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Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
Down to Our Last Nickel
Hollywood Conservative Site Launches, Hope Returns to America
Ann Coulter: Professional Victim

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procrastination_state
09/17/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
As long as Bloomberg's at it, barbecue grills produce hydrocarbons and soot particles that pollute the air and can aggravate heart and lung problems. And the grilling of meat can form polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs), both suspected carcinogens.

And ultraviolet radiation from the earth's sun causes a host of skin cancers.

Also, trees occasionally fall on people.
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drunkexpatwriter
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
I hate the fucking smoke Nazis. Fuck them. It's supposed to be a free country. If people want to use a fucking legal product outside they should be able to. And you know what, if I own a bar I should be able to decide what legal products people use or don't use in that bar.

And I'm sick and tired of the anti-smoking arguments. Yeah, it probably makes your clothes smell bad. Yeah, you probably suck in some second hand smoke. But, so what?

Car exhaust makes my clothes smell bad and I bet I suck in a lot of carcinogens from all the car exhaust in the city than any amount of second hand smoke can produce. And, guess what, in New York City there is no reason for anyone, ever to be in a car. You can get anywhere you fucking want by subway.

That's why I've never, ever owned a car whenever I've lived in any city.

So, here's the deal, I won't smoke in your fucking parks when you ban cabs, buses and private cars. I'll deal with delivery trucks because bars have to get beer somehow, but even those should be electric.

I'm tired of inhaling all you second hard car exhaust just so you can sit in a cab or a limo and not have to descend into the subway with the rest of the proletariat.
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Peter Feld
09/16/09

@drunkexpatwriter: It's refreshing to see "Nazi" applied to people who are trying to save lives rather than to mass killers for once.
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lacieca01
09/16/09

@drunkexpatwriter: It's hard to imagine how anyone could be opposed to smoking when you're such a sterling example of the smoker's charm.
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BxgrlJeri
09/16/09

@drunkexpatwriter: I am a self-admitted smoking Nazi, but yeah, it's gone too far and there are so many other things and people getting away with everything else in this city. (see my comment below).

Bloomberg should fix about a thousand other things like the fucking subways (notice his ads say if elected he'll take on the MTA, hey asshole why didn't you do that in your first EIGHT years in office???) and forget about the air in the parks. Geezus Christmas enough already!

signed,
~ your local smoking Nazi who says just say no to smoking bans in the outdoors. and btw, Bloomberg you're an asshole on so many other levels.
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Haikukitty
09/16/09

@Peter Feld: if "they're" trying to save lives, then "they" should be all for expat's exhaust ban - that stuff stinks and its deadly!
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drunkexpatwriter
09/16/09

@Haikukitty:

Thank you!
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Halo_Override
09/16/09

@drunkexpatwriter: I'm having a cigarette to celebrate your comment, even though I don't really smoke anymore.
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richardmarxhatesmyhair
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
They should have a smoking Borough. i nominate Staten Island. Every smoker is free to smoke their days away on Staten Island. Beaches, parks, daycare, bars, schools - have at it. Light up in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn or the Bronx and you get shot.
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once
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
The only downer of smoking in parks is used butts, so instead of banning smoking, they fine litterbugs. If they're concerned about secondhand smoke they need to cut the traffic out of Central Park.
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City_Dater
09/16/09

@once:

YES -- Smoke all you want outside, but stop leaving your grubby little filters all over the street as if they aren't garbage!

(But then, these are probably the same assholes who can't walk ten feet to a trash can to dispose of their candy wrapper/chicken bone/dry cleaning bill/crappy free newspaper.)
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once
09/16/09

@City_Dater: My friend shouts at people who litter & you'd be amazed how many well-dressed people do it. "You threw your sandwich wrapper on the ground? WHO Raised You!" I wish I had personality to say that
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BxgrlJeri
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
I am pretty much a staunch anti-smoking blowhard but I'm even more anti-Bloomberg with his damn Napoleon complex.

I'd really like to ban roller bladers and old grannies in the park. They are definitely more hazardous to my health than smokers. Where do I get this petition thang going?
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Edited by BxgrlJeri at 09/16/09 10:56 AM BxgrlJeri was starred BxgrlJeri was unstarred

sarrible
09/16/09

@BxgrlJeri: I'd like to ban double-wide strollers and people who let their three-year-olds push the stroller in a zig-zag pattern, blocking the entire sidewalk. But I'm not crazy, so I just Twitter furiously about it and don't expect anything to change.
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BxgrlJeri
09/16/09

@sarrible: Yes, there are so many assholes in the park. But as long as they're not smoking, they're fine. Such crap.
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allyzay
09/16/09

@BxgrlJeri: OMG a couple weeks ago there was a group of LARPers in Prospect Park, beating away at each other with their fake swords and their fake bows and arrows. I mean, putting aside the fact that if it was a bunch of minority teenagers playing backyard wrestling instead of a bunch of pasty white boys doing it, the cops would've stopped it in 30 seconds flat, THESE GUYS are ok but smoking one cigarette is not? What on earth is wrong with America?
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CoffeyWasHere
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
Smoking Outside + Patrick Swayze + Important Public Events w/Audience Outbursts + The Guys In the Pic at the Top of This Post = The Most Meta Vid You Will See This Week!
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Halo_Override
09/16/09

