Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Smoking in a Bubble

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I happened to catch part of the WAND-TV news over lunch and saw part of a story about (I think) the Macon County board debating if an anti-smoking ordinance should be considered there. The board president (I think) was shown saying he thought they should wait to see what economic impact there is in Springfield and Champaign which are about to implement smoking bans.

Uhhhhh…dude, there are smoking bans all over the place outside of Central Illinois. Whole states have enacted them. Hell, entire countries got ‘em. Why do you need to look at Springfield and Champaign to determine the economic impact?

This drives me nuts because the pro-smoking crowd in every local community around here acts like this is some sort of wacky, untested scheme. Let me say this slowly: There….are…working…viable…smoking bans…EVERY FUCKING WHERE YOU IDIOTS. Damn, turn on a tee-vee or open a newspaper. Get on one of them internets already. Dumb fucks.

Look, you can oppose smoking bans for a number of reasons, but claiming such bans are untested is NOT one of them. Use something else like, it’s your right to blow carcinogens in other people’s faces or something, but give the uncharted territory theme a rest.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Either they smoke themselves, in which case consider what it takes to open up a pack of cigarettes, and smoke them in the same room as those you claim to love more than anyone else in the world - we're talking dyed in the wool drug addiction - with major denial in place.

Or, we're talking local politicians who are afraid of some bar owner who might toss in a few hundred dollars to buy some campaign placards for his/her opponent next election.

Getting the nicotine monkey off the backs of fifty million Americans - and all those who chose not to smoke, will be the best thing, and the hardest thing we could ever do to improve the health of our entire society.

But it won't be an easy war to win. It's a horrible, dangerous, and massively destructive drug - and it has created an army of millions of zombi-like addicts who willing burn their money away instead of investing it, or spending it in fun, and healthy ways.

JP

Anonymous said...

Be a good boy Prophet, and let us know how we should define fun and healthy. In fact, run on down to JW's and tell those "zombies" standing on the sidewalk how to better spend their money.