I work in one of those modern office buildings, where the windows won't open. Just the San Francisco Fire Department keeping my ass safe from raging fires. Thanks, guys. Across the street from me, though, is a restored pre-earthquake building with a semi-exposed fire escape on each floor. This is where the smokers go, because that way they don't have to go all the way down to the street (only 5 stories) just to have a smoke, like those of us in the nasty, stuffy modern buildings. The irony, of course, is that smokers get more fresh air than 90% of office workers (I made up this figure, so don't quote me or anything).
Fran Leibowitz was interviewed here in SF a few weeks ago, after the Mayoral Debates (as if a San Francisco Mayoral debate wasn't already comedy- and irony-laden enough!), gave some great comments about this whole health-Nazi thing.
As background, publicity campaigns for California's 1998 anti-smoking initiative, focused on those poor bar employees forced to work in smoky environments. Bartenders - what Health nuts they are! Ms. Leibowitz described an occurrence at San Francisco International Airport, where you can't even smoke outside, because you're polluting the skycaps' workspace. What? What kind of airspace is that? Cars pull in and out all day long, leave the engines running, and leave, only to be replaced by more idling cars. But God forbid you should pollute their airspace with your nasty cigarette!
Come to think of it, the problem isn't smoking, it's the fact that democratic politics gives people the right to impose themselves and their views on others who wouldn't dream of imposing on them. How many smokers can you name, who would force nonsmokers to suffer their smoke, let alone force them to smoke?
The idea is absurd!
As a matter of fact, I disagree with government having the right to tell me I have to do things I already know I should do, as if I were some (to use the P.C. term) developmentally differently abled child (read: retard). Wear a helmet when you ride your motorcycle! Put on your seat belt! Tobacco is bad for you! Alcoholic beverages are bad for you!
Get off my back! I'm not paying a shitload of taxes to have some dickheads in Washington and Sacramento spend it all on telling me things I already know.
And if you really want to get back at the tobacco executives who put extra nicotine in the smokes and addicted a bunch of people, put 'em to work in the bars and nightclubs instead of all those poor schmucks who had to deal with the smoke just to make a living.