THE FASCIST REGIME...
ON JULY THE WHATEVER CIGARETTE SMOKING WILL BE BANNED IN ALL PUBLIC PLACES INCLUDING PUBS/BARS ETC..NANNY STATE GONE MENTAL!..WE'RE BEING BABYSAT BY BUREAUCRATIC TWO FACED BASTARDS!...
WHAT NEXT-NO EATING IN RESTAURANTS?..
NO DEAD PEOPLE IN THE GRAVE YARDS?..
NO DRINKING IN PUBS?..
THESE ARE MY NEW SIDELINE..
AND SPARE A THOUGHT FOR THE POOR ASHTRAY WHICH WILL SOON BE OBSOLETE..THEY WILL PROBABLY END UP ON E-BAY..OR WORSE IN SOME YUPPIE RETRO JUNK SHOP...
posted by gypsy noir at 6/04/2007
52 Comments:
Gypsy I so agree with you! I don't smoke myself any more. Gave up two years ago when Koos had a heart attack and he had to stop, but I defend to the whotsit everyone's right to smoke, drink, ride motorbikes without helmets and everything else we used to be free do do.
You can argue that everything affects someone whether it's passive smoking or clearing up the brains of some poor soul whose fallen off their bike or wasn't wearing a seat belt in the car, but for gawd's sake let us takesome of the risks ourselves. We are big and brave enough to know that not everyone likes smoking, so we should do the decent thing ourselves without having a law made about it.
We've gradually and systematically allowed our freedom of thought and action to be eroded until we won't be able to make our own choices at all. Next thing, they'll be banning my glass of red...aaaaaaagh!
I'm in favour of separate smoking areas in pubs and restaurants, even separate rooms if need be, but not banning people altogether. Sheesh, what on earth will the pubs do? It'll kill their business!
Not to mention the poor little ash tray as you say. Mine are still lurking in my cupboard waiting for the day somone wants to use them again. So far, no takers, which goes to show everyone who comes to my home does the decent thing!
By the way, Koos agrees with you too, so there you have it. Two ex smokers who still feel people should have the right to smoke if they want to.
I have recently read someone's observation that he couldn't stand the smell of cigarettes wafting out of the window of a convertible while he was waiting at a traffic light on his scooter somewhere in California (producing what?). The man is an ex-smoker!
Thanks to whoever I am more or less free from smoking now, but vilifying those who aren't does'nt solve a thing.
So who benefits?
1. The tobacco industry, because the same percentage of addicts will remain addicted;
2. The State, receiving ever more taxes from the sales of ever more expensive tobacco products.
Now why do I think that money will be spent on even more security cameras and other technology to raise our beloved security and reduce our sense of freedom?
don't die with your helmet on
Sorry, Gypsy, I love you to bits but I have to be the voice of dissent here.
I'm an ex-smoker too (quit way back in 1986), who also found out that I have an allergy to tobacco long after I had quit for good. I totally sympathise with smokers and agree they should be able to light up outside on patios and in parks and wherever else the air circulates freely, but I think it's okay to have the public insides (bars and restaurants) smoke-free.
It's been the case here in Toronto for well over a year or two (or three) now and it's just fine.
They have smoking areas outside, but we are a hearty bunch in Canada and can stand outside for 15 minutes at -30C without whining.
Spare a thought for the poor waitresses and barkeeps who have to inhale all that shit in confined spaces in order to make a living. Saying the rest of the planet is polluted doesn't absolve us of wanting to carve out a bit of a breathing paradise.
Honestly, one of the things I disliked the most about the UK last summer was the stale (and active) smell of smoke in the public bars and hotel lounges, etc... It was quite surprising how much it burned my eyes and lungs, and gave me a cough the next day. Not pleasant at all once you get used to being in a smoke-free town.
xx
AM
This makes me crazy!
As someone who was never a smoker, I still don't give a rat's petooey whether someone else smokes or not...although I do know that second-hand smoke has its effects.
Wear a helmet, don't light up, wear your seatbelt, your door is ajar (no, it's a door), wear a life jacket, your lights are on...
For fpete's sake (note the lesser possessive noun) let ME decide.
Sadly, we are supposed to be part of democratic societies, but have you ever noticed how little say we have?
Have you ever noticed that most politicians are lawyers?
"...hey let's make money from someone else not taking responsibility...let's SUE and a precedence will be established."
Even our teachers are loathe to make a decision as to how to deal with their students in a classroom.
All the power has been taken from them to decide, so our children suffer for it.
