Anti-Smoking Snob? (Page 2)

I assume you drive a hybrid?

Edited by TH3_FRB 2005-05-25 9:25 AM

Try finding a "hybrid" that will haul a family of 7...Try finding one that will tow a boat...I will and you can quote me on this...NEVER DRIVE A HYBRID...(unless I am forced to by the govt.)

ooh ooohh. I vote on Hybrids. No I don't drive one. I didn't even buy the car I do drive. Student loans are expensive, but if I had the money lying around. I'd buy one on the spot.

For all you SUV lovers out there. Silverado now has a hybrid truck thats V8 but when you get to cruising speed it shuts off half of the engine. Better gas mileage (still not as good as a car, but I don't expect everyone to give up their luxuries, I'm not giving up my coffee ) Also Lexus has got a Hybrid luxury SUV they are coming out with 35mpg leather interiors. They have already sold more in pre-orders than any other car they have ever come out with. Oh and look at the skyrocketing gas mileage. Hybrid. Hybrid. Hybrid. (thats me cheering) Oooh and tax credits for qualified cars. Think of the savings. Maybe triathletes of America... the world should unite and start campaigning for the number one sports utility vehicles that we buy to put our bikes on to start making hybrids we could drive to our races. Nissan Xterra, I believe they were voted number one. I want to know where the hybrid is in their line up.

Of course I am the person who wants to sell my car and ride my bike to work, and when I move in August I plan on living close enough to work to do just that. Ok maybe not sell the car, but it might get awfully lonely. And think of all those extra miles I'll be getting in. An edge on the competition I think. Rant done.

If there is demand for a product. Someone will start selling it.

We need to start demanding.

We are not all the problem, the government is the problem. So we are the problem insofar as we elect officials that put party politics ahead of our interests, but since we are not given a meaningful choice and most of us have other things to attend to things keep getting worse. A responsible governement,federal, state, or local, would be helping more people to get quality education and healthcare while paring back wasteful spending, protecting the environment in ways that ensure there are more jobs from clean industry, protecting wages and workers while allowing entrepreneurship to thrive, closing corporate tax loopholes and offshoring practices while lowering the tax burden on the middle and working classes. I am a strong beleiver that these are the things that most Americans want regardless of their supposed political affiliation, but that our two party system has us bickering with one another while the rich, corporations, and politicans run off with the cake. It's a tactic that is centuries old.

The reason that hybrids aren't more available and cheaper is because the oil industry has a stranglehold on our government. So until we make our voices heard air and water quality will continue to decline. There are ways to use a combination of nuclear and green fuels to lower our emissions and reliance on foreign energy sources.

Edited by lablover 2005-05-25 9:39 AM

I think if I get the time at work today I might write a few letters. Maybe to the president. Not that I expect him to read it. Maybe to my congressmen/women. Maybe to a couple of big business men. I've got the stamps.

Loud and obnoxious is the only way to be heard.


Back to smoking all I ask is you don't smoke in my house. Don't smoke when I'm eating. Pick up your butts. Don't blow it in my face. Don't burn me with your cigarette because you are standing to close. And if you can't refrain from smoking at children's sporting events you might want to check where your priorities lie.

You know what nevermind.....had a lengthy post but alas I think I am the only neck Repub here so my breath would be wasted.

Smokers Suck!

autumn dusts of her soap box and declares...

