The sweet, floral winds of change
There’s an inspired comment war going on over at the Local Bands blog concerning smoking in bars. While this is a food blog, I feel compelled to comment on this subject because after all, beer is food! And bar food might be the best food. So here goes:
I don’t smoke.
The vast majority of people don’t smoke.
It’s funny how smokers will get all Libertarian about government intrusion, then forget about things like majority rule.
And “rights?” What right? You don’t have a “right” to smoke any more than I have a right to pinch off a big brown chud onto your dinner plate. Google it.
But like smokers, I don’t care so much about the ill health effects of smoking. Give yourself heart disease or cancer and drive up the cost of healthcare for all of us–I don’t care. And with all the bacon and steak I eat, second-hand smoke, if it really is so bad, is the least of my worries.
The smell of cigarette smoke turns my stomach, pure and simple. It burns my eyes and stops up my nose. It gets in my clothes and makes them stink. (My prop’rty! Take that, Libertarians!!!) But you smokers puff away, oblivious to the fact that you’re irritating almost everyone.
There have been dozens, if not hundreds of occasions I’ve felt like going to a bar to grab a burger or hear a band, but didn’t–just because I didn’t want to come home smelling like I’ve been RAPED BY A HOBO.
People aren’t going to stop going to bars just because they can’t smoke there (so long as it’s banned in all bars, of course). Such is the case in New York City, and last I checked, their bar scene wasn’t exactly anemic.
The wind of change is blowing, smokers–get used to it. And that wind doesn’t smell like it’s been hanging out at the transit mall all day, either. Get a new hobby. Chew some gum. Take up knitting. Eat some bacon.
