Is it asking too much to ask smokers to curtsy to us non smokers?

I dont think so... stuck up smokers and their refusal to square dance!

The Square Dance exists to prove that white people CAN dance.

Here, i fixed that for you.

#%&*$#, my friends, (and you are my friends, even if you are liberal, anti-choice, anti-smoking pukes, [and I mean that in the most loving way that I can]), I am becoming inured to these electrolytic "cigarettes"! They are not half bad, especially if "juiced up" with a bit of AC current.

Just make sure your are grounded properly.

I am going to use this quote as an example.

I choose not to drink, so with that thinking, should laws be passed to close down all bars and pubs to protect me and my family from those idiots that drink and drive? Before you start with "It is already against the law to Drink and drive" explain this to me: Why does every local bar and pub have a parking lot? This is something that kills tens of thousands of people each year,and whats worse, it doesnt discriminate and snuffs out our children instantly. But we are all up in arms and passing laws because of something that "could" be harmful to people 30 years down the road. Huh? How about a little perspective here. So basically, I can go into a bar and put my liver at risk, then climb into my car and endanger countless others and its all good, but if someone lights up a smoke in bar it's "OMG, how inconsiderate and reckless!"

My 2 pennies

Li'lJugs, started vaping about a year ago and while it isn't quite the same thing as cigs, it's not bad at all.
Been using the Bloog sticks with the carts and some decent juice and it's a pretty decent kit.
I'm also liking the ease of maintenance of the Ego tanks but you really need decent voltage atties to get the taste.

If you're running a joy-10 or other basic starter kit there might be better options.

Hey, at least it provides an option in this increasingly restricted world.

S!

Got to love freedom huh? So whose freedom to we cater too? Smokers or non smokers? There is no way to cater to both. I smoke and I will continue to smoke. Why because peoples lives depend on it. I love those overweight non smokers who think that second hand smoke will kill them. Yeah and that extra 200 pounds is going to save your ass! My biggest problem is the current regimes obsession with "saving" everyone. Yes smoking takes years off your life but remember folks its the worst years........So I say smoke 'em if you got them and down with socialism!!!!

so if you don't smoke you're going to get fat?

that has to be the lamest excuse i've seen in a long time.

how about just not eating so much if you don't want to be fat.

smoke em if you got em and do it in your own house

You will find the answer on the first page - you dont have the right to force others to have to inhale your smoke - end of - particularly in restaurants and bus stations etc that people cant avoid.

Yes you can smoke in areas that dont affect other people.

Yes you can drink - it only effects you (unless you go on a drunken rampage).

Smoking is proven to be harmful

The analogy with the car is bad - smoke gets inhaled by others 100% of the time they are in contact - that would be like deliberately crashing into other cars every day you got in one!


You could base an argument on the exhaust fumes from transport including aircraft and the smoke from chimneys etc - but generally that doesn't get piped into a room to gas others out.

Shocking!

...

I'm sorry, I'll get my coat.

Li'Jugs, I've been using these 'lectric ciggs for a week now and I'm liking 'em. I saw these at a Pilot truck stop where I was working on a pump. You may be using them since you're a trucker? they are the "Mistic" brand and only market at truck stops. After buying 50 bucks of the car/house chargers and two batteries, the cartridges , which equal about a pack of cig's , come out to three bucks a piece. So they're cheaper than my Doral's. I've been smoking for 35 yrs and have a pack a day habit. Which hasn't changed with the electronics. I weined myself off of the Doral's over a week period and use the mistics only. No full ash trays anymore. Plus the enjoyment of watching the look on peep's faces when I'm taking a drag and then drop the cig in my shirt pocket!

Right on, vaping is the way.

Just find the right kit and you'll never miss the old stinking cigarettes; plus the looks you'll get from the non-smoking self-righteous bigots is just priceless...
Never even touched a "real" cig in almost 2 years now, and I vape all the time, except when I sleep, eat, make love, run, bike or lift weights, and I had been smoking for 35 years, even through cancer therapy. And BTW it was probably the only kind of cancer known to medical science as totally unrelated to smoking...
Nicotine is possibly one of the most powerful addictions, but the upside is there's no need to poison yourself to get your fix!

Happy vaping,
nibbio

True. We all will die, but I'd prefer a higher quality of life by not being burdened by tar, nicotine and chemicals from cigarette smoking. It's not the cancer that concerns me. It's the deteriorating effects of smoking over the long haul (no pun intended). Hardened arteries, oxygen deprivation, sickened lungs,.......... Why would anyone want to walk around with an O2 tank so they can breath because they smoked?

