[Taliesan]

I guess my outburst was at the thread in general.

I'm sure there are some things smoking is blamed for it has nothing to do with. But, like the case of the bratty kid, all the bad stuff yet to be discovered more than outweighs any present injustice.

Think about it. Add more than a decade to your life by not smoking. That's a lot of birthdays, school plays, soccer games, marriages, and births.

All lethal addictions produce huge amounts of personal dishonesty to relieve the cognitive dissonance, plus the usual foxhole humor to deal with untimely and ugly deaths. Except that this foxhole is one you can step out of at anytime, which makes the humor just part of the usual junkie dishonesty.

I don't think smokers are "abused". I think they, like all junkies, tend to abuse everyone around them, including -- no, especially -- the ones they love the most.

And no, I am not an ex-smoker. And, FWIW, I do not think that much of the present movement to ban smoking on private property is legal or moral.

[Gabz]

You're dislike of smoking bans does nothing in the way of mitigating your holier than thou attitude towards smokers.

[johnb838]

Think about it. Add more than a decade to your life by not smoking. That's a lot of birthdays, school plays, soccer games, marriages, and births.

What if you don't have any of that stuff? What if there are never marriages and births in your life but only deaths? Why should that person care?

What if that last ten years is just going to be sitting around lonely in a home with no children or grandchildren to visit? Why should that person care?

Smokers, if they die younger, save the system money. And I'm not even sure that that's true. There is so much agenda driven junk science on both sides that I really don't have any idea of what is true and what is propaganda.