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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by greydog:
There are more proven carcinogens in a half-gallon container of 409 cleaning solution than in a carton of cigargettes. I know of no municipality which has outlawed, banned, or in anyway restricted its use.
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true enough - but don't you think that's a bit of an oversimplification? i mean - so far as i know there is no culture of spraying lungfuls of formula 409 all over the people around you.

and we can smoke all we want in our backyard. but bars and clubs and grocery stores and restaurants aren't really your backyard...

i dunno i'm really torn about this. i don't like restrictive government policies any more than anybody else. but on the other hand - i don't think people should be allowed to do harm to other people.

before anybody chimes in -- yes i'm aware that people can choose not to go to clubs and restaurants that allow smoking... and i think that smokers ought to have the ability to go somewhere where they can socialize AND smoke... hell i'm a light smoker myself, and i like having a cigarette with my whiskey as much the next fella.

but people have a point on the other side too. our right to go about in the world unharmed can't really be left to the mercy of the free market... and what happens if you can't really go anywhere without having to wade through someones carcinogenous fumes simply because the current fashion changes again and suddenly everybody has picked up smoking?

frankly i don't have an answer to any of that. but if one of my friends asks me not to smoke around them - or if the guy sitting next to me doesn't want to breathe my smoke -- then i'm probably going to put my cigarette out.

i just don't think i have an iota of a right to breathe smoke in anybody's face... carcinogenous or not. it just seems rude that people should have to suffer the ill effects of my bad habit - merely because we both would like a draft beer.

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kit malone
http://www.kitmalone.com

kit malone
http://www.kitmalone.com