This is a subject I am VERY passionate about so I should keep my mouth shut.

What I hate the most is those people that toss lit butt out the window - a motorcyclists dream - NOT! I did see someone at a stoplight toss a butt out the window and it went into the window of another car that was stopped. The recipient was MUCH bigger than the person who tossed the butt and the little guy got his "butt" kicked.

Am "I" an annoying militant. Sure I am. Yeah, the "smokers" aren't annoying at all while I gag on their fumes they force upon me. Now you say - why don't you leave? Example - I was just in a non-smoking hotel and my neighbor decided to smoke out his room in his lawnchair everyday while the fumes come into my room. Of course to top it off he kept track of his butts BUT extinguished the **** right in front of my door so it left plenty of ash and "char?" on the sidewalk for me to drag into my car if I was quick on my toes and hopped over the mess. That's only the beginnning.

Honestly, I don't feel sorry for cigarette smokers who end of chopping years off their life. I don't expect you to feel sorry for me if I died tomorrow because I have a dangerous job. My choice. Recently (6 month) I have lost family because of cigarettes, they knew the risks and accepted their fate.

I'll shut up now since this subject is to me as politics is to others.

 

I pleased to see the results are exactly how I expected them to be.

My best friend from middle school's mother was a nurse and she smoked. My friend used to be really against smoking, and hated it when her mom smoked. I moved before high school and when I went back and visited my friend a year later she was smoking. Very disappointing.

My sister's boyfriend's dad smokes, he's trying to quit but is having a terrible time. That's what's keeping my sister's boyfriend from starting, some people think when they start they'll just quit in a few years, but he sees how hard it really is to quit.

I'd have been so pissed off if that happened to me! I'd totally get out of my car and punch the smoker in the face... and that probably wouldn't be a very good idea as I'm a small girl, but I don't think I'd be able to control myself.

My roommate does this too. We're not allowed to smoke in our dorm (it's an old motel) or on the sidewalks but she'll go and sit on the sidewalk right outside our door so the smoke just comes in through the air conditioner and the cracks around the door. Even when people are down stairs smoking in the parking lot it'll get up into my room. I hate it.

I think that sometimes too, and not just about smoking. The problem is they're not the only ones paying for their choices.

 

Dont worry,,,, us smokers will be dead soon enough.

Its really a hord habit. One I wish I could break. Its not the action of smoking that is hard on me to break. Its the nicotine.

Number one largist mistake of my life.

 

Katie, it seems like we're two peas in a pod when it comes to smoking.

My father-in-law smokes a LOT! It'll be his downfall someday. I've seen him many a times light up a new cigarette while he still has one in his mouth. About 12 years ago he lit up in my car while we were going to a restraunt. For 12 years now we've been riding in seperate cars whenever we go anywhere "together".

I quit a job when I was in highschool. An autoparts store my dad had spent a VERY large amount of money to go into a partnership with his cousin and son. The four of us were successful but both his cousin and son were chain smokers. I couldn't take it anymore and said I was about to quit when my dad quit with me because he started the place for me so wwe shut the place down. He still has the parts in his attic and his cousin died of lung cancer about 6 months ago. To me, that was a life altering choice that I directly blame cigarettes for. Ironically enough, none of our personalities clashed and while we were open we taught the other business that we could co-exist but now I'm getting off track.

To sum it up. I HATE CIGARETTES! (some cigars have a nice aroma and I actually like the smell of a pipe, go figure)

 

I have nothing buy sympathy for the poor individuals who have become addicted to nicotine and cannot quit.

I have nothing but loathing and disgust, however, for the tobacco companies who have known for years and years that smoking kills. They first hid that fact from everybody else, so that people like my parents unwittingly became addicted to the deadly habit before they knew there were any real proven dangers to smoking.

And now they just continue to peddle their death, especially to young people, because all the older ones die off. Case in point: in my parents' families, out of eleven siblings, six have died, and five remain. The six -- all smokers. The five who are still alive (and healthy) -- all non-smokers. Surely that is only anecdotal data, but it seems to be representative of the population at large.

I also have significant anger in my heart towards the movie industry, which continues to glamorize smoking, disclaiming any responsibility for the perilous example they set for the rest of us, especially the younger folks. While no doubt pocketing the "product placement" money from the cigarette manufacturers. Absolutely hypocritical.

 

The new movie, Thank You For Smoking is hilarious.

 

I smoked (low-tar brands only) at age 19 because my 1st girlfriend persuaded me to start. (What a charmer! ) After we broke up a few months later, I finished the pack I had and never smoked again. That was in 1974.

And as a libertarian I have nothing but loathing and disgust for sniveling whiners who deny all personal responsibility and think history began the day they were born. Cigarettes have been called "cancer sticks" and "coffin nails" for centuries. King James I of England tried to suppress tobacco usage way back in the early 1600s. The link between smoking and cancer was suspected in 1880 and verified in 1950. (Go here for a quick history of tobacco.) So any smoker claiming "I had no idea" is/was either a fool or a liar.

I don't blame my ex-girlfriend for my prior smoking. I could have said "no" and/or dumped her, but as an immature teenager (19 going on 10, as I like to put it) I didn't. That was my bad choice, not hers. Similarly, your parents have no one to blame for their smoking but themselves. Neither "big tobacco" nor anyone else put a gun to their heads and forced them to light up. My answer to any smoker looking for who's truly responsible for his/her condition is succinct: "Go to the nearest mirror."

And if tobacco is supposedly so addictive, how come there are now more ex-smokers in America (including myself) than smokers? In fact, tobacco is like anything else -- addictive for some, not addictive for others. Most people can safely enjoy adult beverages; others are alcoholics. Most people can play the lottery or have some fun in Vegas with no ill effects; others are compulsive gamblers. Some people are addicted to sex, others to their work, others to drugs, others to food. But whatever it is they're addicted to, they have no business blaming others for their sorry state, and need to look in the mirror as well.

In 1920, America listened to the nanny-state do-gooders and outlawed alcohol; the results were disastrous. The current jihads against tobacco and (some) drugs are equally disastrous, having done severe damage to private property rights and other liberties. I personally think smokers are fools, but it's gotten to the point that if one were put on trial for beating the tar (no pun intended) out of some busybody anti-smoker who'd gotten in his face once too often, I'd likely vote to acquit -- on the grounds that said busybody got exactly what he deserved.

 

I was reading the history of one of America's oldest marathons - Pike's Peak. It started in 1956 between a doctor and a group of smokers to see who could finish. The doctor made it back - the three smokers did not.

 

I used to work with a triathlete (mid-to-late 30's in age) who biked to work fairly regularly and worked out like an ox for competitions, including the Iron Man (finished second in his age group one year.)

After several years of working with him, I asked him how he got into triathlons, long distance bicycling and such. "To quit smoking."

"What!? {pause} I guess it worked!"

It did indeed! He said he realized he needed to quit smoking (didn't go into why; could have been anything) but realized he was addicted. So, as he put it, he "replaced an unhealthy addiction for a healthy one -- exercise."

More power to him! I was 7 or so years his junior, and he had way more stamina and energy than I did then. I'd have never known he'd been a smoker (he started before he joined the Navy, as a submariner... don't ask me how often you get to light up as a submariner...I'm guessing not a lot, except in port and on shoreleave.)

 

Thanks for the considerate thoughts regarding my recently deceased parents. I will certainly sleep much better at night now.