[NJ Freeper]

Someone please ping the puff list. I don't know how.

Is this guy a nut or what. Now smokers are psycho and are to blame for alcoholism. For anyone who think's appeasing the smoke nazis will get you anywhere you only need read this article.

BTW, I'm an ex-smoker but fully support smokers and bar owners in there fight against the smoke nazis.

[Ghengis]

I'm an ex-smoker since last November 10th. I have quit a couple of other times for long stretches. I used to frequent the pubs all of the time persuing my hobby of billiards.

Regardless of whether I was smoking or not smoking, I never have presumed it my right to tell others whether they should or should not smoke in the pubs. That's part of the deal. A lot of people like to have a smoke with their drinks.

I do not go into a lot of pubs/bars/taverns that have patrons who induldge in behavior I do not like or approve of. But I never went to the bar and told them they could not do what they did there. And I sure would not frequent the establishment if I felt it endangered me.

But there I go, controlling what happens to me and my life again!

[DumpsterDiver]

Is this guy a nut or what.

Let's just say that the burr is so far up his... that even a highly skilled surgeon couldn't remove it.

[NYCVirago]

This column is so ignorant I don't know where to begin! First off, the revenue figures showing a 9% increase are extraordinarily misleading, because the year of comparison is 2002, which was a horrible year for restaurants and bars because of 9/11. If the city wanted to be fair, they'd compare revenues after the smoking ban to pre-9/11 revenues, which would paint a very different picture.

Then there's this:

What's wacko is the assertion that the First Amendment creates a right to smoke. It doesn't. It protects freedom of speech and religion. If it created a right to smoke, New York City would still have hashish houses and opium dens, as it did in the 19th century.

Last time I've checked, hashish and opium are illegal, while tobacco isn't. And I guess the author hasn't heard of the hookah houses run by Arabs in NYC, and how Peter Vallone is lobbying to allow those places to stay open.

And isn't this author allegedly a conservative? How can he justify the government unilaterally imposing such rules on businesses?

[Publius6961]

This guy is beyond nuts.

He babbles on presenting silly arguments I have never heard before and knocking them down, without addressing the basic topic:

What "good name" does drinking have? I have never heard of a smoker being driven to date rape. Or becomeming obnoxious after too many cigarettes. Or killing a whole family on his way home. Or just turning into an as****e after too many cigarettes.

The point is simple. Recreational smokers affect only the neurotics. Recreational drinkers offend everybody; and kill a good number of the innocent public.

[dallasgop]

I love smoke free environments. All you nicotine junkies can go outside and get high, but not around me and my family. Smokers are losers!!!!

[thackney]

40 percent of the cigarettes sold in America are consumed by people with definable psychological diseases and mental illnesses

Now, if you can just get a doctor to write a prescription for carton of cigs, you could get the health plan to pay for it.

[LisaMalia]

I hope this man didn't get in his car and drive after found it an altogether pleasant experience to be able to enjoy a few pints of ale without coming home smelling like I'd just rolled around in a gutter filled with cigarette butts.

I hope this man didn't get in his car and drive after his pleasant experience. I was a non smoker until around age 30, and as such I would have much rather dealt with so called "second hand" cigarette smoke than a drunk driver. What a holier than thou putz!

[Psycho_Bunny]

If it weren't for the word "twit", I wouldn't know how to describe people like Paul.

[NYCVirago]

You can email this guy at pmulshine@starledger.com

[Coleus]

I've never smoked before and I loathe it; however, I feel that taxation without representation is tyranny, if you tax cigarettes then they should be able to smoke where ever they want. If they want to control cigarette smoking then they should NOT TAX it. Tobacco made America the great nation it is today.

[cinFLA]

Now smokers are psycho and are to blame for alcoholism.

Someone on FR told me last week that smoking increases the pleasure of alcohol. Could be the reason?

[NYCVirago]

I wrote a rebuttal letter to this jerk, elaborating on the flaws in his argument, and I received a very nasty response. I don't feel comfortable about posting personal email, but I'd like to make an exception in this jerk's case! What do the people in this thread think? Should I post his response here?

[FairWitness]

Opponents of the ban said revenues would drop by 40 percent. In fact, revenues rose by 9 percent.

Has anybody else thought that the fact business is up is, at least in part, a sign of an improving economy?

[MEGoody]

"I found it an altogether pleasant experience to be able to enjoy a few pints of ale without coming home smelling like I'd just rolled around in a gutter filled with cigarette butts."

Instead, you came home smelling like a bucket of urine.

[Terry Mross]

I find it highly offensive to have to sit next to someone who's drinking alcohol. And I shouldn't have to worry about getting run over in the parking lot. Booze drinking, like smoking, should be banned in public. Only a little sarcastic here.

[Tall_Texan]

I've always assumed that the correlation between smokers and alcoholics is that there's usually only two things to do in a bar and being addicted to only one thing gets kinda boring after awhile.

Further, I would guess smokers and drinkers generally have less self-control than non-smokers and non-drinkers so there would be a greater chance of overlap among drug/drink/tobacco addiction than with those who want only one.

If they could first learn not to leave their litter (cigarette butts, needles, beer bottles and cans) strewn around the landscape like they were all biodegradable, maybe there would be hope you could ease them off their addictions.

[Dan from Michigan]

I have a good idea. How about the public health big government Fascists start respecting PRIVATE PROPERTY(I repeat, PRIVATE, I'll say it a third time here for those that don't get it, PRIVATE) and let business owners decide if there is smoking or not.

[MegaSilver]

I agree with you, but I personally won't go into a place filled with cigarette smoke.

[Liberal Classic]

I think bars could be made even more healthy with the elimination of alcohol.

[johnb838]

Alcohol is like a dangerous weapon kept where those least able to handle it can easily get it. It needs to be controlled, taxed, and outlawed out of existence. This smoking thing is a red herring designed to divert attention away from the true elephant in the living room -- King Alcohol. THe hell with how tobacco smells -- I don't like how people BEHAVE when they've been drinking.