“Suicidal glory is the luxury of the irresponsible. We're not giving up. We're waiting for a better opportunity to win.”
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" I don't think I've ever met a Liberal whom I didn't like on a personal basis. That said, if your goal is to change minds and influence people, it's probably not a good idea to begin by asserting that virtually all elected Democrats are liars. But what the hell."
"Smoking can
kill you. That's why I don't smoke, and it's why you shouldn't,
either.
"There. I've
just done the only things that should be done in a free society
to stop people from smoking: I've told you that it's dangerous,
I've urged you not to do it, and I've even set a good example.
If you'd like other people to be healthy, you should also discourage
smoking, too.
"But if you'd
like to be free, and you'd like your neighbor to be free, that's
all you should do."- John Stossel
Stossel took the words right out of my head in his article "The Busybodies Keep Running for Office."
Like attacks on religion, the jihad against smokers is, or ought to be,
a civil liberties issue. The ''elected busybodies'' (I call them MFCSs)
are getting increasingly arrogant ... and ridiculous. Two days
ago, Washington state began enforcing smoking bans in restaurants,
bars, taverns, bowling centers and non-tribal casinos .
Additionally, the prohibition includes areas within 25 feet of
entrances, exits, opening windows and ventilation intakes, unless
shorter distances are approved by the director of the local health
department. The measure includes a popular Cigar Bar in Olympia! Here's the rational these MFCSs use ...
"Secondhand smoke kills, and there is no "safe" amount of it you can breathe.
Smoke-free indoor air will make people healthier and save lives. This is an exciting time. This new law gives service
workers and the thousands of people who go out to these establishments every day
the opportunity to breathe easier." - Washington Secretary
of Health Mary Selecky
Please
don't judge me harshly for saying that Mary Selecky is either a lying
bag of donkey crap, or a typically ignorant liberal nincompoop [yes, it
can be both, and usually is]. If there's any humor in the
situation, it's that there is an Indian reservation on every street
corner in Washington. Thanks to other muddled government
decision making, they are sovereign nations within our
border. Their response is, "Thank you very much Gov. Gregoire,
you have just made us rich." Gregoire is asking the Indians to
voluntarily ban smoking in their casinos. [I told you they were
stupid].
The excuse
is secondhand smoke. But there's only flimsy evidence that secondhand
smoke is harmful. Studies were done on people who lived with smokers
and were exposed to huge amounts of secondhand smoke at home and
in cars. - Stossel
Congressionalstudies
could find no second hand smoke-health links; the World Health
Organizations comprehensive study not only could not document the
problem, but actually discovered that exposed pregnant women suffered
fewer birth complications! Second hand smoke was discovered only
after jury after jury refused to buy into the "I didn't know
smoking was bad for me lawsuits." Tort lawyers, and anti-smoking
zealots had to have second hand smoke to complete the tobacco industry shakedown.
Granted, secondhand smoke is a nuisance. But so are many other things.
If I don't like secondhand smoke -- and I don't -- I can
choose to go to restaurants that don't have smoking, just as I can
choose restaurants that don't have bad music. If I don't want to work
in a smoky place, I don't have to. - Stossel
But, then, you're not a sanctimonious liberal nincompoop either, John. Here's an example.
Forty-Six Busybodies Limit Freedom
Forty-six to one. That was the vote by the Chicago City Council
last night in favor of banning smoking in all restaurants and most
public places, starting January 16, 2006. On July 1, 2008 the ban will
extend to all taverns and restaurant bars.
But wait.
Anti-smoking groups are upset over a "loophole" in the ordinance which
says that exceptions may be permitted to restaurants that choose to
filter the air to make comparable to "ambient outdoor air surrounding
the establishment." Filtering air, however, doesn't come cheap:
Several
years ago, when RJ Reynolds was promising a smokeless cigarette (that
eventually became a cropper), an anti-smoking zealot wrote a letter to
our local paper. He was outraged that a smokeless product
might result in people being allowed to smoke on airplanes, and public
areas with bans. Didn't matter that he would never be bothered by
smoke, what mattered was that his side would lose. He was a true believer, and he is, as Eric Hoffer observed, a dangerous man.
Look at the political clout the gay community, with perhaps 3% of the
population, have. Or blacks, with 10%. What do smokers
constitute today, 40 percent of voters?
Every time I watch those Hitler Channel films showing Jews marching up
to open pits, already half filled with other executed Jews, I scream, WTF are you doing?
There are more of you than there them. Fight. Grab that
guy's gun and shoot him. Revolt, damn you, fight!
What can you lose?
"I did not vote for Obama but he is remarkable. In less than three
weeks in office he has collected more than $150,000 in back taxes." Gayle Miller
"There. I've just done the only things that should be done in a free society to stop people from smoking"
Roger, a serious question.
The National Health Service in the UK is considering not treating smokers for lung disease if they continue to smoke while seeking treatment. What do you think of that?
My feeling is that if a person is free to smoke, society is free not to pay for the results.
That's a libertarian approach that I could endorse. All these people who want drugs legalized? Fine by me, but I can choose not to hire them, I can fire them, and I shall not be liable for even a taxed penny to save their asses.
Anyway, to your original question, I thought we did that here already? I'm COPD from a 4 pack a day habit, and my (private) insurance covers any treatment I require as a result. I bet Medicare would to. I would not complain if all public health decided to make me responsible. Why? I have community ties, church, and friends who would hold a benefit, starring The Five Satins, and the Drifters so I could buy some inhalers.
I guess I'm a little slow but I don't remember the clause in the Constitution that gives government the right to protect a citizen from the consequences of his own folly.
Protecting citizens from the stupidity of others is reasonable but protecting idiots from themselves, I don't think so.
The smoking nazis would have put my family in jail for the abusive enviroment at our house on Sundays. My parents, aunts and uncles and sometimes their friends would come over for cards and dinner. Everyone smoked. A lot. Now some of them have died of smoking related causes, but you got to realize, inhaling that shit, first hand, can kill you. But I'm fine as is my sister. Hell, I smoke cigars and run Red Rocks.
It burns my ass that I can't enjoy a cigar in some of my favorite haunts anymore. And you know what? I don't go out as much as I used to. If you own an establishment and want to allow smoking, WTF has the right to tell you that your patrons can't smoke in it? Where in the world has reason gone to?
It's gotten so bad, I get dirty looks from my creepy neighbors in the summer when I'm OUTSIDE, in my back yard, enjoying a smoke. MM