Yeah, but I don't live anyplace else so the rest of NY really dosen't exist for me...



THE
SMALL WORLD
AARDVARK

[quote="AArdvark"]Welcome to Monroe county, New York...[/quote]
Not just Monroe County - but the entire State of NY has an indoor smoking ban in public places law now.

Welcome to Monroe county, New York...


You smoke here, we keel you.

I don't smoke. I never cared that people around me did. We keep ashtrays in the house for our smoking friends (and urns for our jewish ones) I always hear about loss of freedom for these poor people that have to go outside to have a butt. It actually helped guys at work to cut down. Some of them were going through two packs a day, in 10 hours.


THE
COFF COFF
COFFIN
AARDVARK

They're now debating a state-wide smoking ban in Colorado. Now, I in general support smoking bans, because if I really need to have one, I can go the fuck outside. And I only ever have them when I have an alcoholic beverage in my hand, anyway, so who cares. But here's the reason they're giving for this ban: It'll help the businesses that have suffered in the cities that have already passed the ban and it'll LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD between businesses that allow it and don't. Really? You mean, if one business is more successful than another because it has something the people want more, this is bad? What next? Firefox has to stop making cheap, easy browsers so that the playing field will be levelled and we'll start using IE again? The best brand of candy bar has to remove one ingredient at a time until they sell exactly as much as all the others? Who the hell thought that was a good idea? How many smokers really drive to a bar or restaurant like 4 towns away just so they can have one, and, if they do, won't the state get more money by tagging more DUI's? Stupid.

I have the quirk of inhaling second hand smoke.

I really don't give a shit about if you smoke or not.
I just want a big ol' cyberpunk fascist goverment so the world can end already and I can cut the sleeve off my coat and get to my fucking destiny.

I smoke. I'm a polite smoker. I have no complaints smoking outside of my workplace. I don't light up cigarettes outside when I'm next to other non smokers. But if a non smoker walks up to me and wants me to put it out they can kiss my ass. If you want to go to a bar and don't want smoke, go to a non smoking bar, if they have them in Rochester, I'm sure they have them elsewhere.
The problem with the whole debate is that no one takes into account that there are people like myself who smoke, but are considerate of others while doing so. Talking about locking smokers up in a fucking concentration camp is fucked up.
Part of smoking that non smokers will never understand is that it's not just the addiction, there is an entire social behavior associated with it. That's whats prevented me from quitting every time I've tried. Smokers talk, I wouldn't know a damned thing about what was going at work if I didn't smoke.
When I took a trip by train a few years ago no one was friendly or social in the regular cars or snack car, a band broke out in the smoking car, literally. All different people from all different places got together and jammed. It's perfect for escaping situations like boquet tosses at weddings, or starting coversations when you're bored.
I smoke I'm not evil incarnate. I'm an addict to something which doesn't alter my state, I'm not a fucking crack head. If your a non smoker and I'm not smoking around you, leave me alone. And if you go to a regular bar, EXPECT IT.
Jesus Christ, people bitch up and down about smoking, and yes, second had smoke is dangerous, but a drunk on the road is just as bad and they're not banning alcohol. It's the same thing with smoking as it is with anything else, responsible use.

-LG

[quote="Roody_Yogurt"]There's a gay bar in Chicago called 'the Man Hole'. [/quote]

A few years back, some friends and I were in Chicago for the 4th, and looking for this legendary all-night blues bar (the name of which I've since forgotten). On the way there, we passed by The Man Hole ... which was advertising "Dirty Underwear Night".

I've never really been the same.

Greg

[quote="Coloradoan"]Those against the ordinance often spoke with the highest volume comparing the ordinance to Nazi and Middle Eastern regimes because of the way it would limit the freedom of smokers.

"We're becoming a nation of laws," Clint Blauer said. "You're trying to legislate freedom of choice out of existence."[/quote]
I really like Clint. I personally believe people really take this freedom thing to far. If you smoke around someone who doesn't want to be smoked around and they can effectively tell you to fuck right off on your merry way. In a bar that is understanable ... there should be no no-smoking area ... there should be smoking areas. It's square to not die you'd probably get your ass kicked for asking to no matter how cordially. By this totally dictionary definiton of freedom people cling to when it serves their purpose by smoking around someone you are violating their freedom to live how they wish! People need to stop ranking Cigarrettes with fucking sprite ... it is posion and people should smoke responsibly or expect big brother to control your output of posion.

