Cigarette?

[jeheinz72]

I've smoked for awhile now. I smoke a bit over a half-pack a day. I'll quit, eventually. I want to.

I do go somewhat out of my way to make sure I don't bug others with my smoking. I don't like to smoke indoors in any way, and if I'm at some sort of gathering or some such and I want a smoke, I make sure to get a pretty good distance from any apparent non-smokers.

[Kodos]

I think smoking bans are terrific. I'm also lucky that most of my friends have not been smokers.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

I smoke about a pack a day. Two packs a day on the weekends when I am drinking. Currently, I know how bad it is for me, but quite frankly I do a lot of shit that is unhealthy. I don't exercise regularly. I drink excessively. I have a shitty diet. Maybe someday I'll start working on those things one-by-one, but hell I'm only 20 so I'm sure eventually I will and will maybe fall into the category "I smoked in my younger days, then I got wise" but right now I am not to worried.

That, or you'll be a 250lb, 40yo alcoholic with diabetes and high blood pressure!

[Schmidty]

The biggest thing that annoys me the most about smokers (other than the obvious stench), is their total disregard for littering laws. It's like once a person becomes a tobacco addict, they lose all consideration for others and seem to feel like the world is their ashtray.

[Drake]

I am always amused by how worked up people get about the behavior of smokers.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Drake

I am always amused by how worked up people get about the behavior of smokers.

And I get amused by how antagonistic and smarmy smokers are about their addiction.

I'm not even remotely worked up. It's more of a sense of scorn, than it is any kind of constant anger or rage directed toward smokers. I just think the vast majority of butt-chuckers are inconsiderate with regard to their habit.

[Schmidty]

By the way, my "scorn" isn't about a smoker as a human, just regarding the habit.

[Drake]

Good to see that it doesn't get you worked up.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Drake

Good to see that it doesn't get you worked up.

Thanks.

[Izulde]

Ah, in a few days I'll be able to get my hands on Djarum Blacks again.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Drake

I am always amused by how worked up people get about the behavior of smokers.

The only time I get "worked up" about the behavior of smokers is when their cigarette smoke prevents my wife from being able to breathe.

The fucking terrorists gave her asthma.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I wish Michigan would get with the 21st Century and pass a smoking ban, but this crap ass state never will. It's backwards is so many, many ways.

They finally just passed a smoking ban in the bowling alleys here. Now I feel the urge to join a bowling league, rent some of those crappy looking shoes, and bowl my little heart out.

BTW, why would anyone actually BUY those stupid shoes? Ahh, but that is another discussion for another thread......

[RomaGoth]

Interesting. So the millions of deaths each year from lung cancer are, in fact, not related to smoking cigarettes? Considering my grandfather died from it, I would have to seriously question your reasoning behind that statement.

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

I think the harm from cigarettes has been vastly exagerrated personally

and on a health front am I the only person who felt like crap for ages after giving up smoking, I got loads of colds and other problems which cigarettes had somehow kept from me previously ... I felt no health benefits at all while in comparison dieting and getting some exercise made me feel great after dropping a few pounds)

Hmmm. Did you ever consider that maybe your immune system was considerably down because of your previous smoking habit? It takes quite a while for your lungs and body to recover from the tar that is inside you after smoking. Trust me, I smoked for 10 years before quitting in 2004. I have never felt better and have no desire to ever get near the stuff again.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

AFAIC your right to enjoy the game should not trump my right to be able to enjoy it there as well. And the smoking ban completely eliminated my ability to enjoy the game there, as I really can't think of anything enjoyable in life that doesn't involve a cigarette in close proximity. Only the business owner has any business whatsoever making the smoking decision for their establishment.

But shouldn't clean air be available for everyone? I was a smoker at one time and was pissed off at how I was treated. Then, even before I quit, I came to the realization people whom don't smoke should not be forced to inhale the stuff because I smoke. That is like me making the decision for them that they will smoke. I quit in 2004 and am fine with it. Never wanted one again. If people want to smoke in their house or car that is their option. But if I am in a public place, where NOBODY owns the air I breathe, then I or my kids should not have to breath cigarette smoke because somebody else has decided for us that they need to smoke.

