Thursday, January 25, 2007

Smokin'

Norm on smokers:
"I think the hospital should consider rounding up all smokers who enter its premises, holding them for several days and hosing them down with liquid horse shit until they confess to the unutterable baseness of their own miserable beings and renounce their evil ways forever."
Being a liberal-minded chap, he is, of course, being ironic.

Personally I've given up. No, not smoking - just objecting to the ban. The reasons for this are threefold.

1) It doesn't make as much difference as you think it will. The only place you could smoke with impunity prior to the ban was the pub. And I find I don't spend that much of my life there as I thought I did. My liver declares this to be not a bad thing.

2) Our 'tolerant' society is not very tolerant - which is to say the idea that you should permit things you do not approve of is not particularly well-understood, in my experience. Given that this is so, might be a better idea for those of us who describe themselves as liberals to concentrate on those issues of freedom that really matter - like detention without trial, freedom of speech and freedom of religion - shit like that. Oh, and the cause of the legalisation of drugs that are demonstrably less harmful to society - like heroin, for example.

3) Hate to say this but a part of you that knows smoking is not good welcomes it. "Would you want your son to smoke?", someone asked me. Obviously not - and if there is less opportunity for him to do so in the future, this is a good thing.

Having said all this, the smoking ban sucks - and not in a good way.

5 comments:

Will said...

"The only place you could smoke with impunity prior to the ban was the pub. And I find I don't spend that much of my life there as I thought I did."

I now spend more time at home drinking *and* smoking. More than I did prior to any ban. I drink more because it's cheaper to drink at home and smoke more because I drink more. Un-intended consequences...stupid liberal fucks.

Anonymous said...

Yeah very tearjerking Will, but the ban on smoking wasn't brought in because anyone cared about smokers' health, it was to take care of the non-smokers. We already know that smokers don't care about their health. And Shuggy, if you can blow your smoke in my face can I do burn-outs in your kid's playground? If this sounds a bit rough I'm sorry, I don't mind smokers, I just hate whingers.

Shuggy said...

I just hate whingers.

So why are you whinging about something I've never done, eh? Do burn-outs in my kid's playground and I'll stub twenty fags out on your face.

James Higham said...

I can't be in a smoke filled room for respiratory reasons. Don't think they should ban it. I jsut can't be in there with you. Big pub, that's different. More air.

Anonymous said...

Let people take any drugs they like. Just don't let them breathe it on me.

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