Governor Timothy M. Kaine and key leaders in the General Assembly today announced a landmark agreement to pass a statewide smoking ban in Virginia’s bars and restaurants. The legislation will ban smoking in nearly all restaurants across the Commonwealth, allowing narrow exceptions for private clubs and restaurants with a designated smoking room that is physically separated and independently ventilated from non-smoking dining areas.
“The dangers of second-hand smoke are undeniable – that’s why I made a restaurant smoking ban one of my legislative priorities. This legislation will make Virginia’s restaurants safer for both patrons and employees,” Governor Kaine said. “I’m proud to have been able to work with leaders in both parties of the General Assembly to find common ground on this reasonable and necessary public health measure.”
Today’s announcement comes after Governor Kaine worked closely with legislative leaders to craft an agreement acceptable to both parties and both houses.
Virginia House Speaker William Howell also noted the agreement as a step forward for Virginians: “I am pleased to join in announcing a reasonable compromise on an issue important to Virginians,” said Speaker Howell. “The compromise strikes a fair balance between the rights of smokers who choose to enjoy a legal product and the rights of other individuals who want to enjoy a smoke-free environment when eating at a restaurant. This legislation is all about finding opportunities for cooperation and compromise where possible. And, where state leaders can find and share such common ground, we should.”
Second-hand smoke is responsible for an estimated 1,700 deaths per year, according to the Virginia Department of Health. In addition, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids estimates the Commonwealth spends $113 million a year on health care expenditures related to exposure to second-hand smoke.
To improve the health of Virginia’s employees and minimize health risks in the work place, Governor Kaine signed Executive Order 41 banning smoking in all state buildings and vehicles in October 2006.
The agreement makes Virginia part of a growing list of states around the country that are passing legislation curbing smoking in restaurants. Twenty-three other states and Puerto Rico have already passed bans on smoking indoors at bars and restaurants. Maryland and the District of Columbia passed similar restrictions on smoking in restaurants in 2007 and 2006, respectively.
Video announcement after the break…
[source]
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Tagged as: Bars, cigarette, order, Restaurants, smoking, smoking ban, statewide, Virginia
why don’t you put that in a pipe and smoke it? BOOYAH. a perfect breakfast at blue moon diner awaits me….
DAMMIT! Are there no freedoms left?
here is the bill if anyone wants to follow it: http://richmondsunlight.com/bill/2009/sb1105/
Don’t they realize this may hurt businesses? Because restaurants are doing soooo well right now as it is.
Gloat on, oh ye self righteous.
Somewhere Kevin Cox is doing a victory dance right now. Probably in a crosswalk.
this is fabulous
@4 it doesn’t hurt businesses. see, e.g., NY, FL, CA.
I don’t feel like reading or watching the video, so does anyone know when it goes into effect?
It means smokers will pop in and out of the bar/restaurant all fucking evening to furtively puff street-side, returning to their friends and demanding to know what has been said in their absence. This leads to disjointed conversations, immense anger and a condition called ‘Smokers Face’ which is where you ask for the 50th time ” What were you saying?” and get a fucking great biff in the pie-hole from one of your drunky mates who is sick and tired of reprising every spoken word you missed.
Been through this in Ireland. It’s not pretty.
@7: It only takes a second on the googlez to find evidence disputing that.
VA is late to the party on this issue…everyone will be fine. People can still drink in restaurants and that will hold on to whatever biz is there to be had.
Give me liberty or give me freedom!
hope this passes!
Sic Semper Tyrannis, indeed.
Between that and “Virginia is for Lovers”, I do believe I may drown in the irony.
anyone want to photochop sic semper dude on top of a fag?
@11: VA is a tobacco state. It’s a little different.
PS Drinking and smoking goes hand in hand. I know people who only smoke when they drink.
@15: THOR HATES GAY PEOPLE
@16 then you’re fine. you as a bartendress would only have a problem with people who only drink when they smoke.
it’s just kinky, that’s all
Fuck America.
@18: True dat.
Bullshit, and sorely disappointing bullshit at that. Clicky my name, too much to copy-paste.
