Smokers Steamed Over NYC Smoking Ban

AP | Thursday, August 15, 2002 | By ERIN McCLAM

[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, August 15, 2002

Quote of the Day by Jhoffa

[Isle of sanity in CA]

Bloomberg is trying to discourage tobacco sales, too. Earlier this year, the city hiked its cigarette tax by more than $1, sending the price of a pack to $7.50 in some places. The city says the increase cut cigarette sales nearly in half.

Does Bloomberg really believe that he has discouraged tobacco sales? He's just discouraged legal tobacco sales within city limits...

These NYC Republicans are a different breed.

[The Vast Right Wing]

I have to say as a one time resident of NY, this ban will be very unpopular. People in NY smoke much more than anywhere else I have lived, and they like it.

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[Bonaparte]

"These NYC Republicans are a different breed."

Bloomberg is a liberal. He switched parties for the sole purpose of running for mayor.

[Elkiejg]

I would think there are two actions that could be taken and either one would be effective:

1. All smokers light up anywhere at anytime - how can they jail all of them?

2. Let your wallet do the talking - stop eating out, or going to bars, tourists stop going to NYC. Bet it would only take 2-4 weeks of lost income before the businesses would be screaming for Bloomies head.

[fooman]

Right.

EVen the pubbies here are really dems.

DEm vs Dem

Can old blumberg overtake Mccain as Rhino of the year?

[SheLion]

``The do-gooders are winning out,'' Meagher said. ``This is people who never had a fun time trying to take all the fun out of life.''

The Do-Gooders could care less if they harm someone's business or not. They go in, they conquer and move on to the next town or city. I have seen this happen all across the U.S., and they aren't finished yet.

The trouble starts when our Lawmakers side with them.

[Boomer]

New York City would be a huge feather in the caps of those that are interested in taking away property rights using smoking as an avenue to further erode freedom and strengthen socialism in this country.

Hitler didn't try to change Germany all at once either. And most importantly; the Germans didn't believe that Hitler was doing a "bad" thing at the time; at least not for some time. Many Germans were still in denial until they saw the devastation with their own eyes. Many took their own lives shortly after seeing what they wouldn’t believe.

The similarities between WWII, the Third Reich, and today’s America are uncanny.

This 'do-gooder' mentality is nothing more than a morass on the lives of normal people. (That is if anyone can really be considered normal) At the very least, nannies are now and have always been a pilonidal cyst on the backsides of good people.

Ok, really, I'm done with the butt metaphors, at least for now. However, I’m still amazed at the gullibility of so many people. Does anyone still believe that the anti-smokers have anyone’s interest in mind other than their own wallet’s and controlling people different than themselves?

Intolerance is one thing but blind obedience to such an obvious control freak mentality can only be likened to cultism.

[AF68]

Dear Lord, protect us from the do-gooders. Amen.

[Great Dane]

2. Let your wallet do the talking - stop eating out, or going to bars,

That is excactly what we and other smokers have done for a year now, and we let the politicians know.

When I got a call from the Mayors PR man, he quietly said something about revisiting.

[Gabz]

NYC Office of Tourism:

Toll free. 1-800-225-5697.

[steve50]

If they go thru with this insanity it will be interesting to see how the "private clubs" that spring up to handle the smoking crowd fair. I wonder what legal actions will be used to put them out of business, equal rights for employees..health code violations, they'll have to find something. The public businesses won't accept the loss of trade and the masters won't want the bad publicity their success would bring.

[I'm_With_Orwell]

Bloomberg is a liberal. He switched parties for the sole purpose of running for mayor.

So, how did this idiot get the Republican nomination? This is what I don't understand.

Has it reached the stage where Republicans will now nominate anyone, regardless of whether they are really Republicans, so long as they don't designate themselves as Democrats?

Why is this such a worry? Because the Deomcrats gave up their principles long ago. They've become the lowest common denominator. The Democrat credo is as follows:-

"We don't believe in: work, freedom, liberty, individuality, Constitutionality.

We don't remember why our fathers and grandfathers fought in wars.

We believe in welfare, societal guilt, marginalising and ostracising "unbelievers". We believe in weakness, softness.

We eschew personal responsibility, individual and corporate ingenuity - unless it involves getting "Something For Nothing" (Registered Trademark, All Rights Reserved).

In short, we are the party of communal obligation and personal dislocation. We are for the Land of the Fettered, the People of the State.

We want your sons and your daughters and if you don't give 'em to us voluntarily, we'll be around to pick them up!!

If Republicans follow the Democrats and continue to put forward candidates like that despicable Bloomberg, we will be saying, "Goodbye, America, it was fun...for a while."

[Mamzelle]

re: Bloomberg switched parties...))))

I hoped he'd lose. He'll be an albatross around the neck of the GOP eventually--let a Democrat look bad after Rudy, instead of a RINO Repub.

[Fred Mertz]

Bloomberg is an idiot. I hope this crap fails.

[SheLion]

steve, between you and me, don't you think that the tax increase on cigarettes may have back fired in Bloombergs face, so now he wants to pay back the smokers for not feeding his coffers?

I think the states are going to catch on and clamp down on public smoking. Because they are pouting over blowing up the tax increase and turning their cash cow away.

What do you think?

[Bonaparte]

"So, how did this idiot get the Republican nomination? This is what I don't understand."

The same way Ike, for example, elbowed Bob Taft out of the nomination in '52, just before embarking on an 8-year retreat from communism. And Taft wasn't even that conservative by then. FDR's crowning achievement was to destroy Americans' faith in their ability to weather hardship and bootstrap themselves back into prosperity. After the war, few Republicans dared to attack the New Deal and so, 20 years later, LBJ was able to expand the nanny state far beyond Roosevelt's wildest hallucinations. A few years ago, Milt Friedman pointed out that we are now 50% socialist. I'd call that an optimistic assessment.

[Wurlitzer]

"``New York is the capital of the world,'' "

My aren't we important! Reason number 84 why upstate NY would like to break away from NYC and form a new state. Back to the topic at hand, I don't smoke but it is not my place to tell someone else they cannot. The only exception is in my home.

[steve50]

I think they're on a propaganda campaign to justify even more legislation and further tax increases. The increase in revenue isn't going to be as large as projected, so watch for the efforts on internet/reservation sales to start when they get the sheep fired up enough.

I wonder how long before childrens services are taking kids from parents who smoke around them