Thanks for the ping.
The "true conservative" smokers here on FR will never understand this. They are blind to any hints that their own smoking behaviors can be the problem. Much like the person addicted to alcohol, many of the tobacco addicts here truly believe that everyone else is to blame for society as a whole coming down on them.
Its nanny's, its liberals, its folks who want to control them. Of course these people do want just that but the vast majority that are voting for bans are just the average Joe who want to breath air without cigarette smoke.
This denial of the true state of affairs interferes with their ability to deal realistically with the true reasons for the smoking bans. Even thought I do notice that by repetition I have made some small headway that the issue is the smell and not the danger of SHS, they have still failed to appreciate how truly offensive the smoke is to nonsmokers.
This failure is partly biological in that they have a greatly reduced sense of smell and are desensitized to their smoke and partly psychological. The psychological is a defense against confronting how obnoxious their habit truly is to the average nonsmoker and most importantly a defense against any potential hindrance of their ability to get the next fix.
All in all if it were not for the effect of the precedent that is being set by the laws being passed to inhibit their behaviors this would be just another sad side effect of addictions.
And, you have no problem with inhibiting "behaviors" by the government?
I believe (and don't quote me here, as I am not a Jeffersonian Scholar), but I believe the Declaration of Independence included words to the effect:
""We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
I would like to pursue my "Liberty and Happiness" without Government interference by passing laws SELECTIVELY APPLIED TO ONLY CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS, which seems also to be a bit inconsistent with the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
If anyone has ever successfully litigated an "inconvienience" case against a smoker, please cite it.