Smoking At Ceremony?

[Jeremy David]

On 5/2/07, Brian J. Parker <brian.j.parker at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/2/07, Jeremy David <epistemology at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I like you guys and I'm always up for fun. I just gotta say that
> > trying to dance while hacking up a lung is decidedly un-fun for me. As
> > is trying to bike home with a chest full of tar. So I guess I gotta
> > pass this time.
> >
> > - Jeremy
> >
> > P.S. I now await being called an anti-smoking fascist Nazi.
>
> In my opinion, you aren't being unreasonable, as long as you
> understand that bars are a business and they are going to tend to make
> their smoking decisions based on maximizing profit.  If you're that
> sensitive to it, you've got to decide whether the fun of going
> outweighs whatever misery you feel.

Sure, and there's nothing wrong with profit. I enjoy making profit for
myself too.

However, the issue gets a little hazy when you view it from the
perspective that international tobacco companies have a de facto
monopoly on entertainment locations. And we have special rules about
monopolies.

And it also gets hazy from a personal rights issue. The old "Your
right to swing your arm ends at my nose." applies to cigarettes too, I
think.

And really, at the base of it it's just a human respect issue. I
watched an old Audrey Hepburn movie the other week, and was bowled
over by one scene in which Gregory Peck lights up a cigarette, and
Audrey Hepburn says very nicely, "I wish you wouldn't." and he
immediately puts it out without a second thought. I guess maybe there
was a time when people actually respected others' concerns about
smoking, at least in movieland.

Of course, it probably helps in getting people to do what you want if
you're Audrey Hepburn, but I digress.

- Jeremy