Guess what people, if this pass, it will only make all the smokers go outside of the bar or restaurant and smooze together. You can finally practice your best pick up line for outside smokers.
@22 i just got through the first paragraph of that, & it’s wrong about applebee’s. the nonsmoking section reeks of smoke. because it’s next to the smoking section. duh.
/went there once, bc friend wanted to go there for his bday. never again.
does this mean that we’ll have to settle our bar tab every time
we go out for five minutes to smoke in an alley adjacent to the bar
before coming back inside to drink more?
i’m too sick to read the above tripe. can we still smoke on Miller’s/X-Lounge patios?
Just another case of the government governing where it shouldn’t.
This article is misleading.. It is still in committee. It has not passed through House General Laws yet: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+com+H11.
For those in favor of not living in more of a nanny/police state than we already do, this is who you write/call to express that. The holier than thou types notwithstanding who don’t understand the larger implications and dangerous precedents.
Thus always to tyrants indeed. Sonofabitch. More reasons to flee this f$*ing country.
Will Miller’s even survive this? It was one of the last havens in town for people who liked to just have a beer and a cigarette.
i still don’t understand why banning something that directly hurts others is infringing on your personal rights.
Miller’s has 3 levels. The legislation proposed states:
The legislation will ban smoking in nearly all restaurants across the Commonwealth, allowing narrow exceptions for private clubs and restaurants with a designated smoking room that is physically separated and independently ventilated from non-smoking dining areas.
I’m sure they’ll find a way.
@29: Because being in a bar is being soooooo healthy to begin with.
Don’t get your smoke in my lungs! While I’m sitting here killing my liver with booze…
what’s next?! eliminating plastic bags at the grocery store?! BUT WHAT ABOUT MY RIGHTS.
Awesome!
killing your liver doesn’t affect the quality of life of the person sitting next to you, or across the restaurant/bar for that matter.
You stop inundating my air with your exhaust while you’re driving your cars, and I’ll stop smoking where you eat.
Ok?
hey shenanigans,
Folks that work in bars and restaurants often say that people not being able to smoke will hurt their business. Where is the research stated and where can I read about that proves that argument? I will spend hundreds of dollars a year now at the C&O and at Blue Moon now that I can go there and not smell like an ashtray. Why would a regular that used to go to those places not go there anymore? The logic escapes me.
I’ve only been reading this blog for a short period of time, but that’s the smartest comment I’ve read so far. Suck it up and go smoke outside.
sorry that comment was directed at Thor #29
Gasoline fumes are bad for you, too. You know why they don’t kill you? Because you choose to limit your exposure to them. People who don’t like smoke should patronize venues that don’t allow it. I don’t see why government needs to be wasting its time on this. Talk about a case where markets can resolve things themselves.
But if they make me go outside to smoke, maybe I’ll break the law in other ways…
by the way, I don’t even smoke in my own house, so, no biggie…
Welcome back, Cripsy!!
@41
you’ve smoked in MY house.
You can’t smoke in malls, movie theaters, bookstores, boutiques, coffeeshops, etc. All of these are enclosed, shared public spaces. Why should it be any different in a restaurant? I don’t understand why they didn’t get rid of smoking in restaurants when they did away with it in the workplace. You can still partake in your filthy habit in your house and outside. People around smokers in restaurants shouldn’t have to have the same deathwish.
otterdung,
I couldn’t help myself, they just taste better at your house…
I dont get it. Just wait until you get home and smoke then. No big deal. Or quit and save some cash. And of course you also get to stop smelling worse than my underwear after a late night of spicy indian food.
@24: really? forgive me for assuming, but are you just sensitive to these kinds of things? it’s never been an issue for me, and i haven’t smoked regularly in years.
@43: this really is the crux of my argument. You can’t smoke in any of these places because each business chose to ban it themselves. Which is great, and often why I’ll go there to begin with. So long as there’s a part of the population that likes to smoke socially, I can’t support a ban on it while so many business are doing it without the need for government intervention. We’re already starting to see a divide in businesses that will allow it and won’t, why not let that play out by itself in a way that makes everyone happy?
can we tag this thread “the Free Markets of Decisive Money vs. the Liver Calling the Lungs Black”
and file it with all its brothers and sisters in the DNR-chive?
no? mk.
