Peggy Noonan: Them (smokers)

Opinion Journal ^ | 11/16/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

The one group for whom liberals have no tolerance at all.

There's a lot to think about this week--the rise of Nancy Pelosi, the meaning of the Republican triumph--but my thoughts keep tugging toward a group of people who are abused, ostracized and facing a cold winter. It's not right what we do to them, and we should pay attention.

[ctonious]

Damn. I didn't realize Peggy was so hip. But Peggy - you know - and I know, as ex-smokers - that we either facilitated or silently acceded to all these condemnations and obstacles- as a mechanism for us to quit. And once a person does quit - the condemnations serve as reinforcement.

Like when you talk to a smoker and say " Holy s**ttaki, you're paying $7.50 a pack...why don't you quit?". And they say "Yeah, well I should....y'know...and when they raise it to $10 bucks a pack...then I'll quit....hope they do it soon."

[BelieveNFreedom]

Peggy's great.

[carpio]

Nice post Pokey. I don't smoke cigarettes anymore myself and really think it smells bad when others do. But the smell of the smoking is not nearly as bad as the fascist stench of the smoking Nazi's.

[AFPhys]

PING

[Max McGarrity]

I think I'm in love...

[XLurk]

It was damn smokers that caused the Hindenburg disaster. If we don't stop them, they'll kill us all.

200 Empty cigarette tubes $2.50
6 ounce can of tobacco $8.99
= 1 Carton $11.50

Make your own. Screw the tobacco settlement lawyers and slowly commit sucide on the cheap. It takes perhaps 5 seconds to roll one with the appropriate little blue plastic cigarette making device (made in Germany).

And you can custom blend your tobacco, as well as go for the pure tobacco 'additive-free' stuff that is MUCH healthier, and downright tasty.

[mississippi red-neck]

Way to go Peggy! Smoke'em if you got'em!! She also right that most of them do the things they do, not so much out of concern for the well-being of the individual or group that they direct their so called concern at, but for the feeling they get when they feed their intellectual superior, god-like complex.

Yes they must provide for and make decisions for all those poor minorities, uneducated whites, those common people, who if left without the instruction and guidance of such wonderfully intelligent and beautiful people as themselves, would soon overpopulate the planet and destroy themselves.

[Texas Mom]

Peggy, It's not just liberals. There are many conservative Nico Nazis out there too.. It's a PC thing, and just like everything else PC it has nothing to do with the smoke.. It's politically incorrect to smoke. People have been brainwashed..

[okie01]

"They are people whose habit has been outvoted and now they have to do it outside."

Screen name aside, have you no habits that others might find offensive?

[SAJ]

But many of us, especially in 'flyover country', can shoot VERY accurately.

[A_perfect_lady]

Screen name aside, have you no habits that others might find offensive?

Well, I collect so many cats that the allergic have been known to sneeze when my car pulls into the parking lot... why?

[lainde]

Ping for the wonderful Peg!

[Chemnitz]

Peggy - another beautiful, articulate, feminine woman. Sigh. We have all the smart and beautiful women. They have Ms. Bella Pelosi, et al.

Let me get this straight. Smoking cigarettes is bad. But medical marijuana is good.

[JohnHuang2]

Thanks for the ping, my friend =^)

[Drammach]

I sometimes smoke a pipe, usually in winter around Christmas time.
Luckily, I have my own work area, and am allowed to smoke there.

The boss brought a customer by, showing off the shop and our capabilities, and she smelled the smoke as soon as they entered.
She exclaimed, " You're smoking a PIPE! "
( The boss got this look, like he'd just lost a customer, his face starting to screw up like a lemon. )

Then she continued, " My grandfather used to smoke a pipe. We used to go there every year at Christmas time. I haven't thought of that for years. "
Then she got all misty - eyed for a minute, and I introduced myself, shook her hand, showed her around.
She spent more time in my smoky little shop than she did in the entire rest of the building, and thanked me most graciously when she left.
It was unsaid, but part of the thanks was for bringing back a memory.

My boss just looked relieved.

[JohnHuang2]

Peggy Noonan MEGA PING!!

[A Citizen Reporter]

"It's politically incorrect to smoke."

There is only one side of the political spectrum that have made certain things 'politically incorrect' and it AIN'T the conservatives!

[okie01]

"Well, I collect so many cats that the allergic have been known to sneeze when my car pulls into the parking lot... why?"

Suppose cat-owners were "out-voted", as you put it.

And you had to dispose of them. Or you couldn't enter a building with the scent of cat on you. Because somebody might be "offended".

After tobacco, what's next? Felines?

Personally, I don't smoke. But I find the intolerance regarding smokers...intolerant.

[gortklattu]

Peggy, Marry me???

[nathanbedford]

Peggy is wrong: Their right to smoke ends at my nostrils. I cannot set off a stink bomb in a theatre because I say I like the odor. Moma's rights to abort morally ends where the fetus begins.