The sneering condescension dripping off CNN's editorial on airport smoking lounges is of the type normally reserved for arugula-deprived yahoos in the snake-handling wastelands west of the Hudson who persist in owning guns.
The whole article proves that it's not about health or "secondhand smoke", it's about control. You can stuff the smokers into a fishbowl with a completely separate ventilation system (in a building surrounded by a haze of JP-4 fumes with rows of idling diesel buses out front,) and it's still not good enough. I guess humans have an inborn urge to control somebody; to feel a righteous and societally-sanctioned hate for somebody; to feel superior to somebody; to make somebody sit at the back of the bus. They've just been forced to shift fire to a new target: Niccers.
.
(Stop snickering, Fatty; they're coming for you next.)
.
Not being a smoker, I never wondered how smokers in the lounges at airports ignited their drug of choice, since lighters and what not have been prohibited since 9/11. Interesting to hear that they have a little cigarette "glory hole" where they can find satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteI just used a lighter. You can buy them at the airport.
ReplyDeleteI really can't stand these Temperance bitches, of whatever stripe. Alcohol, marijuana, trans-fats, tobacco, bacon, cocaine, butter, salt, whatever.
ReplyDeleteThe University of New Mexico has a "tobacco free campus" policy. Not "smoking free", "tobacco free". You can't even dip or snuff, even though there's clearly no secondhand smoke from either of those activities, since there's no firsthand smoke either.
As you say, it's all about control.
Quoted for truth.
ReplyDeleteEverybody wants in on the tyranny biz anymore.
Ah, but snuff and chew can make your lip fall off. That is enough for the better that thou squad.
ReplyDeleteMakes me want to engage in more "marginalized behavior".
ReplyDeleteNot just the fatties. They'll be gearing up for "Prohibition II" next.
ReplyDeleteOnly this time they won't ban it, no - they'll just go the cigarette route and tax the living s**t out of it.
When I started smoking in 1987, a pack of smokes cost $1.10 at the local gas station. That same pack is somewhere north of $8 a pack today.
If the cost of a six pack of beer had kept pace, that $4 six of Bud would now cost $32. A case would run you over $100.
Expect the days of cheap bear to end very soon...
If she wants to control people I suggest she abvocate for shock collars on pruitan busybodies. Start with that puritan busybodie Emanuella Grinberg.
ReplyDeleteI'll smack the hornet's nest.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a smoking household, it doesn't bother me a bit, and I have plenty of smoking friends. My concern isn't with smokers having fun, or with health risks.
And as far as private property, including restaurants and stores, light up if it's fine with the lawful possessor. If you are a customer or employee and don't like it, shop elsewhere or quit.
Public accommodations are different.
Not smoking in a place where strangers have to congregate is a matter of good manners.
Unlike carrying a gun or having high cholesterol, PUBLIC smoking has a direct and unavoidable effect on third parties.
In that way, it's like playing loud music or, for that matter, screaming the Gettysburg Address and the Constitution at the top of one's voice.
It's just rude and common to smoke where it bothers unwilling non smokers.
"It's just rude and common to smoke where it bothers unwilling non smokers."
ReplyDeleteI agree.
Hence the discussion about smoking in hermetically-sealed fishbowls.
Maybe if they were opaque, so Mrs. Grundy didn't know what was going on in there?
No, she'd still fuss...
They don't have to "come after" the fatties. We've been targets all our lives.
ReplyDeleteWhen was the last time a well-meaning stranger told you, "You really shouldn't be eating that."?
Or a family member who supposedly loves you calls you an elephant with one breath, then offers a piece of cheesecake with the next? And would be mortally offended if you refused.
The general public makes assumptions about fat people all the time and has no problem with labeling us and treating us with contempt and open disdain.
Government meddling/regulation/what-have-you would only be an extension of that.
"Government meddling/regulation/what-have-you would only be an extension of that."
ReplyDeleteMy point exactly.
I never smoked but both my parents and wife did. Go overseas and its like an episode of Mad Men.
ReplyDeleteThe smoke nazis are almost ex- smokers who are still jonesing for one more drag.
I say round them up and send them to Romania. Even the dogs smoke there.
Gerry
Tolerent ex-smoker here. Pretty sure your second-hand smoke isn't going to shorten my life any, merely make for a few moderately unpleasant moments. Just don't blow the smoke in my face and we're cool.
ReplyDeleteBut don't the smoke nazis know how dangerous it is to mess with a nicotine junkie jonesin' for their next fix?
On second thought, let 'em find out the hard way.
I have no problem with that feeling superior bit that you mention, Tam. I do that every damned day.
ReplyDeleteIt's all the rest of the control stuff that you mention that gets my shorts in a wad.
The chilling phrase to me was, "As long as smoking is legal in the United States...".
ReplyDeleteVery Brady-esque.
Especially as the conflict described is to them one of non-smokers (who hate smoking) and smokers (who hate themselves for not being able to quit).
