Proposed car-smoking ban angers foes of 'nanny' laws

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/26/7 | Janine DeFao

[mysterio]

Smokers, for the most part, don't seem to want to use the ashtrays in their cars because they don't like the smell.

Incorrect. Anti-smokers have removed ashtrays from most new vehicles. I take that as a sign that they want the butts on the streets. If they wanted me to put it in an ashtray, they would have equipped my car with one.

[NCLaw441]

I think you can get ashtrays, and lighters, in cars if you still want them. I agree that most cars don't come with lighters anymore (although they often have 2 or more lighter plug ins for GPS, cell phone chargers, etc.) Seems like cars still have ashtrays most of the time. And you can always get ashtrays for the car, just like little waste baskets and litter bags, neither of which come with most cars.

I don't think there is anyone--other than smokers-- who likes to see butts all over the street, and my guess is that what anti-smokers (and I am NOT one, I just don't like it for me, or in MY house or MY car) really want is for people not to smoke in their cars. I disagree with that. If you want to smoke in your car, enjoy yourself. I just prefer you not waste your hard-earned money by letting the smoke out for others who don't care for it.

[Gabz]

I'm a smoker and I don't like seeing butts in the road, or anywhere but an ashtray. No one tosses a cigarette out the window of my car.......in fact I once made a passenger get out and go pick up the one he just tossed out the window. And I was married to the man at the time.........

I live in a rural area, with 500 feet of road frontage on a fairly busy road, so I do a lot of "litter duty" and to be honest, butts are the least of what I pick up. I agree with you about intersections, and that drives me insane.

As to a window open, I suffer from car sickness and so must keep a window open, whether there is smoking in the car or not, and regardless of the weather, it's the only way I can travel without taking medication.

[mysterio]

No, that's not entirely true. Anti-smokers have no ability to be logical or to operate within the realm of common sense or sanity when it comes to smoking. They have a special disorder, and the fact that it is generally left untreated can be a serious problem. I have been outside smoking away from anyone and one of them waddled up to me and tried to start a fistfight. And this was a professional, educated person.

What's more dangerous, however, is how much they'll enable government to get smoking banned in every possible location. They'll surrender property rights. I honestly think they'd support setting the Constitution on fire if they thought it would make smokers suffer. Some of them even post on this website. I'm sure they'll be arriving shortly, if they haven't already.

I am cutting back with the goal of quitting. But I will always despise anti-smoking zealots, and I will never side with them. They are psychotic freedom haters.

[nothingnew]

I hope you close the windows in your car when you fart in a populated area.

I don't like the smell of farts wafting through the air when I'm smoking outside by order of the law.

FMCDH(BITS)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[CSM]

Thanks for the ping. The citizens get what they demand at the ballot box. To bad the LIEberals can't see the connection to their vote and the nanny state.

[Nathan Zachary]

It's because it's a real pain to clean that smoke build up off the inside of the car windows, especially if you are fat and own a compact car. (I used to be a smoker, but I'm not fat, just seen others trying) Another reason is the smoke that comes off the cigarette gets into your eyes and makes them water, so rolling down the window has a few benefits for the seasoned smoker. A pitfall is butts blowing back into the car, landing in the back seat and burning the appolstery. It does on occasion, ignite that pile of fast food bags piled up in the back seat, which is why you sometimes see a car aflame.

Why smokers don't throw these out, I don't know, but for some reason, smokers don't litter as much as non-smokers do. perhaps it's because they can't smell the awfull stink of days old fast food left in these bags as well as non-smokers can.

[LaineyDee]

How is it that you're offended by someone smoking with their window down? I don't get it. If they're driving down the road, how do you "smell it"?

I don't see butts on the road....probably because they're so over-powered by the other trash. :)

[Nathan Zachary]

When I smoked, I had every right to fresh air as the next person, so I rolled my window down. I enjoyed smoking, and I enjoy frsh air too. I had BOTH. Call me greedy. I flicked my ashes out the window, and if in the city, tossed my butts out too. that's what we pay taxes for, the street cleaning machine, right? Those machines were designed to sweep up cig butts, not Macdonalds bags and cups, which they leave behind 9 times out of 10.

[Nathan Zachary]

oops, post 30 was meant for Gabz

[highball]

Anti-smokers have removed ashtrays from most new vehicles. I take that as a sign that they want the butts on the streets. If they wanted me to put it in an ashtray, they would have equipped my car with one.

So I guess the lack of a garbage disposal in the passenger seat means that it's perfectly acceptible to throw your fast-food trash out the window?

I don't like nanny-state laws, but laws against littering don't fit into that category.

[MaxMax]

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

This law is just jacked up - period.

But what's sad, is that there are probably a lot of people out there who think this law is jacked up, but only because they smoke, or they know someone who does who will be affected by this law personally. That's a lot of the problem in America - people only wake up and oppose the nanny state when they are personally, directly affected. Otherwise, nanny-state laws are A-okay in their book. I'll just bet, for instance, that many of the same people who are horrified by this law against smoking in your car are the very same people who think the State of California ought to be able to outlaw parents from spanking their own children, and support the State of California in forcing parents to have their daughters vaccinated with a vaccine for which there are still a number of unanswered safety and efficacy question.

[CORedneck]

When I bought my '99 Jeep Cherokee new, I asked for the smokers package which came with ashtray, cig lighters, etc. I am not a smoker but I wanted the power outlets to hard wire my 2m ham radio in which has the power capacity. I still have the vehicle an ddon't plan on getting rid of it any time soon.

I think you can get ashtrays, and lighters, in cars if you still want them. I agree that most cars don't come with lighters anymore (although they often have 2 or more lighter plug ins for GPS, cell phone chargers, etc.)...

[SheLion]

And "this" carton comes to mind.  LOL

[SheLion]

People in America have been conditioned to accept, even desire a nanny state.

[SheLion]

Thanks for the ping!!!!

[gidget7]

I have been sent a bumper sticker type pic, that reads


"Liberal Logic"
"Abortion is a choice"
"Smoking is a crime" Don't know how to post it though, and no time to go learn how LOL

[absolootezer0]

yeah, its an option, but you have to pay for it. check any car company's website and "build and price" a car. its an extra $30 or so for an ashtray and lighter.