Obligatory Denis Leary quote follows:
That is all. 
let me get this straight. You currently go to bars/restaurants where they allow smoking, but moan about your right to clean air?
If you don’t customise them now, what fucking right do you have to victimize those who like to smoke in these bars where it is currently legal to smoke?
No one is forcing you to eat or drink there. You choose to. and by making that choice you give up any higher ground.
If they have no right to smoke, what right do you have to clean air? if you are worried about the toxins in the air you breathe, I would start with the exhausts from Cars, rather than second hand smoke.
I’m an ex-smoker. But I won’t begrudge people the priviledge of their own destruction. It’s their choice to make.
You know, I feel very strongly that there should be properly ventilated smoking and non-smoking sections in pubs and restaurants, with a distinct physical barrier between them. And also that it’s the right of the owner/manager to make the entire place non-smoking, too, if they want.
We’re not talking about public institutions, or hospitals, we’re talking about consumer entertainment here.
So if you want your local to go non-smoking, vote with your feet. Or with a consumer boycott, or by letters to the manager. But not with intrusive laws that fuck up the right of the owner/manager and patrons who want to retain smoking.
C’mon Jjimm, even if there was a properly ventilated segregated non-smoking section in a bar, how are you going to deal with the fact that some of your friends are smokers - shout to them over the barricade, whine above the air conditioning or have a conversation by text messages.
I have it on good authority that some good friends and fellow board members of yours would rather go without drink for a night! than to sit in a clean fresh-smelling non-smoking bar.
The problem is that there are both smokers and non-smokers in most groups and as long as one person wants to smoke, the others will end up in the smoking section (unless Mrs Pergau is one of them). I don’t know what the fair answer is. It doesn’t seem fair to ban smoking in pubs completely but it’s the only way to ensure that people can drink in a smoke free environment.
The only thing that I’m sure of is that all pubs should be made to have , and use, proper air conditioning. That, at least, would make it easier to sit in a smoking pub.
Change your friends? 
Seriously, though, you could insist on sitting in the non-smoking section. Your addicted friends would then have to bugger off into the smoking section to have a fix.
OK Jjimm, you’re on. I propose a test of your theory.
Let’s pick two board members at random say Yojimbo and Micilin and ask them to sit in a pub for a whole night but they have to go outside for a smoke (that’s because I can’t find a non-smoking pub in Dublin). Heck, I’ll even guarantee that Mrs Pergau doesn’t turn up.
I bet that, at best, they will go out for one smoke. You will notice that the second time they go for a smoke will coincide with them finishing their drinks. They’ll put on their coats and leave and ten minutes later they’ll text you to say that they’re in a another pub, with a cigarette, and that you can join them if you wish.
What do you think?
I don’t smoke cigarettes at all, (never have-never will) can’t stand the smoke, grew up with both parents puffing 4-5 packs a day.
I do however enjoy a good cigar once in awhile w/ a shot of Cuervo Gold. Sometimes I like to get out of the house, sit at the bar and bullshit w/ friends. If I can’t have a smoke w/ my shots…then I won’t go! There are a few places here that have banned smoking, so I don’t go there.
There is an attempt being made now that makes it illegal to smoke in your car. The argument being: you’re on the public street so, etc. You know what? FUCK THAT!!!
It’s already illegal to smoke in a cab…now in a bar…next in your car…no sir, I do not like this cigarette scam.
If the gov/people want to get rid of cigarettes so much, then be fucking honest and SAY IT STRAIGHT…the use of tobacco in the U.S. is now against the law, it is illegal period!!
Quit fucking around, acting like you give a shit, just do it…PROHIBITION that’s what y’all really want, fuckin A…let’s see how that works.
So, you can’t smoke in a cab on your way home from the bar…hmm, I guess I’ll just have to fuckin drive from now on. I don’t want to hear any bullshit about a designated driver either. Fuck it, let’s make alcohol illegal too…that’ll solve all our problems. No tobacco, no booze…shit we can all sit around holding hands singing, “We are the World”
and y’all thought this was the “land of the free…” hah!
one local city’s ordinance make it illegal to drink in YOUR OWN FRONT YARD I do imagine this will soon include smoking as well.
Yes, I agree. But this is what would happen if the pubs were non-smoking, too.
What’s worse, I just found out that in addition to the smoky air, these bars are serving their patrons known toxins that cause liver damage and lead to increased number of acts of violence. Won’t the government step in and save us from ourselves?!?!?!