@CoffeyWasHere: Nicely done.
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Muggs Bigglesworth
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
Can we just ban cloves, permanently, instead? Shit's gross.
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dissentingopinion
09/16/09

@Muggs Bigglesworth: Didn't congress actually do that?
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Muggs Bigglesworth
09/16/09

@dissentingopinion: Just saw. But now allowing you to smoke cigs outside just feels oppressive, like some kind of far-away novel you'd read in junior high school. Before long, we'll have to do exercises in front of our telescreen every morning before reporting to work at the Ministry of Truth.
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TheUptightMidwesterner
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
Since I gave up smoking, the only way I can get a cheap thrill is to walk by someone on the sidewalk or doorway who is puffing away. I am more offended by people's BO and perfume choices.
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TabithaIapetus
09/16/09

@TheUptightMidwesterner: Seriously. How can we get Bloomberg to place a ban on wearing Axe in public places?
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flossy
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
Although I smoke, and still wish I could do so in bars (I mean come on, it's a bar, not a church or a hospital), I have sympathy for non-smokers who object to being in an enclosed space where people are smoking. If there's no way to get away from the smoke, you shouldn't be allowed to smoke there. It just isn't fair.

However. PARKS? SIDEWALKS? Outdoor areas where smoke instantly dissipates in the surrounding gazillions of cubic feet of air? Give me a fucking break. This is a large, crowded city with poor air quality. Nobody has a reasonable expectation of walking around outdoors without encountering some kind of airborne pollutant. If we're going to pretend this is about public health, cars and trucks should be the first things banned. But it's not about public health, except in the roundabout way that making the life of a smoker impossibly expensive and annoying might encourage them to quit. The health risks associated with getting a passing whiff of secondhand smoke on the street or in a park are beyond negligible, and people who loudly claim otherwise are whiny, entitled and self-righteous cunts who deserve a passing reminder that the world doesn't revolve around them.
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BaconForTheSoul
09/16/09

@flossy: I am probably more offended by the bar ban then the park ban. It seems pretty simple to allow people to choose whether or not they go into a bar that allows smoking. Make it the bars choice. It isn't required for people to go into bars, nor does it seem to be a right. Especially since the majority of people in bars are already there to do a little damage, it's a similar mindset.
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Rhymenocerous
09/16/09

@flossy: Actually this ban is expressly part of "a broader strategy to further curb smoking rates" (NYT story). It's not about second-hand smoke, though the ban in bars and restaurants was. This one is about getting people to quit.

Of course, it's not going to work. "Oh, I can't smoke at the beach, where I go one to two times a year?? I guess it's time to quit." Besides, there is very little chance that they could enforce this with any consistency.
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zombies.like.lattés.too
09/16/09

@BaconForTheSoul: as someone who worked as a bartender, I'm thrilled about the smoking ban in bars. I'm not sure how much the ban is for other patrons as it is for people who work there.

Although a happy medium would be to have a smoker's bar staffed by smokers who don't mind it so much.
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lacieca01
09/16/09

@BaconForTheSoul: It's astonishing to see that even among the generally well-informed readers of Gawker, there are a few who don't understand that the ban on smoking in bars is an OSHA issue.
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I Don't Get It
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
As long as there is no smoking in childrens' play areas, I see no problem in allowing smoking in parks. They even have smoking areas at Disney World which is considerably more wholesome than NYC.
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Go Like Hell Machine
09/16/09

@I Don't Get It: I don't even particularly like children, and I wholeheartedly agree. As a smoker, I'll agree to not smoke near playgrounds or child-friendly areas, like day care centers.
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daveyjonesisdead
09/16/09

@Go Like Hell Machine: I don't particularly like children either. Let's ban them from the parks instead - they're just little germ machines.
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BadUncle
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
Next they'll ban smoking weed in parks.
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BxgrlJeri
09/16/09

@BadUncle: and shooting heroin
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Nic Fit
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
This city missed a great opportunity to jump start an air purification industry in this city by banning smoking in bars. If they had only required particulate standards, the industry would have responded and the economy would have improved.

But we all know that they really just want to ban smoking period. Fucking health nazis.
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Nic Fit
09/16/09

@Nic Fit: Oh, and EIGHT IS ENOUGH!
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KentuckyBabe
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
No smoking in bars is the best thing ever.

But come on, outside is outside.

I hate walking behind a smoker on the street. It usually makes me want to vomit when I get hit with a strangers expelled smoke in my face but I just pass them.
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sarrible
09/16/09

@KentuckyBabe: Yeah, I'd rather be next to a bus than trapped behind a slow-walking smoker.
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BxgrlJeri
09/16/09

@KentuckyBabe: yeah and I'm one of those assholes who makes the big dramatic sweeping motions with my arms and fake coughs and shit (you know the person that smokers hate) as I pass them and I am so on the side of smokers on this one.
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misslinda
09/16/09

In reply to Smoker Oppression Reaches Tipping Point
I'm perfectly okay with smokers in the parks. It's the sidewalks I have a problem with. Can't Mayor Mike do the sensible thing and relegate smoking to the south side of the blocks on crosstown streets, and the west side on avenues?
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Iceland Spar
05/01/09

In reply to Down to Our Last Nickel
also - SWINE FLU!!!!
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