Do you really have that attitude about others? What about mom's smoking pot at home with the kids around? Live & let live? What about people that leave their kids in the car while they run into a store? What about people that slap, but not too hard, their child in the face? I've intervened in all of the above.
For stuff like that I can't 'live & let live'. I feel morally obligated to defend the defenseless. I think it's immoral to watch an irresponsible person carry out destructive actions on innocents, helpless or weaker marks and do nothing about it. Smoking around children is such an act.
I really don't have a complaint against people that smoke in their cars & homes etc. as long as they are not exposing their children. My complaint is with situations like when I'm with a smoker on a cruise and 2 of us couples are at a table, sitting under a no smoking sign & the smoker decides he's gonna smoke, screw the sign, screw me. Gee, what do I do? Grab a chair and beat the nicotine out of him? His addiction is not my problem I don't have to be tolerant. We will travel together no more.
I can remember over the years dozens of other rude situations and inconviences that smokers have generated with me. I don't go into bars & smoking sections expecting there to be no smoking. It's the gauntlet of smoke & smokers I have to run to get in or out of a business I resent. It's the smoker in the passenger seat that trys to light up before asking me if they may smoke in my car I resent. It's the smoker that moves into an area I'm already in and then lights up and refuses a polite request to 'Please don't smoke.' with a "I gotta have a cigarette." comeback that I resent. It's the smoker that (before it was banned by force of law) would light up in our break area and claim it as soley their own I resent. It's the smoker that just insists they can move in on me and mine and service their nicotine craving I resent.
Smoker insensitivity has persuaded me. The force of law is needed here to help nonsmokers reclaim their right to not have to breath cigarrette smoke! Nicotine addicts, on the whole, are not near as polite and considerate as they like to imagine themselves. I think smoking areas should be designated by law and smoking should be banned in most public areas. You see it coming at ya. Blame the rude smokers that a nonsmoking majority has had to 'tolerate' for too long for the anti-smoking backlash.
But did you ever think that maybe YOUR attitude has something to do with smokers being rude to YOU???
Calling people "nictotine addicts" is not exactly a way of making friends or influencing people.
I can think of very few times where I was ever intentionally rude to an anti-smoker. One sticks out in my mind.
I was sitting in my own office, in a privately rented building that sat between the court house and the AG's office. I got lots of folks coming in thinking they had the AG's office.
One morning a woman came in looking for someone next door and started screaming at me about the cigarette in my ashtray and how it was illegal to smoke in a state office building, etc., etc., etc. I tried very calmly to explain it was a private office and the office she was looking for was next door. She refused to let up on me and I ordered her from the premises.
She returned about 15 minutes later with a Police Officer and she insisted he fine me for smoking in a public office building.
The patience of the officer was unreal - she absolutely refused to acknowlege it was not a state building. I finally had enough and asked the officer to remove her from my premises or I would press charges for tresspassing.
He finally convinced her the only citation he could issue would be one on my behalf if she didn't leave and leave me alone.
I guess the moral of this is - smokers should not enter the space of non-smokers and think they are permitted to light up with impunity. But non-smokers and especially anti-smokers should not enter the space of smokers and DEMAND there be no-smoking.
Your mindset is very dangerous to a free society. MY children are not harmed in any way by my smoking IN MY HOME and CAR with them present. Never have been, never will be. So what do you propose? Snatching them away because you perceive a RISK? That's scary and very, very bad precedent.
It's the gauntlet of smoke & smokers I have to run to get in or out of a business I resent.
YOU and your ilk created that situation. It's called unintended consequences of total disregard for the advisability of accommodating everyone but demanding it all your way.
It's the smoker in the passenger seat that trys to light up before asking me if they may smoke in my car I resent.
I cannot even imagine any smoker being dumb enough to ever be around you, much less in your car! Do they not know what you are? Maybe you could wear something like...an armband...maybe with a brown shirt or sumpin, to warn them off.
Smoker insensitivity has persuaded me. The force of law is needed here to help nonsmokers reclaim their right to not have to breath cigarrette smoke!
You know, I'm not sure you're fully aware of where you are...this is FREE Republic. Maybe you'd be happier over at one of those more "progressive" places.
Blame the rude smokers that a nonsmoking majority has had to 'tolerate' for too long for the anti-smoking backlash.
Well, now see? You've just blown whatever credibility you might have had by stating this piece of tripe as if it were true. The "nonsmoking majority" doesn't give a flip if people smoke, and the anti-smokers are not the majority. They're just loud and unpleasant so they seem to be more numerous than they are.
What about mom's smoking pot at home with the kids around?
You give an analogy, but use an illegal substance as a substitute for tobacco smokers. Apples and oranges, my friend. How about substituting, "Had a beer" for "smoking pot"? That frames it a little better, don't you think?
What about people that leave their kids in the car while they run into a store?
Again, not a seamless analogy. Leaving kids in a car can kill in less then an hour. Even the most agitated of the anti's don't claim that secondhand smoke can kill that swiftly or surely. Do you think we are smoking pure cyanide? I would think that that was the definition of, "totally over the top." Once again, not a worthy tactic here on FreeRepublic, where facts do matter.
What about people that slap, but not too hard, their child in the face?
If you think that breathing smoke is the same a a blow to the head, than I'm afraid you have some trouble descerning reality on this planet.
I've intervened in all of the above.
In the first two situations, as you describe them, I would probably agree with your actions. (Did you call the police, or just speak to the people involved?) I would need to know more about the third. (N)ot too hard, means...not too hard, so why would you feel compelled to intervene?
Do you have some expertice in this area?
Do you know the total situation better than the parent?
Or do you just like to throw your weight around?
From the tone of your posts, I would guess the latter.
stick your nose in my business on my property and i will bust it for you.
and you f*****g morons put them out there !
at the point of a gun
Smoking pot, leaving kids in hot cars, physical abuse. What the heck does any of that have to do with adults who choose to smoke a legal commodity?
Smoking around children is such an act.
Most of the women in here who smoke, were born into smoking households, started smoking ourselves, got pregnant, smoked, delivered fine healthy BIG baby's, with NO asthma, nursed and smoked, grew our children up to be find healthy adults with NO asthma. How can you explain this?
I believe our children are a lot more healthier today then the children that are put into plastic bubbles and grow into sickly human beings that can't be exposed to anything the air has to offer. Not exhaust fumes, bar-b-ques, wood fires, and the list goes on and on. I have not one regret about smoking, being around smoking, or giving birth to a beautiful daughter as a smoker.
Smoker insensitivity has persuaded me. The force of law is needed here to help nonsmokers reclaim their right to not have to breath cigarette smoke! Nicotine addicts, on the whole, are not near as polite and considerate as they like to imagine themselves. I think smoking areas should be designated by law and smoking should be banned in most public areas. You see it coming at ya. Blame the rude smokers that a nonsmoking majority has had to 'tolerate' for too long for the anti-smoking backlash.
Your right to not breath cigarette smoke: I believe there are plenty of places today where you can go and not be around people who smoke. The Government has seen to that.
Smokers are NOT nice anymore. Smokers have become outraged and very cranky for the foul treatment we are receiving. Like I said before, if they think it's so deadly, if they think it's a killer, why don't they ban it! Because THEY want our money! That's why!
Once we had smokers and non-smokers. Still to this day, our non-smoking friends could care less. It's the anti-smoker that has entered to cause all of this uproar. Over what?
Like I said: I hate beer. I can't drink beer. Beer stinks. Yet I am forced to kiss a beer drinker and love it. Am I on a soap box trying to ban beer just because I don't like it, can't drink it and it stinks to me? NO!