This money would have been better spent helping the homeless in NYC! BloomingIdiot is a moron. But he sure loves his stogies!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on 12/26/2002 2:25:46 AM PST by kattracks
Someone told us a story recently about a tourist who revisited New York after many years and was suitably impressed by how much safer the city felt. One thing puzzled him, though. Since there had been a marked decrease in other crimes, why such an increase in prostitution? He couldn't help but notice all those cigarette-puffing women slouched in doorways all over town, and in the middle of the day, too. A New Yorker explained: They were merely smokers forced onto the street by office no-smoking rules.We tell you this anecdote so you can warn your out-of-town friends: Come spring, when Mayor Bloomberg's tough smoking ban goes into effect, there will be a lot more people lurking in doorways.
While there has been much publicity about the prohibition of smoking in bars and restaurants, the city has not gone out of its way to promulgate info on the other places where lighting up will be prohibited. And these are legion.
No more smoking in private offices, even with the door closed, no co-workers present and an air purifier complementing the building's ventilation system. No more employee smoking lounges, either. It's out on the street you go if you want a cigarette break. Also, no more smoking in bowling alleys, bingo parlors, pool halls. (Pool halls!) Or in limos for hire, no matter that you are paying munificently for the vehicle or that the driver himself might have a two-pack-a-day habit. The bill even regulates where ashtrays can be placed.
If you want to play it safe, assume that the only places you can legally smoke are in your own home and your own car. So sweeping is this legislation, lawmakers actually felt the need to specify those two exemptions.
Whether you favor the ban or not, you deserve to be given complete and clear information on the new regulations. A copy of the legislation won't help, unless you're a lawyer and can muddle through such things as: "Subdivisions a, e and g of section 17-508 of the administrative code of the City of New York, subdivisions a and e as amended by local law number 5 for the year 1995, and subdivision g as added by local law number 2 for the year 1998, are amended, subdivision j of such section is relettered as subdivision k. ..." Got a headache yet?
It's up to City Hall to inform everyone, in the clearest language possible, of exactly what the new law entails. If those details are not provided, there's going to be a great deal of confusion - and even more anger - when the ban goes into effect.
Extend jobless benefits
Unemployment benefits for many Americans expire in just two days. Consider it a lump of coal from Washington. Lawmakers, unable to agree on extending the program, went home last month and left hundreds of thousands of jobless in the lurch.
Hopefully, the pain will be short-lived. When the new Congress convenes in January, it must restore the emergency extension. President Bush has urged just that and is asking that the benefits be applied retroactive to Saturday's expiration date.
With unemployment at 6% and so many people hurting, Congress never should have left such business unfinished. The jobless, including some 177,000 in the State of New York, have enough to worry about. And there's no economic recovery in sight.
Besides enacting another extension, Congress must make the eligibility period adequate and realistic. The Senate has passed a solid plan, providing a 13-week extension. The House's proposal has a Feb. 1 cutoff. That's unlikely to help much. The President should encourage House Republicans to compromise on this one.
To Washington's shame, the benefits question wasn't fixed in time to prevent Saturday's cutoff. But better late than never.
Insult to injury
From the wires: LONDON - British television announcer Johnny Vaughan says his pet bulldog crashed his sports car in a bizarre accident. The Sun newspaper said Vaughan's bulldog nudged his $96,000 Maserati into gear and stepped on the accelerator - sending it flying into a van.
And you thought Conan O'Brien's "Triumph the insult comic dog" had a bad sense of humor.
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voicers@edit.nydailynews.com
Please include your full name, address and phone number. The Daily News reserves the right to edit letters. The shorter the letter, the better the chance it will be used.
This money would have been better spent helping the homeless in NYC! BloomingIdiot is a moron. But he sure loves his stogies!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL! Phillip Morris Corporate office is in NYC! The Corporate head is really worried about this! Hey! He will have to smoke out in the alley with the REST of them. hahaha
I'd LOVE to see a picture of THIS. heh!
The funniest thing happened when I was working at a facility where smoking was not allowed even outside on the property, so the smokers just walked outside the propery along the street. Well then the labor union went on strike. So you had the strikers and smokers mingling just off property. They immediatly began allowing smoking outside on property.
Another thing they did was remove an all ashtrays, including one at the entrance where all outside service people entered. They then complained about all the cigarette butts on the ground where they removed the ashtray. Stupid is as stupid does.
I'd LOVE to see this too. The Corporate head is mind boggled over this. Everyone smokes in the PM building! All of them will be out in the alley smoking. And the HEAD BOSS as well! Isn't this a hoot?! LOL
But if PM DOESN'T move out and continues to support BloomingIdiot and New York City, then they get what they deserve!
LOL
Actually there were some Freepers out there who dug up old Nazi propanda from WWII when Hitler used the same tactics in Germany to stop smoking. I couldn't find any of the propanda on the web, but I've got some of the graphics on my local pc because I like to collect interesting jpgs.
This "thing" in NYC is so similar to the Nazi campaign it's disturbing.
So, you're comparing
tens of millions of murders
to "no smoking" laws?
You're saying that what
starts with smoking laws will end
with free Zyklon B?
Maybe you have your
paranoia button turned
up to eleven...
He's jacking up property taxes in order to meet NYC's ridiculously inflated budget, yet he's spending extra money on a new program of his own invention to train new abortionists, so NYC can retain its reputation as the baby-killing capital of the world.
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