I’m pleased to announce that another
country has passed a ban on smoking in public places. Woohoo! There’s more good
news on the horizon:
” In Britain, the government
has announced plans to introduce public smoking bans in England
and Wales.”
Now, if we could just get more US states to follow New York and California’s lead…
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Any appetite can be corrupted. Arguably, all sin is nothing but a corruption of a one completely righteous appetite or another. And speaking of appetites, thanks to efforts of the “death stick” PC police, obesity is fast becoming (if it hasn’t already) the number one preventable health problem. And I’d dare say the complications of type II diabetes (and heart disease and colon cancer) are no prettier than those of lung cancer and emphysema.
No one dies of lung cancer from an occasional waft of 2nd hand smoke. Outright bans on smoking in all public places (including those where everyone is “okay” with it) have no purpose other than to proscribe the behavior of smoking, to make it so socially unacceptable or so inconvenient that no one would want to do it. And why? Because certain people (the ruling majority) find it filthy, disgusting, rude, or expensive. In short, people think “it stinks.” And that IMO is a very puritanical sort of attitude–and certainly not indicative of a civilized society; one where smokers and non-smokers are governed by manners rather than locked in a “culture war.”
Eric, I want you to know that I’m sympathetic, especially in view of the suffering you’ve personally felt and witnessed. My mother spent quite a few years dying herself. And while it was not directly caused by bad personal health choices, her suffering was no doubt exacerbated by bad personal health choices–in this case obesity. But I don’t think the answer here is to criminalize appetites, but rather favor and encourage moderation in all appetites (including moderation of course ;-)), recognizing them for what they are: a gift from God to make this present life just a bit more bearable. After all, life is 100% fatal, whether you smoke or not, eat too much or not.
Cheers!
Eating too much and gambling are vices, too, but they don’t give you emphysema, cancer, etc and damage the health of innocent bystanders. Smoking made the last decade of my grandfather’s life a living hell. I wouldn’t wish his experiences on my worst enemy. I also hate choking on smoke as it drifts from the smoking section to the nonsmoking section. Smoking is a filthy, disgusting, rude, and expensive habit. Banning it isn’t puritanical. Puritanical bans are about limiting somebody’s fun because it may be unseemly or inappropriate behavior. Banning smoking is a about public health and comfort.
My goodness, Funky, I used to think so highly of you… You’ve jumped onto this puritanical bandwagon too!?!?!?!! Does our country ever tire of finding new “witches” to burn? Say it isn’t so… That whirling, scraping sound? Chesterton turning in his grave, right now…
How ’bout this: Ban smoking from places with “No Smoking” signs. No wait, how ’bout: Ban smoking from all places without “Smoking Allowed” signs. No, I guess that ain’t tough enough. Once we stamp out all the innocent pagan vices, what “vices” are next?
[tsk, tsk]