Senate Dems urge HHS to give FDA authority to regulate e-cigarettes

I remember watching a guy at a game table in Vegas smoking a cigar... with such satisfaction, I think he was enjoying it far more than the game itself. And I thought, that guy probably drove 500 miles just to be able to smoke that cigar without being hectored about it.

I noticed though that people moved to Vegas and started trying to vote in the same kinds of laws that drove them out of the places they moved to get away from.

Its my view that people will gladly give up their freedom in exchange for the right to mind their neighbor’s business.

Before I started using an e-cig., my husband had cancer and I had him in FIVE different hospitals before that was over. One was a rehabilitation hospital. The woman who was sort of the head of it all, was talking to husband and he asked if he could smoke. The woman went nuts, said absolutely not - if a patient smoked a cigarette, he/she would be expelled from the hospital.

Well, the professional people there were impressed by my credentials and treated me as one of them. One day I asked where I could go to smoke. One took me to an outside area enclosed with a concrete wall around it - no one from the outside could see in there. There were the professional employees SMOKING. When I wanted a cig., I would go there.

From then on, in other hospitals, I would get to know at least one of the employees and ask where I could smoke. THERE WAS ALWAYS A PLACE FOR THEM TO SMOKE and they let me go there.

Rules are for patients but many of the employees smoke and have a hidden area to do that in every hospital I was in.

One hospital nurse went with me and showed me an area where cars park under a covered concrete area and there was a blind spot where no one could see you unless they went to this nook and there was no reason for anyone to go to that spot. I went there to smoke.

RULES ARE FOR OTHER PEOPLE, not the hospital staff. That really ticked me off.

This past Sunday I had to go to the ER (long story) to have x-rays taken of my hand that I had crushed. It was basically swollen and I didn't think anything was broken, but wanted to just be sure.

Anyways a couple notable things... The Nurse wanted me to get a Tetanus booster shot, and I pointed out that I did not have a puncture wound, and really didn't need it. It was like they get a kickback for every frivolous thing... Oh, RIGHT! THEY DO! (people just don't care because INSURANCE will pay for it!). She harassed me a couple times about the Tetanus shot and "threatened" me that I would have to sign a "refusal" form... so I was quick to just say "OK!"... Well, I was sitting there for 2 hours, got my x-rays, saw the Doctor, and eventually the Nurse returned... and it was almost like she wanted to "get even" with me for not just rolling along with the booster shot BS... and of course the 2 shots the Doctor prescribed, NEEDED to go in my ass and not my arm.

It's a command and control thing... it's why I consider 85% of healthcare careworkers to be subclinical sociopaths.

Well after all this ordeal, I really was ready to go or minimally just step outside and huff down a Lucky Strike... Darling Nurse made sure to point out that "Smoking on all hospital property is illegal!".

I was like "whatever"... got discharged eventually and went outside and lit up next to the "smoker's stand".

It's a sad state of affairs that the broader public is all in lockstep with the anti-smoking campaign. I will resist.

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