If I sprayed Raid around the street I would be prosecuted. Bars? Fine. People simply should have the right to if sitting on a park bench not having to move themselves if someone decides to smoke next to them. I mean it's all cool that smoking is popular culture but it is still fucking posion and doesn't matter if billions of great and fun people do it ... they simply should be under the dictation of the person who asks them to walk away I think.

I hack up my lungs regularly and wouldn't be suprised if I ended up with cancer due to second hand smoke from my dad and other people.

Now, I've cooked up this image of smokers being run off the streets and packed in these little wire fence cages in filthy alleys smoking away as the people on the bright ivory main street scoff as they all walk around cloned and shit. I dig that image ... it's not right ... but I dig it. Bars, Homes, Outside a Pool Hall, but not in a park, near a school, I really think that preventing people from gathering to smoke within 20 feet of smoke-free buildings is real nice. I hope to see this in PA soon. I just believe when we accept freedom for what it really is and lose all these disillusions about goverments role in our lives everthing is going to be much better.

There's a gay bar in Chicago called 'the Man Hole'. In fact, the whole street there has a lot of, um, interesting shops... one of them being a pretty cool record store.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey"]That's a setup line for Monkey Monkey if I ever saw one. [/quote]

At least I don't go to MONKEY BARS.

Bruce

That's a setup line for Monkey Monkey if I ever saw one.


P.S. I am not, nor have I ever been, Monkey Monkey.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey"]I will put a cigarette in my mouth in like 5 out of 100 trips because there's fuck-all to do with your hands at a bar.[/quote]

Clearly you go to the wrong sorts of bars.

Bruce

Absolutely. I think the world would be better if there were more people like you and me in it, Roody.

I don't smoke. I will likely never smoke. (OK, when I am at a bar, I will put a cigarette in my mouth in like 5 out of 100 trips because there's fuck-all to do with your hands at a bar and all my friends smoke: but I, much like Clinton, never inhale -- in my case, because Coughin' Ain't Cool.) But I honestly couldn't care less who does choose to do so. It simply doesn't matter to me, because I am wholly unaffected.

Why is this trait so mind-boggingly [b]absent[/b] from people? The understanding that most people simply desire to be [b]left alone?[/b] Nobody should care if someone smokes or doesn't smoke. Nobody should care if someone figured out who the big invisible guy in the sky [i]really[/i] is, or isn't. And everyone should know, if they (wow!) managed to work out for themselves the Right, Official, Correct answer, that NOBODY CARES THAT YOU DID.


...


... Well, we pretty much solved what's wrong with planet Earth. Any other topics we ought to tackle? How about that Big Red Spot on Jupiter, eh? What an eyesore! Someone ought to go by and clean it up so I don't have to look at it!

As a smoker trying to quit (I went 39 DAYS up until a couple weeks ago when I got depressed to hell and long term goals didn't seem to matter any more... but today I'm back on the nicorette whore so we'll see how far I go), I can understand why so many people can be so against smoking in public places, but of course, I'd hope for a little more empathy, overall. People, in general, love finding ways to de-humanize eachother and once they actually feel they have Right on their side, things can get worse (I'm sure a fair amount of non-smokers think dude on the street smoking 30 feet away is trying to kill them).

But yeah, the major cigarette companies are all kind of evil and all that. Of course, I think it's funny that the French who are so loudly against American corporations and commercialism smoke mostly American cigarette brands (or so I've heard from friends).

In any case, yeah, when it comes to bars, the issue gets pretty ridiculous.

Noooo!!! Sunlight turns us TO STONE! Outside, sunlight, bad, bad, BAD! You no turn stone Ben! Eat sundae instead! Sundaes are what we eat when hiding in caves from orcs and minotaurs. No cure for stone. Not even mounds of delicious sundaes!!

It's 80 degrees here in January, so it's not that much of an issue. I was thinking of taking up smoking as a regular thing so I could have an excuse to go outside.

Smoke really never bothered me when it was allowed in restaurant and airplanes, It wont bother me now. I feel sorry for those sad sacks that have to go outside in January to light up tho. Gotta suck.


THE
COSY WARM
AARDVARK

I think you should be able to smoke in bars. And I rarely, if ever, smoke. But a little second-hand smoke I think adds some atmosphere (figuratively and literally) to a tavern, and I don't mind it a bit.

I like the rule in restaurants and other public facilities.

But this is California, man. If you want to smoke, move to Nevada. It's mandatory there, or something. You know that joke: "Nevada: California's smoking section".

He is probably trying to shoot adrenaline into his liver so he can get it to the point where he can post without shooting pain.

[quote="bruce"]Here's my point about California: [/quote]

I'm wondering what our resident Californian has to say on this subject.