'i am THE anti-smoking snob!

i am really NOT a snob about it, i'm a realist. i live in reality and the reality is that smoking KILLS people. i do NOT think i am better than smokers. in fact, some of the most loved people in my life were smokera and suffer (or have suffered and subsequently DIED) from lung disease. my grandfather died of lung cancer - he was a smoker. my grandmother died of cancer - she lived with a smoker. ON MONDAY my father in law had half a lung and some lymph nodes removed due to lung cancer and has also been diagnosed with emphysema - he was a smoker who quit 5 years ago. my father (also an asthmatic) is a semi-retired pulmonary physician and spent his entire career treating people with smoking related illnesses. he has spent the last 10 years advocating for a smoke-free environments in duluth, the twin cities, and the state of minnesota.

it is now illegal to smoke in restaurants in bars in the twin cities, and duluth, and there will probably be a state wide ban soon. in places where it is legal, you are correct that it is a smokers' 'right' to smoke in public, but what about the rights of everyone else around them? if you are at a desk job, your right to a smoke-free work place is protected by law. why should someone working in a bar or restaurant not have the same right? smoking kills, and, believe it or not - SECOND HAND SMOKE KILLS.



if you were at a restaurant, and someone brought you a glass of water and said,'the guy next to you added some arsenic, ammonia, formaldehyde, butane, and a little lead to his water. he added some to yours too. ENJOY!' well, that's what happens when you're sitting in a restaurant inhaling second hand smoke. you get to enjoy all the risks of smoking along with the person who lit up. don't even get me started on the impact on children. we think smoking is okay because its been around for so long and has a very glamorized history. its not okay anymore. WE KNOW BETTER NOW! don't believe me? call my father in law. he's in the NICU recovering from surgery.

if you consider yourself an anti-smoking snob and want to make a difference, contact you local chapter of the american lung association (http://www.lungusa.org) and see what you can do to help create a healthier, safer place for everyone.

and for those who like those bracelets, the ala has one too. i just ordered some: https://www.newtonmfg.com/nmcshop/product.asp?program_nbr=LUNGP&pf_i...

and for those who have more money than time, you can always donate to a team lung athlete (hint hint!): http://www.teamlung.com

did i mention that if you want to do something, to contact the american lung association? here's the link: http://www.lungusa.org/

I'm an anti-smoking snob too. Both my parents were HEAVY smokers growing up and I could hardly sit in the same room with them as a kid. My brother smokes too! I have never even THOUGHT about putting a lit cigarette in my mouth and never will. My dad had a heart attack in his mid-60's and was told to stop smoking. My mom stopped to help him, but he never gave up. Even when emphysema set in and he was on oxygen, he'd take the oxygen thing off and sneak a smoke until the day he died.
The thing is, other people smoking effects YOU if you're breathing it in, and that sucks! Luckily here in California (I grew up in Maryland), there is no smoking in any public buildings or restaurants/bars, and even on some beaches, which I love. Hope the trend continues!

Ford is selling a hybrid SUV, ya know. Are you categorically opposed to fuel efficiency or just to small vehicles? Since you ask, I drive a 25 yr old hand-me-down Toyota that still gets over 30 mpg.

oh, and my father in law is not in the NICU, he's in the ICU. :P

Quitting smoking is the hardest thing I've ever done, it's a nasty addiction, and some people (like your father) never seem to be able to quit. I'm of the opinion that anything that damaging to ones health, and that addictive should be illegal. Now that I've spent a few of years as a non-smoker, I have trouble understanding why I ever started (although I have to admit I derived quite a bit of pleasure from it), and I'm very thankful that I managed to quit.

Matthew

Whoops accidentally submitted twice. There's no way to remove a post is there?

Edited by m80 2005-05-25 11:59 AM

Smoking should be illegal in all public places. And, thankfully, it will be soon.

Quite simply, it's a habit with no positive aspects to it. Now, I'm not one to limit what a person can or can't do. But when you smoke in public, others are forced to breathe in the smoke, which no matter how you slice it is not a good thing.

on comparing smoking to fast food or binge drinking: yes, all these things are bad for you. however, when you smoke, you take everyone along with you. you eat taco bell and end up with heart disease, but don't come over and force feed me the same crap just because you choose to. same goes for drinking. go out for dinner and have a few too many glasses of wine, but you're not forcing the toddler at the table next to you to drink your merlot. some compare second hand smoke to peeing in a pool...both annoying, both gross, but piss doesn't cause cancer. there is not a way to separate the pee out from a pool just as there is no way to separate the smoke out (and honeywell, who makes many of the air cleaning systems has said publicly that their systems do NOTHING to clean the air of carcinogens).

