Next: No Cigs In Your Car

[2dogs]

I keep wondering when and over what issue the line in the sand will be drawn.

I think the smoking issue is a practice run. Next on the list- YOU.

Makes me want to light up again just to p/o someone.




http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/3091.htm

NEXT: NO CIGS IN YOUR CAR

By KENNETH LOVETT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



September 22, 2003 -- ALBANY - Smoking even in the privacy of your own car could be banned under one of at least five state bills introduced in the past year to limit where a person can light up.
From public beaches to carnivals to a person's private vehicle, the legislation would make it more difficult for smokers to take a drag.

Pro-smoking forces fear the ultimate goal of some lawmakers is to ban cigarettes and cigars completely in New York.

"This is a well-planned strategy to essentially eradicate tobacco use using back-door methods," said Audrey Silk, co-founder of the New York City-based pro-smokers group CLASH.

"This is completely about controlling one group of people using a legal product," Silk added.

But the sponsors of the bills deny such intent. They said each anti-smoking bill has its own merit, including protecting children, helping New York businesses, and reducing litter.

"With concern for public health, I would be pleased [if smoking were banned], but that's not what we're doing," said Assemblyman Alexander "Pete" Grannis, the Legislature's leading anti-smoking advocate and a sponsor of many of the pending bills.



Grannis (D-Manhattan) said bills like those outlawing smoking in cars with kids on board and banning the sale of more affordable small packs of cigarettes are designed to protect children.

And he insists his bill to ban smoking at parks and beaches is meant to cut down on litter.

But some of his legislative colleagues question where you draw the line.

"There are those who would like to ban smoking outright," said Sen. Elizabeth Little (R-Queensbury). "It's government coming in pretty strong on people's lives and choices."

And smokers fear it's just a matter of time until a lawmaker introduces legislation to prohibit smoking inside the home by using secondhand smoke as an excuse.

"They're turning this into a dictatorship," said upstate bar owner Brenda Perks. "They're going right back to the Hitler days."

 

[BamBam]

The litter thing is a good point; it's amazing how many cigatette butts get tossed out car windows.
BUT: Don't laws against littering already exist?

 

[Henry Bowman]

Deja vu all over again.

It seems that the authoritarians are widening their nets too soon. They have not yet whittled down the numbers sufficiently to avoid backlash and resistance. Their impatience is encouraging.

 

[hd1.]

If their concern is public health they should start with banning the use of a cell phone while driving

 

[Mk VII]

they are already in the process of doing that here.

 

[Dave P]

"It's government coming in pretty strong on people's lives and choices."

coming on way to strong for my tastes

 

[TarpleyG]

Substitute the word "gun" or "firearm" for cigarette or smoking in that article. Looks familiar doesn't it.

Hey, I don't smoke, never have, but if someone else wants to, knock yourself out.

GT

 

[Coronach]

I encourage this sort of idiocy. The more people who have oxen being gored, the better. Sooner or later, people will have enough of it and the pendulum will swing backwards.

Mike

 

[C.R.Sam]

Or the OX will become extinct.

"They're turning this into a dictatorship,"

And not just there nor just that subject.

Sam

 

[standingbear]

i remember reading something about this-some place that banned smoking in or near a liqueor establishment and the people would just light em up to po the onlookers and they had non smokers lighting up too just to get the message across.kinda funny,i wish i could remember where.

 

[sm]

I smoke, I drive a truck.

I respect those that don't smoke, I respect those with allergies and asthma.

What I don't respect is CONTROL, regardless of what guise of legislation.
...less gov't meddlin...
Sheesh reminds me of Laural and Hardy..." another fine mess you've gotten us into"....

 

[Abenaki]

I don't smoke.........I think that it is filthy and nasty!
But if you want to smoke........go ahead.

But my question is........if everyone stops smoking, whats gonna happen when millions and millions of tax dollars from smokers are no longer to be had?

