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Ditka: Smoke won't hurt you
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | January 10, 2003 | FRAN SPIELMAN

Posted on 01/10/2003 7:41:00 PM PST by Max McGarrity

Secondhand smoke "might make your hair smell," but it's not a proven health risk, Bears-coach-turned-restaurant-owner Mike Ditka said Thursday, leading the charge against a proposed restaurant smoking ban in Chicago.

With a cigar in one hand and a drink in the other, Ditka said his steelworker father was living proof that it's baloney for medical experts to claim that exposing a restaurant employee to an eight-hour shift's worth of secondhand smoke is the equivalent of smoking a half a pack of cigarettes.

"My dad smoked four packs of Luckies from the time he was 12 until the time he was 60. He lived to 80. He died of hardening of the arteries. He didn't die from what smoking caused. He worked in the steel mill where every morning, you woke up and there was half an inch of soot on the cars," Ditka said.

"People who have survived in industrial areas of our country late into their 80s and 90s have inhaled more smoke than all the smoking in the world can give you. I find it hard to believe that people try to shove the secondhand smoke theory down your throat because I don't believe it. I don't believe it even hurts you. It might make your hair smell a little bit, but that's about it."

Ditka said he has nothing against Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), the City Council's leading anti-smoking crusader. He simply believes the restaurant business would "suffer tremendously" if Burke and Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith (28th) persuaded their colleagues to ban smoking in restaurants and bars.

"These people who are popping off and throwing their weight around better open up their eyes and understand that you've got freedoms in America. If you don't want to come in this restaurant, don't come in. If you don't want to go where people smoke, don't go. They run the City Council. Let the people down here run the restaurants," Da Coach said.

Reminded that smoking has been banned for years in California restaurants and bars, Ditka said: "That's fruits and nuts. That's what they are. A lot of liberals. . .. All the do-gooders in the world. The people in California who abolished smoking are the same people who want to legalize marijuana. Come on. Give me a break."

At a Health Committee meeting earlier this week, restaurant owners attempted to slow the anti-smoking steamroller.

They warned that a Chicago-only restaurant smoking ban would send customers fleeing to the suburbs and prompt conventions to move elsewhere. They argued the ban would create an enforcement nightmare, with confrontations between tip-seeking servers and their customers.

Mayor Daley sympathized, called for more City Council hearings on the controversy and backed away from his earlier endorsement of a restaurant smoking ban.

On Thursday, restaurant employees held a news conference at Ditka's Restaurant, 100 E. Chestnut, to reiterate those arguments and pile on a few more.

"This city is rich in character--full of taverns, neighborhood joints, steakhouses and family restaurants. A smoking ban would completely expunge that character. It would absolutely reduce this city to another generic, dime-a-dozen, two-bit town," said Glenn Garlisch, a waiter at the Chicago Chop House, 60 W. Ontario.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: chicago; cigarette; cigars; individualliberty; mikeditka; privateproperty; pufflist; rights; smokers; smokingbans; tobacco
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Comment #61 Removed by Moderator

To: Tax-chick
Maybe so.
62 posted on 01/11/2003 9:03:21 AM PST by cubreporter
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To: Max McGarrity
http://www.mikeditkaschicago.com/
63 posted on 01/11/2003 9:24:29 AM PST by Deadeye Division
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To: tiki
As a long time smoker when I die it will be called a "smoking related death'. If I didn't smoke would it be called "a non smoking related death"?


64 posted on 01/11/2003 9:43:54 AM PST by Mears
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To: F16Fighter
Yea, and I might walk outside right now and get hit by a car. So what?
65 posted on 01/11/2003 10:05:08 AM PST by Hildy
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To: Mears
Of course not!!!! All deaths are smoking related in some way or another. If no one on the planet smoked we'd all live forever.........right?
66 posted on 01/11/2003 10:11:57 AM PST by tiki
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To: F16Fighter
Some psychiatrists have theorized that some of those who "smoke" are subconsciously substituting that cigarette or cigar orally for "something else."

And many psychiatrists state unequivocally that one's need to control others may stem from premature potty training. The term is "anal retentive." If the shoe fits...

67 posted on 01/11/2003 11:24:00 AM PST by Max McGarrity
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To: Reactionary; Tacis
So... since you've been "poisoned" by smokers, perhaps you'll offer up a few examples of what this "poison" has done.

Ain't it amazing this man is still alive.

BY the way, Tacis has become just another hit and run poster. :-}

68 posted on 01/11/2003 12:11:56 PM PST by Great Dane
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To: concentric circles
#47......... WOW, beautiful place.
69 posted on 01/11/2003 12:16:17 PM PST by Great Dane
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To: tiki
"And that guy who was crossing the street and got hit by a Mack truck would have lived longer if he hadn't crossed the street."

Oh we're going there are we??

Ok, I'll play...If only Yosemite Sam hadn't stuck his head into that canon hatch...

70 posted on 01/11/2003 2:48:24 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: Hildy; tiki
"Yea, and I might walk outside right now and get hit by a car. So what?"

Not if you two hold hands and look both ways before prancing across the Turnpike together clutching your half-smoked Marlboro Lights.

71 posted on 01/11/2003 3:00:54 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: F16Fighter
What are you talking about? When did I say I smoked? And who is this person I'd be holding hands with? Now I'm intrigued :)
72 posted on 01/11/2003 3:01:58 PM PST by Hildy
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To: Max McGarrity
"Many psychiatrists state unequivocally that one's need to control others may stem from premature potty training. The term is 'anal retentive.' If the shoe fits..."

Hey Maxy -- purse your lips...insert oral-fixated "object" (remind yourself it's only a cigarette)...and inhale...

73 posted on 01/11/2003 3:09:16 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: F16Fighter
Hey, anal-retentive pseudo-man, what business is it of yours what the hell I do?
74 posted on 01/11/2003 3:13:02 PM PST by Max McGarrity
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To: Hildy
See post #55.

You have a kindred spirit.

75 posted on 01/11/2003 3:13:59 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: Max McGarrity
"What business is it of yours what the hell I do?"

Good point. It's no prblem of mine whatever you choose to do in the privacy of your own home.

So what?

76 posted on 01/11/2003 3:18:09 PM PST by F16Fighter
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To: Tacis
he does not have the right to take my freedom

Enlighten us please. What pray tell is your definition of freedom? Exactly how is Ditka limiting your freedom?

77 posted on 01/11/2003 3:21:25 PM PST by laredo44
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To: Tax-chick; Tacis
Either of you folks live near anyone who heats their home with wood?
78 posted on 01/11/2003 3:23:54 PM PST by JimVT
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To: Conservative Druze
Ditka is wrong.

How so?

79 posted on 01/11/2003 3:38:55 PM PST by laredo44
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To: Tax-chick
"There's more to the smoking/health equation than one person's anecdotal evidence."

Amen to that! I smoked for 35 years, got lung cancer in 1998, and was given less than a year to live. Thanks to God, good doctors and a special diet, I'm still here and cancer-free. But even if the cancer doesn't get you, smoking anything usually results in some form of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). If you like inhalers four times a day and oxygen at night and the inability to walk up a slight grade without huffing, just keep smoking -- first or secondhand.

Carolyn

80 posted on 01/11/2003 3:44:42 PM PST by CDHart
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