First they came for the tobacco smokers, and I did nothing...

I'm with you, too!!!

I want a fragrance-free public, because I'm allergic to most colognes, hair sprays, and cleaning products.

I started smoking at the same age my husband started drinking. His alcohol killed him fourteen years ago. My heart and lungs are fine. His alcohol made him a leathal weapon every time he got behind the wheel of a car. A normal person would have to be locked in a closet with me ten hours a day for many years to die from my smoke, not on the opposite side of a restaurant. Smoking stinks, and it isn't good for me, but it is a heck of a lot healthier and cheaper than the synthetic drugs I'm allowed to take for my pain, and it has a neurological benefit, as opposed to the mind-numbing affects of the approved drugs. Why does anyone else assume the right to tell me I must do it 'their' way or suffer?

Candida, I agree with you. What I do to my body is my business. I studied heart surgery and chronic lung disease for years, and know heredity, stress, and diet were bigger risk factors than second hand smoke (even first hand smoke in many cases). Years ago, I wrote a wannabe song 'What Are They Saving Me For' on this topic. I might dig it out and see if it's not too embarrassing to post here.

"What Are They Saving Me For" -- man, I LOVE that! I've been having this battle with myself over cigarettes for months now. It's not like I smoke a fabulous amount -- maybe four a day -- but the experience is constantly ruined by the voices in my head, yelling at me for even those four. Since I've had gastric bypass surgery, I've had to give up chocolates, Chinese food, beer -- all my joys in life. All that's left is a couple of damned cigarettes. But I can't seem to enjoy them.

(Me to cigarettes: "I wish'd I knew how to quit you!")

Careful, Wendy. The stress is as bad for you as smoking (unless you are already pre-disposed to heart or lung disease). I'll dig the poem/wannabe song out, if you guys promise not to laugh at me.

I am always amazed at how "conservative" I'm getting as I grow older. If people don't like second-hand smoke in a restaurant, well then, don't go to that restaurant; the owners will soon get the idea! Ditto bars. And as for food -- don't get me started. Even though I can't eat Big Macs any more, I'll defend to the death my right to eat whatever the hell I want! Too much big government. Why don't they just focus on fixing the damn roads and protecting the country, and let the rest of us figure out how to live our own lives?
Harumph.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm liberal or conservative. I don't believe in a lot of kinds of regulation except where they involve deluding the public for profit. This is to say, slam the tobacco companies for hiding health info, but let people smoke (and maybe educate them out of it because it costs public health money).

Don't make fattening food illegal (ye gods, it's the best stuff! :) but do get coke out of the schools, because we do have stewardship over kid's diets -- why get the USDA to design (theorhetically) balanced meals if the kids are taking their lunch money and just getting a soda?

But I do believe in getting kids to exercise and run around more, and encouraging people (even me! I walk a lot, and I don't own a car -- I have a zipcar contract) to exercise and walk more, maybe even socailly with neighbors.

Why can't we *encourage* people and give them incentives to do right, so people (especially kids) can make their own judgements?

So, am I a liberal, or a conservative? :) Probably still a liberal, I just want to have a nation of Jeffersonian citizens, who can take responsibility for their share in the ruling of a big complicated potentially most wonderful country.

But I wish there were more dialogue. We have more common ground, but it's in the interest of some folks to drive American away from American, and it just hurts everyone on the ground.

All evil needs to succeed is for good men to eat nothing, or maybe light up nothing.

Sandy, you don't look a day over 40 so keep smokin

Being in public health I am against smoking. I do however recognize anyones right to poison themsleves as long as they do not include me in their toxic air-sharing. As for what eat...I'll what I damn well please...the government can keep their nose out of my food..! I am a diabnetic...I eat to control my disease. What we eat does not effect others froma toxic standpoint but what we smoke does....! Consider this...a person with chronic sinusitis, emphysema & COPD may walk through an area just vacated by smokers & the residual smoke & tobacco tars still resident in the air can put them into hospital bed fro 24-72 hours. Do you wnat such things on your conscience? Smoke responsibly....or not but know that it can & does have deleterious impact upon non-smokers.

Well the do gooders have to keep busy, ciggies are such an easy target.
I think we had a lot less road rage when everyone smoked, remember even the doctor's offices had ashtrays. . . ps my father who died with good lungs and arteries, good vision and a clear mind at age 95, did quit smoking when he was 80. . . ok you are "dying" to know why then did he die. An accident. Life goes on. I am certain that the only reason I smoke now is because in California it is such an anti establishment statement. I actually had quit several years ago, then began again. I just knew overweight people would be next. The next target will be . . . . . . . . . sugar consumers, Big Sugar just doesn't have the clout it once had. We know it will never be the consumers of mind altering prescription drugs.

