The Red and Black

Originally posted by

Jeremy

Tell my neighbor down the street with cancer due to second hand smoke to get over it. This article is a disgusting piece of shit.

Originally posted by

Jeremy

Tell my neighbor down the street with cancer due to second hand smoke to get over it. This article is a disgusting piece of shit.

Originally posted by

Jeremy

Tell my neighbor down the street with cancer due to second hand smoke to get over it. This article is a disgusting piece of shit.

Originally posted by

James

I understand your frustation because I am a smoker myself but everyone is right on banning smoking. It should actually be made illegal as it's obvious we are unable to stop and it creates so much damage to us and others.

Originally posted by

James

I am a smoker and I can't disagree more with your article. We all know we'll probably die from small cell lung cancer and believe me, it's not pretty. Whatever is done to make smoking even more difficult and avoid passive smoking is good. We all know that stopping is almost impossible and even if you stopped a year ago you could start again anytime today. I understand your frustation because I am a smoker myself but everyone is right on banning smoking. It should actually be made illegal as it's obvious we are unable to stop and it creates so much damage to us and others.

Originally posted by

Wakeupsheeople

And don't give me that BS of the health of the employees. If you don't want to inhale 2nd-hand smoke, don't work in a bar that allows it.

Originally posted by

Wakeupsheeople

If you don't like cig smoke, don't smoke. If you own a bar a want to allow ADULTS to enjoy two things that can kill you, and BTW ae taxed by our Government, why should a bunch of cry babies be able to stop you? And don't give me that BS of the health of the employees. If you don't want to inhale 2nd-hand smoke, don't work in a bar that allows it. I'm sure ther would be smoking and non-smoking bars that would employ like minded adults and make money too.

What right do coal workers have to sunlight? None! If you want to see sunlight, do not work underground, and if you're an adult who wan't clean air, don't work in a bar that allows smokers!!

It's time to stop the hypocracy!! Drugs are drugs, if they are all "bad" for you, why are some (beer, wine, cigs)legal and others not?

Originally posted by

Alum

Great article, Vince. People these days are shrill about everything they don't like. It's funny reading some of these responses from the holier-than-thou crowd.

Originally posted by

Alum

Great article, Vince. People these days are shrill about everything they don't like. It's funny reading some of these responses from the holier-than-thou crowd.

Originally posted by

Alum

Great article, Vince. People these days are shrill about everything they don't like. It's funny reading some of these responses from the holier-than-thou crowd.

Originally posted by

Alum

Great article, Vince. People these days are shrill about everything they don't like. It's funny reading some of these responses from the holier-than-thou crowd.

Originally posted by

Nick Naylor

As a smoker I willingly chose to start smoking not because I thought it was healthy for me. Big tobacco never lead me to believe that cigs were safe and unaddictive. For the first comment can you prove your neighbor got cancer solely from second hand smoke. There are other things called genetics and eating right. I wonder how research can be done to blame someones cancer on secon hand smoke. Its a little harsh to call this article a piece of shit when all its trying to say is smokers are tired of hearing all the BS about smoking. We know its bad for us, you dont need to keep telling us every day. Also im pretty sure Vince was kidding about the doctor's office thing, but bars, come on, that should definitely be allowed. There's a lot of comedy in this article, you people need to lighten up and cool down

Originally posted by

Class of '98

Great column, Vince.

The next time a non-smoker accosts you about smoking, remind them that the mortality rate for non-smokers is the same as it is for smokers... 100%.

Whoever said that the point of life is to see how long you can make it last?

Originally posted by

Bill

Prohibiting hospitality based business and property owners from extending equal hospitality to all potential patrons regardless of their smoking status is akin to the "Jim Crow" laws of decades ago, and such practiced inequality being mandated by our current government is appalling. A law that penalizes the business and property owner for NOT requiring patrons that smoke to "simply step outside" is no less discriminatory and every bit as prejudicial as asking them to "move to the back of the bus". Hospitality based business owners are in the business of providing comfort, goodwill, and accommodation to anyone that accepts the privilege of that invitation extended to them. The regressive attitudes of the new healthy elite are every bit as disgusting as any bigoted KKK member could have ever hoped to be.

Smoking Bans have nothing to do with the health of Non-smokers since the Non-smokers choice of hospitality environment remains, as it always has been for both patronage as well as employment, A CHOICE.
By laughingly defining a Smoking Ban as "help" rather than what it is; punitive coercion, and in order to punish those that have made the unapologetic choice to smoke, and specifically force private property owners to surrender the essential right of ownership to make those choices, the Anti-Smoker mafia deceitfully and smugly claim "it's for the workers."
(A decidedly socialist propaganda slogan if ever one existed). As stated elsewhere, "Stalin would be proud"

Originally posted by

Bill

Second Hand Smoke, which is the prime factor in convincing the uninformed useful idiots in State government that Smoking Bans are a good idea, is nothing more than annoying. Spare me the crap about "the research shows,..."
The reported "dangers" of exposure to SHS are dealing in statistical risk assesments so small as to be virtually non-existent.

Prohibiting hospitality based business and property owners from extending equal hospitality to all potential patrons regardless of their smoking status is akin to the "Jim Crow" laws of decades ago, and such practiced inequality being mandated by our current government is appalling. A law that penalizes the business and property owner for NOT requiring patrons that smoke to "simply step outside" is no less discriminatory and every bit as prejudicial as asking them to "move to the back of the bus". Hospitality based business owners are in the business of providing comfort, goodwill, and accommodation to anyone that accepts the privilege of that invitation extended to them. The regressive attitudes of the new healthy elite are every bit as disgusting as any bigoted KKK member could have ever hoped to be.
As stated elsewhere, "Stalin would be proud"

Originally posted by

Bill

Be afraid.

Originally posted by

Emmanuel Goldstein

Smokers contribute more to the ACS than non smokers already via the Master Settlement Agreement which takes billions of dollars from the tobacco company profits
to go towards their so called research. Plus the taxes it all adds up to a lot of money. I only have figures for the UK where just under 2 billion a year is spent on smoking "related" diseases, but the amount raised in tax equals about 10 billion a year. So not only are smokers paying for their own treatment they are also paying for several others as well.

Maybe the anti-smokers would like to thank us for that. Or give us some money back!

Originally posted by

Brandon

If smoking is as important to you as you claim it is, then I'm sure you can find places to smoke that are legal. I don't care if you smoke outside - go ahead. It's totally legal for you to do so, and if I don't like it, I'll move somewhere else. You wanna smoke at home? Smoke at home. It's your house. But a doctor's office and a restaurant? Really? Even a bar is pushing it. Think about more than yourself here. Whether you think it is or not, second hand smoke is a health issue. You want us to have to deal with your addiction? That doesn't seem fair. Since when did your rights become more important than mine?

It's not a civil rights issue - if an establishment or private residence does not allow smoking, then that's that. Go outside and smoke. Is it seriously that hard? Can't go outside and smoke? DEAL. I'm sure at one point during the day you'll smoke again.

I'm not saying smokers are bad people. Not at all. I'm not saying it's ok to be rude to people because they smoke. I'm saying that it's a bit selfish to be entitled to smoke wherever you please, whenever you please. It's just courtesy. The entire world isn't out to get you just because you can't smoke in a pediatric clinic.