Austin Council plans to ban smoking in city parks (Waco: restaurant, stats)

[austinrebel]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

I have my lungs checked twice a year in fact. Once during my annual check up and once during allergy season.

The Austin City Council is responsible for doing what is reasonable to provide a safe enviornment for Austinites. Since they can't wave a court order at a wild fire in Bastrop and expect it to go out, I don't see the analogy you are trying to make here.

Smoke from wildfires is an uncontrollable enviornmental issue. Smoke from dirty addicts puffing on cigarettes is not uncontrollable. They are 2 seperate things. A natural disaster is nothing compared to NOT SMOKING for the 30 minutes you are in a park. One is an act of god, one is a personal choice. I could go on describing how they are different....but obviously the point is lost on you.

I don't care if smokers want to smoke, I care about avoiding it. Let smokers smoke in designated smoking areas in a park. But smokers don't have carte blanch to smoke wherever they feel like because we are expected to respect their dirty addiction.

I don't think it is unreasonable to prohibit smoking around flammable materials, during a severe drought for example. But a permanent ban is unreasonable, just a permanent ban on grilling is unreasonable. And I have better things for the city to spend money on.

If you don't like the smell, then move away. Should we ban perfume in the parks too because many people don't like the smell? How about grilling of meat, because it offends the vegans? Aren't those "controllable enviornmental issues?"

Hardly anyone smokes in the parks now. This is making a mountain out of a molehill.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by austinrebel

If you see someone smoking in a park, then walk away. Problem solved. The parks belong to everyone, even smokers. Like I said, I saw someone smoking on a kayak the other day. Didn't bother me. Didn't even paddle away from him.

This is not California you know. We don't want to be just like California.

Do I know this is not California? Are you asking me if I passed 3rd grade geography and if I can find California on a map?

What does California have to do with anything? I mean, I know it's popular for ignorant people to hate on it, but when did anyone bring up California....is that your way of shutting down the conversation when you are wrong? "Whatever man!! Just move to California!!" So if California passed a law that said it was illegal to eat babies, would we automatically start eating every baby we can find? Just to show we aren't pansies like those Californians?? Not in Texas, no sir!!! I am a texasrebel!!! Imma eat them babies to show how manly and un-Californiana I am!

Public spaces belong to everyone, and should be treated with respect. It's not okay for me to throw litter on the ground. If I did and a cop told me to stop, I couldnt tell him "Just walk away from my littering!!! This park belongs to everyone!!"

It's your park..not your toilet. You don't get to fill it with smoke, throw your cigarette but on the ground, start a wild fire and then go "Whatever man, it's my park too!! God, go back to California!"

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by austinrebel

If you don't like the smell, then move away. Should we ban perfume in the parks too because many people don't like the smell? How about grilling of meat, because it offends the vegans? Aren't those "controllable enviornmental issues?"
.

This is something you and Texashorselady can't seem to grasp. Cigarette smoke is harmful to your health. It causes cancer. People have a right to not be given cancer. This is scientifically proven. This is not people being "whiners" or "californians". Smoking ...killls....people.

The smell of meat does not give someone cancer. The smell of perfume does not give cancer. This is not about being "offended".

You are arguing in circles now.

[austinrebel]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

Do I know this is not California? Are you asking me if I passed 3rd grade geography and if I can find California on a map?

What does California have to do with anything? I mean, I know it's popular for ignorant people to hate on it, but when did anyone bring up California....is that your way of shutting down the conversation when you are wrong? "Whatever man!! Just move to California!!" So if California passed a law that said it was illegal to eat babies, would we automatically start eating every baby we can find? Just to show we aren't pansies like those Californians?? Not in Texas, no sir!!! I am a texasrebel!!! Imma eat them babies to show how manly and un-Californiana I am!

Public spaces belong to everyone, and should be treated with respect. It's not okay for me to throw litter on the ground. If I did and a cop told me to stop, I couldnt tell him "Just walk away from my littering!!! This park belongs to everyone!!"

It's your park..not your toilet. You don't get to fill it with smoke, throw your cigarette but on the ground, start a wild fire and then go "Whatever man, it's my park too!! God, go back to California!"

Sheesh, you Californians are touchy.