Did it occur to them that some people might actually enjoy tobacco?
It's like when my ex-boss wouldn't let me put gun magazines (the paper ones) in the waiting room. She didn't want us "promoting violence".
Violence/Disease = Bad.
Guns/Tobacco = Violence/Disease.
Guns/Tobacco = Bad.
You shoot/smoke? Whassa matta wit you? You bad person. We make law. You go away.
Why are you using the "N" word? We are the Persons of Colored Lungs ( POCL), thank you very much! You are just showing your Smokist Prejudices. Keep this up, and I'll file a Complaint with the DOJ's Dept. of Minority Oppression!
ReplyDeleteNit-pick Warning:
ReplyDeleteJP-4 is not used by airlines. They usually use a slightly different compound called Jet A. The military no longer uses JP-4 either, having switched to JP-8 in 1990.
Regardless, I still experience tumescence at the smell of jet fuel any time of day! Ahhh, it smells like...VICTORY!
"Especially as the conflict described is to them one of non-smokers (who hate smoking) and smokers (who hate themselves for not being able to quit).
ReplyDeleteDid it occur to them that some people might actually enjoy tobacco?"
In their minds, the enjoyment is just a result of the addiction, therefore it's not a valid feeling, and the smokers must hate themselves for feeling it.
wv: shemaho - Wow. I'm so not going there.
"Regardless, I still experience tumescence at the smell of jet fuel any time of day! Ahhh, it smells like...VICTORY!"
ReplyDelete+1 internets
Although I never went fast, so for me it's the smell of 100LL.
Triple threat!
ReplyDeleteI not only smoke, but am fat and over 65 - all of which are bad for my health and cause noticeable scorn on the part of those who do not smoke, are a bit underweight, and are under forty years of age.
I do try to accomodate people who object to the smell of second-hand smoke, such as my sister. in public, I [usually, but if ashtrays are supplied what the heck] smoke outside and try to stay downwind. But there are limits: I go outside to smoke when at my sister's house, but at my apartment I will usually just open another window and turn a fan for her.
Not long after I graduated, my university went tobacco free all over the campus. The powers that be continue to ignore the rude drunks who make obnoxious noises during quiet hours; get mowed down in the crosswalks because they're too blitzed to safely cross; and pee in the clothes dryers. (Yes, really.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not calling for Prohibition, Jr. here - just saying that, as far as I could see, some of the people who overindulged in alcohol caused more problems and were bigger nuisances than the smokers who, by the way, were already required by city ordinance to stay at least twenty feet away from public-building doors.
The no-smoking push isn't about peoples' well being. It's about controlling poor, addicted wretches like me who clearly can't make good decisions for ourselves and need help.
They are already coming for "fatty".
ReplyDeleteEmanuella Grinberg and the Two Minutes Hate. Oh, my.
ReplyDeleteI could care less about the smoking lounges--but it WOULD be nice if those who exit them walked through an "ozium" room or something to kill the smell before they sit down on an airplane.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually more tolerant of smokers who reek on an airplane than I am of ridiculously obese people who spill over into my seat (on those VERY rare occasions that we fly commercially) to the point that you have little to no space of your own left.
I'll start raising hell instantly with the flight attendant, and on one occasion, walked off the flight and raised so much hell with American Airlines that I was upgraded to First Class on the next departing flight to my destination.
Overweight is one thing; fat is another, and obese is simply inexcusable.
Lot of reasons we rarely fly commercially anymore.
AOA
That's MR Fatty to you dear! :)
ReplyDeleteThey've always come after us and it's all the skinny peoples fault!
I mean all that weight's got to go somewhere!
Personally, I think smoking (and most recreational drugs of choice) are stupid and self-destructive, and I'm not ashamed to say that I think much less of a person who engages in them.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't want them illegal. I know there are people who think it's stupid and self destructive to own/carry firearms, drive normal-sized vehicles, or live anywhere in New England. They're wrong, of course, at least on two out of three, but they obviously think they're right.
People have the right to be wrong, even when it's stupid and self-destructive. All I ask is (1) you give everyone the same latitude no matter how many of the "right" people disagree, (2) you take responsibility for the consequences of your actions and don't expect me to pay for it, and (3) you don't let your activity affect me in a material way.
Those fishbowls always make me laugh. My first reaction is that I am walking past a museum display about stupid smokers. I'm almost surprised that the people in the haze are real and not mannequins with smoke pumping out of them.
ReplyDeleteThe first commercial flight I took was on a L10-11 as hazy with smoke as the fishbowl. I damn near puked from the stench.
Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws — always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: Please pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop. Nyet, tovarishchee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them for their own good. -- RAH
ReplyDeleteWhen I see some poor smokers huddling out in the cold, smoking their cancer sticks, it makes me feel good about myself. I may have made several blunders but at least I'm not addicted to that shit.
ReplyDeleteAround here a packet costs 3$. So, not being an average smoker saves me resources to shoot about 600 rounds more per month.
