Allen County Smoking Ban

bassjones · Post by **bassjones** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:46 pm

bwohlgemuth wrote:
jtkennedy9 wrote:I'm really surprised that you can smoke at the festivals. Crawford must have forgot to put that part in the bill....
Give it time....there will be an amendment to close that "loophole".

I'm guessing we'll have a 48 hour waiting period for cigarettes next.

Maybe a federal background check. You know since cigarettes kill WAY more people than guns do every year. Maybe they'll even create a database of purchasers.

bwohlgemuth · Post by **bwohlgemuth** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:34 pm

Maybe they'll even create a database of purchasers.

Already have that....just combine the health insurance database with teh internal databases the tobacco marketing companies have....

sevesd93 · Post by **sevesd93** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:21 pm

Health Insurance Database? I know my health insurance says my wife and I are non-smokers, and I am pretty sure I bought us each a carton last week.

deek · Post by **deek** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:45 am

I am pretty sure that unless your insurance company forces a doctor's exam on all employees, they can't really narrow you out as a smoker, even if you smoke. Most companies are not going to spend the time to prove it.

I know that when we had some switching done at work, with smoker's rates planned to go up, there was a lot of discussion and at one point, in company staff meeting with the CEO, a question came up about the health risks of obesity, and how that is a bigger epidemic in the US than smoking...so why shouldn't there be high premiums for obese employees...

I think after that came about, the whole thing kinda dropped and smokers stil don't have to prove they don't smoke...ring up one for the common worker:)

bwohlgemuth · Post by **bwohlgemuth** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:02 am

Why is it that we condemn smokers and obese people because they can "avoid" those risks, but then we cover the other idiots who get drunk and wrap their cars around a telephone pole? Or how we cover kids who should have known better than climbing that tree in the backyard. Or the people who get on airplanes, cars, spacecraft, whatever....

"They bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say let them crash!"

deek · Post by **deek** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:15 am

I wasn't going to bridge into that topic, but I certainly don't see any reason why people who drink alcohol get a special break in all this...a special place to go to drink and so forth...especially seeing that one of the main reasons drinking is a problem (outside of one's own body) is because many decide to drive away from home to do it...

It would make more sense to me to have "smoking bars" with entertainment and the like, and force those that want to drink to do it at home...but I think there would be a big issue with that as the bandwagon is attached to smoking right now...

bwohlgemuth · Post by **bwohlgemuth** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:29 am

I think it gets down to one basic issue. We as a society embrace those who "improve" themselves. Working out is a perfectly selfish and socially acceptable behavior (honey, I'm going down to the gym as opposed to spending time with my kids or going to school). Those who smoke, are obese, are lazy, are usually shunned (nevermind that these people have various addictions, emotional problems, or other issues). Who do you think will be more positively viewed in society? A thin 25 year old girl at the gym or a 35 year old dad with five kids?

Personally I find exercise completely boring. I don't mind walking, but spending three hours each day lifting an 200lb weight over my head sixteen times....what exactly have I contributed to society?

(and yes, I know I need to lose weight if I want to see my grandkids grow up...I'm just not enamored with the entire "having my diapers changed at ninety" as some people are)

deek · Post by **deek** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:37 am

Good point...that is what it boils down to...society embraces personal improvement...well, at least our society does. And unfortunately, by embracing it "we" also try to remove things we don't "like" people doing...okay, that is not 100% fair, it is not liking things that can cause harm that people do...

Well, if the 25 year old was also black, and the 35 year old dad with five kids also had a six figure salary...the view changes...

bwohlgemuth · Post by **bwohlgemuth** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:00 am

deek wrote:Well, if the 25 year old was also black, and the 35 year old dad with five kids also had a six figure salary...the view changes...

Actually, I think we as a society have made massive inroads from where we were twenty years ago with regards to color, gender, and sexual orientation.

Remember when being gay was "a choice", when black people "just had an extra burden to overcome", when women "should stay home and make babies"? Those were societies ideals only thirty years ago...look where we are now. There is still work to be done, but it's the process of cleaning up the last few holdout racists and sexists.

Society will only evolve when it stops shunning people for who they aren't and accepting them for who they are.

Sankofa · Post by **Sankofa** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:17 am

bwohlgemuth wrote:spending three hours each day lifting an 200lb weight over my head sixteen times....

how about 45 minutes every other day?

sevesd93 · Post by **sevesd93** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:41 am

Sankofa wrote:
bwohlgemuth wrote:spending three hours each day lifting an 200lb weight over my head sixteen times....
how about 45 minutes every other day?

^
That sounds a little more reasonable.

And to answer your question about "What exactly have I contributed to society?"

A much better ass for me to look at...

bassjones · Post by **bassjones** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:47 am

Sankofa wrote:
bwohlgemuth wrote:spending three hours each day lifting an 200lb weight over my head sixteen times....
how about 45 minutes every other day?

That's what I'm doing, only I started with walking every night. I'm going to start lifting next week. Cutting out pop has helped allot and not going for fast food 3x's a week (or more) has helped tremendously as well. I've got dumbells and about 100 pounds of weights at home, but no bench, so I'm starting with biceps/triceps curls and overhead movements. It's not much, but a good start considering what I've been doing for 10 years, after hardcore bodybuilding (all natural) for the previous 5. Injury set me back for 6 weeks and 6 weeks somehow turned into 10 years and allot!!! of excess weight. Better late than never.

now, back on topic....

sevesd93 · Post by **sevesd93** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 11:52 am

You know Jones, I would probably consider what you did for the past 10 years "Hardcore Body Building". I mean technically you built a huge body. You have been body building this whole time and didn't even know it.

deek · Post by **deek** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 2:08 pm

bwohlgemuth wrote:
deek wrote:Well, if the 25 year old was also black, and the 35 year old dad with five kids also had a six figure salary...the view changes...
Actually, I think we as a society have made massive inroads from where we were twenty years ago with regards to color, gender, and sexual orientation.

Remember when being queer was "a choice", when black people "just had an extra burden to overcome", when women "should stay home and make babies"? Those were societies ideals only thirty years ago...look where we are now. There is still work to be done, but it's the process of cleaning up the last few holdout racists and sexists.

Society will only evolve when it stops shunning people for who they aren't and accepting them for who they are.

While I agree about the massive inroads...I still think that "society" has a lot to work to do, and I think race is still an issue for a lot of people...and with race, I don't mean just black, but I did use it to prove a point...

sevesd93 · Post by **sevesd93** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:49 am

So uh, how about that Smoking Ban? Friday night NoRA played to a packed patio at Corner Pocket pub, but as soon as you walked inside, nothing. Might have been 10 people.

I know it is summer in all, but the bars are hurting worse than normal. I am not seeing a large number of bar friends that I used to at my normal hang out, which is making me not go as much.

Also, there has not been in increase in new people coming in and sitting at the bar who are "non-smokers". The waitresses are not making anything.

Where are all these new "Non-Smokers" that said they would come out if bars went smoke free?