People just hate having their clothes smell like stale cigarette smoke when they get home.
The Reynolds family put a lot of money in Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and N.C. State as did the Phillip Morris Co., the American Tobacco Co., and others.
I don't believe this "poll" for a second. It's propaganda fabricated by the health-nazis to help justify their fascist crap.
Honestly, let the owners of 'public places' (Bars, restaurants, etc) decide on a case by case basis. If they want to allow or prohibit smoking in their establishmet and hurt or help their business, leave it up to them. I smoke, but not at restaurants, rarely in bars and never in mine or someone elses home. I know that some don't like smoke, so I don't do it where I may offend, but this crap about banning it in all indoor (and some outdoor business, like theme parks) is getting seriously stupid. If kids aren't allowed at a bar, who are the nannies protecting?
"Interesting poll result from the Tobacco State."
Not really considering it probably was polled out of Chapel Hill respondents to get that high a percentage against smoking.
Understand, this is the area that tobacco built. Those most resentful of that are the volumes of liberal northern transplants to the urban areas in the Triad, Triangle and Charlotte.
I think owners should decide on their own. But I'm with the folks who will go to a no smoking restaurant first, especially when my wife and son are with me.
People who vote for these usurpations deserve the slavery that will certainly follow. Unfortunately, their grandchildren will be the ones who will live in lives of misery instead of them.
This thread is already getting a lot of addiction fueled denial.
Some background: The director of this poll is a poli-sci professor, not statistics or polling. Students do the polling, so it's not a professional poll. He also has an agenda that he can influence the legislature with his polls, and he's proud of his past successes. Getting a smoking ban would be another influence on the legislature that he can brag about.
One of his hyped polls was of "military members" (look deeper and it's anyone who's ever been in the military) that strongly disapproved of Bush's handling of Iraq. The polling was 500 something people over the phone, of which 80 were "military" and that's what the poll was based on.
649 people out of 8,049,313 were polled, and that's the whole state supporting it? The psychotic antis must be marginalized as insane, agenda-driven liars.
Nanny State Ping!!!!!!!!
649 people polled in the entire state???????? I would like to know which anti-smoker organization paid for this piece of bovine excrement.
This number is VERY close to the number polled (with the same results) for the City of Peoria, the entire State of Delaware, which has a population of less than 900,000, for the city of Philadelphia, as well as the entire State of Pennsylvania.
Of course it is gaining ground. Just like every other socialist program we have implemented. No one respects private property any more and they feel more entitled to its use than the owner. Entitlement mentality is leading us down the path to ruin.
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Of course! When only 25-30% of the people in the state smoke, we lose at the polls every time. It's almost a given.
But the stingy anti-smokers that support this ban do not realize how many businesses they are going to hurt. Their favorite haunts as well will most likely go down the tubes.
The general public have NO idea how bad these smoking bans are doing to their local business owners.
But, as long as they can't SMELL it, I guess they are all for it. heh!
Tobacco Taxes
North Carolina's excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $0.050
North Carolina's excise tax collection for the
fiscal year ending June 2002: $40,309,132
Sales tax on tobacco products: 4.00%
Local tax on tobacco products: $6,000,000
Federal excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $0.39
Total federal excise tax collections in fiscal year 2002: $7,512,700,000
Comparing Excise Taxes on Cigarettes, Beer and Wine
Number of six-packs of beer that must be sold in North Carolina to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 1.7
Number of bottles of wine that must be sold in North Carolina to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 3.2
North Carolina Smokers' Contributions to the State Economy - FY2004
In 2003, North Carolina smokers comprised only 24.8% of the adult population in the state. Here is what they already pay because they choose to buy a legal product:
North Carolina Smokers' Contributions to the State Economy - FY2004
Smokers Pay Excise Taxes $ 40,193,000
Smokers Pay Sales Taxes $112,540,000
Smokers Pay Tobacco Settlement Payments $144,987,000
$297,720,000
You can call that democracy if you want but ultimately is tyranny by the minority. If you want to be fair to the minority target, then such referendums should be prefixed by stating that any such law that targets any individual group MUST BE APPROVED BY A MAJORITY OF ALL REGISTERED VOTERS!
As for the polls, keep in mind that they are geared towards substantiating a predetermined outcome and that many of those being polled quite likely don't even go out to dinner except for maybe twice a year and never even go into bars but yet their opinions are being counted as supporters of tobacco bans.........
The loss in revenues and ultimate closings of bars and restaurants due to tobacco prohibition is INDISPUTABLE FACT but what isn't being reported is how many of the people who voted for the bans actually were regular bar and restaurant goers anyway?????????
THEY DIDN'T HAVE A HORSE IN THE RACE SO WHAT THE HELL DID THEY CARE?
I know how they do these polls to get the results they want. They did this in Minnesota when we were up there on vacation last summer. They ask the same question 11 different ways and get maybe 25 to 30% for it and 50 to 60% against on all questions but they sum it all up by putting all the "for it" answers in one category and simply ignore all the "against it" answers.
