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Proposed car-smoking ban angers foes of 'nanny' laws
San Francisco Chronicle ^
| 3/26/7
| Janine DeFao
Posted on 03/26/2007 7:38:53 AM PDT by SmithL
They don't want state dictating how kids are brought up
When Anthony Johnson smokes in the car with his 2-year-old son in the backseat, he tries to limit himself to a few quick puffs and blows the smoke out the window. "I feel guilty when I'm doing it," said Johnson, 33, of Oakland, adding that he tries not to. "I know it's wrong."
Soon, it could be illegal.
A proposal to ban smoking in cars with children inside, to be heard Wednesday in the state Senate's health committee, is the third bill in three months that has taken California's Legislature into arenas some say are better left to parents. The first would have outlawed spanking, and debate continues over whether to mandate vaccinating seventh-grade girls against a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer. California is one of at least 16 states considering bans on smoking in cars with children present.
Critics call it the ultimate in "nanny government."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
TOPICS: Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; california; nannystate
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To: NCLaw441
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.
21
posted on
03/26/2007 8:45:45 AM PDT
by
mysterio
To: mysterio
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.
22
posted on
03/26/2007 8:51:41 AM PDT
by
NCLaw441
To: NCLaw441
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.
23
posted on
03/26/2007 8:58:27 AM PDT
by
Gabz
(I like mine with lettuce and tomato, heinz57 and french-fried potatoes)
To: NCLaw441
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.
24
posted on
03/26/2007 9:00:32 AM PDT
by
mysterio
To: NCLaw441
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)
25
posted on
03/26/2007 9:06:41 AM PDT
by
nothingnew
(I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
To: Gabz
To: Just another Joe
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.
27
posted on
03/26/2007 9:16:05 AM PDT
by
CSM
("My favorite therapist: Jack Bauer." - mewzilla, 3/1/2007)
To: NCLaw441
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.
To: NCLaw441
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. :)
29
posted on
03/26/2007 9:20:28 AM PDT
by
LaineyDee
(Don't mess with Texas wimmen!)
To: NCLaw441
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.
To: Gabz
oops, post 30 was meant for Gabz
To: mysterio
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.
32
posted on
03/26/2007 9:30:27 AM PDT
by
highball
("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogart)
To: Thrownatbirth
33
posted on
03/26/2007 9:33:41 AM PDT
by
MaxMax
(God Bless America)
To: SmithL
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.
To: NCLaw441
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.)...
To: Just another Joe; Madame Dufarge; Cantiloper; metesky; Judith Anne; lockjaw02; Mears; CSM; ...
And "this" carton comes to mind. LOL
36
posted on
03/26/2007 9:36:52 AM PDT
by
SheLion
(When you're right, take up the fight!!!!!)
To: brownsfan
People in America have been conditioned to accept, even desire a nanny state.
37
posted on
03/26/2007 9:38:42 AM PDT
by
SheLion
(When you're right, take up the fight!!!!!)
To: Gabz
38
posted on
03/26/2007 9:41:18 AM PDT
by
SheLion
(When you're right, take up the fight!!!!!)
To: jrestrepo
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
39
posted on
03/26/2007 9:49:23 AM PDT
by
gidget7
(2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:)
To: NCLaw441
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.
40
posted on
03/26/2007 10:13:43 AM PDT
by
absolootezer0
(stop repeat offenders - don't re-elect them!)
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