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From: tim@unc.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: "Re: Smoking . . . (Slow Motion Suicide) - (nf)"
Message-ID: <5374@unc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-Jun-83 21:33:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc.5374
Posted: Mon Jun 13 21:33:34 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jun-83 16:39:01 EDT
References: ihlpf.130
Lines: 67


	"...the	burden of proof	lies on	the claimant..." Do you
	actually believe this nonsense or are you just arousing
	debate?

Damn straight I	believe	it!  Don't you?	 If someone makes a claim, are
we to just believe him without any evidence?  Just because we like the
story?	What other basis is there for rational discussion?

	When I am in a room with smokers, my eyes burn,	my contacts
	fog up,	my sinuses burn, my nose starts	running	and if I am
	eating,	I find the smell quite a damper	to my appetite.	I hate
	to go to the beach and see it littered with cigarette butts. I
	hate to	go into	ANY public place and find cigarettes crushed
	out on the floor. I hate going into the	rest room and finding
	a half dozen butts in the urinal. I hate being physically
	burned by someone who is waving	their cigarette	inadvertently.
	When enclosed in a vehicle with	someone	who is smoking I have
	found it makes me nauseous and gives me	headaches.

I'm sorry.  Do you have	a medical problem, like	an allergy to smoke or
something?  I've made it clear that I consider someone who knowingly
and willingly smokes near a person  who	has some disabling condition
that makes the smoke physically	intolerable should be considered
guilty of assault.  Why	don't you ask them to put out their
cigarettes?  Do	you have to have a cop at your back?

As for your esthetic distaste for finding crushed cigarette butts:
that's a pretty	flimsy basis for something as serious as a law.	 I
happen not to like the way fat people look (apologies to fat readers
-- I just can't	help it), but that doesn't mean	I want to ban them
from public transportation, or from eating in good resaraunts.

	Considering all	of this, I am now asked	to PROVE that the
	smoker is causing DAMAGE to my health before I may ask for
	legislation to prevent my exposure to undesirable effects such
	as I have listed above.

No, you	aren't.	 Your reactions	to cigarettes are sufficiently violent
that a doctor shold be able to determine a physical cause if their
cause is physical.  If it's psychological, well, just go jump in a lake.
Freedom	cannot accomodate the legislation of such subjective
preferences.  Where would that stop?

	I agree	that legislation is not	a magical solution to problems
	and I honestly wish that ALL smokers would consider the
	annoyance that their smoking causes to others. However,	I know
	that this will not happen. Therefore, I	am now and will
	continue to be in favor	of legislation which requires well
	ventilated non-smoker areas in enclosed	public places which
	allow smoking OR to disallow smoking in	these places if	the
	requirements are not met.

Don't you just hate to find snot on a chair in a public	place?	Let's
regulate this, shall we?  Anyone caught	picking	his or her nose	in
public will be arrested	and given a criminal record.  It would be nice
if nobody picked their nose in public, but I know that isn't going to
happen.	 Until that glorious day, let us make sure that	the
irresponsibility of a few doesn't wind up making us all	sick.

In all seriousness, let	me point out that if what you say is as
blatantly true as you claim, there should be no difficulty in producing
scientific evidence, which is the only fair way	to resolve a conflict
like this.  Let's see it!  Until that time, no law enforcing your
beliefs	can be said to be fair.

Tim Maroney