Quote:
Originally posted by ktsnake
33 -- your use of flonase does not infringe upon my personal enjoyment of whatever situation I'm in. Your simplification ignores the fact that many people don't enjoy being around cigarette smoke -- actually, I don't know one single person that would claim to enjoy it.
I don't remember where I saw this, but there's a saying: Having a smoking section in a restaurant/bar is like having a peeing section in a pool.
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If smoking sections are done correctly - with actual walls and different ventilation - I would wager no one would even know they're there. Yes, it's stupid to have a smoking section separated from the rest of the restaurant by a plant. But that's the fault of the restaurant being lazy and stupid. One of my sisters redesigned the interiors for a restaurant chain around here to allow a smoking section that creates comfort for smokers AND nonsmokers. It's in the back so you don't have to walk through it and walled off properly.
I personally would much rather be around people who are smoking than make them go outside or have them curb their cravings and be impossible to be around. The whole forcing people go outside to smoke is stupid - everyone still has to walk through it because the "smoke free zones" are never enforced. Wouldn't it make more sense for office buildings, etc to have an indoor room with doors and again, separate ventilation?
And again, it's a
legal substance (the main point I was making with the Flonase example), so until a law gets passed saying otherwise - tough beans. Again, despite all the antismoking zealots out there, I have yet to hear of a congressman that has introduced a bill to make it illegal.
Christopher Hitchens wrote a fantastic essay on all this for Vanity Fair about 8-10 years ago - I can't find it online, but he lays it out better than I ever could.