Our young ones are growing up without ever seeing or feeling consequences.
That is a very poor precedence.
We are not all children - it's all about taking responsibility for our own actions.
I believe that is what truly makes a "grown-up".
You can't do ANYTHING!!! EVER ANYWHERE! that is what the world is coming to. So ridiculous. I don't smoke, never have, but ....I don't know, ??
Yes, Dale, you are so right. Being allowed to take responsibility means knowing what the results of our actions will be. Our children are being denied that very important part in the maturing process. How will they be able to make their own choices in future? Maybe as gypsy says, our governments don't want us to exercise that ability any more. They just want a flock of sheep.
By the way, Anne Marie, I do't think you are the voce of dissent at all here, because when they talk about public areas, I think they even mean outside buildings as well as in! As far as I can tell, the only place you'll be allowed to smoke is at home, or in your car, and even that is coming under question!
Am I right Gypsy? I may have got it wrong but I think this is the case, isn't it?
No. I'm wrong. Sorry, Anne Marie, I just checked. At the moment it's all public indooor spaces, but some outdoor spaces may also be banned, such as football grounds, and the car thing really does seem to be being considered.
Thankyou val ,koos,anne marie.dale and grace, you all make excellent points..you say it much better than i..
My point is that the governments couldn't give a flying fig about my health or your health, it's all about power and control...Do you really think that the fat cats in their private members clubs don't puff away at their cuban cigars and duty free pipe tobacco laughing their well groomed socks off!!?..
It's George Orwells 1984!..
Crime rate is soaring..old people and children being abused, so to cover up the inadequacys of the police failings they bring in easy target laws to push up the figures of arrests..ie; traffic offences and smoking bans etc..
I did it opposite to most i was a none smoker till i was 30, then became a smoker,
I've got two aunts in their late 80's..one smoked the other didn't!..
Fact is WHERE ALL GOING TO DIE ONE DAY!!..the worlds is full of toxins..maybe my view is warped?..
FREEDOM OF CHOICE!..POWER TO THE PEOPLE! and all that jazz..
PS..I can't stand the smell of car fumes but i woudn't expect people to stop driving..
I disagree Gypsy...you say it MUCH better than any of us.
We know all abut easy targets here too....the police here are too scared of the real criminals so they get away with murder - literally, and people like me walking my doggy in a quiet riverside embankment get fined €50 because I don't have said dog on the lead...grrrrrrr!
Ha ha, no kidding fuck this, just for that I am going to start again! American Spirits, here I come! Got a zippo anyone?
PS didn't get your myspace message, humm....
Thats absurd val..Grrr indeed!..
string i've got a zippo!..
OOH the myspace blog comment?
yep it's disappeared!, i've done it again..
This is an excellent rant...gypsy! I have now a carton of American Spirits and a zippo, thought I'd smoke a pack before working...do some yoga, come home, smoke some more! Whaddya think?
I think it's fab string!..
one finger to authority..
I love the rebel in you!..
Gypsy, I agree that governments don't give a fig about people, but I don't really give a fig about governments so I guess we're even.
Dale, the thing about helmets and seatbelts is that they affect the person doing the deed and so you're right that you should have the choice to go spread your brains across the ashpalt, but smoking inside is about more than my right to destroy my health. It affects the people around you, and so I don't think it's cut and dry.
I do remember a news report in California last summer where there was a lobby group trying to ban smoking in people's own apartments because it was drifting into the ventilation system, and I just rolled my eyes. I feel the same way about telling people not to smoke in outside space.
...but talk to the person next to you - and tell them.
Do we need the government to do that?
the devil's advocate
If brains are to be spread - they will...
A helmet then is only a bowl.
that darn devil's advocate again
Seriously though, the argument is not about personal safety - it's about keeping our right to decide and take responsibility for the results of those decisions.
I take your point AM..x..
EX-BLOODY-CATLY DALE!!..
Dale has devil's horns on and is smokin'! (said in a Jim Carrey voice)
Meanwhile Anne Marie tries to be the voice of sanity and fairness...
Gypsy and I sneak out to the world and begin selling blackmarket cigs out of trench coats.
Val buys some but doesn't smoke them, as she gave up two years ago. She and Koos place them on the mantle of the barge with loving kindness and good will to all. They make up a new song about the renegades gypsy and string and it sell s millions of copies - where upon they become rich and do whatever they want, all the time.
LOL String, I don't think they'd last very long if I put them on the mantle here! The temptation is still quite strong you know...and I'm no saint!
