A secondhand smoking rant - read it if you want - it's your RIGHT not to
The other night I was watching TV and saw this lovely little PSA/commercial/propaganda film about the dangers of secondhand smoke. I have seen it only the one time and I can't find it anywhere online... which makes me sad, cause I'd love to share it with anyone who wants to see it. It's essentially this:
There's an old man. Then a little girl. Followed by an average Joe. While walking through a nondescript location (but quite obviously a bar or nightclub), all the smoking and ashtrays are painfully thrust into the three protagonists's faces. The dreary mood lighting adds to the impending doom and the characters, one by one, begin throwing out all of the statistically insignificant (I'll get to that in a minute) secondhand-smoking-causes "facts". It ends as they line up on screen and cross their arms, judgmentally asking "Don't we deserve clean air?"...
Yes. Yes you do. Get the fuck out of the bar.
The commercial is endorsed by some anti-smoking campaign in Texas, and they're sure to pound their "right" to clean air several times before the end of the add. And I agree. They have the right not to be around smokers. Same as I have a right not to freeze my ass off in a Denny's. I'd look at the waitress and say "could I please get another table away from the vent? I'm cold" not "could you please turn off the AC and make everyone in the restaurant conform to my comfort level? I'm cold"... See the difference?
There's this wonderful little thing called the Constitution that gives everyone the right to do what makes themselves happy, not take away another's rights to make only themselves happy.
I especially feel bad for businesses that suffer because of these stupid smoking laws. Say you're a Denny's (I'm plugging them a lot, aren't I?) and you're a family place. You like the business brought in on Sundays after church and know that, if there were smokers in your booths on a regular basis, your business would drop. That's cool - be smoke free and cater to the people that don't want to be around something they don't like. Smokers can go somewhere else.
Now say you're a bar and there are no church going families anywhere in sight. You should have the right to let people smoke inside instead of driving to a county where such bullshit laws don't exist. Again, if you so choose. It should be your right. Since cigarettes are a legal product, the consumers should be able to smoke in locations as determined by the owners of said locations, not the government.
If you're a non smoker that's bothered by secondhand smoke, stay away from smokers. Problem. Solved.
In no way am I debating whether or not smoking is bad for you (this is purely about citizen rights as guaranteed by our Constitution and the "problems" of secondhand smoke). I don't think anyone has seen one of those retarded "Truth" commercial or the warning on the side of the pack and said "They're NOT good for me?! WTF?" and quit. Nothing about smoking bans have anything to do with smoking or health at all. They have to do with telling a sect of people that their rights are not as important as someone else's. Fuck that.
While looking for the add that started this whole thing, I read a question online and I literally copied and pasted - nothing is added or removed:
"So who has more rights...the rights of people to burn paper and plant material so they can get a fix or the rights of people to breath clean, fresh air? "
Great question, better answer: NEITHER - they have the same rights - read your fucking bill of them - it's publicly available. Do a Google search on secondhand smoke statistics and, after you get through a few pages of "IT'LL FUCKING KILL YOU AND YOUR KIDS AND THE PUPPIES AND KITTENS AND POLAR BEARS AND MAKE BUILDINGS MELT AND CARS BURST INTO FLAMES WHILE SHOOTING ACID ON YOUR STREETS AND RAPING YOUR GRANDMOTHER", you find stuff like this:
http://www.forces.org/articles/files/passive1.htm
http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/second.htm
http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/Editorials/Vol-1/e1-4.htm
I'll happily admit that I'm not educated enough to tell anyone which studies are real and which ones are crocks of shit. I haven't done any research beyond an episode of Penn & Teller and I haven't read anything beyond Google links. I haven't asked any doctors about their PERSONALLY (not data from the WHO studies that are still debated) conducted studies. But that's not even remotely what this rant is about.
Is it annoying to be around people who smoke when you don't smoke? For some, sure. For that some, I suggest you stay away from smokers and/or places they congregate. Ta freaking Da.
Don't take away someone else's right (not god-given, again it's even better; it's Constitutionally guaranteed) to do what they want in their pursuit of happiness. I know I'm biased because I smoke at the moment, but I don't think I'll be a smoker forever and I sure as hell will never be a "reformed" smoker. I smoke at work and when I drink. I have an (at the most) 2 pack a week "habit". I can pick it up and set it down. Pisses a lot of my "real" smoker friends off. But it's my choice. And my right (god I LOVE that word) to do so. I won't smoke where I'm not allowed because fear mongers have taken a lot of places away already and I'm a law abiding (for the most part) citizen. But where I can still smoke, I'm going to. Don't like it? Don't come over to where I'm standing, you cunt.
And with that, I'm happy to end my rant. If I ever find that bullshit piece of propaganda I'll be sure to post it.
On another (but somewhat related) note:
In the near future I'm going to get a gun. They've always intimidated me, but I'm going to a shooting range (I have two friends that are actually crazy excited that I want to go and cannot wait to take me lol) and learning how to handle it and fire it. Then, I'm going to (easily) pass a background check and legally get a little .22 and ammunition. Depending on my level of ball-si-ness, I might even go after a license to carry a concealed weapon, although I'd have no intention of keeping it on me, grabbing it for self defense or even keeping it loaded, no matter how many safeties are on. But I'm getting it. It's also protected by my Constitution, so I'm exercising my right to get it now before that's taken away too.