[MikeVic]

I really can't believe there are people still defending smoking in public. You're at worst killing and at a minimum harming yourself and those around you. Please get some self respect for you and your body instead of coming up with excuses.

[RomaGoth]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I really can't believe there are people still defending smoking in public. You're at worst killing and at a minimum harming yourself and those around you. Please get some self respect for you and your body instead of coming up with excuses.

Agreed. The sad thing is, those are the people that will live until they are 90, and then say "see, I told you smoking wasn't bad for you!". In fact, it IS bad for you, just some people get lucky.

[st.cronin]

I am one of those people who spends a lot more money in bars and restaurants in towns with smoking bans.

[Drake]

I've never pretended to defend smoking as a good idea.

Of course, I take the same approach to bars and alcohol in general.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I really can't believe there are people still defending smoking in public.

Some of us are still able to seperate our own personal wants from our views on the function and power of government. I would personally love for there not to be any smokers in any place that I go, but I also do not think the governement should be able to have the power to ban smoking from bars or other private establishments (especially ones where only adults go to). If you can legally do it on property you own, then the owner of the bar should be able to allow it on his property.

[thesloppy]

While it's certainly hard to defend smoking as a lifestyle choice, I'd like to see how a thread with such open and direct scorn for obesity would fly.

Show some self respect, fucking fatties.

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

While it's certainly hard to defend smoking as a lifestyle choice, I'd like to see how a thread with such open and direct scorn for obesity would fly.

Show some self respect, fucking fatties.

Actually, I also tend not to patronize bars that allow fat chicks in.

[Drake]

Actually, I also tend not to patronize bars that allow fat chicks in.

I might go to bars if this ban was in place.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

Actually, I also tend not to patronize bars that allow fat chicks in.

New Jersey came up with the perfect solution to that. A man sued a bar several years ago because he said that "Lady's Night" at bars with a cover charge (Ladies get in free on Lady's Night) was sexist and discrimination against male customers.

He won, but the beauty of it is the bars are still going to let the super hot chicks inside for free, and charge the fatties full price to get in, discouraging fatties from going to bars.

[thesloppy]

Don't get me wrong, if you want to be fat in your own car or home, that's cool, just don't waddle around in public. It sets a bad precedent for the kids.

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by sabotai

New Jersey came up with the perfect solution to that. A man sued a bar several years ago because he said that "Lady's Night" at bars with a cover charge (Ladies get in free on Lady's Night) was sexist and discrimination against male customers.

He won, but the beauty of it is the bars are still going to let the super hot chicks inside for free, and charge the fatties full price to get in, discouraging fatties from going to bars.

Yet another reason that NJ is the most underrated state in the Union.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

While it's certainly hard to defend smoking as a lifestyle choice, I'd like to see how a thread with such open and direct scorn for obesity would fly.

Show some self respect, fucking fatties.

I don't have to inhale your fat. That's the difference.

[Schmidty]

Although, a giant, stinky vaginal butt-crevasse would be worse than cig smoke.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

I don't have to inhale your fat. That's the difference.

Of course it's not a perfect analogy, but I think you could argue that obesity can certainly attack the senses just as well as smoking (as you noted), and I think you could take it even further to suggest that others' obesity poses as much of an indirect health threat as second-hand smoke, and it certainly causes just as many health problems for the person in question. Likewise, others' obesity is likely taking at least as much money out of your pockets than smokers ever will, whether it's for their health care or paying your share of the crop subsidies to keep everybody lathered up in corn syrup or whatever.

However, very few people would walk up to someone who is obese and tell them directly "I think fat people are disgusting." because we all understand that obese people are still people after all, and deserving of some small common courtesy regardless of their poor life decisions. Somewhere in there, smokers were deemed unworthy of that respect, while the rest of the world is pretty much free to wallow in the poor decisions we all make every day.

[terpkristin]

Never done it, it's always completely grossed me out. Part of it has probably been the athlete in me, but I've never really hung out with people who smoke, either, so it's not like I ever got the urge young to try and then I just got grossed out as I got older.

