RussiaToday News Dutch smokers form holy alliance
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Posted on 07/17/2008 12:42:01 PM PDT by Stoat
Smoking ban leads to new religionWednesday 16 July 2008 Café owners in the Netherlands are joining religious movement known as the One and Universal Smokers Church of God, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday. ‘We stand firmly behind the church’s teachings and that is smoking,’ Cor Busch, owner of the former Lindeboom café in Alkmaar told the paper. ‘Smokers are being discriminated against… but a beer and a cigarette belong together.’ Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1. Several dozen bars have joined the movement which claims the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the right to freedom of religion, the paper says. People who join the church get a membership card entitling them to smoke inside the building. Worshippers believe in the trinity of smoke, fire and ash and honour their god by smoking. Church founder Michiel Eijsbouts says café owners who are trying to get round the ban on smoking will not be allowed to join. The church, he says, takes smoking very seriously. ‘It has ritual aspects, it is something you experience and we follow our faith very strictly,’ he told the Telegraaf. |
RussiaToday News Dutch smokers form holy alliance
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Possibly sacreligious... but effective.
I like it when political correctness makes politicians have to behave like snakes swallowing their own tails.
History repeasts itself. This time they surrendered to the smoking nazis.
Booting up heroin is just good, clean fun.
But smoking is BAD for you. haven’t you heard?
a.k.a. The Rastafarians, mon!
P.G.C. Hajenius
Rokin 92-96
020/623-7494
www.hajenius.com
Frommer's Review
This store has been Amsterdam's leading purveyor of cigars and smoking articles since 1826, first with a store on the Dam and then (since 1915) in its present elegant Art Deco headquarters. Cigars are the house specialty; there's a room full of Havanas, and Hajenius also sells cigars from Sumatra, Brazil, and more.
History repeats itself. This time they surrendered to the smoking nazis.
"So you think that you can enjoy yourself, eh? Throw ziss man in ze cooler!"
“History repeasts itself. This time they surrendered to the smoking nazis.”
cheap shot, what exactly did you expect NL (or denmark, for that matter, or even belgium though there were more complex issues there) to do in the second world war?
If anything they managed to avoid this longer than MANY other places, including many states of the US. You might as well say history reverses itself, and x states in the US surrendered before the Netherlands.
I thought they were talking about smoking spliff in the coffee shops...
I love the Dutch!
I even like the fact that the Dutch Restaurant Association is challenging the ban (fat chance, I know, but at least they are, unlike the craven, spineless Ass of the USA) based on violation of social moraes and cultural behavior.
BRAVO!
Funny, isn’t it, our Hitlerian society where ole Adolf would feel more comfortable than Churchill or FDR.
NANNY State Ping...........
It’s definitely creative :)
LOL...the smoking Nazis lose again. What a creative way to get around non-smoking idiocy.
No, I don’t smoke.
Excellent point. Not all, but the VAAST majority of restaurant associations in the states go along with the bans, as long as they are all inclusive, for one reason and one reason only --- they are controlled by the big chains (Applebee's Olive Garden, Lonstar, TGIF, etc) which can weather the initial downturn in business, unlike the corner diner or tavern, thus eliminating the competition with government guns.
Thanks for the ping!
I remember when the bans were going in piecemeal in towns around here; the biggest cry was for a level playing field.
Seemed unAmerican to me. Level Playing Field? What about some MBA buzzword signifying competitive differentials?
I was for letting individual establishments decide, and if the traffic was enough, they’d survive, if not thrive.
But I guess I’m out of touch with Modern America.
Yes, as much as I can, I patronize local nonchain establishments.
The first liturgical prayer for the One and Universal Church of the Smokers of God.
The exact same thing happened when Ontario banned the sale of tobacco in drugstores. Canada's largest drugstore chain is owned by this country's largest tobacco company but they supported the ban because it wiped out their independent competitors. It is now almost impossible to find a drugstore here that isn't controlled by one of two major chains.
Beatrix’s royal wedding to Claus von Amsberg long after the war also caused controversy.
Nope. This is tobacco.
Aunt Tilly, is that you?????
ROFL! Great pic.
ROFL! Great pic.
I'm delighted that you like it.....here she is again :-)
"snicker"
You can not imagine just how much I DESPISE that term. The only level playing field is a free market, especially in th hospitality industry.
If there was a true level playing field all restaurants would have the same menues and same prices and all bars would serve the same beverages.
I can see the buffet table now.........BBQ ribs next falafel next to sushi next fried chicken next to kosher hot dogs next to lasagna next to sushi next to burritos...........etc, etc, etc....