Being in a room of smokers is something I won't tolerate, so I'll chose to go elsewhere. I'd rather not have an all out ban of smoking, IMO. That whole free choice thingy we're so fond of is important. If a motel owner/bar owner/establishment owner decides to not allow smoking, I'm fine with that. It's his place.

All my friends, save one, won't smoke in my presence unless we're outside. I appreciate that. The other one will light up right after his last bite of dinner. We don't have lunch together anymore. (Though he is trying to quit)

I'm waiting for them to invent electronic stogies and electronic brandy before I convert over.

I smoke an occasional cigar. I smoke them on the front porch, usually accompanied by a glass of brandy, because The Lioness does not want smoke in the house and I find that request to be reasonable.

Why do I smoke a cigar now and then?

It's because of my philosophical bent. Someone warned me that cigars were horrible, poisonous things and that they'd bring me to a bad, untimely end.

Then I remembered what Friedrich Nietzsche said:

"That which does not kill me makes me stronger."

So I smoke cigars as part of my fitness program. They make you stronger each time you finish one and it doesn't kill you.

Cheers!

Rick...

There's been a decline in the Cigarette Butt population on the ground outside of the buildings in my area since peopel started switching to the Electric ones..

I do understand that it's an addiction. I really do. But in all honesty, I rather smell someone's farts than the smell of a incessant chain smoker!

The raging anti-smoking tirades that have been occuring ever more frequently over the last ten years or so continue to provide excellent philosophical substance on the concept of "freedom only when convenient". Some years ago (2004 or so roughly) I recall sitting in a voting booth in Ohio with three choices: A: "Ban smoking within 50 feet of all public places", B: "Provide the owner of each establishment with the choice of banning or allowing smoking within 50 feet of their business", or C: "No legislation shall be passed on smoking".

Taking stock of the three options, I really couldn't see anything more in line with the concept of individual choice and "freedom" than option B. On the one hand, owners that didn't care for smoking would have State backing to ban the practice, providing a "clean" area for themselves and like-minded patrons. For those that enjoyed a smoky environment, or simply wanted to bring in more customers (such as at bars), they had that capability as well. More importantly, in my mind, "Big Brother" would be left largely out of the picture. Considering that at the time Ohio was laregly voting against "Big Government", I assumed this would be an easy win.

Boy was I wrong. Anti-smokers spent weeks bandying about, shoving placards in folk's faces, accosting children trying to get home, and screaming in megaphones during public gatherings. For a man that abhors attention-seekers and busy-bodies, this was appaling behavior to say the least. Many of those located in the vicinity were annoyed as well, but when voting time came about, the universal ban on smoking was chosen by a sizeable majority.

Since that time I have seen continual ridicule of smokers, non-stop invasions of privacy by anti-smoking zealots, and a general ostracizing of the smoking crowd. Most disgusting of all was the blatant disregard for potential medical side-effects of smoking the new, government mandated "fire safety" cigarettes. Though smokers started citing sudden waves of dizziness, fatigue, intestinal issues, and in some cases severe/fatal medical side effects, the medical community ignored demands for testing. After all, everyone knows that a smoker has a 100% chance of dying from cancer right? That's what STAND told me on TV, so it must be true. Who cares if an untested product was forced down their throats at the last minute? They smell bad anyhow.

But I digress... Allow me to state quickly (and then I shall cut this tome of a post short), that I am a non-smoker, so save the bland labeling for another day. Instead I would ask a simple question: When it comes to the concept of "freedom of choice" in America, is anyone else savvy enough to look beyond their "biases" and see a violation of freedom for what it is, or are most folks just "blowing smoke"? I fear it is the latter...

OK I know this thread is getting long but I can't let it go without expressing my opinion. Before I do that I should say that I'm an ex-smoker. I quit over two and a half years ago cold-turkey. I did chew the nicotine gum for just a few weeks after I quit but I have not had a single cigarette since that day.

Around the St Louis MO area here the "trend" is to outlaw smoking in restaurants and bars. Across the river in Illinois it's already illegal to smoke within 20 feet of any public building (and most restaurants and businesses have a line painted to mark that boundary). Over here in the Missouri side of the STL area each town has either passed or not passed some kind of legislation about it. The problem is that we have a lot of small municipalities in the STL metro area and as soon as one passes a smoking ban everyone just drives 4 miles to the next one. A few have actually repealed their non-smoking laws because of this.