on comparing smoking to other pollution: yes, car pollution sucks. as does industrial pollution. there are things we can do about all of the above. just because there is other pollution doesn't mean smoking isn't an issue. taking a 'we're all going to hell in a hand basket, so who cares?' attitude doesn't do anyone any good. drive less (regardless of whether you own a hybrid or a SUV), bike more, walk more, reduce your consumption, support organic farming (less chemicals in our water supply), yada yada yada.

on fewer laws: i agree that we shouldn't have to mandate everything. heck, i'm homeschooling my kids because the school systems are so bound up in the red tape of government mandates. however, if you eat out and expect your food to be e-coli free...that's an expectation that is protected by law. when you drink from the tap, you should expect that its not going to give you cancer. it only makes sense that we protect our air in the same way.

Edited by autumn 2005-05-25 12:20 PM

I am definitely an anti-smoking snob. Both my parents smoked (still do) and I look foward to the day that smoking is finally done away with. The irony in Nova Scotia right now is that there is talk of going completely smoke free (I doubt the government is ready to do away with that revenue - maybe fastfood tax could take its place ) but nationally there is a move to decriminialize marajuana.

As for the pollution from our lives, I would love to get rid of my car and bike everywhere (however 150km is a bit much for biking - maybe next year ) and I would love to see less reliance on fossil fuels and move toward solar, tidal, wind, hydroelectric and nuclear power.

Shane

its costing them more to care for those with lung disease than they earn from cigarette taxes.

I really despise that argument that it's legal and you suck down fumes from outdoor pollutants every day. It doesn't speak to the kids who are in a household where parents smoke 4 packs a day between the two of 'em, and they all have repeated and serious lung infections until they move out. Like me and my siblings.

You know what tipped the scales against the tobacco companies? The flight attendant lawsuit. See, there was no place for the flight attendents to get away from the smoke, it was a contained space. They had a high incidence of lung cancer, and the blame landed squarly on the smoke filled air. They didn't choose to smoke, and they couldn't escape it in their work enviornment. The airlines eventually made domestic flights non-smoking, but the lawsuit held on. Then the tobacco companies made their settlement, without ever having lost a major case. But that's the one they had the highest probability of losing.

Ever go by the smoking lounge at the Atlanta Airport? You can barely see 10 feet in front of you, the smoke is that thick. (Shudder)

You bet I'm a total anti-smoking snob...And I resent that my insurance premiums are high because I'm paying for smokers health problems too.

I'm not a smoker but I'll never understand how someone believes they can stop a private business owner from allowing smoking in a privately owned business. I hate it more when the smokers are forced out on to the sidewalk. I can choose not to go into any restaurant that allows smoking but I can't avoid the streets and sidewalks.


I would love to see Joel light up a smoke in T2 to see the reaction. Gatorade? No I'll take a Camel.

I dislike the moral superiority that many non-smokers feel. I have quit smoking, and am extremely happy about it, but I am willing to bet that a few people that are acting morally superior to smokers have some other not so great habits themselves.

Pull the plank from your own eye first my friends...

Lablover, you're right, I do have bad habits. But my bad habits (eating junk food) do not directly endanger anyone else, like second-hand smoke does. I have asthma, severe asthma that has sent me to the emergency room on more than one occasion even thought I do my best to manage it. I have to take Advair, ventolin, and on occasion have to do prednisone treatments. I developed asthma as a teenager. I grew up in a smoking household. So, am I an anti-smoking snob? Hell yeah! Keep that crap away from me. I personally wish that smoking should be completely outlawed, completely illegal (yeah, I know, won't happen, but I can wish). I would give just about anything for a healthy pair of lungs and seriously cannot understand why anyone would willing destroy their own.
Sorry for the rant, sensitive subject....