I’m a non-smoker, and can understand the ban in hospitals, airplanes, municipal buildings, etc… but thought that for restaurants having a non-smoking section worked fairly well and that bars should be able to decide if they want to allow smoking or not. And if I knew a restaurant was spraying “carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, benzene, oxides of nitrogen…” I’d have the common sense not to eat there.
And for the record, I think more restaurants should have kitten on the menu.
The New York Law, which will go into effect in a couple months, is real bad. The reason why is simple: nobody much wanted it except the Mayor. There certainly was no popular movement of bar patrons or bar workers in support of the law. If anything, most people seem to be against it, and if you consider the fact that most of the people who are strongly in favor of the law are people who never enter a bar, it becomes clear that the law is just plain stupid.
Then there’s the fact that New York is in the midst of a serious bedget crisis and the Mayor had to give in to the demands he wouldn’t other wise have given into in order to get city council members to support his pet cause. Plus, you gotta consider what a mess its going to be to try to enforce the law and the costs involved in enforcement.
Its just dumb. Nobody was asking for this law. Why the crusade? Mayor Mike is really insane when it comes to this issue. Now he’s going nuts because the URL=http://www.drudgereport.com/stones.htm]aged rotting corpse of a band once known as the Rolling Stones smoked on stage the other night.
By the way, I’m an ex smoker who occassionaly falls off the wagon in especially stressful moments. That’s got nothing to do with anything, though. The law should have been up for some kind of public referendum. It shouldn’t have been forced down everyone’s throats (no pun intended) like this.[
I may have put more faith in the cite had it not been put out by a smoker’s rights organization.
The fact that smoke makes my eyes water, my skin itch, my eyes puff up, and makes breathing very difficult notwithstanding, we all know that more than just tobacco goes into cigarettes. If people smoked cigarettes with tobacco only in them, others would develop allergies. Some of us are simply wired more sensitive to our environments than others. Plus, I can’t stand smelling like a dirty ashtray.
I think, Gingy, that it’s more of an irritant than an allergan (I had a previous link in this thread to an allergy site). Of course I’m not doubting that it irritates you, or other folks.
I get the analogy about the peanut mist and the rats. I just think that if something is legal I don’t see how it can be “banned” everywhere.
p.s. remind me to never move where t-keela lives !!!
Embrace the future, people!
Someone needs to start a chain of cigarette lounges (with liquor license, natch). Call it “C’garBucks” or something original like that :p…
Or Smokies, or even “Monica’s”
I no longer smoke, therefore I don’t care.
Tobacco fumes have not yet clearly been shown to cause an IgE mediated inflammatory reaction, therefore some groups (like the tobacco lobby) loudly proclaim that people are not “allergic” to tobacco. They ignore the histamine and leukotriene-mediated response tobacco causes, which can quickly precipitate inflammation and life-threatening bronchospasm in susceptible individuals (about 1 in 240 people).
QtM, MD
BZZZT! Sorry, wrong. It is illegal to smoke in public places here in California, and I LOVE it. And in case you missed the rest of this thread, it is the SMOKERS who are doing all the whining. They are crying because other states now want to emulate California’s shining example. The tables have turned, and you just can’t stand it, can you? Oh, but I’m sure it’s different when the smokers are doing the whining, right?:rolleyes:
The smokers are the ones claiming they are on moral high-ground. Have you even GLANCED at this thread?
I think you missed the point. The point is that it’s NOT ABOUT “rights”. You don’t have a right to smoke in public, O.K? So if a state passes a law saying you can’t smoke in public, you need to just suck it up and stop being a baby. Take those 10 steps to the door, go outside, light up your disgusting death-stick out on the sidewalk and quitcherbitchin.
Uh, hello? They’ve already done that. Do you have any idea how much the standards for auto emissions have decreased in the last 50 years? Clue: It’s a lot. Besides, your argument is basically “as long as there are any other problems in the world, we shouldn’t have to do anything about THIS problem”. That makes no sense.
Absolutely. As long as I don’t have to breathe any of your smoke, knock yourself out.
According to this NY Times article, there seems to be at least some restaurant/bar owners are in support of not only a ban on smoking in eateries but in public places altogether:
Cite? Do you actually have some statistics that show the majority of people are against it?
With all the “ex”-smokers in this thread, I’m wondering if any actual smokers exist.