You know, we could just kill off half the world’s population therefore decreasing the chance that you might encounter second-hand smoke. Less people, less smoking. Problem solved!
/While I know that second-hand smoke has a role in causing cancer, what about an individual’s predisposition to acquiring cancer?
//Still think that the government has absolutely no right in this. That’s the real issue.
I’m not defending smokers’ rights, but rather private business owners’ rights to allow smoking on their private property.
How many restaurants that are new to this town have opened up as a smoking jacket. David Niven nothwithstanding I can’t think of a one. I don’t know what kind of establishments you all roll w/ that you end up smelling like an ashtray, except stop hanging out at bars till 2am w/ the UVA skanks. It’s puritanical feel good legislation while your left and right pockets are getting ripped by “change” charlatans and their ilk. Pickpockets like a Dickension feast of porridge and sheep. But, let’s keep talking about the maligned restaurant workers subject to “second hand smoke” when 95 fucking percent of them are hardcore smokers and jonesed up hipsters who don’t want any part of the stupid system that the rest of you tea drinking, 2.5 children, 1 cat, no diverging from the “way” and the “truth” scary Jesus Camp type of conformity thinkers want to believe in. You keep doing that. I’ll be with the free thinkers….over here. No here.
This whole debate isn’t about smoking…get it. Good.
@50 i take issue with your equating antismoking with jesuscamping. that is the fucking scariest movie i have ever seen.
and with cat owners. cats are almost as bad as christians.
Meh… I’ll cry about it for a bit, get the fuck over it, and go outside. Or… *gasp*… I’ll quit smoking!
This sucks only for those of us who are so chained to that 4″ of sweet death that they can’t eat, drink, or otherwise function without cigarettes. I, for one, despite being a 1/2 a pack a day smoker, am not all that torn up.
me likey Taliesen
@50 Hey! Cats are cool beasties.
I’ve never had a Christian lick my eyes open for me when its time to get up or delicately knead my throat to the point that I cant breathe, or gently drag their whiskers across my nose while I slept causing a massive seizure like overreaction to the tickles.
Really, lets refrain from maligning my feline friends.
Taliesin! I missed you. Tell these bitches how it iz.
This is all stupid. This sucks because its the government telling us how to live our lives, ok? Smokers should be able to go out and drink and smoke just like you should be able to go out and drink and not breathe smoke. Leave it up to the bar/restaurant to decide whether they’re gonna be Smoking or NonSmoking.
If smoke bothers you soooo much, go somewhere else FFS.
Life was so much more interesting when smoky cafés and jazz bars prevailed.
I could only watch 15 minutes of Jesus Camp. Fundamentalist Christians terrify me.
Jesus Camp was soooo awesome! I bought two copies, one of which I loan out to the uninitiated. The kids praying to the cardboard cutout of G W Bush? Gold. But the highlight of the whole film has to be Ted Haggard waxing on the immorality of homosexuality, knowing full well that probably within an hour he will be snorting rails of meth off of a cabana boy’s ass. Keep on praying the gay away there Ted, how’s that working out for ya?
Local trivia: A notable cville industry person’s grandfather founded the first “Jesus Camp” (the one featured in the film). Not sure if they would be at peace with me revealing, so I’ll just leave that lay there.
oh we have to find that one out.
@59 Bad Thor- Sins of the Grandfather must be visited on the grandchild? That seems wrong and very un cvillain. Going after relatives in this town is a game best not played
@60 i don’t think thor was implying we needed to attack him. i don’t care who he’s related to, he’s still hawt.
i found especially scary the part where that little girl tried to convert strangers: “you look sad; you need jesus in your life.” and she was all, “the other kids laugh at me, but it’s ok because i know they’re going to hell.”
Just for the record, if it’s approved (which everywhere I’ve looked has said it hasn’t yet) it will go in to effect July 1st. So smoke em while you got em.