When can I write off my expenditures at Whole Foods? Harvest? Souper Salad?
Will they penalize me for every martini I drink, while give me tax credits for the red wine?
Following things to their logical conclusion -- what would happen if all American's quit smoking - or by referendum, made all smoking illegal? How many millions in tax revenue would dry up?

RE: Donald's comment - while their is evidence that second hand smoke leads to a negative impact upon people around the smoker - their is a negative economic impact that obesity causes to the general welfare - namely in decreased productivity, and increase socialized health costs that are born largely by healthier people. So the argument against smoking is not a far step from an argument to regulate or restrict bad/fattening/unhealthy food.

I am so in agreement here. This is just the tips of the icebergs with oour civil rights erroding away little by little. The abortion ban passed by South Dakaota is just the beginning of larger measures in the works to cosolidate power in the hands of aq few select individuals. the paralells are frightening to what happens in countries that become dictatorships.Dare I say it but Nazi germany. We are no where near that level of control but we seem to inching in that direction. Every time something happens that is illegal and it involves the excutive branch what happens? The Bush administration acts as though they are the victim of unfair attacks, invoques executive privilidge and uses the patriot act as a reason for why the authority is there. They continue to use fear: to control the people(we will be attacked again unless I do this or that), call any govt offical who opposes them unpatriotic and suportive of the evil terrorists, and then they remind us again to be very afraid. Well, Rule through fear is not the sign of a democracy but the sign of a totalitarian regime....

Christopher Hitchens once commented on the strangeness of our attitude towards the personal behavior of others by noting, "In San Francisco, they do not allow smoking in Gay Bars".

sort of like the guy who says: "I am well aware that this is the head table at the banquet but I am going to take a huge shit right here in the punch bowl. If you don't like it then don't you shit here....

I agree with you. I only smoke when I drink. I just moved from Vermont where they outlawed smoking IN BARS! I certanly can see the ban in restaurants, but there should be bars where you can smoke or have smoking rooms. If someone tries to outlaw food I say we fight for our right to eat whatever the heck we want. For those of you unsure of whether you are conservative or liberal, trying to subscribe to either of those labels is only encouraging the current political extreemism. Just call yourelf rational. Nice article.

Will,
There is no reduction in the death rate in relation to the decrease in the number of smokers, but Road Rage is up.

I think the entire smoking thing has gotten out of hand. If you are going to a bar, expect smoking, it is just the way it is. I think it is funny to hear people go, "I am going out, and I hate smelling smoke in a bar." Those are the same people who come home drunk 5 days a week, and do not care what is happening to their livers at all. Same people who will take their kids to a bar, and complain because someone is smoking. Uh, hello, what about your drinking? I smoke, but I do not drink. I think everyone should have the right to make those decisions on their own in life, without someone making it for them. It is sad to see how many people feel that they must push their ideals onto others. Have a smoking section in a resturant, in another room for all I care, just do not tell me that I have to follow what a certain group wants. what about my wants? They claim it is their right, well, their rights are stepping all over mine.

As an occasional cigar smoker--can't stand the name-brand smokes--I do enjoy what I consider a most pleaureable experience, and I know better than to light up when my daughter is sharing the air. Still, she has been told many times that smoking is something you choose to do as an adult.

My spouse works in a cigar store, but I was the one who gave him his first cigars when we were dating. They were Davidoffs--why start with the cheap crap? While now we can't afford the high-end smokes, he does bring me a Kahlua-flavord cigar now and then. Also, I'm partial to Punch and Nativos.

Comparing these fine smokes to even self-rolled cigarettes (only the natural tobacco for me) I can see a marked difference. Cigars have body, a nice draw and go well with drinks--even coffee with or without a shot. Cigarettes taste rather harsh on my palate, and I can see why some prefer filters--nothing like the flavor of nicotine and tar coming into the mouth to kill an experience that I hoped would be relaxing.

My father smoked Terrytons when I was a child, and there was at times little ventilation in the den except for the wall-installed air conditioner (my legal guardians did their share to promote global warming). My sister ended up marrying a man with alergies to tobacco smoke, so dad had to stand outside whenever he visited. At that time, I didn't smoke so I had no opinion one way or the other.

Life is too short to not enjoy a good smoke.

I recognize people's right to poison themselves in whatever way thay choose, but I don't recognize their right to inflict their poison on me. The dangers of second-hand smoke are well-established at this point. I support the existence of smoking areas that are far away from me.