A habit that's costly and offers nothing beyond decreased lifespan and highly elevated risk of host of unpleasant diseases?
But if cigarettes keep just one person from turning into a werewolf, isn't that worth it?
ReplyDelete:-D
Two quotes.
ReplyDelete"Puritanism: The fear that someone, somewhere, may be having fun." (H.L. Mencken
"If your only issue with tyranny is that you are not the tyrant, I have no use for you." (me)
AOA,
ReplyDelete"I could care less about the smoking lounges--but it WOULD be nice if those who exit them walked through an "ozium" room or something to kill the smell before they sit down on an airplane."
Ah, so it's not the risk of cancer from secondhand smoke, but the smell? Can I make nasty-smelling cologne illegal?
Außenseiter,
Believe me, if it costs me only 20 years off my life to keep me from being some puling, whiny Slovakian, it's worth every second.
Stopping smoking on commercial aircraft was one of the stupidest things ever done; how else are the metalsmiths gonna find the cracks and loose rivets in the aft pressure bulkhead??
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAh, so it's not the risk of cancer from secondhand smoke, but the smell? Can I make nasty-smelling cologne illegal?
I reckon people can smell like whatever they want to smell like, so long as I can't tell unless we're dancing-close.
Jim
As an ex-smoker, I can't stand the smell of stale smoke, but it wears off most smokers fast enough that I can put up with it. (Usually -- Tam will tell you sometimes I remark her "smoking sweater" is overdue for a trip through the washer; I am mindful that a smoker really can't notice it sometimes. Flip side, fresh smoke still smells good to me occasionally, go figure).
ReplyDeleteBut the smoke-banning ninnies? Those people are plain hateful. If half as much effort was put into serious air-filtration systems as goes onto bands and special smoking rooms, there wouldn't be a problem with "second-hand smoke."
"Bands?" BANS!
ReplyDeleteWhen I got my first job in an office, smoking was still allowed. The rude MF's would light up and blow smoke all over you without a care.
ReplyDeleteA few months later it was banned in the building. I have to admit, it was a sweet feeling to look out the window on a -5 degree day in January to see them enjoying a smoke and a 40-mile-an-hour breeze off the Atlantic in lovely Quincy, MA.
Maybe someday we'll learn to get along.
What is so damn bad about the smell of tobacco smoke? Ever since I was a little kid I've wondered what the hell people have against it.
ReplyDeleteStaghounds: suppose I wanted to open a drinking establishment, and I put a sign on the front door -- "We smoke in here and if you don't like it, then stay the fuck out."
ReplyDeleteWould that be okay with you, your Lordship? I mean, I'm just askin'. I know there's no point in asking the goddamned Nazis in The Vampire State.
I belong to a private club which, being a private club, is allowed to allow smoking. Every once in a while, a few of the more dogwhistly board members trot out banning smoking. Then the night manager has to remind them that the later-arriving members are members just because they can stop in for a drink and a smoke after work, and without them, the club couldn't survive. These are not just bartenders and waitstaff. Two of the heaviest smokers as a group are doctors and nurses, especially surgical nurses.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, if it costs me only 20 years off my life to keep me from being some puling, whiny Slovakian, it's worth every second.
Whiny? Care to elaborate on that? And I thought I was being condescending here. The only thing what I want from smokers is that they smoke somewhere else.
FYI I'm not a Slovakian. That's an ethnicity. I'm only a citizen of Slovakia. Their customs and attitudes are mostly alien to me. I don't even use their language most of the time.
What is so damn bad about the smell of tobacco smoke? Ever since I was a little kid I've wondered what the hell people have against it.
I don't know. What do you have against photos of necrotising fasciitis(I heartily recommend a google image search)? (apologies if you are one of the rare individuals who can savour such sights).
Probably you don't have one those on your desktop. Neither do I, but those pictures *are* fascinating. It's hard for me to keep in mind what lies beneath the skin. And it's always interesting to contemplate it.
Most people just go pale and start inquiring how not to catch it. (pretty much pure chance, unless you have a really good immune system)
Same with cigarette smoke. It's an unpleasant fume. Especially stale. I've always hated the smell.
Ah, so it's not the risk of cancer from secondhand smoke, but the smell? Can I make nasty-smelling cologne illegal?
ReplyDeleteDidn't say anything about making it illegal, just that a lot of folks don't really care for it.
But for that matter, it's not really enjoyable to be trapped on an elevator with anyone who smells like they bathed in their cologne just prior to stepping inside.
Some folks don't realize what they're doing and how it affects other folks.
And some folks just don't give a damn.
It's the latter I have no problem being rude right back to. Offend my sense of smell and I might offend your sense of hearing.
All works out.
AOA
Billy Beck,
ReplyDeletePerhaps you missed where staghounds quite clearly wrote: "And as far as private property, including restaurants and stores, light up if it's fine with the lawful possessor. If you are a customer or employee and don't like it, shop elsewhere or quit."