Thread: Anti - anti-smoking rant

This smoking ban thing is getting out of hand. I no longer smoke cigarettes, instead enjoying my pipe tobacco, but have no issue with smoking in public or in privately-owned establishments. It just irks me to no end every time I read of yet another example of local, state, or federal governments over-stepping their bounds and trampling on our rights to make free choices as free-willed adults, and instead treating us like prattling children

While I understand the negative health ramifications associated with smoking, I believe it is our right as a free populace to let our minds and wallets decide what is best. I can understand that someone may not want to bask in the lingering smoke of a Marlboro or Camel, of an Oliva, or of some Dunhill Nightcap while they are trying to appreciate the subtle nuances of their swordfish, lobster, or Filet Mignon. I can even begrudgingly support no smoking in restaurants - and even in bars while the kitchen is open.

With that said, since the beginning of time, smoking and drinking have gone hand-in-hand. When we go to a bar, we are going to an establishment where we can drink, swear, bitch about politics, ogle members of the opposite sex in a very animalistic manner, and even to take our conquest home for the evening without heed of the uncomfortable morning to follow. We are voluntarily engaging in activities that are dangerous, unhealthy, and on the fringe of social acceptance to begin with.

For those that do not wish to be exposed to such nefarious on-goings, the solution is simple: Do not go to those places. Let your wallet do the talking. If there is really such disdain for these locals of ill repute, and they suddenly become vacant caverns populated by only a scant few degenerates, then they will no longer be able to keep their doors open.

For those that do not wish to attend these places, there are countless establishments awaiting to take your hard-earned money to provide you will gallon after gallon of your favorite elixir. You need not go to that dank, dark, smoke-filled bar my uptight friends. You can pickle your liver in the comfort of your home from the comfortable confines of your couch. You need no longer stand to consume your favorite libation. Gone are the days of languishing at a backless chair next to some overly loquacious older gentleman who is attempting to solve all of the world's problems one whiskey at a time. No more waiting in line to relieve yourself of the three pitchers of Coors Light you just wailed back.

Rejoice! For you can enjoy all of the pleasures you seek in the confines of your own slice of paradise. You can pee whenever, and possibly wherever you like. You can drink whatever you choose - and at a far reduced cost I might add. You can recline comfortably on your couch or in your favorite chair.

So leave the bars. Leave them to never come back. Leave the dark recesses of the pubs, taverns, and inns. Leave them to the degenerates who you so openly and unabashedly loathe. Let them wallow away their time in an environment that provides them with a sense of belonging and social interaction, and allows them the opportunity to meet like-minded, unscrupulous characters with whom they will spend their hours talking, laughing, singing, even crying - like the completely mad men and women that they are.

Why would you ever want to expose yourself to such a variety of unpredictable characters? Please, for all that is good and holy, protect yourselves. Stay safe. Stay home. And leave the bars to us sailors, prostitutes, braggarts, barbarians, and sadists. I will gleefully join them. With a drink in one hand and a smoke in the other, I would happily toast to the freedom of choice, to democracy, and to free enterprise.

I have but one last question for my pious friends: If there was such a demand by the people and by the restaurant industry for non-smoking establishments, why were they not in existence before the bans were put into place?

Hear Here! Smoking ciggy's while having drinks go together like shoes and socks, but they're people who want to impose and insist that they have a 'right' to....... wherever they want. I'm sure you already know this, but that mentality is not going to stop at bars. The protectionist mentality has no end because it does not work.

I have but one last question for my pious friends: If there was such a demand by the people and by the restaurant industry for non-smoking establishments, why were they not in existence before the bans were put into place?

you're not going to get a real answer to that.

In the UK, people who smoke are becoming few and far between, hardly anyone smokes nowadays.
Why should a minority dictate terms to the majority of folk who want to enjoy an evening in the pub and don't want to come home with clothes stinking like an ashtray?
Both my parents were smokers, both died prematurely from lung cancer after a long debilitating illness. I sat with my mother as she died, fighting to breathe.
Smoke if you want, just do it in the middle of a field and make sure you don't encourage youngsters to copy you.