I prefer restaurants that don't allow any smoking, but living in VA, I've gotten used to the fact that the world doesn't just cater to me, no matter how much I think it should.

Sometimes I wish I were a smoker. The smokers at work are almost a clique, and I do think a lot of good stuff gets discussed on smoke breaks, work work talks and gossip...

/tk

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by sabotai

If you can legally do it on property you own, then the owner of the bar should be able to allow it on his property.

Uh, really?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Of course it's not a perfect analogy, but I think you could argue that obesity can certainly attack the senses just as well as smoking (as you noted), and I think you could take it even further to suggest that others' obesity poses as much of an indirect health threat as second-hand smoke, and it certainly causes just as many health problems for the person in question. Likewise, others' obesity is likely taking at least as much money out of your pockets than smokers ever will, whether it's for their health care or paying your share of the crop subsidies to keep everybody lathered up in corn syrup or whatever.

However, very few people would walk up to someone who is obese and tell them directly "I think fat people are disgusting." because we all understand that obese people are still people after all, and deserving of some small common courtesy regardless of their poor life decisions. Somewhere in there, smokers were deemed unworthy of that respect, while the rest of the world is pretty much free to wallow in the poor decisions we all make every day.

The fat/smoking thing doesn't work at all. I think the difference is that by smoking you're actually poisoning other peoples' air and, I think, that's why people my feel more justified going up to someone and complaining about them smoking.

The distinction is pretty clear, no?

That said, I have never witnessed any of this horrible persecution smokers seem to face. I've asked people if they would stop smoking in restaurants before, but I've always been very polite and the response has always been positive. That said, I will shoot people "the dirties" if I see them smoking around their kids. That's pretty pathetic.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

The distinction is pretty clear, no?

Is it? Everybody sitting in their idling cars at Jack in the Box waiting for their next 1000 calorie happy meal are unnecessarily poisining in the air, aren't they? Simply driving anywhere to do anything (directly food related or not) with 2 300-pound people in the car is going to take more gas and therefore cause more pollution than if those people were half the size.

Regardless of the pollution aspects, a 2 ton piece of steel driving down the road at 50 mph is a thousand times the threat of second-hand smoke to you and your family, and someone who is obese is unlikely to walk or bike anywhere.

Call me a fool, but I would argue that the environmental footprint left by the obese poses far more of a threat than that of second hand smoke.

[st.cronin]

Smokers don't drive?

[Logan]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Is it? Everybody sitting in their idling cars at Jack in the Box waiting for their next 1000 calorie happy meal are unnecessarily poisining in the air, aren't they? Simply driving anywhere to do anything (directly food related or not) with 2 300-pound people in the car is going to take more gas and therefore cause more pollution than if those people were half the size.

Regardless of the pollution aspects, a 2 ton piece of steel driving down the road at 50 mph is a thousand times the threat of second-hand smoke to you and your family, and someone who is obese is unlikely to walk or bike anywhere.

Call me a fool, but I would argue that the environmental footprint left by the obese poses far more of a threat than that of second hand smoke.

Honestly, just quit.

[thesloppy]

Of course they do, but they're so fucking skinny from the nicotine that a lifetime of lowered fuel consumption cancels out the effect of their second-hand smoke.

Duh.

C'mon people, it's all ball-bearings these days.

[Schmidty]

Honestly, other than JIMGA (because he just doesn't give a fuck), the majority of the smokers in this thread seem desperate in their aggressive attempt to defend smoking.

That's not a judgement - Just an observation.

[CU Tiger]

I would be curious to see JimGA'a opinion on the cig butt littering comment above. being the noteed authoritarian he is, I wonder if he too falls into this group and if so his justification/reasoning for it.

[Drake]

I could have sworn that I specifically said that I don't defend smoking. It's an ugly habit. It's also one I happen to like.

Sometimes I wish I were a smoker. The smokers at work are almost a clique, and I do think a lot of good stuff gets discussed on smoke breaks, work work talks and gossip...

And yes, this is completely true everywhere I've ever worked. More gossip, more dirt, more "I shouldn't be telling you this, but...", more inside info on promotions, raises, investigations...you name it. All of the things your superiors won't say in their office, even with the door closed, they'll say over a cigarette in the alley.

