Va., calls herself "highly disappointed" with the court's ruling.

"I'm an adult. Who is anybody to tell me I can't smoke or drink?" she said in an interview yesterday.

An appeals court upheld the ruling, but not before one judge raised questions about the extent to which a court should become involved in parental rights and whether certain behavior is harmful or simply not in a child's best interest. Mrs. Silvius says she complied with the decision by altering her smoking habits.

"My children know not to come around when I'm on the front porch with my morning coffee, tending to my cows or out in my garden, because I'm having a cigarette," she said. Still, she thinks this was not a matter for the courts because it was not proven that she posed a risk to her children's health.

[SheLion]

You're going to be in for a big surprise when you die in perfect health...

Hehe

[duckln]

Why is the first question you're asked at the doctors office, 'do you smoke'.

My question is, are your fingers nicotine stained, and are you afraid to smile because of stained teeth?

This new year is another opportunity for you bite the bullet. It's hard I know, I went from cigs, to cigars, to pipe, snuff, and now only martinis, all over a period of 35 years.

I never defended the habits. Merry Christmas too, and hope Jan 1st you quit, you may put on a little weight, but you may also be less grumpy.

GOOD LUCK

[SheLion]

Why is the first question you're asked at the doctors office, 'do you smoke'.

My question is, are your fingers nicotine stained, and are you afraid to smile because of stained teeth?

(Adding my 2 cents here)

My Doctor never says anything to me about smoking.  Before I go to my appointment, I have a cigarette and wash my hands.  I drive to the Doctor's without smoking.

I have great hygiene and never smell like smoke.  My fingers are not yellow nor are my teeth! And my hair is freshly washed.

I'm sure if I stunk from smoke, she would badger me about smoking.  But since she can't smell it on me, she forgets that I am a smoker. 

Good Hygiene is the ticket!

[Madame Dufarge]

Some people don't want to take the risk even at those levels. They want zero risk

And I want to win Powerball, but I'm not lobbying for laws to increase my chances of winning.

Too bad the bleating of the frightened narcissists is driving public policy now. Thanks to funding by Big Fear, they've gained a voice way beyond their numbers or worth.

[duckln]

Your doctor should be advising you not to smoke. She's not doing her job.

Excuses, excuses, good hygiene includes not smoking.

When I was a smoker, ten minutes after a cigarette, I could hold my nose, puff up my checks and exhale a puff of smoke. Do you do that after each cigarette? If not, do you hack and cough more than normal?

[SheLion]

Your doctor should be advising you not to smoke. She's not doing her job.

Excuses, excuses, good hygiene includes not smoking.

My Doctor HAS advised me not to smoke.  However, she soon stopped doing that when she realized that I wasn't going to put up with that chit!

Smoking is legal.  I KNOW the risks!  Miss Prissy Nose!  And I am NOT obese!

She is a good Doctor and so get off my back!

(Good hygiene SHOULD include "Don't give advise unless ASK for it!)

[Lazamataz]

Anti-smoking activists who are driving cigarettes from public places across the country are now targeting private homes

It is now time to target anti-smoking activists for assassination.

[SheLion]

When I was a smoker, ten minutes after a cigarette, I could hold my nose, puff up my checks and exhale a puff of smoke. Do you do that after each cigarette? If not, do you hack and cough more than normal?

Whaaaaat???!!!!!  No.  I do not exhale smoke 10 minutes after I smoke.  And NO!  I do not hack and cough up phlegm.

Next question?

[Lazamataz]

When I was a smoker, ten minutes after a cigarette, I could hold my nose, puff up my checks and exhale a puff of smoke.

Methinks thouest is a

[SheLion]

[Lazamataz]

If that is your picture, I want to marry you.

Tonight.

[SheLion]

[SheLion]

If that is your picture, I want to marry you.

Here's my picture.  LOL!

[SheLion]

Methinks thouest is a

Methinks the same............

[gidget7]

No, they shouldn't have both. Nor should smokers be the scapegoats for collection of money to pay for other peoples health care, (not smoking related) and everything else they need tax money to cover.

When a neighbors is unable to pay their taxes, you are not responsible for paying them for them. When a neighbors house is run down, you are not made responsible for fixing it up. Why are smokers made financially responsible for others health problems, when those health problems have absolutely nothing to do with people having smoked? The tax money collected from smokers goes to help fight AIDS, to fix roads, (which never seem to get fixed anyway) and for all sorts of other socialist pet projects. Moat of which, have no correlation to the smokers life! Hypocrisy at best.

[gidget7]

OMG do they actually run that photo??

[SheLion]

OMG do they actually run that photo??

hehe

Which one?

[gidget7]

I would like someone to explain why, with all the anti smoking laws, and the decrease (dramatic) of smokers, the asthma rate in children has skyrocketed, instead of decreased. Obviously there is a different cause!

Risk free living does not exist, only minimizing risk and doing your best to plan does. Overuse of antibiotics leads to them being ineffective, sanitizing your house and killing every germ in it, leads to no immunity being built up against anything.

[gidget7]

The picture with the kids standing, in a convertible of all things?

[SheLion]

The tax money collected from smokers goes to help fight AIDS, to fix roads, (which never seem to get fixed anyway) and for all sorts of other socialist pet projects. Moat of which, have no correlation to the smokers life! Hypocrisy at best.

Well, get THIS:  MASS used the cigarette tax money two years ago to build a $175,000 GOLF COURSE!

Maine coalition uses the money to sponsor "5" car racing teams AND various race tracks across the state.

Maine also gave cigarette tax money to an old lady in Ellsworth, Maine to plant a GARDEN in the town square.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Outrageous, right?

Tobacco Settlement Dollars Go Up In Smoke in Latest Government Scam
-CATO