Two bills that would have prohibited smoking in certain situations were killed in the house today.
A bill that would have prohibited smoking within 75 ft. of a hospital was killed in committee with six voting in favor and 9 voting against.
While we’ve talked about the hospital smoking ban before (when it failed to pass committee in the Senate), I’d just like to reiterate the point that keeping people from smoking really isn’t the government’s job. While I don’t want to be exposed to cigarette smoke while entering the hospital to, I don’t know, have a baby or something, I’d rather the hospital make the rules against it than the government.
The other anti-smoking bill that failed today – and this is a doozy – would have made it illegal to smoke in the car if a child is a passenger.
I’m serious.
Despite the fact that my asthma was probably at least partially caused by growing up in a house with a smoking father, I can say that I’d rather have asthma than live under a government that would tell my dad that he can’t smoke in the car with me. What’s next? Curling irons may not be used in homes with children because they can burn themselves! Only raw foods may be served because of the risk of oven fires in homes with children! One may not drink a soda while driving a child to school because it is a distraction and an accident may result, in which the child may be injured!
It certainly pains me to meet a child who smells like an ashtray, as I would have hoped that his/her parents would have sense enough to take their butts (heehee) outside, but, sweet fancy Moses, is this really what we pay taxes for?
Thankfully, the members of the House committee that discussed the bill saw it the same way – it failed to even get a motion for passage, leaving it dead in the water.
April 23, 2008 at 10:56 am
Your politicians must have declined their bribes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, or they’d be crowing about the improvement in the “public health” from smoking bans.
If you don’t like a child who smells like an ashtray you’ll have to find another complaint. I took a whiff of my ashtray and I had to put my nose in it to smell it. Is that what you do?
Really, you Nazis should get some new material.
I hear that ashtray BS every 30 minutes.
April 23, 2008 at 3:29 pm
“Joe”,
Someone who supports your freedom to smoke is a NAZI?
April 23, 2008 at 4:27 pm
The Other Mark:
You say that you don’t want to be exposed(for three seconds) entering the hospital, you don’t like to smell ashtrays and it probably caused your asthma. I know Nazis who aren’t that fanatical.
Incidentally, I’m an asthmatic myself–or was before starting smoking cured it. 95% of asthmatics are allergic to dust mites, so the Nazis looking to asthmathics for sympathy are barking up the proverbial wrong tree. Tobacco smoke has been known to relieve bronchial spasms.
Give it a try.
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April 23, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Camel,
Asthma? Where did that come from?
You obviously aren’t reading the posts at all.
Do you actually know NAZIs? Real live NAZIs?
BTW, you’re “curing” your asthma with lung cancer…..
I’m done. You get the last word…
April 23, 2008 at 5:25 pm
The Other Mark
Rereading this thing I see that somebody named “Jama” posted it. I see 2 comments by me and two by you. That’s it. Jama says he has asthma.
Your extreme smartassedness in stating a delusion of yours(lung cancer) as fact for me to read and heed is very Nazilike. So whether it’s you or Jama talking,I do not need antitobacco propaganda from smartasses.
May 8, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Joe Camel is really sad. Even sadder is we will end up taking care of him in the hospital because of his tobacco habit. If he wants to kill himself, let him. If he gets a disease due to tobacco use, I am sure he will not tax the healthcare system but simply smoke away to his death at home.
May 8, 2008 at 9:01 pm
TC,
You’re dreaming, man. ‘Joe’ is going to rot away while your premiums increase because he “cured” his asthma with cancer. All the while he’s going to rant and rave about the high costs of health care, you “nazi”.
On the bright side, his legacy to humanity will be his contribution of the word, “smartassedness”.