It’s not like the government is shutting down Marlboro. They are saying we have scientific evidence that smoking kills not just the user but can also negatively affect people around you. Choose to do this if you want, but don’t do it in a public enclosed space.
How is this infringing on your rights (read: on your rights to be an idiot)?
Last time I checked MOST malls, movie theaters, bookstores, coffeeshops, are NOT privately owned. The proposal grants that private clubs and restaurants with a designated smoking room that is physically separated and independently ventilated from non-smoking dining areas. It is the best compromise for both sides of the issue.
I hope it doesn’t pass so certain bars in town that allow smoking continue to be douchebag filters. Guess what complainers about smoke? You’re not a blast at parties.
It is the best compromise for both sides of the issue.
For you. Clearly not for everyone, or there would be no argument.
@63. Actually, the compromise is good for the anti-smokes, only because Howell got snookered. If a restaurant/bar takes the steps to offer indoor smoking, the compromise would alleviate the issue of second hand smoke only for the customers and any employees who wouldn’t have to go in there. The servers, busboys, employees who would still have to go into the smoking area would get few of the benefits of this compromise. They’ll still smell like smoke at the end of their shifts, still inhale the second-hand smoke, and unless they’re confined to the smoking area, they’ll be the ones bringing it to the patrons in the other part of the restaurant.
The reality is that very few businesses will invest in the extra ventilation required by the law, especially IN THIS ECONOMY!, so they’ll become smoke free as an economic choice, because the added cost imposed by the government isn’t worth the investment, not because of the health benefits.
Also, please tell me where all these publically-owned malls, movie theaters, bookstores, coffeeshops are. I didn’t realize that government ownership was that pervasive. Or is it just part of the bailout?
I think smokers should have to wear a scarlet lung on their garments to warn all the sinless nonsmokers that he or she may be harboring remnants of deadly second hand smoke.
I mean, thats really the best compromise for everyone.
public company
Definition
A company which has issued securities through an offering, and which are now traded on the open market. also called publicly held or publicly traded. opposite of private company.
Books-A-Million, Inc. is one.
It is the best compromise for me, but I am not in the Virginia General Assmebly to decide.
I’m curious…who’s less of a blast at parties…nonsmokers or dogmatic didactic nicoteine addicts?
Stormy: all businesses receive benefits from the government. That’s why businesses have incentive to follow government regulation.
Shen and B-yo…get the fuck over it. Mightier cities than Charlottesville have fallen, and the smokers didn’t die out. Neither of you yells about your rights when your mom asks you to smoke outside on the porch, so stop stressing about this. Your passion is better reserved for your next attempt at quitting.
@68 I think you are confused. Books-A-Million is not a nationalized, government-run company. It is publicly traded in the free market, not public, as in a city library.
Case in point: http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3ABWLD
I haven’t been to a Buffalo Bill’s Wild Wings, but I’ll assume they allow smoking in states that permit it.
Make no mistake incurious, Im over it. I left SF, where one could not even smoke in public parks – outside. I knew it was only a matter of time, and I can roll with the times. Also, I am the most considerate smoker you have ever met. People have known me for a long time before the even KNEW I smoke. My umbrage is with a creeping nanny state, and really has nothing to do with smoking in particular. How is it dogmatic to argue a possible side of the controversy?
Your passion is better reserved for your next attempt at quitting. The lack of words such as “could be” and “perhaps” in this sentence denote a certain dogmatic quality to me. Just saying.
And by the way, Shen doesn’t even smoke, so she isl gonna need to find a place to put her passion. Any ideas there chief?
@70: I don’t smoke. I’m just against the government telling people what they can or can’t do and uptight whiners.
They should just build an island for all the people so horribly offended by smoking.
I mean, that’s really the best compromise for everyone.
@49. Exactly. This is a giant fuck you to private business owners. If you dont like smoke eat and drink at non smoking establishments. You aren’t entitled to go somewhere.
@63 They aren’t public spaces. They are private. Public is owned by everyone/the government.
For the record I’ve smoked about 20 cigarettes my entire life. I just think it’s retarded when there are plenty of non smoking establishments you can go there.