Abenaki

 

[SteelyDan]

Strangely enough, Garrison Keillor (liberal author, "humorist," and radio show guy) wrote a short story years ago about a group of "survivors" huddled in a cave in the mountains somewhere. The government forces were closing in, and they knew their time was limited, but they were holding out because they refused to give in to the system. Their crime? Smoking, of course.

I can only assume that Garrison was a smoker, and resented the governmental intrusions that affected him. Funny how he manages to support all those other governmental intrusions that don't affect him. Yet.

 

[c_yeager]

I think the more groups that get effected by this government control the better for us. It reminds me of a recent issue in Seattle. The was a proposed tax on Lattes of all things. Well all of a sudden all of the liberals around here who just cant live without their $4 cups of coffee were in an outrage. Even our liberal papers said it went too far. I found it amusing to point out to people the %100 (not an exageration) in tax i pay on every pack of cigarettes I buy. This could very well help to open up a lot of eyes for us.

 

[4570Rick]

Kali, where I live, is one of the bastions of liberal thinking, and it has just about destroyed the individual liberties allegedly guarantied by the Founding Fathers.
Sticking to the topic of this thread, here are my thoughts for what it’s worth.

If I choose to smoke, it’s nobodies business but mine. Whether I smoke in my house, my car, or the wide-open spaces, NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO STOP ME. If I’m a business owner and I choose to allow smoking in or on my property, NOBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO STOP ME. If you invite me to your house, it is YOUR RIGHT to decide whether to allow me to smoke. If you own a business, it is YOUR RIGHT to decide whether to allow me to smoke. Property rights have been corrupted along with personal liberties and personal responsibility in a modern day game of Victimization.

If I smoke or hang around other smokers and get lung cancer, heart disease, or any of the other smoking related health problems, it was my choice. I’m responsible. I’m accountable. If you don’t want any of the health problems associated with smoking, THEN DON’T SMOKE OR HANG AROUND WITH SMOKERS. That’s your responsibility.

When you start to “feel†that my legal activities need to be controlled through some government regulation so as to conform to some ideal you have concocted, you have become an Elitist Pig and my enemy.

By the way, for anyone interested, I do not smoke.

 

[geekWithA.45]

A story from my Dad:

In Florida, where he lives, is a large medical campus, which has entirely banned smoking everywhere, upon threat of termination for employees.

Embedded in this huge campus are about a dozen private residences, whose owners decided not to sell to the hospital, and about 3 of them are within easy walking distance of the main facility.

The homeowners response?

You betcha!

They setup public smoking areas on their property, including ash cans, and allow _anyone_ to smoke in their backyards, subject to good behaviour and non liability. One homeowner was quoted as saying, "If they fire you for smoking on my lawn, there is very little I can do for you except testify at the trial that I do in fact allow people to enter my property to smoke."

IIRC, these homeowners are not smokers themselves, just decent people who want to help hold the line against totalitarian BS.

 

[Zeke Menuar]

There is nothing like have the ignorant smoker in the car in front of you toss his lit cigarette out his window and have it land in your car. I chased the SOB down, called the cops and pressed charges. No smoking in the car? I am all for it just to keep the roadways clean and the chance of fires down.
Smoking should be banned everywhere but in your own house. Rights? I should have the right to take a walk and not see thousands of cigarette butts per mile. I have the right to breathe clean air, not some smokers exhaust.
My Grandmother smoked and died a slow, painful death of lung cancer caused by years of smoking. Not an easy thing to watch.
If a person wishes to commit suicide by Marlboro, he should do it in the privacy of his own home.

Rant over

ZM

 

[Monkeyleg]

"No smoking in the car? I am all for it just to keep the roadways clean and the chance of fires down."

Why not just do it for "the children?"

 

[Cosmoline]

If they tried, my bet is snuff would become the new rage in NYC. Not chaw "snuff," but the real thing. It packs as much nicotine punch as cigs, but costs next to nothing and has no taxes imposed on it. You can order it on-line right from Europe.