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ha ha String,
you've got us all figured out.
My favourite reaction when the government started putting those "Smoking will kill you" warnings on the ciggie packs was that some local people started making stickers to place on top of them with sayings like "Smokers are really cool", and "Cigarette smoking makes you hip" and selling them in corner stores.
I thought it was brilliant.
Oooh, I've come in late to all this, but some random bits for what they're worth:
I've never smoked, and don't see the attraction, but I do drink. If we're talking public safety, there is no doubt that public alcohol abuse is much more dangerous to the population than cigarette smoking. Smoking one too many fags doesn't make a person violent, or incapable of driving, or throw up in the street.
Melbourne is VERY tough on smoking, and next month the bars and clubs are going to be included in the indoors ban (previously it was just all public buildings.)
A local cigar bar is about to have to stop people smoking in there. As that's the only reason people go there at all, it doesn't affect anyone else, so I think this is madness - but I mightn't if I was the barmaid! (even though I love the smell of a good cigar, secondary smoke from dozens of the finest Cubans every hour might be stretching it a bit.)
I think we're also going down the no smoking outside in public places path. I'm a bit with A-M here, at least in certain cases. Went to an open air MSO concert with my family, was jammed between two chain-smokers, who had no problems telling us it was their right to smoke. However, This comes down to manners, not law I think.
I did notice last time I was in the UK and France that most places reeked of old fags (cigarettes, that is), which was a bit of an eye-opener.
Strangely, I love going into a pub which smells of old beer and cigarettes, although I can't stand the smoke itself.
Don't like the Nanny State, but don't like cigarette smoke either. Have smoking and non-smoking places, and take your choice.
Oh, and Gypsy, I'm sure most of the restaurants in LA are practically no-eating ones. Tiny kitchens, but forty-seven lavs to throw up in afterwards.
Okay, had to take this and fix the dreadful typos I didn’t have time to fix with the first posting, so the comment deleted above is mine!
What I said was…
Tons of good arguments here. And this is a tough issue. But I
have to say, when I was a smoker I did not mind when they started making you smoke either out on the patio or in a separate room. But that is because I stopped smoking in my house a good 12 years before they enacted that law, because I did not want my kids inhaling the toxic smoke. And I did not want my home to smell like smoke anymore. It made an immense difference in my clothes, my furniture, everything. So I was okay with that. And I do agree it sucks to be a waitress or bartender and have to inhale second hand smoke.
My Ian once argued "people don't go to bars for their health, so why should they bitch about second hand smoke?"
My reply to that has always been, "you don't HAVE to drink in a bar, and no one will force you to, but if you are in a room with smokers, you are in essence smoking whether you want to or not."
So I am rather of two minds. We are being legislated to death, oh yes, oh yes. I think seatbelts and bike helmets are a good idea, especially for young people. But if a person wants to risk their safety, so be it. Use common sense, and you will likely protect yourself. But humans are far from riddled with common sense. We do a great many stupid and unhealthy things that we KNOW are not good for us.
As a non-smoker the first time and second time around, I could not stomach the smell of smoke, still can't, though I love the smell of unlit cigs, and loved when bars and restaurants went smoke free I was rather pleased. But I do think you should be able to smoke in open-air places. Mind you, I also feel that smokers should be polite, and ask before they light up if it might bother anyone.
I agree that you should not smoke in areas where there are children. Why pollute their innocent lungs?
But I'll be honest. I still want one now and again, and even, on rare occasion, snag a puff from a friend, but I hate to be in a house or car that is smoked in all the time.
If the government wants to look out for our health (and here's the trick: they want us to buy them and fill their pockets with lovely taxes, but not smoke them so we do not tax the health care system) perhaps they could start getting heavy handed about emissions from cars, legislate more reducing, reusing and recycling, taking true measures to protect our water (it is not a renewable resource, no matter what they tell you) and getting tougher on industry that worships the almighty dollar/pound/sheckle/ruble/rupee/yen/pickyercurrency and make them accountable for excess packaging, waste products, damage to our eco systems and our own state of well being by lulling us into false senses of security by convincing us that all is really fine and the bay-bay-baying of the doomsday hounds is little more than scare tactics. Nothing will truly change until we are willing to go to war on greed, to inconvenience our pampered selves, to truly look at our existence and ask, "am I living a life my grandchildren will be proud of? Am I acting in ways to ensure, in my home and my community, that I will have made a small difference? Will I go to bed tonight feeling that even though I did not change the world today, I did make a few things better, and I am glad of that? Did I?"