So now you are ruining other people’s fun, because you can’t go to a non smoking bar or restaurant.
The real question is: Why hasn’t the government banned tobacco use yet?
It isn’t about the customer, it’s about the employees and their right to not be subjected to a hazardous work environment.
and before you say “no one is forcing them to work there”, no one is forcing coal miners to do their job either — but there are still OSHA regulations. Just because someone is willing to work unsafely doesn’t make it legal to do so.
plus, have you seen the economy?
/still doesn’t like the law from my libertarian perspective
//non-smoker
And what, you dont think that the government is not into every little nook and cranny of Food and Bev? Its just another in a long list of rules and regs. People act like this is the first time this has happened. Have 16 chairs, get two restrooms. Litter tax. Sous Vide not allowed. You must sell this much food to sell liquor.
Get a grip. Smoking is not a right, it is a choice that people make for their own reasons, and they should respect that those who choose not to smoke have the right to the cleanest air they can have. All this whining about snorting car fumes and stuff….its like listening to some 14 year olds newly discovered self righteous indignation at the fact that life is not fair.
You want less government intrusion into life, vote republican.
@77 it’s not about fun, it’s about health.
@74 it’s not about being offended, it’s about health.
For the record, I started smoking in 1984 and quit in 2000 after waking up the morning after Virginia got clobbered by Penn State in State College and I coughed up some blood and other gross stuff after smoking two packs of camels the night before… For the record also I’m a very liberal person who is sick and tired of the Federal Government and how they blow my god damn money….
@81, 82: It’s not about health, it’s about over-regulation.
this legislation is about health, no matter which way you cut it.
If it’s about health, they should outlaw smoking everywhere.
But they don’t have the votes for that.
They might not have the votes for this, either.
If they outlaw smoking everywhere, then smokers should start complaing. I don’t think they should complain about this potentional regulation.
What about hookah smoke? Does that count?
@80, Regulation is essential to protect the public health. Because of terrible, and deadly practices by the food and drug industry a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, helped to create the Pure Food and Drug Act and signed it into law. This led to the creation of the FDA.
Your right about the dumb car/cigarette analogies. They are not the same thing but the easy analogies just make the smokers feel better.
Cordially,
Kevin Cox
intrusive government paternalism is necessary to make busybodies feel better about ineffectuality in life.
if second-hand smoke caused cancer in unwanted fetuses, they’d mandate smoking everywhere.
i notice a bunch of anti-2nd amendment laws poking out adjacent to this cigarette stuff.
now all i can do for fun is to sit at home smoking and cleaning my guns.
is that all the personal liberty and pursuit of happiness i get?
If you’re a baby, you get radioactive particles all over your hands and mouth, after you waitress mother drags herself home from a 9 hour shift at the diner. Third-hand smoke is real, and it is the radioactive components that are the major carcinogens, not tar or nicotine. But I suppose the tough old-schoolers here are also immune to other workplace hazards, like mercury, heavy metals and uranium dust, as well as anything else that does not hurt their little feelings.
Danpri…I’m curious…did the Republican who ordered my cousin to lose his arm in Iraq…was he trying to interfere *less* in my life?
Modern libertarianism is an elitist philosophy designed by elites to protect elites from government interference in elite interests. The government is the only thing protecting you, Jane Citizen, from $1 an hour wages and dirty drinking water. The elites don’t care about you. They will eat the resources of the middle and lower classes until their stomachs explode. Unless the government stops them. Checks and balances.
Don’t believe it? Then examine any country where the elites run roughshod over the lower classes. Their government is either “non-interfering” or controlled by the elites. Have you ever seen a child who was not controlled by their parent? Greedy. Destructive. Lord of the Flies.
Sweet, I’m an elite trying to protect my elite interests from the government now. Checks and balances?
Who checks and balances the government?
@92. Um, a Republican said… “You there, lose your arm?”
And of course when FDR ordered War…
Or when LBJ ordered War…
Or you just cry about Republicans…
We were talking rules and regulations, not soporific whining.