You make a good argument for the need for legislation, especially the, "they can go someplace else part". I do feel sorry that you aren't able to enjoy the bar as much. Maybe someday there will be room for compromise. I do consider the legislative act to remove smoking from restaurants one of the "Finer Things in Life".

Perhaps someday, smokers will start to see a need for greater compromise, particularly in Public establishments.

We get the Government (and hence the legislation) we deserve. And, I am afraid to say that over the past 20 years what we have deserved is a big bubble-wrapped, risk-averse, short-sighted Nanny. Nothing is our own responsibility, everything bad in our lives is someone else's fault, we bleat to the Government about our own special interests and whine like petulant children when it listens to someone else's. What we end up with is knee-jerk politics and a warning-label life.

James.

I'm with you on the restaurants bit, because people really are "trapped" with the smoke if they don't want it, the thing that gets me is that they have banned smoking in NYC parks. Yes, outdoors. Insane.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

In the UK, people who smoke are becoming few and far between, hardly anyone smokes nowadays.
Why should a minority dictate terms to the majority of folk who want to enjoy an evening in the pub and don't want to come home with clothes stinking like an ashtray?
Both my parents were smokers, both died prematurely from lung cancer after a long debilitating illness. I sat with my mother as she died, fighting to breathe.
Smoke if you want, just do it in the middle of a field and make sure you don't encourage youngsters to copy you.

I'm sorry that you lost your parents in such a harsh manner, but your last statement is just so prejudiced towards anyone who may smoke. More people are morbidly obese than people with lung cancer, but you would never tell someone to make sure they don't encourage youngsters to eat candy bars because they themselves enjoy candy bars. They should also apologize for eating them in public; that just encourages other people to do it.

This is the product of the anti-smoking lobby painting anyone with the habit or hobby of smoking as being the scum of the earth. We smoke, and therefore we're making a concerted effort to make sure the world has cancer. I know that every time I enjoy my pipe, I'm secretly hoping that ten people get cancer from it.

I was smoking in a picnic area and a family sat down several yards away. I moved so that the parents wouldn't be worried about their kids being around the smoke from my pipe. I'm clearly a cancer spreading villain though, hoping the youngsters would be sucking back five packs a day by seeing me for a few seconds.

Originally Posted by WongKonPow

I'm sorry that you lost your parents in such a harsh manner, but your last statement is just so prejudiced towards anyone who may smoke. More people are morbidly obese than people with lung cancer, but you would never tell someone to make sure they don't encourage youngsters to eat candy bars because they themselves enjoy candy bars. They should also apologize for eating them in public; that just encourages other people to do it.

There is a difference though. You can eat all you want in public and people are not negatively impacted by it.
If you smoke in enclosed spaces, you are harming people around you.
It would not be so bad if it was only an occasional cigar or pipe, but people lighting up cig after cig are just filling the room with smoke.

I was smoking in a picnic area and a family sat down several yards away. I moved so that the parents wouldn't be worried about their kids being around the smoke from my pipe. I'm clearly a cancer spreading villain though, hoping the youngsters would be sucking back five packs a day by seeing me for a few seconds.

That's just silly. Smoking outdoors is not an issue, compared to living in a city, near a highway or any of the other places where there is pollution.

Originally Posted by Bruno

There is a difference though. You can eat all you want in public and people are not negatively impacted by it.
If you smoke in enclosed spaces, you are harming people around you.
It would not be so bad if it was only an occasional cigar or pipe, but people lighting up cig after cig are just filling the room with smoke.



That's just silly. Smoking outdoors is not an issue, compared to living in a city, near a highway or any of the other places where there is pollution.

I wasn't making a stand for smoking in enclosed areas, you misunderstand the point of my sarcasm-ridden post. I was simply addressing the prejudice towards smokers of any kind as purposefully degenerate in their actions.

Furthermore, it wouldn't have been a major health risk for the children to be near me outside in a park, but I moved for the peace of mind of the parents. I did this, because I know smoke is labelled as the devil's breath of malice upon humanity. I had a right to be there, but I could easily move so they wouldn't have to with their stroller and bags and such.

Don't worry, the nanny state advocates will be going after the obese next. The only satisfaction I have is knowing that they, the nanny staters, will die of something. If it ain't one thing it will be something else.