Or walk into a bar and ask the bartender what he has on draft "Sorry, no draft, the guy down the street can't fit the equipment in, so no one is allowed to have draft."
THAT is a "level playing field" if that is what they desire by FORCING all establishments to cater to one set of people - the anti smokers.
I heard Aunt Tilly is 28 years old.
That’s awfull.
I think I was wrong, I think that is Aunt Eustice.........
Since I’m venting, what does get my goat is the submissive, guilty attitude adopted by many habitues - it’s good we get to go outside and shuffle around, surreptitiously indulging, there’s no need to partake inside, etc.
Welcoming the secondclass citizen status foisted upon us. Accepting the ostracization and stigmatization.
Certainly not the attitude shown during Prohibition.
BTTT!
Shouldn't his name be Coors Busch?
I will neither welcome nor accept such status placed upon me.
I have repeatedly told anti-smokers, including many in the forefront of the entire smoker control movement, if anti-smokers are too bloody damned stupid to understand a simple sign such as “smoking permitted” in a private business establishment, they are too damned stupid to even be out in the general public to begin with. And if their health is so frail they can not risk taking a chance of even a wisp of tobacco smoke, they need to be living in bubbles, not the real world.
There was a local KoC type establishment that somehow managed to evade the diktats by only allowing members only into the place.
However, earlier this year, some people complained; and voila!
Didn’t surprise me how fast the place caved in to the complaints, despite the fact that the complainers could have gone to any other commercial establishment that was smokfrei.
Don’t need to tell you, but what a mentality we now have!
I know what you mean - the forelock-tuggers infuriate me.
That is not the subject.
I haven't eaten in an Albuquerque restaurant since the city-wide smoking ban took effect in July of 2005 and I haven't eaten in a New Mexico restaurant since the state-wide ban took effect in June of 2007.
Don't intend to, either.
Amen.
I don't know, but I'm guessing that since they're all Socialist to varying degrees they all allow it at some level. I have no doubt that there are some around here who can tell you precisely what the drug laws are in every country of the world, as it's quite an active and immediate concern to them. When I visit a foreign country, my concern is to stay AWAY from the druggies, not gravitate toward them
:-)
The liberals here want to legalize it too,but they would prefer to outlaw tobacco.We need to outlaw liberals.
Agreed. I keep trying to do that every time I go to vote and every time I make decisions as to what businesses I spend my money with.
If that's what she said, then that's how old she is.
I learned long ago to NEVER argue with or question a lady about her age, and if you are forced into a position of having to guess then NEVER make a guess above half her obvious age. Doing anything else makes one risk being the recipient of her everlasting wrath, which can manifest itself in astonishingly wide-ranging, catastrophically expensive, breathtakingly painful and occasionally lethal ways. I can think of a million better ways to die than what such a scenario would visit upon me.
Let's hope so....I'm guessing that you have to be VERY sneaky to be able to circumvent Socialist judges and prosecutors, and I have my doubts that this magnificent ploy will end up being sneaky enough to skate by in Holland. They have my blessings and goodwill, however, and I wish them every success in their noble endeavor.
What a creative way to get around non-smoking idiocy.
Indeed it is. Hopefully the Dutch Supreme Court will be able to explain the reason why this Church is not acceptable to them but Islam is welcomed with open arms.
I wait with bated breath, but I'm guessing that the bureaucrats will simply say "no, you're not a Church and we'll put you in jail if you don't stop" rather than going into any advanced and far more meaningful philosophical essays.
No, I don’t smoke.
I have encountered lots of people who don't smoke yet loathe the antismoking Nazis. A feeling of revulsion toward Fascism is the sign of a healthy mind, and whether that mind chooses to smoke or not has little bearing on the validity of an antifascist position. :-)
WOW
I hadn't been aware of that, thanks very much for posting.
A great linked site as well, which I've bookmarked.
Full Disclosure: I don't, but I dislike nanny-state government.
Cheers!
That’s why I maintain that we are in a Hitlerian society.
And the corresponding situation that both FDR and Churchill wouldn’t be allowed to indulge in a club, while Herr Shicklgruber could waltz merrily in.
Even Hitler couldn’t implement his desire in this case, but we happily accept it.
“”Ashes to Ashes,
Dust to Dust.
Light up a stogie,
for smoke we MUST!”
I’m so old I remember the original of your posted poem.
Still here,still smokin’,and still scratching my head at the insanity of the anti smoking zealots.
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