Oh, and I pay more than living wage to my full timers. So take your crying about $1/hour wages and go hug a tree, eat some granola, wear socks with your sandals, and sing me a loud rousing version of Kumbaya.
Me, I am off to beat the serfs. Fetch my shoes!! Off with your heads!!
@89. Yep. Although that freaking Litter Tax is a joke….
lol, danpri
Thank you Danpri…you are proving my point. No politician has an interest in shrinking the pipeline to his belly, no matter his party. Republicans do not want smaller government, and neither do Democrats. I agree with you. No one in power and who has influence over the government wants the government to have less power, be it corporations or voters. The government is the go-between among the rights of the individual and corporations’ time-proven tendency to hoard resources to an elite class. If you shrink the government, or (in the case of many modern countries) shrink the distance between government and corporate power, then the rights of the individual worker will without doubt be lessened. Almost every 3rd world country is in the latter situation, in which either corporations have tight control of the gov’t or the gov’t has tight control over corporations. In either case, power is siphoned to the few to the disadvantage of the many.
The Libertarian Party only wants a smaller government because they are not in power. If they were in power, they would (like every government before them) siphon power to themselves. I’m curious…if our government got “fatter”, as some fools like to call it, then what’s the worst-case scenario?
We become more like Canada.
Big whoop.
1. Ethan: You check and balance the government. Journalists check and balance the government. Lobbyists, corporate and populist, check and balance the government.
2. Danpri: Why do you joke as if sweatshops don’t exist? I am curious…do you acknowledge your privilege? Your privilege to buy, to spend, to mock? Do you acknowledge the protected hierarchy which rewards you, and for whom you are the clown?
@97 Ehhhhh, the Libertarians wouldn’t increase federal government’s role in private matters if they were in power because they are philosophical descendants from the Democratic-Republican Party.
@98 The people do not check and balance the oligarchy that we have cleverly crafted for ourselves. You do realize that the same methods of civil disobedience that define the precursors to the American Revolution and Ghandi’s intellectual rebellion against the British Crown cannot possibly work in American today, right? Wanna organize a tax revolt against the IRS? Good luck. The federal government will crush you, by force if necessary. They will take away everything you ever worked for and leave you nothing to pass on to your children.
#98 part 2. Who said that. You just insisted that ALL of the business owners pay nothing. My point being that your shrill insistence on those evils being all pervasive is the type of overreaching strident posturing that invalidates your basic premise. Sure the sweatshops in Indonesia exist. I bet that if you closed them up the workers would want to string you up by your Birkenstocks. NOw, do those people deserve better, yes. Are they getting better than they would? Yes.
But its the consumer that demands the cheapest prices and requires corp bean counters to find those solutions. What, you think Walmart became so big because it cares about Unions, or because the very people that Unions work to protect do most of their shopping there, at the expense of their long term security. Why are they not shoppping at the Mom and Pop shops? Why do you think.
So stop your sniveling and for heaven sake, do not reply if you are one of those poeple that has to call in to your job for a “me” day or “mental Health” day. You make that very same employer need to find ways to make their profits somehow and the cost of your “me” day comes off someone else back. maybe that cost is in a sweatshop somewhereM
If it’s about health, then go to another fucking establishment that doesn’t allow smoking. You people act like they don’t have establishments like this available.
Shit is sickening.
If it’s about choice, then go stand the fuck outside. You smokers act like they don’t have parking lots and sidewalks available for you.
I don’t smoke, asshole.
I can’t understand the logic of someone who willfully puts themselves in the harm of that horrible horrible second hand smoke, when there are other establishments that don’t allow smoking on their own volition (the business owners probably saw an opportunity to draw non smokers there).
It’s just pointless. If you don’t like an establishment that allows smoking, why do you spend your money there? It’s retarded. Speak with your wallet instead of running to the Government and fucking it up for people who enjoy that shit.
