Smoking Ban Moves Outdoors (CA)

LA Times ^ | March 18, 2006 | Bob Pool

[FairOpinion]

Calabasas makes it illegal to light up in public spaces, with fines up to $500. Some residents breathe easier, but others just fume.

As a pioneering public smoking ban went into effect Friday in Calabasas, enforcement came from a higher authority: Mother Nature.

A pouring rainstorm snuffed out renegade smokers' cigarettes and sent them scurrying for cover as security guards began issuing warnings at the town's main shopping center.

Calabasas, an upscale suburb perched on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, was generating international attention for what appears to be the nation's first ban on smoking in all outdoor public spaces. Violators can be fined up to $500.

As the day wore on, smokers were playing a cat-and-mouse game with mall security. Cupping their cigarettes in their hands and hiding them under patio tables, they flipped them to the outdoor mall's damp sidewalks when guards approached.

[dsc]

"Auto makers should also refuse to build cars to meet California emmisions."

I've been saying that for years. Now, though, the US auto makers have stupided themselves virtually into extinction, and don't have any leeway for such stands.

[dsc]

Every time I quit smoking, something like this happens and makes me want to start again.

[EGPWS]

"With the goal of making New Zealand's workplaces smoke-free now largely achieved, people's homes are one of the last frontiers in the battle to reduce second-hand smoke indoors," Dr George Thomson said.

One's freedoms taken away for one's own good.

Somehow I can't find reason to take comfort in such a mindset.....

Now it is already a mindset of some that one's abode is "public property" as shown in your appreciated reply.

I passed through the year "1984" with mindful contentment with little concern for happenstance only to find concern with 2006 equaling that of "1984". Hang on and review my reply, for I have to take a break.

Someone is "knocking on my door"....

Na, for my own good I'll just not answer it.

My point being, all in all if we as individuals are going to sit back and let a few take away our personal freedoms to the point of doing so when our personal freedoms are not a threat to the public, then what is the sense in living in a country that governs with Dogma based upon personal freedoms?

What are we as individuals striving to defend?

[mrs tiggywinkle]

*****The few times I've been there it was a nuthouse front to back. Went out of the hotel and ran into an elvis impersonator juggling knives. Another time was eating in a reasturant in a business district and this dude walks down the sidewalk in a caveman diaper with a bone in his scraggly beard.*****

I've lived here most of my life and have **never** seen what you've described. Ever.

[EGPWS]

Auto makers should also refuse to build cars to meet California emmisions. Let them walk or ride bicycles, which manufacurers should mark "Not for sale in California" to protect themselves from lawsuits. Everything should be marked "not for sale in California" for that matter.

If they did that then they would go broke from lack of production and a lack of want for productive people to want to live in California.

Oh, wait a minute.....This is a demise California is facing today isn't it?

[festus]

I've lived here most of my life and have **never** seen what you've described. Ever.

Ok so maybe there are some normal parts. I just haven't seen them I guess. One was in San Jose and the other in San Diego.

I'm pretty sure the elvis dude was part of some entertainment thing someone was trying to do somewhere.

But that dude in the caveman diaper and bone in his beard. He was all off on his own and that was the business/shopping district not some hippie hangout.

[A. Pole]

Do not worry, neither Jose nor Rosa will pay much attention to the silly prohibitions imposed by dying out WASPs.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Dittos on that! LOL! The only problem is, the anti-smoke Nazi DemocRATS have driven the cost of smokes so high that I had to quit. Either that or sell my house.

[sangoo]

...I've lived here most of my life and have **never** seen what you've described. Ever.

Well, maybe not those particular weirdos, but I'm sure some others. I was once in a restaurant in Van Nuys and a guy was sitting there in his bathrobe and one side of his face was shaved, and the other side was a full beard. We all have different stories.

[markomalley]

Gee, where are the anti-smoking Nazis on FR? They should be praising this move as a positive step!!!

/sarc

[A. Pole]

The only problem is, the anti-smoke Nazi DemocRATS have driven the cost of smokes so high that I had to quit. Either that or sell my house.

Roll you own. Or smoke pipe.

[mrs tiggywinkle]

It's important to remember that California is not comprised *only* of Hollywood and San Francisco. I live in the Central Valley and have *never* seen anything like what has been described.

[FairOpinion]

Problem is CA is the world's 6th or 7th largest economy.

[mugs99]

cigarettes should be banned also!

They will be. Tobacco will be added to the Controlled Substances Act in the near future. Tobacco smokers will be locked up alongside pot smokers.
.

[FairOpinion]

"Tobacco will be added to the Controlled Substances Act in the near future. Tobacco smokers will be locked up alongside pot smokers."


===

The they'll ban alcohol, even though we know how well that worked. Then comes banning bacon and eggs -- it's bad for you.

This reminded me of this absolutely great little skit about what the future will look like with all the gov. intrusion, posted by phil1750 on another thread, about a guy trying to order a pizza.

It's really great, worth viewing.


http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

[Hardastarboard]

if you witness a smoker in the act and don't report them you are guilty of aiding and abiding which holds the same punishment regardless of how you feel about smoking.

WTF???? I have to turn in someone who's not harming me for a non-crime, or suffer a punishment that's near felony level? Geez, I had hoped we could stop liberalism without having to resort to violence. That hope has begun to dim.

[mugs99]

You're right. Alcohol is next on the list. Coffee will be there too. Coffee addiction will be "a new study" topic within a year.

Thanks for the link!
.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Problem is CA is the world's 6th or 7th largest economy."

They are working hard to correct that problem, aren't they... Soon it will be the poorest as well. It may be a large economy, but it's also deep in debt. Driving out business via stupid laws isn't going to make California a place worthwhile to invest or sell to if nobody can afford the product.

[ElkGroveDan]

The few times I've been there it was a nuthouse front to back. Went out of the hotel and ran into an elvis impersonator juggling knives. Another time was eating in a reasturant in a business district and this dude walks down the sidewalk in a caveman diaper with a bone in his scraggly beard. Here in the midwest doing stuff like that is grounds for an a$$ whoopin. Out there its normal.

Here in California telling whopper lies like that is grounds for an ass whoopin. If you witnessed stuff like that in Calabasas then you must have been on drugs.

[Hardastarboard]

Got a friend who saw a guy in Hollywood with a Mohawk haircut, dressed in cutoffs and combat boots (and nothing else), reading a Bible, riding on a skateboard being pulled by a pit bull. I can't imagine that anyone is clever enough to make up a story like that.