I just meant that in Texas we don't want to implement every wacky law that comes out of California. Do we have to have a anti-circumcision law in Austin just because San Francisco wants one? Or ban burning wood in fireplaces, as has been done in CA?

No one is against enforcing anti-littering laws. And the parks are not "filled with smoke." The fires in Bastrop were caused by downed power lines, not smokers.

You can always go to a smoke-free bar.

[austinrebel]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

This is something you and Texashorselady can't seem to grasp. Cigarette smoke is harmful to your health. It causes cancer. People have a right to not be given cancer. This is scientifically proven. This is not people being "whiners" or "californians". Smoking ...killls....people.

The smell of meat does not give someone cancer. The smell of perfume does not give cancer. This is not about being "offended".

You are arguing in circles now.

At what distance? If I see someone smoking 100 yards away in a park, will I get cancer? Is it 50 yards?

[austinrebel]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

You are just making stuff up as you go along now.......

Ashes are not "burnt already". Ashes are hot and can still cause fires. In fact, the best way to grill a skirt steak is to set it directly on the ashes and let their heat crisp up the steak. Grilling 101 is that when you dispose of your charcoal, you put it in a metal container to allow it to truly go out, b/c charcoal can still start a fire up to 3 days later. If you believe ashes are "burnt already" then by all means, start a fire in your fireplace, let the logs burn down, then stick your hands in the ashes. Let me know how that works out for you. It's sad for me that you don't know this. When I read about forest fires in the paper or hear about them on the news, I ask myself "how could anyone be so foolish???" Now I know.

It's a good thing though that all cigarettes are "fire-safe" though, right Texasrebel? No one has ever burnt down their house from falling asleep with a lit cigarette. Why, I know that when my mom puts down her cigarette to talk to me, why, she has to relight that cigarette 4 minutes later b/c it automatically goes out when she stops smoking it.....sigh.

Earlier I made a statement about how "and some people magically think that cigarette butts can't cause fire" and someone actually sent me a Direct Message saying "stop exaggerating your point...obvioiusly NO ONE thinks it's okay to throw lit cigarettes on the ground". Well, take a look above. You can apologize whenever you want, you know who you are.

The fire-safe cigarettes are safer, not risk free. Perhaps fire-safe is not the correct term for them. They are certainly safer than a rolled joint because the paper retards the burning so they will not burn down to the stubb on their own. The Fed mandated them a couple of years back, I think.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by austinrebel

Sheesh, you Californians are touchy.

I just meant that in Texas we don't want to implement every wacky law that comes out of California. Do we have to have a anti-circumcision law in Austin just because San Francisco wants one? Or ban burning wood in fireplaces, as has been done in CA?

No one is against enforcing anti-littering laws. And the parks are not "filled with smoke." The fires in Bastrop were caused by downed power lines, not smokers.

You can always go to a smoke-free bar.

You make a lot of assumptions and rely on them because the facts are inconvenient to you. As per usual...you are wrong.

I was born in Scott and White hospital in Temple Texas and raised outside of Waco. I am a 5th generation Texan. Even more so if you consider my Cherokee Heritage, that would probably make me a 28th generation Texan.

[austinrebel]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

This is something you and Texashorselady can't seem to grasp. Cigarette smoke is harmful to your health. It causes cancer. People have a right to not be given cancer. This is scientifically proven. This is not people being "whiners" or "californians". Smoking ...killls....people.

The smell of meat does not give someone cancer. The smell of perfume does not give cancer. This is not about being "offended".

You are arguing in circles now.

Actually, the smell of perfume causes many people asthma and migraine headaches. I have a friend who literally has to hold his breath to walk down the detergent aisle at the grocery store.

And burning meat gives of carcinogens.

And many Vegans can not stand the smell of burning flesh.

[austinrebel]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

You make a lot of assumptions and rely on them because the facts are inconvenient to you. As per usual...you are wrong.

I was born in Scott and White hospital in Temple Texas and raised outside of Waco. I am a 5th generation Texan. Even more so if you consider my Cherokee Heritage, that would probably make me a 28th generation Texan.

Well, the Indians were the original smokers!

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by austinrebel

At what distance? If I see someone smoking 100 yards away in a park, will I get cancer? Is it 50 yards?

I have already provided you links to the Mayo Clinic and the American Cancer Society that answers these questions.