New War on Second Hand Smoke

[Prefer]

Now that cigarettes are banned in most public places it is time to attack the REAL source of dangerous second hand smoke - Automobiles. The dangerous toxin filled smoke comes right out of the tailpipes of these mobile monsters every time they drive by.

Certainly I have a right to exist on my planet without having the smoke of others forced into my lungs, right?

I say we start with workplaces - no cars allowed, then move on to bars and finally restaurants. We will end the dangers of second hand smoke - together!

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

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[Spoonman]

2. Even better,

we ban all forms of "blowing smoke up the ass"!

[MindPilot]

3. I only go to restaurants where there is a driving section.

But the car bars--I stay the hell away from those places!!!

Never fails; a couple of SUVs get all tanked up and just start pounding on some poor sedan.

[Romulox]

4. Legislature bans skateboarding w/ chainsaws. Prefer says, "But more people die in CARS...

than have ever died skateboarding with chainsaws! Hypocrites!"

The rest of us: Perhaps you are overlooking something, Prefer. One of these activities benefits society. The other does not.

[MindPilot]

6. I do see the OP's point, unsharp as it may be...

Here in California you may not smoke in a parking structure or in the stands at a NASCAR event.

There is also a move currently underway to ban smoking in Casinos. To me the very idea of white people banning tobacco use on Indian land is just...well...ironic.

[LanternWaste]

5. I imagine that if I could drive a cigarette to work

I imagine that if I could drive a cigarette to work, or take my family grocery shopping in a cigarette, or if that cigarette had resale value, or if heart attack patients were ferried to the local ER in a cigarette, or make out with my best gal in the back of a cigarette, I'd be somewhat more inclined to give your post consideration.




Try this (it's what I do)-- Smoke only in those places were you have a reasonable amount of certainty that it won't offend anyone else (for me, it's now down to my apartment, the designated smoking area at work, and the patios of my friends when I'm visiting them). Not only does it help us refrain from spending more time dedicated to our filthy addiction than we otherwise would, it also saves us money! :)

[Prefer]

8. You cite no necessities of life

A horse can do all the things your car can do. So why do I have to breathe your exhaust, simply because you want convenience instead of a horse? I am supposed to die so that you can be lazy?

Why don't you live simply so that others can simply live?

[LanternWaste]

10. I didn't presume to cite the necessities of life

I didn't presume to cite the necessities of life. There are books out there that would do a much better job than I would ever dream of.

I simply illustrated the obvious contrast of the cost/benefit ratio between the two...







(I do live simply-- I simply smoke at the places I listed...)

Try not to get bent out of shape or read things into my posts that I neither implied nor references.

[Prefer]

11. OK, if it is cost benefit then

outlaw french fries. They cost health insurance millions.

My point is that ALL the same people who whine about second hand smoke are out polluting the air with secondhand smoke. In one case it's bad because "only bad people do it", but in the other it's OK because??? a cost/benefit analysis?

What's the value of human life you used in your calculations?

[LanternWaste]

14. While I don't see a benefit to french fries...

"My point is that ALL the same people..."
Maybe you just should have said that in the first place rather than playing clever...


While I don't see a benefit to french fries, neither do a see second-hand french fry grease going down the gullets of people not eating them. And a cost/benefit analysis usually considers its sub-population en toto rather than comparing one group against another.

"What's the value of human life you used in your calculations? " A dollar seventy-five. I like to call that one "A Bullshit Answer to a Bullshit Question"

C'mon-- you can do better than this over-dramatized, third-grade tripe! I have faith in you-- don't let us down! get back off the mat and come back with another high-school debate club oriented logical fallacy!


Sorry, pal-- it's been a long day and a long week and I just cannot suffer fools gladly right now. So let's us both have a smoke, 'kay?

[Cynical1999]

7. ok...

sooo... your self-appointed 'right' is above a smoker's LEGAL right to enjoy a product he KNOWS is bad but chooses to continue anyway?

Newsflash! So far most of the world already revolves around non-smokers, can't the militant anti-smokers just be happy you have restaurants, government property, airplanes and airports, and other privately owned businesses without messing in the personal lives and property of individuals?

The act of buying and smoking a cigarette is not illegal. It is a legally sold product. If you are so adamant about banning cigarettes altogether, then by all means, try to change the laws and outlaw them.

However, if you succeed, what will you do with the loss of revenue now that the high tax on tobacco is no longer coming in?

[JDPriestly]

9. Don't worry. We don't need this regulation. The markets are

taking care of it. Here in L.A., the decrease in the number of cars on the roads is wonderful. You can actually get where you need to go. Nobody is going anywhere they don't really need to go.

[backscatter712]

12. Sure. Find a way to get everyone to work when their offices are 20 mi away...

and get them from point A to point B and so on without the secondhand smoke, and you might have something.

Until that solution is found, excuse us when we drive to work. Some of us have rent to pay...

[taterguy]

13. Do you honestly think that 20 miles isn't doable on a bicycle?

Granted, it's not something I would choose to do but I could definitely do it if I had to.

[Runcible Spoon]

15. I wouldn't want to see a typical American attempt 40 mile round trip on a bike

without a few months at the gym.

[taterguy]

16. So now we have a goal

What's wrong with that?

[Missy Vixen]

18. I know it's really difficult for some here

to imagine that it would be almost impossible for many Americans to ride a bike 20 miles one way to an office. (I guess the day care kids could just run along behind, huh?)

I might also mention that the climate in some areas of the country are not compatible with bike riding, either. Maybe they should just abandon their homes and move to where it's more temperate year-round. :sarcasm:

Then again, it's a "goal", isn't it?
Julie

[backscatter712]

17. I could do it...

Granted, I'm out of shape, and would grumble a lot, and would take longer than many to do it, but I could do it.

A lot of people just plain can't do it - disabilities, or they have bad hearts, etc.