From: johnl@yang.earlham.edu (John Fiskio-Lasseter)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: The wages of Stupidity are Death
Date: 18 Aug 92 15:56:43 GMT
 <MJD.92Aug16172753@saul.cis.upenn.edu> <Bt5FA4.36G@cs.dal.ca>
Followup-To: alt.flame
Organization: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

[M-J Dominus rationalizes]:

>>seriously concerned about the possibility of heart or lung disease, I
>>hope I will carefully weigh risks and benefits, and, rather than
>>quitting smoking, I hope I will do the smart thing and move out of the
>>city.  This will cut my risk substantially; quitting smoking very
>>little, if at all.

[In response to which, Steve Franklin, known throughout the free world to 
 be without vice,  pontificates]:

>    Why don't you move out of the city not for your benefit but ours?
> Many of us don't appreciate the secondary smoke that attacks our 
> respiration at every corner. Besides, what does smoked dried banana
> peel breath smell like? God, that's almost evil to think about. 

Blow it out your ass, Franklin.  Granted Dom's rationalizations are pretty 
silly (and I'm a pack-a-day smoker), but people like you get awflly damn 
tiring awfully damn quickly.  

If Dom (or me, or any other smoker) is sitting at the table next to you or 
in your living room, etc., and has lit up...by all means, ask them to take 
it somewhere else (unless you yourself are sitting in a designated smoking 
section -- in that case move your own ass).  If they've got a shred of 
consideration, they will.

But this kind of sanctimonious bullshit seems to be peculiar to 
non-smokers talking about smoking (actually REFORMED smokers is more like 
it -- you wouldn't happen to be one of those would you?).  Stop treating 
us as if we were stupid.

Now granted, I think Dominus' rationalizations *ARE* silly, though if he 
really does take a month to go through a pack, I ain't gonna worry about 
him (okay, the truth -- I probably wouldn't worry anyway).  But some 
people are perfectly well aware of the health risks associated with 
smoking, and they choose to do it anyway.  Some of those people don't even 
have a death wish.

So why do *I* smoke?  Two reasons -- first, I'm a junkie.  Second, I love 
to smoke.  It's as simple as that.  Will I quit someday?  Probably.  Will 
I victimize poor innocent non-smokers like yourself by callously forcing 
you to breathe my second-hand?  Probably not.  Hopefully not.  If we ever 
happen to be in the same place at the same time, and I'm smoking around 
you, tell me and I'll either put it out or go elsewhere.

But in the meantime, will your self-righteous, patronizing, I-will-make- 
you-do-what-I-know-is-best-for-you crap influence whether I smoke or not?  
Definitely not.  I'll quit when I'm good and damn ready, and in the 
meantime, people like you are just a big pain in the ass.

Sla/n leat, 
-- John
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|John Howard Eli Fiskio-Lasseter  |     "Is obair-la\ to\iseachadh"   |
|Earlham College Computing Center |    ("Beginning is a day's work")  |
|e-mail: johnl@yang.earlham.edu   |                --Gaidhlig Proverb |
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