You know what, you win me over.
I agree with liberals, we SHOULD be mandating the behavior of our citizens.
Here are a few more things we should mandate:
1. You have to take a 40 hour course on how to be a parent before you can reproduce. If you fail the class and and have a baby anyway, it gets put up for adoption to someone who did take the class.
2. Parents who have children who are suspended three times in one school year start getting tickets. If they don't pay the ticket in 90 days they and their child can go to jail together.
3. Parents who do not attend parent-teacher conferences, or who do not show a interest in their child's schooling shall have their child taken away and put in new orphanages. If run by competent, high paid workers, they will be MUCH better than living in the third world, shit conditions the kids live in now...and they won't see adults doing the wrong thing 100% of the time.
4. When someone over 400 pounds goes to a fast food place, they have to run 3 miles before they can eat the food.
5. When someone on government assistance buys cigarettes, expensive shoes, a cell phone, a big screen TV or expensive clothes, they shall have govt assistance taken away for one year. Second offense is for life...
There, liberals should agree with me on these...
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Calif. bans smoking in cars with kids
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7 comments:
Public health is neither a conservative or liberal issue.
Nonetheless, I did agree with many of your ideas!
And, I think the restriction really does meld well with true conservatism in that government intervention is warranted when individual freedom and safety is being threatened (in this case exposing a child to harmful materials which could have long-term costly implications). Conservatives have long felt that people should be able to "do their thing" as long as it does not interfere with anyone else. Sounds to me like only liberals would oppose this.
on these types of issue the roles are reversed
I smoke so I probably should disqualify myself from this one...
I no longer smoke (3 1/2 yrs), but find all the anti-smoking regs to be a major infringement and likely baed on crap science. For years people smoked in the presence of others and it is only recently that this "second-hand" nonsense has become a huge issue. I'm not aware of any recent research that proves beyond any doubt that 2nd hand is the great danger put forth by Gore-like alarmists. I do recall how some disputed the initial research that brought it all about and that everything was based on the that shoddy work for quite some time.
This is not to say that I believe anyone should smoke tobacco. Obviously it isn't healthy and our lungs were designed for specific gases to be inhaled. But I believe most of the outcry is due to the health care costs associated with smoking, and the whining of those who don't like the smell. I've always enjoyed the smell and it was one of the reasons I began to smoke (along with how cool it made me look). I enjoyed smoking immensely. I just didn't care for the negatives associated with it.
But 2nd hand? Give me a break. The human body is NOT that sensitive. If exposure is severe, that is, locked up all day with heavy smmokers, then there is an argument. But it is easily rectified with better ventilation. That is how they should deal with most in-door situations, particularly restaraunts, bars, BOWLING ALLEYS!!! and other similar venues. Banning outdoor smoking is STUPIDITY!!! What idiot really thinks there's a problem there? The problem is that some people think they own the road, or in this case, the public space in which they find themselves.
Here's the answer: Outlaw tobacco and tobacco products. If it is as harmful and deadly as advertised, and I have no doubt that it is, a total ban is the only responsible and sensible solution. Don't worry about putting people out of work. It's happening already but at a slower and more torturous pace. But cut the crap.
2nd hand smoke is not the problem. Personal health care is. With all our medical advances, more people die from preventable diseases than ever before. Most of our population will die from one of the three major diseases and it's not the way it has to be. Smoking is only one thing that people do that is harmful to themselves. Poor diet, no exercise, those are far more problematic for now the body is less capable of fending off the nastiness of life. Exercise, eat well, supplement and a little occasional smoke in the air won't have any effect, just as it didn't in years past.
It's a foolish mandate anyway because so many less people smoke than ten or twenty years ago (at least in New York)...
The only extreme exceptions I've observed to this rule are the Chinese and the Russians...
I don't think I know anyone who smokes with kids in the car without having at least the driver's side window open (at least I don't).
I don't know...I think sometimes the state legislatures should pick their battles a bit more wisely.
"I don't think I know anyone who smokes with kids in the car without having at least the driver's side window open (at least I don't)"
I personally don't know anyone. But I have seen many times people doing exactly the same...while driving.
Well, years ago in the Dark Ages when I was a kid, my parents smoked and the windows were closed in the winter, but our cars had those little three-sided flip-out windows between the actual window and the windshield that they'd keep open, and they worked pretty well....cars weren't the hermetically-sealed vehicles they are today, and we'd get occasional whiffs of exhaust smoke, gas, etc.
I'd actually be more worried about the stressed-out mother NOT smoking and somehow getting into an accident out of sheer distraction...people are human, it happens.
I'd also like to mention that if the cops can't enforce the cellphone ban on drivers on any sort of practical, effective basis, how are they going to nab the smokers?
(I don't know how big of a deal drivers with cellphones are in the Midwest, but in New York, they are a menace, and I've seen many accidents and violations committed because of them).
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