In California tobacco smoke is now classified as a toxin. In Virginia smoke is considered yummy.
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - A California agency voted on Thursday to classify second-hand tobacco smoke as a “toxic air contaminant,” a first-in-the-nation move that could ultimately toughen state regulations against smoking.
Here in this supposedly forward-looking village one might think that smoking would be banned in all bars, restaurants, and public places (such as parks and the downtown mall) where the breeder results play. Instead I see people smoking their cigs. As they blow some smoke from their lips the cig is in their hand in front of their kid in the baby carriage. Mmm….train the kids while they are young…
I wonder what percentage of the profit of drug stores come from cigarettes. In the local CVS the entire area behind the counter is nothing but big glitzy signs for dozens of different types of smokes. Doesn’t it seem odd that stores designed to aid your health are actually helping to kill a million people a year. The funniest thing is that the candy bars are just in front of the counter, so for kids the cigs appear to be the next great thing once they make it past the candy. Look up to the cigarette Luke. Be one with the Smoke.
Ban smoking here in the village. Why can’t the village tribal elders do that?
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I am raising money so I can patent my latest idea. “Tobacco Flakes” A yummy breakfast cereal filled with Tobacco, toxins and shaped like cigarettes! What fun! It will be advertised on children’s networks, between cartoons. It will have all our favorite features of breakfast cereal: It will go limp quickly in milk, it will cut the roof of your mouth and make it bleed (maybe even get infected) and somehow we want to have it give you a hacking cough, like Mommy has!
Too bad the tobacco companies probably already thought of this.
Ban smoking here in the village. Why can’t the village tribal elders do that?
Because Virginia is a Dillon’s Rule state; all power is reserved by the state unless expressly granted to localities. Charlottesville has no legal authority to ban smoking.
I love living in a place where there is no democracy. Do exactly what the rich politicians think you should do. You have no rights. None.
Why haven’t the local powers (or pseudo-powers) told the commonwealth that they would like to be granted permission to do just that? Why hasn’t the owner of the village (aka the Cap) used some of his spare dollars to buy that right?
I can’t wait to leave this village. If I stay much longer I will be the village elder. I just keep paying taxes to a commonwealth that promotes the death of millions every year.
Do you really want to live in a place with such patchwork laws that doing a simple things like chewing gum can have you fined when you walk across the street into the next village?
I don’t think chewing gum is considered a toxin. DDT, that is a toxin. I wonder if smokers would mind if we sprayed that toxin on them as they exude toxins towards us. I wish more time would get spent on laws related to toxins, and less on who you can date. Here in VA they are trying to ban everything except male/female dating and marriage. The right wing rules!
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I’m reminded of my trip to China in ‘01. One of the women in the tour group was a teetotaler vegitarian. She was just way too into denying the pleasures of life. Anyway, we were in a restaurant in Bejing and she got all wound up, sitting with an attitude as if she had a stick up her ass, and said “I can’t believe those people at that table are SMOKING!” That’s right, people had lit up in this open air restaurant, and to be honest I hadn’t even noticed it until she mentioned it.
My reply, “Yeah, it’s amazing what people can get away with in a free country.”
Yes, I’m a non-smoker. I could even be called an anti-smoker. But I have real problems involving the government in anything other than a court system and national defence. The government is a sledgehammer. They are the only force in our society authorized to kill people and break things, and I think that such a ‘big gun’ should be treated with respect (and a little fear) by not using it for trivial things, and keeping it severely in check by giving it as little authority as possible.