I also want to preface this by stating that I am a non-smoker by upbringing and personal choice. I am one of those people who never even thought to try smoking. I have no family members who have ever smoked…and shockingly this applies to my husband as well. We also live a very healthy lifestyle by “personal choice”. We are a 40 something Italian couple, so of course we have a garden…pretty much pre-determined by our genetics. We eat a very healthy diet. It is none of my business what other American citizens choose to do with their lives. It is none of my business if they smoke or what they eat! It never has been, it never will be!!
If you read nothing else from this post please read the following...it sums-up the other info. in a concise manner. Once again the saying that "If people Don't Know Their History They are Doomed to Repeat It" applies. It seems that in 60+ years and winning WWII we have not learned much; and are relinquishing the freedoms that our forefathers fought and died to preserve.
Hitler – Socialism – Islam (Sharia Laws) – Government Power Grab & The Correlation With Our Current Bans and Proposed Bans:
The first major campaign to use the powers of government to make people healthy did come out of the policies of Hitler's National Socialist movement. Hitler's Germany was feed a dose of government sponsored propaganda, much like state sponsored anti-smoking adverts. The German people were told: "Your body belongs to the nation! Your body belongs to the Führer! You have a duty to be healthy! Food is not a private matter!"
In addition the first major anti-smoking campaign anywhere was started by the Nazi government. Of course that's just where they started. They also turned their attention to alcohol, what breads people ate, even meat eating itself. It seems that many top Nazis, like Hitler, were avid vegetarians and advocates of the "organic" in food. The same lunatics bought into herbalism and made sure that Dachau, the first concentration camp, became one the world's leading sources for "natural" herbal remedies and spices.
In the centrally planned society of Hitler and his health fanatics like Hess, Himmler and Göring, everything was of concern to the state. Proctor says: "Here as elsewhere in Nazi ideology, the liberal distinction between public and private spheres was abandoned. As one Hitler Youth health manual put it: Nutrition is not a private matter!'"……….
We Nazis understood that every German citizen must live for the state. And in the same way that wise farmers accept responsibility for the health of their herds, we used the power of government to keep our flocks healthy. We were disgusted by the addictive powers of cigarettes, since both mind and body were supposed to belong to the Führer. We succeeded in almost criminalizing the smoking of cigarettes.
Our Ministry of Science and Education ordered elementary schools to discuss the dangers of tobacco. Government-sponsored cultural and educational events were declared "smoke-free." In the late 1930s we called for increased taxes on cigarettes and later instituted bans on cigarette advertising. I am most proud of the legislation we introduced prohibiting sales of cigarettes to minors. We set up counseling centers for the psychological treatment of smokers, and we established smoke-free restaurants…..
CONTROL:
The rise of the anti-smoking sentiment in America coincides with society's shift from accepting personal responsibility to attaching blame for just about everything on someone or something else other than where the true blame resides. Along with abandoning personal responsibility, "enlightened" Americans have renounced reason and truth and have handed over the control of their lives to a power hungry conglomerate of politicians, lawyers, judges, and quasi health professionals.
SMOKING IS HARAM (UNLAWFUL) IN ISLAM:
This article was first published in JIMA (Journal of Islamic Medical Association, Volume 15, and No.4, 1983. The author holds the unique distinction and honor to be the first Muslim Scholar in the world to declare Smoking is Haram. He did with full conviction and courage. Twenty years later the Ulama have realized the truth and every Muslim country in the world is following suit by declaring Smoking is Haram.)
In Islam cleanliness and hygiene are emphasized to the extent that it has been considered a part of Iman (faith). It is very well known that a smoker's mouth is unclean and foul smelling "like a cigarette ash-tray." Allah (SWT) says:
"And forbids them what is bad." The Qur'an, Surah Al-'Araf, 7: 157
Islamic Food Prohibition per Sharia Laws:
For this reason Islam has prohibited certain foods due to their ill effects and permitted all other pure, good and clean food products. Allah Ta’ala says in the Noble Qur’ân:
“O’ Believers! Eat of the good and pure (lawful) that We have provided you with and be grateful to Allah, if you truly worship Him.”
Bans on smoking and foods are happening across the globe…an example from our neighbor Canada.
THE WAR ON FUN – Info. from Canada:
WARNING: Health Canada wants you to know that this book review was written while smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and eating burgers.
In it, Ezra clearly shows how big health lobbies, politicians, do-gooders, busybodies and lawyers are attacking personal liberties, destroying the long Canadian tradition of freedom, turning rational grown-up adults into children, wanting to replace parental responsibility by bureaucratic programs and creating a victimhood mentality. As far as do-gooders are concerned, people (i.e., you and me) don't know what's best for them and must rely on bureaucrats and politicians to tell them what to do...