Someday, I'd like my grandchildren to stand beside me and say, ever so Canadian, "Nice place Grans. I like it. Thanks, eh?"
Smoking is both evil and ever so luscious. I miss it desperately. I’d like on RIGHT NOW. But I want to stay healthy for my kids. But should I ever start again, I will step outside before I light up.
The government does try to impose too many rules. Big Brother, after all, knows best, right?
I gotta admit though, every now and then, a little legislation is not a bad idea. They've just taken it too far.
xxx
I should clarify: I feel pretty stongly that for us to have good health, we need a healthy home... earth, community, etc.
That rant kid of got more environmental than health-al... new word.
Gypsy - one thing I forgot to say and meant to - I love your artwork! I does put things in perspective, too. I want a copy of the poster, and will make one as soon as I get to work tomorrow and can print it up on a corporate laser jobbie haha!
I've kept all the ashtrays I stole from my young adult trips to Europe, mind you. Just because I gave up smoking doesn't mean I didn't hold on to the momentos...
LOL AM - even I have a couple of ashtrays...
Well thankyou all for your valuable input, you all make very good points..
The smoking/nonsmoking debate has always been an imotive subject..
Margie an artist i am not!..but give me your e-mail and i'll send you a copy..the pic is the point to the post really about police and government tactics..oppression..infingment of civil liberties..etc..
I wish i could paint a picture of this here conversation..us all in a room like having this debate...
it would look something like this....
>Set in a posh country Tearoom<
______________________________
String and I are sitting at our table with our red Tee-shirts with the logo 'UP THE REVOLUTION' on, blatantly smoking our duty free cigs what we blagged from the pirates(Koos)....Anne marie is sitting with Marge at the table next to us, Anne marie has a 'DOWN WITH BUSH' Tee-shirt on she is wafting the smoke away with great indignation, whilst Margie is near falling off her chair trying to catch a wiff of cigar from the old gent sitting behind her..Dale walks in with her ski's wrapped round her neck proclaiming "I'ts my body! i'll break it if i want too"!..Val is standing wide-eyed and transfixed on mine and strings ciggies, chanting to herself.."I must resist temptaion..resist temtation"..String waves the ciggie under her nose to torment her..I sneak off to the lav with Stevie so she can have a crafty fag..and poor Grace in in the corner scratching her head not knowing what to do..
ooohhh, can I be weaaring a tight red corset and black cargo pants with lots of pockets and biker boots? Like Tank girl?
I'd have my hair all done like hers, and funky make up on... pretty please?
I love that our room is filled with differing thoughts and opinions, but also friendship, tolerance and respect for individual opinion!
xx
ps
I still have a couple of ashtrays too... just in case Gypsy come by, of course...
Gyps: I have luminaries for you and Neil's mums... do you want any particular message on them? From you? Could you tell as soon as you could?
xx
am i naked ?
Dale! Me thinks you are now the minx!
And so much better than the Sphinx!
And shootin' golf on the links!
And after we can have drinks!
she sez as she winks!
LOL Gypsy! As long as I can chant to the Who, I'll survive. I'll just make smoke rings with my Vespa instead!
Golf on the links?
NEVER methinks!
A contraversial topic to say the least. However, my views are along the lines of Anne Marie. I am an ex-smoker (never having been addicted), but who also suffers from asthma. But, I don't like today's views about legislating anything and everything.
I'd have to leave the room.....so I suppose it's a good thing I'm not in it, though I do love you all.
I'm an ex smoker (at least a pack a day for about twenty years). It's been about twelve years since I quit. I was really upset one day about two years after quitting and smoked one at lunchtime. It made me extremely sick for the rest of the day.
I still can't be around second-hand smoke. I get a headache, stomachache and a tickle cough. You'd think I wouldn't react so badly after all this time, but it's always the same. I can't stay in a hotel room unless it's nonsmoking - same symptoms, just takes a little longer to set in.
I do respect others' right to smoke or whatever - we don't wear helmets when we ride our bikes (and would you believe we get derisive looks from those on the trails who do?) Anyway...
One of the reasons I quit was because my baby, Hayley, then about eighteen months, kept getting ear infections. I thought I was being careful, but time after time we had to take her to the dr. for the same thing. Once I quit, she never had another one....
Unfortunately, manners and common sense seem to be in much shorter supply than legislators and insurance underwriters, so I think we will see more and more non-smoking areas, both inside and out, which really is alright with me; tho I'm very sorry that it has to be accomplished by legislation.
