Well, you and I have no common ground as long as you don't understand the difference between public and private property. Guess you've never owned a business or that line would be very clear.
You need to realize that tobacco smoke is the number one cause of preventable illness and premature death,
You need to realize that you have been brainwashed into believing something that, even if it is true, has no bearing on the people's right to choose risky lifestyles.
and that no one has the right to injure another person's health by polluting the air in places open to the public. Hiding behind the concept of "property rights" just won't cut it; by smoking in publicly accessed places, smokers make those places unusable at worst and unhealthy at best to nonsmokers in general and to those with cardipulmonary problems in particular. It's a form of denial of access.
(Hey, Gabz, this sounds like a Sweda line, don't it?) It's far more accurate to look at it as a "contractual" matter. If the owner of a business wants to cater to smokers and allow smoking in his establishment, his staff agrees to work in that establishment under that policy, and his customers agree to enter that establishment under that policy, who are YOU to say they cannot enter into such a mutually beneficial contract?
But smoking in private or in the open away from nonsmokers doesn't hurt anyone who doesn't choose to be hurt and it doesn't keep anyone away from anything; have at it.
Guess you're not up to speed on the anti-smoker agenda. They/you want a smokefree world, which includes outdoors AND private homes and cars. These prohibitions are already in place in some areas and in the works in others.
As for the local "smoking lobby" coming after me, well, it's only natural that some smokers, particularly the hardcore nicotine addicts, will be extremely defensive about their smoking and in denial about the negative health impacts that their smoking has on nonsmokers.
I keep asking for proof of those "negative health impacts" but no one wants to provide them. Only thing we ever get from the nico-Nazi tight hairnet crowd here are press releases and junk science from bought-and-paid-for anti-smoker operatives. I note that you are at least up to date on the latest anti-smoker drive: "the hardcore" smoker/addict.
It's understandable that they feel threatened by recent changes and by anti-smoking laws designed to protect the health of other people at their expense.
ROFLMAO
Nor will some of the more extreme ones ever be willing to accept the legitimacy of anything involving them ever not being able to smoke anywhere they please and in the presence of anyone they please;
(I've gotta look up that fallacious logic text we used in college...)
I have seen some of these people try to smoke amid the sick in doctor's offices, in hospital rooms, and in emergency rooms and a number of them became furious when told that they were not allowed to smoke there. (On the other hand, it should be pointed out that there exists a significant percentage of smokers who actually are considerate of the rights and the health of others.)
You may not realize it--you talk like a youngster--but it hasn't been that long ago that smoking was permitted in those places. Well, I don't know about emergency rooms...never been in one. It's been less than ten years since smoking was commonplace in hospital rooms, at least those without oxygen.
Smoking is, thank God, on its way out. The ashtray is going the way of the spittoon. You may as well get used to it. And there's really no point getting angry about it.
First said by King James in 1604 or thereabouts (no, I don't remember it personally), and again in 1897 by Lucy Page Gaston when she set up the Anti-Cigarette League (14 states did prohit the sale and use of tobacco in any form), and again by Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s. It's the same belief held by Carry Nation as she swung her little hatchet against the evils of demon rum. I guess we'll see who "may as well get used to it," but since smoking is on the rise by the young, my money is on our side.
Whether you believe it or not, this isn't about smoking, it's about freedom, a concept you seem to have trouble understanding. Stick around, maybe we can help change that.
Very well said, Max!!!