Being an X-Travel Agent, I can tell you that the filters on planes are even dirtier today then what they ever were when planes had smoking sections. Since there is no smoking, the airlines are cutting back on the air used to save on fuel. Makes no sense to me. Everyone is still getting sick on planes.
Everyone has seen the sorry spectacle of huddled groups of beleaguered smokers, furtively sneaking puffs outside their workplaces in the cold and damp.
When smokers were allowed to smoke at their desk, they had no need to take breaks. Maybe a trip to the powder room once-in-awhile. But now the anti-smokers want the smokers to be "25 feet from the building." But this isn't even enough for the anti-smoker. Now they are bitching because smokers are "outside" taking breaks. Well, anti-smokers, why don't you go with them and stretch your legs?
Demagogues like California Congressman Henry Waxman and Savonarola-like activist John Banzhaf have called for Draconian tobacco regulation far and wide, encouraging tort lawyers across the country to belly up to the bar and file whatever personal injury or class action lawsuit will allow them to pick the pockets of tobacco companies.
Well said! And Joe Cherner in New York City, while enjoying his gay lifestyle, is pushing for the removal of smokers everywhere.
Not to be outdone, state and local politicians in league with anti-smoking groups push ballot measures in numerous states and municipalities that either increase already onerous tobacco taxes or outlaw smoking in various public areas and workplaces.
Yes! They are taxing the smokers to high heaven but do not want them to SMOKE anywhere. They can't have both. If smoking is THAT dangerous, why don't they just ban the damn stuff. But oh no! They would lose all that M O N E Y!
Following similar measures in California and Delaware, Michael R. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, is now pressuring New York's City Council to ban smoking outright in bars and restaurants in all five boroughs. Since 1995, smoking has been prohibited in city office buildings and in restaurants seating more than 35 customers. The new proposed restriction would affect an additional 13,000 establishments.
And guess what: it's putting restaurants all across America out of business! Is this what we really want in the economy that we have now?
The recent defeat of Michigan's Proposal 4 ballot initiative, which would have redistributed tobacco settlement monies to private health care organizations, was heartily cheered by state politicos, since they were being used to fund other projects.
The Tobacco Settlement money is being paid 100% by smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes. Not Big Tobacco and NOT the Government! This money was supposed to go for Tobacco Education and to pay for any sick smoker on welfare SHOULD there be any, but oh no! The state is spending this wind fall on anything BUT!
This long-running anti-smoking jihad is not unlike the Zeitgeist demonizing the liquor industry that brought about Prohibition in 1920. In the similar attempt to solve all sorts of social problems, proponents argued that by reducing the consumption of alcohol, crime would decrease, health and hygiene would improve and the tax burden of building prisons would be lifted.
And while some argue that "second-hand smoke" might jeopardize the health of people in close proximity to smokers:
Federal Court Rules Against EPA on Second Hand Smoke
After all, those who are offended by tobacco smoke also have the right not to patronize his restaurant.
This is not only wrong; it is, as Prohibition showed, against nature. People must be free to choose – even if it means their own poison. The more intense the regulation, the more potent tobacco becomes as people find other sources to pursue their pleasure.
The spreading cancer of the anti-smoking Puritans should be of concern to free men everywhere.
AMEN!