To all the people who tell the smokers, “Why don’t you just go outside?”, please stfu. Bars were invented for drinking and smoking. It’s all the “health” scare whiners that came along and decided they all wanted to kill their livers or go out to eat unhealthy restaurant food but smoke is just too much so let’s draw the line and force the changes we want on everyone else and party/eat in a sterile bubble. Bars with smokers is how its supposed to be. Nicer places, not so much cuz yo’ure there for the food, thus fancy restos and lounges say no and that’s cool. Smoking sections in crappy chains doesn’t matter, the food is shit and unhealthy so who gives a shit about it.
Smoking at Blue Moon is for the drunks and the artists and the servers and they like to smoke. They should be able to go to their spot and do that and be themselves. But no you stupid yuppies decided you wanted to go there too but you don’t like the smoke it’s stinky, wish they’d make that bothersome behaviour illegal cuz its icky. And yell out the “secondhand smoke!” like that excuse is solid gold. Brotha, please. Everything you do and are exposed to is killing you and you are going to die. If you honestly think that having ventured into SS one night is going to be the death of you, you are a sheep.
Let people do what they do. Don’t tell them where to do it.Unless its like a hospital or airport where people have to be. If you are soo worrried about your health, go live in a bubble. You bitch about secondhand smoke and how its hurting you but you’re already gonna die form eating red meat for years or standing too close to the microwave or whatever. But you can die in the real world not in some made-up super health utopia where we’re running around in the Garden of Eden with unicorns or some shit.
when the government pays for everyone’s health care, let them make laws with our health in mind.
It’s real I tell you:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smoke.html
Should hatters have the right to use mercury? Although, I admit my non-mercury thermometer is crap.
Should painters be allowed to use lead? I admit, non-lead paint is not quite as good. But we have waves of violence in our society directly correlated to lead paint chip consumption by babies 15 years earlier (comparative international studies). The next wave is due in about 8 years, due to a foul-up in the D.C. municipal water system which unleashed tons of lead into the drinking water for a few years earlier this decade, until it was uncovered by the Washington Post. Which no longer has poison in its ink.
Go on, tell me how tough and old school you are for not fearing smoke in the workplace. Every damn worker since poisons were invented has spewed the same line. In the 1970s there were workers I knew about at the Lake Anna nuclear power plant who bragged, man that shit won’t hurt you. That’s why the company has to have rules that they wear the suits. This tough guy crap is just crap crap crap from the days when we lived as hunter gatherers. And it’s getting your wittle feelings hurt that you get all worked up about! Poison is real even if you can’t see it! It’s not magic.
Man, its a wonder us older folks even survived this long to have this argument. I mean what with dangerous playground equipment, no seat belts, second hand smoke everywhere, dodgeball at recess, and lead paint chips everywhere…
Thank god daddy government came and protected us from ourselves, we have clearly been pressing our luck.
I came from california, where this sort have thinking has gone down the road a bit further. At my son’s kindergarden, running was against the rules a recess. Yes, running. Enjoy yourselves at the top of this slippery slope, it gets a bit peculiar down towards the bottom.
/the comforts you’ve demanded are now mandatory.
And it’s getting your wittle feelings hurt that you get all worked up about!
Dont worry, schools are already working on “regulations” to protect our precious snowflake’s “wittle feelings”. Soon hurt feelings will be eliminated as well!
God Bless America.
But you see running is something everybody understands. And feelings. It’s radioactive particles (3rd hand smoke on babies’ hands and mouths), mercury and lead that we think we’re immune to because they seem like magic to our wittle hunter gatherer brains. So you can be tough, oppose playground regulation, and STILL be in favor of smoke regulation in the workplace. See it’s simple. We’re tough and we’re smart.
I think about all the shit I did as a kid… No helmet even while riding a dirt bike…. Mom smoked and drank while pregnant with me… Life is very differnt now… Is everyone on this blog pissed off and in a bad mood? PMS?
Yeah I want my monorail. DC spent all the money on bankers’ bonuses, which cost more.
“We’re tough and we’re smart.” Just lol.
If smoking was such a health concern by our government, they would have banned tobacco use by now. But the government cares more about tax revenue than health.
@114. That’s what gets me. There’s so many contradictions and hypocrisy, which is why I think American Citizens, esp business owners as a collective are mature enough to handle it on their own (No smoking establishments being created by their own choice).