I will be back!
Posted on 10/09/2002 2:13:44 AM PDT by kattracks
If secondhand smoke really were the killer Mike Bloomberg insists it is, he wouldn't be mayor of New York now - he'd be pushing up daisies on the outskirts of Beantown, his hometown.Not only did he catch other people's butts during his 60 years in this vale of tearing eyes, he was a cigarette junkie for half his life. Unlike Bill Clinton, Mike inhaled - not cigars, not pot, but real cigs.
And yet tomorrow in City Hall he will be the lead witness in his effort to persuade the City Council to prohibit smoking almost everywhere in the city. Mayor Bloomberg wants to turn us into Los Angeles East on the grounds of protecting bartenders and waiters from the evils of secondhand smoke.
I've never met a bartender or waiter who had any trouble with it, and I've covered bars from here to Cairo, and then some. There are two barmen in Gallagher's on Broadway who just made 85 - and they don't even cough.
But Bloomberg says it's so, and he cites studies that say bartenders and waiters inhale half a pack a day. Nobody has been able to find these studies, but every day Bloomberg repeats the claim on commercials paid for by the city Health Department. It's brainwashing, to be sure.
What we know from a true scientific study conducted in the United Kingdom recently is that bartenders and waiters inhale about six cigarettes a year - not half a pack a day.
There is plenty more to put the lie to this secondhand smoke madness that threatens to wipe out smoking at beaches and parks and already has done so in Yankee and Shea stadiums and the race tracks. Even God can't ventilate the outdoors, say the anti-smoke fascists. And they are winning.
Tomorrow the world?
If New York goes, yeah - you don't have to be a paranoid smoker to catch the strategy. In Nassau County on Monday, the Legislature became the first in the state to ban the weed in all bars, restaurants and bingo halls. "We're going to steamroll this downstate," said Jeffrey Toback, a Nassau legislator.
He's got Mayor Mike as pulling guard, but what Mike doesn't have is the science. Indeed, it goes the other way: For maybe the first time in history, the negative comes out a winner.
The U.S. Energy Department conducted a six-year study during the 1990s in 17 cities. Nonsmoking bartenders and waiters were wired up to determine whether secondhand smoke was a danger to their health. The result across the board: nothing, nada. The amount of smoke inhalation was way below what is considered dangerous.
And late last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration decided to drop plans for setting up federal rules for indoor smoking. OSHA said it was because there is no substantial evidence that secondhand smoke is harmful.
Big stuff, but I'll bet you didn't know about it, given the way the anti-smoking crowd has done the public relations job of the century to convince us all that we will die if the smokers are allowed to live.
The City Council has seemed until now uninterested in the health issue, even though it is about to inflict Prohibition Redux on our city based on health.
"It's crazy," former Mayor Rudy Giuliani told me the other day. I asked him if he'd oppose the bill. "I promise," he said. Maybe that's our shot against Mike, the CEO Rudy elected.
Zion is a cigar smoker
It is really embarrassing when people in responsible positions can so shamelessly spout such BS in a public forum.
I will be back!
Psssst. . . can I borrow a Pall Mall ???
Sorry, I don't buy cigarettes anymore. But you are welcome to one of my rolled ones! heh!
and
I am working hard to get the word out to Mainers. Maybe only 25-30% of Mainers smoke, but 25-30% of the votes that she won't get will be a GOOD thing. She is a little hitler in female clothing.
Nuts !!! Stuff You Own can't duplicate Pall Mall's length. Only puny little Camels !!! ;-))
AH, but they CAN. With a Premiere Supermatic and the right tubes you can stuff 100s.
What can I say??? Stuff You rOwn's email response said: "Sorry, your request for 3 1/4" Pall Mall facimilies can't be done. The 2 1/2" Camel is our longest non-filter."
Listen, I smoked More Menthol 120's for years! Never thought I could ever smoke anything else! But when the state taxes took my More's up to $50 dollars a carton, you can bet the roll your owns tasted pretty damn good! heh!
And a carton for under $8.00 down from $50, I have never looked back. And the machine produces a perfect cigarette just as big as your Marlboro Lights. You must try it! 
Yes they can, mine makes three sizes, granted I have yet to find 100mm filters. :-}
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