Immanuel
Gold Member
- May 15, 2007
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This is getting a bit too personal for me... my dad died on June 12th of last year, of lung cancer. He was a life long smoker well since he was a young teen anyway. In fact, both my parents have smoked all my life.
Yet, I still get angry when liberals decide it is perfectly acceptable to take the rights of smokers away from them. Just one more governmental intrusion into our lives. Today it is smokers... tomorrow it will be people who eat fast food (we're getting a little too close to me now) and the day after it will be Ice Cream!!! Now just stop right there you hit where it hurts.
Immie
Sorry to hear about your dad. Like I said before, I would not take the rights of smokers away from them. However, you can't call it governmental intrusion in certain situations.
I feel you should have a right to smoke as long as you're not endangering others by doing so. I definitely feel that private businesses should have the right to let their customers smoke and that you should be able to smoke in the privacy of your own home.
I'm making the same argument here that I would about people who drink and drive. People who drink, that's fine. People who drive, that's fine. However, when anyone gets behind the wheel of a vehicle that is enough to be over the legal limit, you are not only now endangering yourself but the other drivers on the road and anyone in your way.
Which is why the Libertarian argument would be things like DUI should stay illegal. Some may say, "well, it's government intrusion that the government is trying to dictate how I drive." When in reality, the government has a responsibility to to make such laws in order to protect others. May it be local, state, or federal.
The difference and it may be small to you but not to me is the risk of injuring other people. DUI is a serious risk and innocent people get killed every day by drunk drivers, but second hand smoke is a lot more debatable. There are cancer causing agents every where we turn. Who is to say that someone who dies of cancer even though they did not smoke, did not get cancer from something else in the atmosphere?
Definitely, I would chose non-smoking to smoking, but I would prefer not to infringe on other people's pleasures if I need not.
And most smokers are decent people who if you ask them not to blow smoke in your face they will respect you as long as you are not rude when you do it.
Immie