Want to know my problem with it all? Before word of any of these kinds of laws took place I can recall two incidents of people lighting up in a non-smoking restaurant.. and you know what? Once they were reminded of that fact they both put out their butts and either went outside or simply waited until their meal was finished. This was a NON ISSUE as far as I'm concerned.

So restaurants and bars that did allow smoking were constantly full of smoke? Well you know what? IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN DON'T GO THERE! There were plenty of non smoking restaurants to choose from. Actually pressure from customer trends was already pushing restaurants to become non-smoking. Before any laws were passed I'd say at least 50%-60% of all restaurants around here were already non-smoking.

OK so what about the employees that work there? Even if they don't smoke they were forced to work in an environment full of second hand smoke, right? WRONG! Nobody was ever forced to work in a smoking environment and those employees KNEW BEFOREHAND before they even took the job and it was a risk they were willing to take. And if they didn't know then they didn't do their research very well now did they? This would be like buying a house next to an interstate and then complaining to the government about the noise! Well DUH!

I'm fine with banning smoking in government buildings and public transportation as people who frequent those places have no choice in the matter. I might even be fine with laws being passed that made it illegal to smoke in places which declared themselves as non-smoking environments but to force a business to turn away a large portion of its customer base is JUST FLAT OUT WRONG. PERIOD. **ESPECIALLY** when these laws were never really necessary in the first place!

OK OK I get it. Smoking is bad for you. Second hand smoke is bad for you. Personally I don't believe it's as bad as people make it seem (with some rare exceptions of course) but for all intents and purposes I'll play along with it for now. Well if it's so BAD then why not just make tobacco COMPLETELY ILLEGAL ALTOGETHER! People argue about tax revenue from cigarettes and I understand that's a substantial amount of money but too many people these days want to have their cake and eat it too. If they want the tax revenue then they should leave smoking restrictions alone. If they are really watching out for our well being then make it illegal. Even when I did smoke I would have preferred an all out ban on tobacco over the crap they pull now!

NO ONE IS BEING FOOLED HERE. Smokers know it's unhealthy. Smokers know the smell is objectionable. But you can't make something illegal simply because it's objectionable. You can't make something illegal simply because you don't like it. Smokers (typically) take measures to reduce these objections by not smoking right next to someone and not blowing smoke in their face and you know what? YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE SIMPLY BECAUSE YOU WALKED PAST SOME NICOTINE SMOKE!

I remember once smoking outside in a parking lot by my car. A woman walked near me.. maybe within 20 feet or so.. to get to her car which was three cars down. Once she got to her car and opened the door she started being snotty with me mentioning that my smoking was going to make HER sick! I told her that I was there first and that nobody forced her to walk near me and she mentioned something about not being able to wait until the day all this "crap" was illegal. I told her I couldn't wait for the day that wearing PERFUME was illegal because she REEKED of it! She got pissed, slammed her door shot and peeled away. (Yes she was overweight too but her perfume was SO STRONG I couldn't let it be)

The problem is that this whole issue isn't about smoking. It's a stepping stone to stronger measures that are completely against what America stands for (or at least used to or should still stand for). People have been smoking nicotine probably ever since fire was invented. There are MANY MORE potential health hazards to face than second-hand smoke. MANY more. Even looking at it from that point of view doesn't even make any sense! Just like what's been mentioned... tobacco today. Fat tomorrow. Alcohol the next day. Then what? Sugar? Bread? Not wearing a helmet while walking down the sidewalk? Really where does it stop? In a country that prides itself on desegregation (and look how well that's worked over the years? But we won't go there) it's funny how segregated these smoking bans make everyone. And the funny thing is that I still see MANY teenagers walking around this middle-class neighborhood with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. Nothing has changed and we've given up our precious rights in exchange for that.

WASHINGTON -- "Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam can rest easy. Government officials fine-tuning guidelines for marketing food to children say they won't push the food industry to get rid of colorful cartoon characters on cereal boxes anytime soon."

Junk Food Marketing Compromise

Santhonax, MasterTec, thanks for your inputs buddies. It's great to see some people still have their common sense and can let out very good arguments about this issue. Problem is, most of the anti-smokers are haters, and whatever you could say wouldn't change their mind, or even make them think about it. They think they're right, and that's it, no discussion is doable.

On a side note, watched 1984 a few days ago. Back in the 80's, even when they imagine the worst totalitarian society, they hadn't get rid of the cigarets. I thought it was pretty funny how they could think this would be one of the last liberty people would have, when it's one of the first to be shot down.