Edit to add: I'd go so far as to say that most of my promotions historically have had a great deal more to do with synchronizing my smoke breaks with my bosses' than with my actual job performance. Not going to apologize for it. For those of us without perky tits and a great ass, we have to exploit whatever other advantages we can.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

I would be curious to see JimGA'a opinion on the cig butt littering comment above. being the noteed authoritarian he is, I wonder if he too falls into this group and if so his justification/reasoning for it.

I was about to respond but realized that Schmidty really summed it up better (and a hell of a lot funnier) than I could have in a thousand words.

because he just doesn't give a fuck

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Logan

Honestly, just quit.

What makes you think I smoke? Would you think it was rude of me to ask you to lose some weight?

Is it really foolish to suggest that the fatter someone is the more fuel they are going to consume, and the more pollution they're going to cause, over the course of their lives? Fat people eat food, right? More food than people who aren't fat, right? That extra food has to be grown, processed, shipped and refrigerated somehow, yes? All of these things cause unnecessary pollution and waste, yes? Where exactly is the folly in that argument?

And to be clear, I'm not defending people's right to smoke, I could give two shits if they outlawed smoking tomorrow, I'm questioning why it's cool to treat smokers as sub-humans and openly call them disgusting and call them on their decisions when everybody else on this planet is making poor decisions and getting a free pass.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

What makes you think I smoke? Would you think it was rude of me to ask you to lose some weight?

Haha wow...please "quit" your awful argument. I could give two shits whether you smoke or not.

[Schmidty]

All things aside, I think this thread proves that smell is the most underrated sense of all.

[Drake]

It is if you smoke, Schmidty. Smell is the first one to go.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Logan

Haha wow...please "quit" your awful argument.

Fair enough. I guess I will, if that's as compelling as the argument's going to get.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Fair enough. I guess I will, if that's as compelling as the argument's going to get.

Fine.

Yes, fat people eat food. Fat people may eat unhealthy food. I say may because they could have health conditions that make them fat such as an illness, they could have a slow metabolism, or just eat a standard diet but not be active at all so a minimal amount of calories get burnt, which makes them put on weight. Fat people might eat more food than thin people. I say may because if I eat a Whopper three meals a day I will surely be fat. You may eat a head of lettuce, a broiled chicken, steamed broccoli and an apple three times a day. You will therefore be eating more food than me, but I will be eating a much less healthy diet. By your words, you are now causing more pollution, wasting more resources, whatever you want to call it than me.

So again I'll ask, can you quit your awful argument?

[thesloppy]

Geesh man, I said I'm done. To be fair, you only addressed a fraction of my argument and needed a handful of ifs-and-buts to do so, but I'm not going to push it, I'm not trying to attack you. My apologies for breaking up the smoker-bash fest.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by sabotai

If you can legally do it on property you own, then the owner of the bar should be able to allow it on his property.

I can legaly urinate in my home, should I be allowed to do it in public?

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I can legaly urinate in my home, should I be allowed to do it in public?

I can legally walk around naked in my home. In fact, I often do!

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I can legaly urinate in my home, should I be allowed to do it in public?

While I have no desire to witness you urinate, I do feel that if sabotai chose to open a facilitty and his whole premise was a place to open and freely urinate that should be his right.


I dont think anyone is arguing you must be allowed to smoke wherever you please, if you feel that way, you are really ignoring half the argument.
The argument is that restaraunteurs shouldd be able to choose which clientel they wish to attract and if it is smokers they should be welcomed.

Anyone ever heard Auggie Smith and his takee on smoking and bed bath and beyond?

If not find it and listen, if you piss yourself I am not responsible. Though sabotai may bee if hee opened the pee anywhere store

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

I dont think anyone is arguing you must be allowed to smoke wherever you please, if you feel that way, you are really ignoring half the argument.
The argument is that restaraunteurs shouldd be able to choose which clientel they wish to attract and if it is smokers they should be welcomed.

seriously?

no where in this thread do I see any indication it is slanted towards restaurants only.