Smokers: You're On Notice...

J

JakeStratham

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Oct 28, 2009
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Location, Location
Smoke 'em while you can.

The latest Gallop poll on public smoking ain't pretty (if you're a smoker):



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The reason this is notable is because it's the first time the dark green line has edged into the majority. This will gain legislative steam. Bet on it, and watch it over the next few years.

Also worth pointing out: the light green line. It's relatively stable and the number's small. But think about what it means...

19% of those polled actually want to make it illegal for you to smoke in the privacy of your home. These are voters, and given the chance, they'll vote your right away.

Welcome to Democracy.* Enjoy your stay.







* "We're a republic!"


A note of sanity.
 


* republic

that would mean not a majority rule and one could only hope that would mean any such legislation would be over ruled by the supreme court since it would be a violation of your individual rights....

just fucking with you. I live in the great state of ohio where private business can't make that decision for themselves Ohio-smoke free because you can't make your own decisions
 
jonas33h said:
* republic

that would mean not a majority rule and one could only hope that would mean any such legislation would be over ruled by the supreme court since it would be a violation of your individual rights....
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I throw that "democracy versus republic" thing in there these days because folks always seem to say, "Dude, you know we're not a democracy, right? We're a republic."

lol Yes... yes... I know. <sigh>
 
Voters are a bunch of pussy bitches

We should tell the fat fucks big macs should be illegal then too, that shit will kill you faster
 
Last year Wisconsin went 100% no smoking in indoor public places state wide. It's been awesome actually, and that's coming from a former (but still social) smoker.

There was a lot of hub-bub over it before it went in to effect, but like anything else, people adapted. I have actually not heard anyone (including other smokers) say it wasn't a good idea now that it's here.
 
yeah ok, well smokers go buy some electronic cigarettes then from my many affiliate sites :)

seriously though, I switched 3 years ago its way better
 
JakeStratham said:
This will gain legislative steam. Bet on it...
Click to expand...

Yep - as usual this is how it'll work.

Society and social norms will shift towards it being socially unacceptable to smoke in a public place - this is perfectly acceptable, you shouldn't inflict the habbit on a non smoker - and a non smoker shouldn't give a fuck if you do 40 a day in the privacy of your own home.

Social norms will police this - just as they do for say not pushing into a line at the supermarket, there will allways be the odd arsehole who will but that's life.

INSTEAD

We're going to get legislation and prosecution and a secret police force to police it and CCTV in the park with instant fines given out and the government raining down on the voters about how awesome it is at engineering society into what the people want when it was already there.

FUCK

</rant>
 
Rage9 said:
Last year Wisconsin went 100% no smoking in indoor public places state wide. It's been awesome actually, and that's coming from a former (but still social) smoker.

There was a lot of hub-bub over it before it went in to effect, but like anything else, people adapted. I have actually not heard anyone (including other smokers) say it wasn't a good idea now that it's here.
Click to expand...

We have the same thing. I don't smoke indoors. Outdoors I do. Like it also
 
I think we could all agree having a smokeless environment feels/smells better and it's more customer friendly but that's not the issue at hand.

We don't have the right to tell a business owner if he/she or all of the guest have the right to smoke in a PRIVATE establishment......since when do people view privately held property as public these days???

If the government wants to ban smoking on their property go for it leave everyone else the fuck alone.
 
Awesome, let's ban tobacco and give more money to street gangs who are going to make a fucking killing.

We all know prohibition works brilliantly to suppress supply and increase price.
As a little side effect, it may actually make smoking popular and cool again because kids will be doing something bad and illegal. This is going to turn out great.

Next let's ban McDonald's. After all, obesity is killing millions each year.
 
They banned smoking in all indoor venues here a few years ago and several bar owners immediately found several loopholes. I know a buddy that owned a bar broke all the huge plate glass windows out of the front of the bar and just put in window bars thus making it an open air environment and not subject to the ban.
 
Here's an example of how legislation gets rollin'...

You may remember this:

http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/103597-rutgers-student-suicide-over-hidden-cam.html

Frankly, the loss of the kid's life mean little to anyone but his friends and family. But consider what happened in the aftermath of his suicide.

He killed himself in September 2010.

It wasn't long before the media ran with it. Here's an example from October 2010, courtesy of CNN (which quickly devoted an entire section of their site to the topic):

After student's death, a weeklong look into bullying

Then...

D.C. mulls anti-bullying law - Washington Times

N.J. Gov. Christie approves toughest anti-bullying law in the country | NJ.com

Obama takes on bullies at White House anti-bullying summit - CSMonitor.com

Texas Legislature Passes Anti-Bullying Bill « Human Rights Campaign | HRC Back Story

Anti-bullying law expanded to social networking sites | California Watch

And it keeps going and going and going.


That's how it works, folks. Making smoking a criminal offense won't happen this year, next year, or even this decade. It takes time. The right gets whittled down, little by little until you barely realize you had it at all.

Here's another instructive example:

Legal history of cannabis in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
jonas33h said:
We don't have the right to tell a business owner if he/she or all of the guest have the right to smoke in a PRIVATE establishment......since when do people view privately held property as public these days???
Click to expand...

You have the right to do whatever you want until it infringes on someone else's rights.

If you want to smoke in your own home, cool. If you want to smoke in my face if I'm sitting next to you at a restaurant or bar, then you're infringing on my rights to a safe environment because I'm allergic to smoke and even if I weren't, you'd still be slowly imposing health problems and killing me in the process. Smoke goes everywhere, it doesn't just stay a few feet around you.

You can argue that I have the freedom to leave and not have to deal with you, but I can argue that I shouldn't have to get up from my meal or drink just because you want to smoke where you are instead of going outside for a couple minutes.

Banning smoking in public places is about protecting the majority's wellbeing, not cater to your own choice to slowly kill yourself, even if it's your own business.
 
music4mic said:
Awesome, let's ban tobacco and give more money to street gangs who are going to make a fucking killing.

We all know prohibition works brilliantly to suppress supply and increase price.
As a little side effect, it may actually make smoking popular and cool again because kids will be doing something bad and illegal. This is going to turn out great.

Next let's ban McDonald's. After all, obesity is killing millions each year.
Click to expand...

Drugs will eventually all become legal, because of tax revenue and the numerous studies currently in effect in other countries showing the decreased rate in crime.

Smoking will never be removed, because the government gets a huge amount of revenue from the taxing. Yeah, they'll keep passing legislation to get it as far away as possible from the public, but it'll still be around.
 
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