NEXT: NO CIGS IN YOUR CAR

New York Post ^ | 9/22/03 | KENNETH LOVETT

[Gabz]

I could understand if states decide, that smoking is illegal for drivers, but the other passengers should be allowed to do what they want.

All passengers must be buckled up, not just the driver, and if they're not, the driver gets the citation. A back seat passenger can not drink a beer in the car, and the driver can be ticketed for that as well.

Cut me a break - these "I know what's best for you because I'm the government" feel good laws have gotten WAY WAY out of line.

[Wolfie]

Like Audrey said: it IS about back dooring a segment of people who use a legal product.

I think its safe to say at this point that tobacco is a quasi-legal product. Legal in some instances, illegal in others.

[FreedomPoster]

Heck, I don't smoke, and it makes me want to go out and have a smoke . . . .

[FreedomPoster]

>>Prohibiting smoking in your own home will be next on the agenda......and there IS an agenda, believe me.

Hasn't NY already done that, or tried to do that, for people living in multi-family dwellings (apartments and condos)?

[EternalVigilance]

LOL...I know what you mean. ;-)

[Noachian]

Suppose lawmakers get to the point where they're able to ban smoking in a person's home. What does this do for lawyers?

It gives lawyers a precedent to work with in future cases involving personal libeties.

There are all sorts of things that can be deemed "dangerous for children" around the average home, and if lawyers can get into your home and personal life by using the smoking precedents it'll be used for something else.

Once lawyers get a precedent to work with there's no telling where they'll go with it.

[StriperSniper]

CWII coming soon.

One can only hope.

Is it time? Morally, yes. Absolutely. If you do it, and if there’s a heaven, I hope you get a good seat. But if you pot a bureaucrat figuring it’ll light some fire under the cold, dead butts of a complacent nation … good luck.

[steve50]

They'll never ban smoking. They're more addicted to the tax revenue than any smoker is to nicotine.

They decided there was more money and power to be made running the illegal drug market than in taxing the drugs. I'm sure they can run both sides of tobacco prohibition as easily.

[SheLion]

They decided there was more money and power to be made running the illegal drug market than in taxing the drugs. I'm sure they can run both sides of tobacco prohibition as easily.

heh!

[Scenic Sounds]

LOL. Some things are more fun when they're illegal. ;-)

[SheLion]

LOL. Some things are more fun when they're illegal. ;-)

[Michael81Dus]

But you will agree that comparisons with Hitler always intend more than just saying both are anti-smokers and vegetarians!?

[Michael81Dus]

All passengers must be buckled up, not just the driver, and if they're not, the driver gets the citation. A back seat passenger can not drink a beer in the car, and the driver can be ticketed for that as well.

I´m not sure wether the sentence "land of the free" still applies to some States in America...

Cut me a break - these "I know what's best for you because I'm the government" feel good laws have gotten WAY WAY out of line.

It´s not that the government knows what´s best for you, but the government has an obligation to protect its citizen - even if that means that to take some freedom of the individual. E.g. nobody complains about the need of building stairs next to an elevator for emergencies when there´s a fire.

[Rummyfan]

From Impromptus 15 September 2003:

I will close with my favorite musico-political anecdote, told to me years ago by two people who were there. Janos Starker — the great Hungarian-American cellist — was to perform the Elgar concerto with the South Carolina Philharmonic, in Columbia. The concert hall was "smoke-free," and he was informed that he could not have a cigarette even in his private dressing room. So he said to the orchestra — assembled for rehearsal — "I have lived through fascism, and I have lived through communism. But I cannot abide the petty tyranny into which this country is falling, and neither should you." With that, he left — left rehearsal, and left town. The orchestra was silent for a minute. Then a clarinetist began to play "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."

Stop with these petty tyrannies!

[Gabz]

I´m not sure wether the sentence "land of the free" still applies to some States in America...

I still have a bumper sticker on my car that says "Land of the Free - EXCEPT Delaware," they were made up following the introduction of the smoking ban in Delaware. It looks real cool Next to my Virginia license plate that depicts a tobacco leaf!!!

It´s not that the government knows what´s best for you, but the government has an obligation to protect its citizen - even if that means that to take some freedom of the individual. E.g. nobody complains about the need of building stairs next to an elevator for emergencies when there´s a fire.

Apples and oranges. Mandatory stairwells do not take away any freedom from any individual. Prohibiting smoking in private vehicles does, just as do mandatory seatbelt and helmut laws.

[Publius6961]

Pro-smoking forces fear the ultimate goal of some lawmakers is to ban cigarettes and cigars completely in New York.

I would welcome that as an honest expression from the controllers among us.

But the sponsors of the bills deny such intent.
They always do.
Controllers, who would deny the possibility of accomodation, always rely on time to dim memories, and years later, their replacements to pick up their ugly.
This is exactly the argument made about seat belts.

Does anyone else remember that?
Anyone?

[Publius6961]

The Smokejumpers?

[al_c]

Ridiculous! I'm a non-smoker and while I like being able to go to a restaurant and eat without the effects that cigarette smoke has on me, I think this idea is going too far. People have a right to smoke in their own vehicles. All I ask is that they keep them in their own vehicles instead of throwing them out the window. What the heck to they think the ashtray is for anyway ... loose change?

[FeliciaCat]

Lets see...NY City Public schools are some of the worst in the country, 9/11 and Terrorism is part of every NY's life, taxes are going through the roof and crime is on the rise....BUT CIGARETTE SMOKING IS THE REAL THREAT...RIGHT.

[Publius6961]

Hi She Lion.
Help!

This may be a good place to get the other members of the smoking lounge to help me find an old column by Florence King, where she described the role of cigarettes in our lives, specially among the dying, fighting in a war far from home. It is a classic, and although I "saved it" many years ago, I can't put my finger on it.

I would love to have it again, to remind us all that there are more important things than catering to the neurotics.