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Veterans Fuming Over Smoking Limits At State Veterans' Home [Connecticut]
HartfordCourant ^ | May 29, 2014 | DENISE BUFFA

Posted on 05/29/2014 9:26:50 AM PDT by Daffynition

ROCKY HILL — They didn't surrender their weapons at war, but now some Connecticut veterans are being asked to surrender their cigarettes in peacetime.

Veterans living in the health care center at the state Veterans' Home will soon have to turn in their cigarettes to workers, who will give them back during specific times of the day.

Residents and administrators have been battling over a long-anticipated ban on smoking at Department of Veterans' Affairs properties, including the center, which provides long-term care to veterans with medical conditions. The ban was announced in a letter to VA staff and veterans in 2012. It was to take effect Sunday but has been scaled back.

Under an agreement reached Tuesday, veterans say they will be able to smoke one half hour out of every three hours, starting at 6 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m., in an outdoor gazebo. They say they will have to surrender their cigarettes to workers in between smokes.

(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; US: Connecticut
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This is beyond stupid.
1 posted on 05/29/2014 9:26:50 AM PDT by Daffynition
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To: Daffynition

Give them all e-cigs and watch the bureacrats whine and bitch anyway.


2 posted on 05/29/2014 9:28:12 AM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
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To: TurboZamboni

**Give them all e-cigs and watch the bureacrats whine and bitch anyway.**

Give em all the weapons they had on the front lines...and see who wins.


3 posted on 05/29/2014 9:33:14 AM PDT by Daffynition (I stand with the Bundy Family!)
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To: Daffynition

While having to “surrender” your cigarettes is nonsense, personally they don’t have the right to smoke around the others in the facility. I remember when I used to have to fly across the country in the “no smoking section” which was often one seat row from the “smoking section.” A cross-country flight was like sitting in a bar for six hours. Now, I find it very odd when I ever smell cigarette smoke and that’s a good thing in my estimation. Just a filthy habit that no one has the right to “impose” on anyone else!


4 posted on 05/29/2014 9:34:11 AM PDT by vette6387
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To: Daffynition

This situations isn’t all that different than residents in Section 8 housing being told that they too can’t smoke.

Maybe the veterans earned their rights and benefits, but when you subject yourself to the State, you gotta expect this.


5 posted on 05/29/2014 9:38:32 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: Daffynition
Give em all the weapons they had on the front lines...and see who wins.

Works for me.
6 posted on 05/29/2014 9:44:12 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
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To: Daffynition

Any one willing to die for me to keep my rights, I’ll support their right to smoke... End of story.....


7 posted on 05/29/2014 9:47:41 AM PDT by just me (GOD BLESS AMERICA Amen)
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To: vette6387
personally they don’t have the right to smoke around the others in the facility.

If you read the article, you would realize your assumption is not accurate. Of course, whether or not you read the article is your personal choice. Since you chose not to read the facts, you have received this reply.

8 posted on 05/29/2014 9:51:18 AM PDT by NautiNurse (Obama sends U.S. Marines to pick up his dog & basketballs. Benghazi? Nope.)
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To: Daffynition

Stupid and idiotic, treating Grown people like children.

That said, it still falls under ‘live under my roof, follow my rules’.

I am sure people in the State Prison system have the same kind of rules but more ‘trouble’ enforcing them than not.

And, deep down, we all ‘more or less’ agree with the fact of Section 8 people being told how to ‘live their life’, under the premise ‘WE’ are paying for it and ‘WE’ have to pick up the bill when you get sick.

Now if ‘they’ were smoking pot or ‘white owls’ sure some part of ACLU or Pols would be by their side in fighting the ‘man’.

**Smoking ‘white owls’ comes under the ‘if you know, you know’ category.


9 posted on 05/29/2014 9:52:44 AM PDT by xrmusn ((6/98)"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they speak.".)
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To: just me

Good answer! The fact that it sticks out on a conservative forum shows me how schizophrenic conservatives have become on rights and freedom.


10 posted on 05/29/2014 10:07:36 AM PDT by loboinok (Gun control is hitting what you aim at!)
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To: Daffynition

Agreed. They should have a designated smoking area with excellent ventilation. And let them smoke whenever they want.


11 posted on 05/29/2014 10:20:47 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: vette6387
Jerk your knees back a little and read the article. They smoke in only designated smoking areas where delicate snowflakes need not succumb to anxiety attacks and hysterical exclamation points.

Let's hear from Klaus Guttmann, who retains his manly approach after all these many years.

Klaus Guttmann, a non-smoker, took up his fellow veterans' cause.

"It is a right they earned fighting for our country," Guttmann, an 88-year-old World War II veteran, said. "During the war, on the front lines, I learned that the cigarette was just as important as a ... rifle round. The only way some of them survived the war, survived the front lines in combat, was because they were able to relax with nicotine, and this right should not be taken away from them."

12 posted on 05/29/2014 10:24:11 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: Daffynition

Why can’t people easily see this is what to expect from Obummercare? What looks outrageous now will be normal all too soon.


13 posted on 05/29/2014 10:28:04 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag ("There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: vette6387

What if they are outside?


14 posted on 05/29/2014 10:29:42 AM PDT by autumnraine
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To: vette6387

“Just a filthy habit that no one has the right to “impose” on anyone else!”

One might say the same thing about you exhaled breath.


15 posted on 05/29/2014 10:56:38 AM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: Madame Dufarge

We were issued smokes in out C-Rat’s. That should melt they’re dainty wing’s.


16 posted on 05/29/2014 10:58:13 AM PDT by Dusty Road
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To: Dusty Road
We were issued smokes in out C-Rat’s

Of course, by today's whiny standards, that could be construed as attempted murder.

Hell, being around smokers killed 88 year-old Mr. Guttmann - oh, wait.

17 posted on 05/29/2014 11:11:21 AM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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To: Dusty Road
This "rule" is ridiculous and absurd.

Those veterans have earned the right to reside at the VA facility, never mind at whatever taxpayer expense (unlike the section 8 or whatever subsidized housing residents).

Smoking is legal, and there's just no reason to impose these regulations on veterans who through no fault of their own need to stay at the VA place.

The VA needs to provide smoking rooms and non-smoking rooms JUST like hotels do, and not insult these residents by telling them when they're "allowed" to smoke (a half hour out of every three? and not between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.? Outrageous!)...not to mention, escorting them to an outdoor gazebo (in the winter? in Connecticut? Please!)...

It would be SO simple to make accomodations for the smokers, so simple to just ban smoking in the dining room and common areas, or where oxygen tanks are in use. Why don't they just do THAT?! SHEESH!

/ rant

18 posted on 05/29/2014 11:28:47 AM PDT by 88keys (broken glass GOP; it matters, replace the Dems. 2014!!)
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To: vette6387

i don’t smoke but i would rather smell smoke than that damn perfume.


19 posted on 05/29/2014 11:47:03 AM PDT by old gringo
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To: old gringo

“i don’t smoke but i would rather smell smoke than that damn perfume.”

I agree that some perfumes and men’s colognes for that matter are awful on the nose, but at least ( so far as we know) they don’t attempt to kill us.


20 posted on 05/29/2014 11:56:28 AM PDT by vette6387
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