Posted on 07/17/2008 12:42:01 PM PDT by Stoat
Smoking ban leads to new religionWednesday 16 July 2008 Café owners in the Netherlands are joining religious movement known as the One and Universal Smokers Church of God, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday. We stand firmly behind the churchs teachings and that is smoking, Cor Busch, owner of the former Lindeboom café in Alkmaar told the paper. Smokers are being discriminated against but a beer and a cigarette belong together. Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1. Several dozen bars have joined the movement which claims the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the right to freedom of religion, the paper says. People who join the church get a membership card entitling them to smoke inside the building. Worshippers believe in the trinity of smoke, fire and ash and honour their god by smoking. Church founder Michiel Eijsbouts says café owners who are trying to get round the ban on smoking will not be allowed to join. The church, he says, takes smoking very seriously. It has ritual aspects, it is something you experience and we follow our faith very strictly, he told the Telegraaf. |
Thanks for the ping!
I remember when the bans were going in piecemeal in towns around here; the biggest cry was for a level playing field.
Seemed unAmerican to me. Level Playing Field? What about some MBA buzzword signifying competitive differentials?
I was for letting individual establishments decide, and if the traffic was enough, they’d survive, if not thrive.
But I guess I’m out of touch with Modern America.
Yes, as much as I can, I patronize local nonchain establishments.
The first liturgical prayer for the One and Universal Church of the Smokers of God.
The exact same thing happened when Ontario banned the sale of tobacco in drugstores. Canada's largest drugstore chain is owned by this country's largest tobacco company but they supported the ban because it wiped out their independent competitors. It is now almost impossible to find a drugstore here that isn't controlled by one of two major chains.
Beatrix’s royal wedding to Claus von Amsberg long after the war also caused controversy.
Nope. This is tobacco.
Aunt Tilly, is that you?????
ROFL! Great pic.
ROFL! Great pic.
I'm delighted that you like it.....here she is again :-)
"snicker"
You can not imagine just how much I DESPISE that term. The only level playing field is a free market, especially in th hospitality industry.
If there was a true level playing field all restaurants would have the same menues and same prices and all bars would serve the same beverages.
I can see the buffet table now.........BBQ ribs next falafel next to sushi next fried chicken next to kosher hot dogs next to lasagna next to sushi next to burritos...........etc, etc, etc....
Or walk into a bar and ask the bartender what he has on draft "Sorry, no draft, the guy down the street can't fit the equipment in, so no one is allowed to have draft."
THAT is a "level playing field" if that is what they desire by FORCING all establishments to cater to one set of people - the anti smokers.
I heard Aunt Tilly is 28 years old.
That’s awfull.
I think I was wrong, I think that is Aunt Eustice.........
Since I’m venting, what does get my goat is the submissive, guilty attitude adopted by many habitues - it’s good we get to go outside and shuffle around, surreptitiously indulging, there’s no need to partake inside, etc.
Welcoming the secondclass citizen status foisted upon us. Accepting the ostracization and stigmatization.
Certainly not the attitude shown during Prohibition.
BTTT!
Shouldn't his name be Coors Busch?
I will neither welcome nor accept such status placed upon me.
I have repeatedly told anti-smokers, including many in the forefront of the entire smoker control movement, if anti-smokers are too bloody damned stupid to understand a simple sign such as “smoking permitted” in a private business establishment, they are too damned stupid to even be out in the general public to begin with. And if their health is so frail they can not risk taking a chance of even a wisp of tobacco smoke, they need to be living in bubbles, not the real world.
There was a local KoC type establishment that somehow managed to evade the diktats by only allowing members only into the place.
However, earlier this year, some people complained; and voila!
Didn’t surprise me how fast the place caved in to the complaints, despite the fact that the complainers could have gone to any other commercial establishment that was smokfrei.
Don’t need to tell you, but what a mentality we now have!
I know what you mean - the forelock-tuggers infuriate me.
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