Great discussion, and I love your visualization (from a distance) of the 'smoke-filled room' Gypsy.
"I love that our room is filled with differing thoughts and opinions, but also friendship, tolerance and respect for individual opinion!"
Well said, Stevie.
Gypsy - rushing now and no time to do justice to all these fantastic comments, but my email is margiemcm@yahoo.com.au
and i will print and display the poster proudly for you!
(cough cough)
Hey, did any of you smokers and/or ex-smokers ever indulge in a Djaram? Oooh, instant cancer, but oh so tasty... like cloves, in fact. Would numb my lips. But potent enough to give an elephant a smokers cough.
One wee thing, while on the topic of cancer, if any of you are reading this prior to Satudray afternoon (my time, of course Mountain Standard Time), if you have a moment, could you stop my my blog and let me know if you would like me to light a luminary for anyone?
:)
i second hand smoked playing clubs for 20some years.. i much preferred inhaling the tar and nicotine directly into my lungs.. for some reason that made me choke far less... :P
~Lace~
ps.. i quit smoking after the night i spent in the emergency room having a severe asthma attack....
Wow, hasn't this post ever generated some really good debate. I love it! Well done to Gypsy for stimulating us all, and of course, the pic of the cops is just brilliant. I think I'm going to copy it as well.
Wow, quite a debate going on here! I have to agree with both Anne-Marie and Dale here.....people should have the right to do whatever they want, wear your seatbelt, don't, whatever, but smelling smoke gives me a headache and makes my eyes water, so.....I guess I would be for the ban, which has been active in this area for quite a few years. People still go and smoke outside, but others who don't smoke aren't affected by the smell.
Of course, some people say the same thing about perfume - that people shouldn't wear it, as it bothers others....but I don't agree with that, as I love to wear perfume!
Well I don't smoke but due to gypsy's blog promptly went out and bought a pack, wearing my red tee-shirt and ashtrays, a la Madonna corset. I lit one up inhaling deeply for all of you. I'm sure you're gratified to know that a non-smoker can smoke just for the hell of it and also because in this increasingly PC world I felt like it. 'Up Yours' I say to the thought police blowing smoke in their face.
I have never been addicted to cigs, can take or leave em - but we are going underground, diving deep to the depths of smoky freedom where people will still be able to speak their mind, write emails without surveillance, crack Un PC jokes and in general stand on freedom of speech soapboxes. A vanishing lot - only to be found by following your nose and the trail of the sound of cackling laughter and stiletto heel holes in the dirt!
My home town in California was the first to instigate the no smoking ordinance in the US - ages ago, a $240 fine over 10 years ago for smoking within 20 feet of the doorway of any public place. Now they regulate snoring, frogs, and all sorts of other goodies. People hide themselves in air conditioned houses afraid to make noise, having forgotten what it is like to sweat, dance, and laugh. They have asthma due to the HUGE level of silica burned into the atmosphere by rice farmers, diesel pollution, benzene, radioactivity, pesticides,and herbicides and yes smoke bothers them; however, none of them see the misdirection so instead they vent their rage at the poor smoker instead of the huge multi-national corporations which have polluted the whole darn state.
Carl Jung allowed himself to smoke one cig a day. Nicotine helps prevent Alzheimer's and helps your brain function, while cigarettes kill off your lungs. Moderation is my motto.
'The Glass Ashtray Gang'
Hey hey, the debate continues! Mary Beth..lol...my ex would have banned perfume before smoking any day! He used to have asthma type fits if someone wore too much perfume or deodorant, and used to start retching. Honest! But he smoked like a chimney.
String, that's a really good point. In fact if it hadn't got so expensive now, I'd go buy a pack in sympathy too. The amount of filth in our atmosphere is just as bad if not worse than cigarette smoke, but it's not in the State's interest to ban industrial pollution, so the smokers get it instead.
I was talking to a couple of women who were going out for a cig at one of the companies where I teach the other day, and we were agreeing that it's a lot handier not to smoke these days as you get treated like a second class citizen when you do. All the same, I told them to have one for me too! I've never been really addicted to smoking - could always take it or leave it - but I did enjoy it, and still miss it for that reason.
I knew a girl who worked in a auto body shop.
She had athsma and wore a mask to avoid the chemical fumes.
...then would remove her mask in order to take a long drag from her cigarette.
Let me guess, Dale, that devilishly handsome advocate is back in session?
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