There's an old man. Then a little girl. Followed by an average Joe. While walking through a nondescript location (but quite obviously a bar or nightclub), all the smoking and ashtrays are painfully thrust into the three protagonists's faces. The dreary mood lighting adds to the impending doom and the characters, one by one, begin throwing out all of the statistically insignificant (I'll get to that in a minute) secondhand-smoking-causes "facts". It ends as they line up on screen and cross their arms, judgmentally asking "Don't we deserve clean air?"...
Yes. Yes you do. Get the fuck out of the bar.
The commercial is endorsed by some anti-smoking campaign in Texas, and they're sure to pound their "right" to clean air several times before the end of the add. And I agree. They have the right not to be around smokers. Same as I have a right not to freeze my ass off in a Denny's. I'd look at the waitress and say "could I please get another table away from the vent? I'm cold" not "could you please turn off the AC and make everyone in the restaurant conform to my comfort level? I'm cold"... See the difference?
There's this wonderful little thing called the Constitution that gives everyone the right to do what makes themselves happy, not take away another's rights to make only themselves happy.
I especially feel bad for businesses that suffer because of these stupid smoking laws. Say you're a Denny's (I'm plugging them a lot, aren't I?) and you're a family place. You like the business brought in on Sundays after church and know that, if there were smokers in your booths on a regular basis, your business would drop. That's cool - be smoke free and cater to the people that don't want to be around something they don't like. Smokers can go somewhere else.
Now say you're a bar and there are no church going families anywhere in sight. You should have the right to let people smoke inside instead of driving to a county where such bullshit laws don't exist. Again, if you so choose. It should be your right. Since cigarettes are a legal product, the consumers should be able to smoke in locations as determined by the owners of said locations, not the government.
If you're a non smoker that's bothered by secondhand smoke, stay away from smokers. Problem. Solved.
In no way am I debating whether or not smoking is bad for you (this is purely about citizen rights as guaranteed by our Constitution and the "problems" of secondhand smoke). I don't think anyone has seen one of those retarded "Truth" commercial or the warning on the side of the pack and said "They're NOT good for me?! WTF?" and quit. Nothing about smoking bans have anything to do with smoking or health at all. They have to do with telling a sect of people that their rights are not as important as someone else's. Fuck that.
While looking for the add that started this whole thing, I read a question online and I literally copied and pasted - nothing is added or removed:
"So who has more rights...the rights of people to burn paper and plant material so they can get a fix or the rights of people to breath clean, fresh air? "
Great question, better answer: NEITHER - they have the same rights - read your fucking bill of them - it's publicly available. Do a Google search on secondhand smoke statistics and, after you get through a few pages of "IT'LL FUCKING KILL YOU AND YOUR KIDS AND THE PUPPIES AND KITTENS AND POLAR BEARS AND MAKE BUILDINGS MELT AND CARS BURST INTO FLAMES WHILE SHOOTING ACID ON YOUR STREETS AND RAPING YOUR GRANDMOTHER", you find stuff like this:
http://www.forces.org/articles/files/passive1.htm
http://www.forces.org/evidence/evid/second.htm
http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/Editorials/Vol-1/e1-4.htm
I'll happily admit that I'm not educated enough to tell anyone which studies are real and which ones are crocks of shit. I haven't done any research beyond an episode of Penn & Teller and I haven't read anything beyond Google links. I haven't asked any doctors about their PERSONALLY (not data from the WHO studies that are still debated) conducted studies. But that's not even remotely what this rant is about.
Is it annoying to be around people who smoke when you don't smoke? For some, sure. For that some, I suggest you stay away from smokers and/or places they congregate. Ta freaking Da.
Don't take away someone else's right (not god-given, again it's even better; it's Constitutionally guaranteed) to do what they want in their pursuit of happiness. I know I'm biased because I smoke at the moment, but I don't think I'll be a smoker forever and I sure as hell will never be a "reformed" smoker. I smoke at work and when I drink. I have an (at the most) 2 pack a week "habit". I can pick it up and set it down. Pisses a lot of my "real" smoker friends off. But it's my choice. And my right (god I LOVE that word) to do so. I won't smoke where I'm not allowed because fear mongers have taken a lot of places away already and I'm a law abiding (for the most part) citizen. But where I can still smoke, I'm going to. Don't like it? Don't come over to where I'm standing, you cunt.
And with that, I'm happy to end my rant. If I ever find that bullshit piece of propaganda I'll be sure to post it.
On another (but somewhat related) note:
In the near future I'm going to get a gun. They've always intimidated me, but I'm going to a shooting range (I have two friends that are actually crazy excited that I want to go and cannot wait to take me lol) and learning how to handle it and fire it. Then, I'm going to (easily) pass a background check and legally get a little .22 and ammunition. Depending on my level of ball-si-ness, I might even go after a license to carry a concealed weapon, although I'd have no intention of keeping it on me, grabbing it for self defense or even keeping it loaded, no matter how many safeties are on. But I'm getting it. It's also protected by my Constitution, so I'm exercising my right to get it now before that's taken away too.