"pompous, arrogant, self-righteous piece of tripe"

I love that line, brief, scathing and directly to the writer's point.

Just a reminder Mr. Cohen - everything is a right until legislated, after which for all intents and purposes nothing is.

At times it's almost comical.

Smoking is bad for your health, a fact of which I'm living proof. Although studies have determined widely varying degrees of effect, I think it's safe to conclude that to some extent or another second hand smoke is also a detriment.

As a result, smoker's have become the new "nigger" of society, persons to whom it is perfectly acceptable to insult, castigate and otherwise treat as low class citizens.

I offer no apology for the use of what I consider to be a totally repulsive word, because the parallel does exist.

But then again, unlike Blacks, smokers have earned such treatment haven't they?

Uh huh, right. Burden to society, healthcare costs, etc, etc.

Better justification for a similiar result.

Now, many of the same tactics, and even the same people, are being utilized to attack our assumed "right" to chose the foods we eat and the cars we drive.

Why not? After all, it's for our own good.

Of course there are limits to this mindset. We don't allow the fact that an individual is HIV positive or suffering from AIDS to restrict their right to immigrate into our country, and in most localities there is no mandatory requirement that public health authorities be notified of their condition.

Can't impinge on their right to privacy. Besides, we know they'll all act responsibly both sexually and otherwise to avoid spreading their affliction.

Yup, no doubt about that.

If you're now convinced that I'm a pigheaded smoker's rights advocate that wants to toss all AIDS sufferers into concentration camps you're missing the point.

The "save us from ourselves mentality" can on occasion provide some benefit to society, but if we don't rein it in it's in danger of becoming nothing other than political correctness run amok.

The day that Al Sharpton becomes director of the Federal Office of Hairstyle and Wardrobe is the day that I load up the musket and march my wrinkled rectum off to Lexington commons.

Hope to see you there.

I wonder how well smokers would take to a severly flatulent man in urine soaked clothing sitting next to them in a restaurant? Doesn't he have the right to be there and smell as he does?

Hugh,

It wouldn't bother the smokers. Their sense of smell ain't all that great anyway when their tokin on a Marlboro. I think it would be the judgemental nose-up-everybody-else's-ass non- smokers who'd have the problem.

And Seth, I really wish the O.C. would start their season earlier this year.

hugh,

"severly flatulent man in urine soaked clothing sitting next to them in a restaurant ..."

You've met my ex-father in law?

Hugh, I think you're missing the point here. This is not about people smoking in a restaurant, it's about some elderly and/or disabled people who are in a nursing home, most of whom have no chance of getting well enough to return home (and some of whom, undoubtedly, would have no home to return to due to the unimaginable high cost of their "care" at the home even if their condition did improve).

This is where these people live, most of them through no choice of their own. The majority of those who smoke have likely done so for 40-50 years. Smoking is one of the few "pleasures" they have left (even if we don't consider it pleasurable; they do and it's a perfectly legal activity). Why should they be denied a cigarette in a designated outdoor smoking area?

Kel, The Market can decide on the smoking/non smoking issue. Nursing homes are privately run facilities. If a person wants to smoke out their last days, they can find a smoke friendly nursing home.

Places go smoke free because they want to please their customers that find the odor of cigarette smoke to be disgusting.

Hugh, using your logic, why do the smokers have to go live elsewhere? How about the non-smokers finding a non-smoking facility? This particular facility allowed smoking up until a couple of months ago and, if non-smokers were bothered by cigarette smoke, they should have chosen to live elsewhere to begin with. Truth is, many of these people don't have a choice of where to live. Have you tried to find a vacant bed in a long-term care facility lately? Would you want to uproot your 90-year-old relative because of a smoking ban? I just don't see how smoking in an outdoor courtyard is gonna hurt the non-smokers.

I fully agree with other smoke free facilities (i.e. restaurants, hospitals, office buildings) but I do not agree with this particular situation.

Jan, don't hold back! Tell us how you really feel!

Kel, this is a private property issue. I decide what type of behavior is acceptable on my property. Within the bounds of civil rights, business owner's decide what types of behavior are allowable on their premisess.

If someone thinks they can make money catering to non smokers it is their right to restrict their business from smoking.

The smokers haven't the right to do as they please on other's property.

Fortunately, Hugh, the State doesn't quite agree with you on this one. They have ordered the Moses Cone Extended Care Facility to allow residents who were there prior to the smoking ban to puff away.

The knows best, right Kel?

I'd bet you a dollar the editorial writer is an ex-smoker. Seth Cohen is the first ex-smoker I've ever encountered who not only wasn't self-righteous about it, but critical of other people's self-righteousness.

Don't know if the State knows best, but Cone sure doesn't mind taking obscene amounts of State and Federal money so I guess they'll have to do whatever the gov't requires of them!

Kel,

You got that right. Private property my ass. Private property paid for by the federal and state government reimbursements.

Hugh, You ever been in a nursing home? I have been in many. And I can tell you from personal experience, that the odor of a cigarette is about the best smell you're gonna find there.

Urine soaked flatulant man would go unnoticed altogether.

Moses Cone Nursing Home. It's not like they were talking about say, Friends Home or any one of the other hoity tioty places out there. I am a ex-smoker. Somewhat self rightous about it too, in the sense that I quit smoking so I don't want people doing it around me. On the flip side though, I don't think business owners should be told what they can and can not do with their own businesses. And this idea falls on the governmentally funded nursing homes and the private development that only exsist because of tax payer incentives. ( notice I said tax payer incentives I dont like the term tax incentives because the rest of us end up paying them). No matter what the place is, if it is a privately owned business no one should be able to tell them to stop the smoking or to allow it.

Personally I feel that a smoking area at a hospital or something similar should be left in place, but only at the complete other side of the parking lot and not right outside the front doors, like they were at Wesley Long.