SKIRTING THE SMOKING LAW

I don't smoke. I've never been addicted to smoking. I do love the smell of a nice cigar, though. Cigarettes, on the other hand, disgust me.

I think that the Pennsylvania government is considering a smoking ban in public places. I, for one, hope it passes. Nothing makes me angrier than when I am out to eat with someone or a few folks and someone comes in and lights up. This happened to me once, actually. We were waiting for our food at a restaurant that takes quite a bit of time to prepare it, and an older man and his wife came in. He lit up a cigar and she a cigarette (and later a few more.)

The establishment was smoking or non & the ban isn't passed yet. They're certainly allowed to smoke. They were the only ones in the restaurant (not counting the bar) that were smoking. When I got home I hung my coat out rather than in the closet so it could air a bit and I threw my shirt in the wash. I can't stand the smell.

That brings me round circle. I found this article about bars in Minnesota skirting a public-smoking ban. It's all well and cute that they're doing this, but I don't think that I'd order lobster or a rack of ribs while watching "The Phantom of the Opera." Bars are bars and theaters are theaters. If it says on their occupancy permit that they are a bar, they should be slapped with the $10,000 fine.

Did you notice in the article that the bar that started this was a strip club? The owner said it was hard for the girls to get dressed and go for a smoke outside in the freezing temps. Please!

I don't mind if people smoke, but I don't want to be puffing their cig at the next table over. Passive smoking also causes cancer, you know.

If you still doubt why I'm mad, think about this. What if you were sitting at the next table over in a restaurant, and I started releasing clouds of cyanide into the air? That's obviously deadly, as ten million Jews will attest. Poisoning someone else against their will is illegal.

Smoking is often classified with drinking. I think there's a major difference. Small amounts of alcohol are good. Alcohol, if consumed responsibly, isn't addictive. Alcohol has long-term effects, like those on the liver, plus short term effects that are typically alleviated the next morning. The consumption of alcohol only harms the drinker (if it gets to that point.)

Smoking hurts short-term and long term. Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States. Smoking is addictive. Tobacco is always bad for you. Most of all, smoking harms those around the smoker who aren't smokers themselves.

See the contrast?

I have seen two lungs, side by side, one from a smoker and one from a nonsmoker. The difference would blow you away. One is small, shriveled, and black, and the other is large, robust, and pink.

I don't mind if you smokers want to smoke -- just do it in the privacy of your own home.

I may sound like a health nut and anti-smoking activist, but I'm not. I'm an average citizen who has seen what smoking wroughts on the body. I've seen people wither away from cancer. I don't want that to happened to me. I want to live to a healthy 100 and drop dead with a grin on my face.

-Ze Baron