Do you mean this one?????
Posted on 08/14/2002 2:17:58 PM PDT by sheltonmac
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a problem. As if securing his city against maniacal terrorists weren't enough, Rudy Giuliani's successor must now face one of the most deadly, terrifying, loathsome creatures in the world today—the American smoker.
If successful, Bloomberg's blitzkrieg against the perilous puffing of tobacco products will result in transforming virtually every public indoor facility into a smoke-free zone. This means that smoke from cigarettes, pipes, and cigars will no longer be a hindrance to the enjoyment of New York City's otherwise fresh and fragrant air.
Bloomberg is happy to be part of what he hopes will become a nation-wide trend. "I am proud that New York City will be a national leader in tackling the most pressing public health issue facing all Americans today: the devastating consequences of smoking." How admirable. Perhaps we should put this man in charge of ridding the world of the threat of terrorism.
The mayor continued, "No one should have to breathe poison to hold a job or frequent an indoor public space." Okay, Mr. Mayor, then no one should have to listen to the inane rants of power-hungry politicians like you. One good turn deserves another.
Now that the anti-smoking bug has wormed its way into the Big Apple, it seems the mayor and the city council will be going after smokers with the same conviction one would expect them to pursue suspected terrorists. In their minds, someone sitting at a bar, munching on a Macanudo, is no better that Osama bin Laden himself. By lighting up in public, that person is slowly but deliberately killing innocent bystanders who naively wandered into a smoke-filled bar under the assumption that they could enjoy their virgin daiquiris without any fear of contracting lung cancer by the time the waitress brought their plate of chicken fingers.
To make the case against these tobacco terrorists, Bloomberg and his willing accomplices started pulling statistics out of thin air. "Working one eight-hour shift in a smoky bar exposes one to the same amount of carcinogens as smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day," the mayor said.
City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden had his two cents to add: "Second-hand smoke causes more cancer deaths than asbestos, benzene, arsenic, pesticides, hazardous wastes sites, industrial chemicals, contaminated sludge, and consumer products combined. Second-hand smoke kills approximately 1,000 New York City residents every year. That is why we must act now."
More likely than not, New York will act. If anything, it must protect the children. The city has already seen the launch of "Butt Out Brooklyn," a campaign to keep that borough's teens off cigarettes. New York Lt. Governor Mary Donohue praised the program, saying, "New York has an aggressive and comprehensive anti-smoking campaign with a special emphasis to combat smoking among youth. We also encourage collaboration on a local level and are pleased to partner with Brooklyn on this important initiative that affects the health and welfare of all New Yorkers. The anti-smoking campaign sends a clear message that smoking is deadly." I always thought that the warning labels on packages of cigarettes sent a clear enough message, but I could have been wrong.
Strangely absent from any debate over the ill effects of tobacco are the statistics showing the thousands of teenage deaths related to smoking. Where are they? If smoking is so dangerous, shouldn't we be seeing reports of sixteen-year-olds coughing up blood and keeling over in gym class?
Reality always has a way of raining on the pity parades of pompous politicians. For example, the number of smoking-related deaths put out by the Centers for Disease Control (about 400,000 each year) is not an actual count of people who have died. It is merely a number conjured up by a computer model programmed with the preconceived notion that smoking will inevitably generate a hefty body count. What the anti-tobacco activists don't tell you is that according to the CDC's own model, those 400,000 "victims" lived an average of 71.9 years, with 70,000 of them dying "prematurely" at ages over 85.
That politicians bent on social engineering have a tendency to ignore facts comes as no surprise. New York Governor George Pataki used the same approach when he signed last year's law banning the use of handheld cell phones in automobiles. A study conducted by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center had shown that while distracted drivers posed a safety risk, cell phone use ranked very low among the contributing factors (about 1.5 percent) in highway accidents.
Now that cell phone users are out of the way, smokers are next, and New Yorkers should be concerned. If smoking is banned as a public health hazard, the crusade against street vendor hot dogs can't be far behind. Social fascists like the mayor and the New York City Council will see to that.
So, enjoy sinking your teeth into those juicy, tasty, fatty hot dogs while you can. Just don't let Mayor Bloomberg catch you trying to smoke one.
They came for the smokers, but I didn't care because I didn't smoke...
"Oh yeah, fat boy? How ya gonna feel when they outlaw those Big Macs and Krispy Kremes you stuff your face with that give you that oh-so-svelte shape, eh??? How smug you gonna be then, slim??"
Another NYC official that needs a class in basic math.
The sentence should read: "Working one eight-hour shift 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year in a smoky bar exposes one to the same amount of carcinogens as smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day," the mayor said. And even that would probably be stretching it, but I won't quibble.
Remember when New Yorkers were thought of as tough and pretty sophisticated, even by people who didn't care much for them?
Believe me, I do - I grew up there. Apparently there must be something in the air or water that wasn't there when I was growing up.
This is NOT the New York I grew up in.
I remember a time when I was being told to leave homosexuals alone and not make fun of them, that was just the way they were, it was an illness.
Now I'm being called an unfit parent because I smoke by an openly gay man (Joe Cherner) who thinks he and his "life partner" are more fit as parents because they don't smoke.
Mr. Cherner, I'm sure, would be the first to bring me up on hate crime charges if I dared to say the things about his home life that he says about smokers.
Definitely NOT the New York I grew up in.
But what a shame you never met any real New Yorkers and now you probably never will.
The real new Yorkers of my youth don't seem to exist any longer.
Do you mean this one?????
It should read 1.7 cigarettes a day, a very deliberate misplacing of a ,.
PS: if you want to be removed from my Ping list, send me private email, please.
BWAHAHAHAHA This sounds like a good sound bite.
What the anti-tobacco activists don't tell you is that according to the CDC's own model, those 400,000 "victims" lived an average of 71.9 years, with 70,000 of them dying "prematurely" at ages over 85.
This is what the anti-smokers will NEVER EVER tell you, or the CDC for that matter.
Actually, Great Dane, it should read SIX CIGARETTES A YEAR! The US Dept. of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory used actual monitors ON workers in 16 cities to determine that fact.
Better yet.
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