Disclaimer: This thread has nothing to do with theology and everything to do with politics.
There is a trend sweeping the nation; the trend of passing state wide smoking bans. Here in Pennsylvania, they just passed such a ban. Now, I don’t smoke (other than a pipe, which is required of all true Presbyterian men to smoke, right?). I don’t like being around cigarette smoke, I don’t like to smell cigarettes, I don’t like to breathe in second hand smoke.
However, I believe I have a realistic view on this issue. I realize that if I’m in a public place and am around smoke, it’s because I chose to go into an establishment that allows it. In other words, it’s my choice as to if I want to eat at a restaurant that allows smoking. It’s my choice as to if I want to be in a smoke filled bar, be it to work (with my band) or to just hang out. Everyone who is in a public place and is exposed to smoke made that decision for themselves. If I or someone else doesn’t like it, I have choices. I can go somewhere else to eat that doesn’t allow smoking. I can book shows for my band in places that don’t allow smoking. The way the current laws stand now, everyone has a choice as to what they want to do. Non smokers, be they customers or employees, aren’t having their right to “clean air” violated or having their health put in jeopardy unfairly because ultimately, it was their choice to eat or work or drink in a business that allows smoking. No one is forced to be in a smoke filled room. No one is in there against their will.
However, this freedom of choice is not good enough for people. They’ve decided that instead of having a free and open society where everyone is free to do as they please concerning this issue, they’d rather take away the rights of business owners and their patrons. That is exactly what is being done. Instead of leaving a free society well enough alone, these pro-smoking ban people have essentially said, “I want to be able to eat and drink wherever I want to and I shouldn’t have to be around smoke!” Instead of putting in complaints with business owners concerning their desires for smoke free environments, instead of just going somewhere else for dinner or working at a different restaurant, they went to Mommy Government and whined until they got their way. Now a bunch of whiney cry babies have forced their desires on everyone else, taking away the rights of businesses and patrons state wide.
I recently saw an episode of South Park where certain citizens were trying to pass such a ban on smoking. Leave it to a crass and crude animated series to really get to the heart of this issue. I’ll quote the episode’s final lines as best I remember.
“You’ve just decided that you don’t like smoking so you want to take away the rights of all these other people just because you don’t like it. That’s called Fascism you fat f$#k!”
That’s called Fascism indeed.
8 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
The School of Hard Knox 
If you’re impacted too severely by smoking bans, I recommend you try an electronic cigarette that’s smoke-free and tobacco-free but still delivers the nicotine you crave. They’re available from several companies, including Crown Seven (www.crown7.com).
Well said. A smoking ban does control a free and open society imposing fascist leanings.
Of course we can get a sales pitch from hotoffthepress for some bs nicotine delivery device. These bans have been imposed for a number of unjust reasons. Big Pharma pushes them so that they can sell nicotine replacement drugs. 100% of that money goes to the drug companies, they turn around and donate money to ACS,ALA etc. to push for stronger bans. A master public relations campaign to benefit Big Pharma. Now 57% of a pack of cigarettes goes to the government.
Try using a patch or device to administer the things you enjoy,like salt or steak or a drink.
Yeah I think that hot completely missed the point of my thread if he thinks it’s about affecting my nicotine input (did I not say I’m NOT a smoker? I guess anyone could claim that but why would I lie about the fact that I don’t smoke?)
Maybe I can get a big mac delivery devise? Or has the government told us we aren’t allowed to eat Big Macs yet?
I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I think the ban on trans fat, the state wide bans on smoking, they’re related. Could be the Government working on lowering the risk factors of health because they’re going to be pushing socialized health care.
Andy, you said loud and clear you were a non smoker and in fact do not like it. Your issue is freedom, that I support whole heartedly. Control freaks have all the answers without studying the issue, or in this case your post. The kind master will allow a few little perks but he is still the master. We are all enslaved by unjust laws.
I think you are right about socialized medicine too. People are unwilling to take personal responsibility so they demand the government take care of them, thus we have a nanny state.
Just curious…were you a Ron Paul supporter?
I certainly am a Ron Paul supporter. I will support anyone that supports the constitution , which calls for limited government.
Right on.
We’d like to give you a perspective you’re missing.
We are 3 people who live in an apartment; 2 of us smoke, and 1 of us doesn’t.
Every day, certain tenants in the building insist on smoking, not in their own apartment, oh heaven forbid….instead they smoke in the indoor and enclosed common areas of the building. In the hallways, in the laundry room, on the enclosed porch, right next to other tenant’s windows and doors. So of course, all day long tenants get clouds of secondhand smoke coming into their apartments.
We are staunch supporters of people’s rights. You have the right to smoke and risk cancer. But do you have the right to expose your neighbor’s infant child to all your secondhand smoke every day? The smokers we are talking about have been asked, have been begged, to move their smoking somewhere else, so that others in the building won’t be exposed. But they stick their chin out and say, “I have an absolute right to smoke here.”
And if you look into the law, they are correct: smoking in the hallway doesn’t break any laws or ordinances, and if the tenant refuses to stop, there isn’t really anything the landlord can do
This isn’t like choosing a different restaurant. Many poor families cannot afford to give up their housing, or cannot afford to move to protect their children’s health. Look into it, and you’ll see that secondhand smoke is terrible for children (a no brainer). Imagine being in this predicament….you can either keep your home, and allow your child to be breathing this every day, or you can leave.
Not exactly fair housing.
Smoking bans that prohibit smoking in outdoor, unenclosed spaces, are insane to me. But we must put a prohibition in the law for smoking in common areas of residential buildings, in order to protect innocent tenants and their children from secondhand smoke.
We protect them from lead poisoning, don’t we?