Is it my imagination or are there a lot more benches on the sidewalk in New York than there used to be? This makes walking around, at least in the daytime, more pleasant. If this is a result of the smoking ban, it's one I had not anticipated.

You're absolutely right, Kath. I for one think that obesity should be banned in NJ too.

Anybody?

Leona, How great! Let's put guards up at the tunnels and bridges and turn back the obese. And shut down all those fast food places.I don't want to have higher insurance costs brought on by all those medical bills that have to be financed for obese related illnesses. Also, let's ban alcohol while we're at it.

And low rider jeans.

"Overeating on the other hand only affects the person doing the eating."

Obviously you've never sat next to an obese passenger on an airline flight. :-o

The smoking ban is simple. While YOU have a right to smoke since cigarettes are legal in this country, you DO NOT have the right to endanger my health. Obesity is a major problem, yes, but an obese person in a bar does not endanger my health. I will not get lung cancer from standing next to them.

Smokers do realize that second hand smoke is dangerous, do they not? On a related note, I live in MA so I'm fortunate not to have to deal with smoking at bars and restaurants. I just got back from a week long sales meeting in VA where there is no smoking ban. We were at the resort/conference center the entire time and there was lots of smoking. I can definitely feel the effects. So good for NJ!

How about for a moment we forget that smoking and second-hand smoke kills tens of thousands of Americans every year and costs non-smokers billions of dollars?

Oh, perhaps we shouldn't forget those facts.

Smokers are "inconvenienced" by bans? WHO CARES??


(And P.S., bar business in New York City has never been better, and NYC had more tourists in 2005, 41 million, than any other year in history.)

I would hope that all smokers would earn huge wages, pay lots of taxes and die suddenly and painlessly at 61 11/12 years for the benefit of all nonsmokers.
M

Mike, dude, you do NOT mean that I know.

Smoking is a drug addiction. I know this first hand.

mikemo,
That was a horrible comment.

GT, smoking is an addiction that can be cured if the smoker wants to quit. In the meantime, please do not inflict it on the rest of us.

Or as I tell people who annoy me with their smoke, "Why should I accept your second-hand smoke when I gave up my own?" It is very difficult but anyone who truly wants to quit can.

A smoking ban doesn't require the pathetic, whining addicts/travelers/residents to quit smoking, only to quit poisoning the people around them indoors.

Too much to ask??

While society (thru insurance premiums) pays for poor judgment in many arenas, the obese do not cause potential deadly illness to those who come in contact w/them as smokers do w/their second hand smoke. At least the obese do not force feed people at nearby tables!! :)

Confront reality: read the great info in the NYT's online this week re: Type 2 Diabetes.
Smokers and diabetics life spans are limited - natural selection in the 21 st Century, lol.
M

HI mikemo--actually it is not exactly natural selection, as I understand the term. Natural selection is done w/you, so to speak, once you reproduce and the consequences of these disorders happen post-childbearing years....

Claro, that's why I added the "lol".
M (MD, NBME, ABIM, ABNM, ABR)
PS: Seen "it all" in my 40 years in medicine

WA voters just passed the smoking ban recently. One of the local bars is apprently going to do whatever it is they need to do to become a private "club" The owners are taking "applications" from customers,along with a $1 "lifetime fee". They also had to make all six employees owners-giving them all a 1% stake. I thought this was a really interesting way to go ,but it's legality is already being questioned.

The day the ban was in place, another bar measured off the 25 ft radius from the door-and ended up pitching a "smoking tent" complete w/traffic cones right in the middle of a busy street! That was shut down in about 10 minutes by the police.
I have no idea where alot of the bar goers smoke now. I guess in their cars?

The days of hanging at a bar are long behind me, but I always hated stinking like smoke when I left. Since I just moved here from Jersey recently, I'll have to ask friends where everybody from the "Southside Grill" smokes now. I see a long line of bar patrons down Main Street.

I personally found the "peeing in the pool section" by anonymous extremely funny!

The New Jersey ban also includes private clubs (Elks, Moose, Knights, private golf courses, etc.) They would have to turn the bar into a "cigar bar" then wouldn't have to pay for membership as cigar bars are exempt. ((b))

Leona, I no longer smoke and haven't smoked for some time.

I agree about anonymous and how funny that was. He/she is one of my fellow citizens of MA. As a transplant, lo these many years, but a transplant nonetheless, I have to say that people here are just funnier than other places. I don't mean to insult anyone else, but it is something that DH and I have consistently noticed over the years....Also borne out by the prominence of 2 MA funny guys on national TV--Conan and Jay Leno... :)

Author: Kath said on
Date: 01/10/2006, 04:11 pm
And low rider jeans (should be banned)

I agree and also those tattoos just above the butt crack that sticks out of the jeans!!!!