I'm ANGRY that smoking kills.. (people)

[Doll Eyes]

I used to smoke and frankly I did love it while I was doing it. I quit because I got scared, bottom line. Adults should be allow smoke cigarettes, that's their choice. People need to leave smokers alone about their health, it's their problem.

I think you can tell yourself repeatedly 'oh I don't care if I get cancer' or whatever. Maybe you don't, but I beleive most people do care about getting sick and dying slowly, etc. it's scary to think about...

those smoking commercials are gross but need to be shown, because they're the truth and I'm all about the truth. IMO, if you can't look at it on the TV how the hell would you deal with it if it happened to you IRL??

[MaggieZ]

I quit after 27 years of smoking becuase I couldn't stand it anymore..the being dependant on something, the money spent, the smell, the sneaking a smoke at work like I was a kid being naughty,....I started at age 13 because I thought it was cool, because I was the only one in my age group who did it...silly really and then it became part of me, the man I was in a relationship with smoked so I kept on doing it. I stopped thinking about the why, I just smoked and then I noticed after all those years that I didn't like any of it...so I quit a few times just to start again but then one fine day I put out a cigarette and never touched another one. Now I can't stand the smell, even on the street it makes me sick when someone walks past me with a cigarette...

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Hardly. You have a difficult time separating what is voluntary, unsafe behavior and the normal workings of society. I see no reason why we should collectively foot the medical bill for people indulging in high risk behavior such as sucking carcinogens into one's lungs for 40 years.

The "normal" workings of society? I have no children, but if you have been feeling amorous over the years and produced eight children, I should have no objections to footing the bill for their education, right? Nor should I object if it was a dozen kids? Those kids aren't your responsibility, they are the "collective" responsibility?

And I didn't even get to get in on the sex.

[Back to NE]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Hardly. You have a difficult time separating what is voluntary, unsafe behavior and the normal workings of society. I see no reason why we should collectively foot the medical bill for people indulging in high risk behavior such as sucking carcinogens into one's lungs for 40 years.

And you were the guy in the Relationships forum appalled that people would factor politics into seeking a mate.

Now you're here, ranting against cigs, medicare and medicaid. So answer the other poster: what do you and your loved ones do that the taxpayers will have to cover?

[Grandstander]

Despite my pessimism, and although it isn't officially over, it appears that Californians have said no to the dollar a pack tax proposal. They still have the absentee ballots to count, but of 3.8 million ballots counted, Proposition 29 was losing by 64,000 votes, or 50.6 % to 49.4%.

Based on exit poll interviews I have been seeing, the negative votes were not based on any sense of fairness/unfairness to smokers. Rather, voters in this deficit plagued state were saying that if there is a new tax of any sort, it should be something which goes toward relieving the debt, not something which puts California in the cancer cure business.

[wiseguymn]

Smoking can kill
So can many many other things.
Not everyone who smokes dies or have health problems from it.
What really surprises me is how the world has been brain washed to believe all these numbers that have been thrown out there about smoking.
In reality those numbers they are throwing out there are for more tax money.
The numbers are not even the same anytime I've ever seen the numbers they throw out.
Its like lets throw some numbers out about how much those evil smokers are costing the tax payers and everyone believes that to be true.
You don't see anything say lets look at the chemicals and see if we can take something out that might make it safer,all you see is lets add some tax to it.
You sure as he** don't see lets make it illegal, they want the tax money from the evil smokers.
So I will not apologize for smoking.
But shame on anyone who thinks it is any business of their if I do smoke or not.
As of right now this is a free country so as long as smoking is legal it has been way over denomized,and I still believe only for tax money.
And don't try to tell me that if I smoke that it is a fact I will get sick or die from smoking, you can not prove that.There are way to many other things that can kill me to prove I am going to die from smoking.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

Rather, voters in this deficit plagued state were saying that if there is a new tax of any sort, it should be something which goes toward relieving the debt, not something which puts California in the cancer cure business.

Those were my reasons for voting against it. The other was that I thought $1 per pack was too much. .25 or .50 per pack would have been ok.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by wiseguymn

As of right now this is a free country so as long as smoking is legal .

The US hasn't been a free country for a long time, but that's a topic for another forum; although I will say the anti-smoking movement is the least of the reasons why that's the case.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

Great post. I just wanted to say that $9 a day definitely adds up to real money, especially if you invest it.

$9 a day in a 60% stock / 40% bond portfolio (such as the Vanguard Balanced Index fund...www.vanguard.com), earned 5.93% over the past 15 years. At that rate, if you saved $270 per month ($9 a day) you'd have:

$18,896 after 5 years
$44,297 after 10 years
$78,440 after 15 years
$124,330 after 20 years
$268,938 after 30 years

I know this may not motivate anyone to quit...but I always find it interesting how many people say they can't "afford" to invest yet they can afford to smoke, drink, use recreational drugs, have tatoos, etc.

This falls on the deaf ears of those who roll their own with real tobacco @$1.25 a pack. That's what I've been paying for 10 years now, which makes it more difficult to quit, how cheap it is!

[Dale Cooper]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

That's nice.

Now that you've gotten that off your chest, let me get this off mine.

Do not tell us how you do not intend to quit smoking and then, by using Medicare or Medicaid for treatment, ask me to pay for it. Thanks.

So you somehow have the mistaken notion you're paying my monthly Medicare premiums? I'll be expecting that check in the mail any day now.

Newsflash: Medicare is NOT free. Why is this so difficult for some people to comprehend?