I don’t even care about the fact that it’s poisonous. People should not smoke in public for the same reason they should not shit in each other’s mouths. The taste is disgusting and offensive and I don’t even really give a shit about personal liberties, if someone puts their shit on or near my face, I’ll rip them apart. I don’t see how smoke is any different. People like smoking? People like shitting. Smoke = Shit.
It’s a scientific fact.
Whether or not the smoker is affecting other people is beyond doubt. Also beyond doubt is that in a smoking section of a restaurant, those people can decide whether or not they are there. Take the example of a restaurant or cafe established by a private individual or corporation with the intention of cateering expressly to smokers. Everyone who would go there knows there will be smoke and everyone who worked there assumed that risk. Still, under the laws, this consenting group of private citizens is outlawed from doing so. Where does it stop?
America won World War II, but fascism won. I’m convinced. Now western “democracies” legislate anything to try to put them an inch ahead in the economic race.
Wow, Hades. Maybe when you formulate a remark beyond the level of a second grader, then someone might let you play with them.
No, western democracies legislate to protect their citizens while the USA doesn’t legislate against businesses so as to put it an inch ahead in the economic race. 
I’ve never heard of secondhand sex or secondhand abortion, Sil, but it would be interesting to hear how you could think of comparing abortion to anti-smoking laws.
If you can’t make the snap decision of whether you want to go to a smoke-free restaurant or not, are you even conscious enough to worry about your health?
That’s beside the point. Some employees can’t decide whether they want to go there or not because they have no alternative.
This strain of Canadian exceptionalism is probably the most ironic and pitiable form of national pride. I have a secret to share with you, Canadian: your country and citizens are popular around the world simply because you are inoffensive.
So you think it’s better, then, for a country to essentially do whatever the hell it wants with no regard to the rest of the world, deplete natural resources at an alarming rate, and contribute the most to global warming out of ANY other nation in the globe. You think it’s better to this than to be, as you put it, inoffensive? Interesting.
About marijuana, since some people comented on it: I’m okay with it if it’s done like the opium houses in China, that is, people smoke it in closed places and under some control.
You know, it gets people into a trip after some dosage, and I wouldn’t feel safe in public places if I knew people can legally wander around while stoned.
You realize being picky about what job you take when you’ve got multiple kids at home to feed/clothe/etc isn’t really an option, right?
“These are some dangerous arguments you’re putting forth. If the state can decide what is and is not allowed to go on in private places of business between consenting adults, there is little to preclude them from prohibiting the other things, like abortion and sex of various kinds, that also go on between private consenting citizens” - What goes on in a private home between 2 people is different than what happens in a business on a day to day basis affecting hundreds of people. And remember, the State didn’t decide. The people did. The State’s been involved in what happens between citizens for a long time with the drug trade and prostitution and this isn’t really comparable to either as cigarettes are still allowed.
Also, many smokers will inconveinence themselves if other people don’t want smoke around them. Why don’t you try… you know, communicating with your fellow man - I have done it. Not even my family bothers to listen.
“If you can’t make the snap decision of whether you want to go to a smoke-free restaurant or not, are you even conscious enough to worry about your health?” - There is no such thing as a smoke free restaurant. The burden of responsibility is also not on the non-smokers, but on the smoker.
And before you blast Canada, California and New York presented these bans long before them and the Canadians are still fighting these bans.
I think that’s called “porn”.
As for everything else… wow. Just wow. Sil, you must love the smell of burning, since you get yourself flamed to hell all the time.
Touche. >.>
Sarcasm detector not working? Pity 
Are you kidding? This baby’s off the charts!
As opposed to legally wandering around while drunk.
There are laws against public drunkness in many places.
Oh right, I forgot. You guys have morals and ethics.
No, not really. We just hate the smell of urine and vomit everywhere.
Says the guy living in Gainesville.
Then you’ll be chagrined to discover that the right to abortion and the recent debunking of buggery laws in the USA are deeply seated in the so-called right to privacy, or the right of consenting individuals to do as they please in private homes and businesses.
That’s beside the point. Some employees can’t decide whether they want to go there or not because they have no alternative.
No, its not beside the point. Employees–all people in their capacity as employees–exist to serve the consumer, not the other way around. That’s not some radically conservative idea. It’s how the world works… This is a war that was supposed to have ended in 1989. If the worker cannot find a job without the risk of second-hand smoke (and atleast 95% of jobs are such) he has to buck up and deal with it.
It’s pretty clear by now that most of you are fine with delegating your personal freedoms and responsibilities to a faceless State Morality Board (whether made up of “the people” or not) who will decide for us how best to go about moving things from one place to another with maximum efficiency. Everyone in this country and in the Western world is swiftly marching toward a glorious future where humans are robot programmers and every conscious thought will be handled by a collective mind authority. Even now most white collar workers are no more than computer janitors, toiling away at the buttons and levers to make the robot brain run as smoothly as possible so that they can return to their health spheres (formerly known as homes and neighborhoods) and breath that healthy, filtered air and just live BY GOD for a few… minutes… longer…
Man, and you were implying I was overdramatic.
bleep
blorp
Out of curiosity, have you ever had to work? As in regular down-to-earth third-class burger-flipping work?
To say that “the worker exists to serve the consumer” is entirely ridiculous. Workers are meant to fulfil their duties to the best of their capacity, but customers also have the obligation to be respectful. Paying for food in a restaurant gives you the right to consume that food, complain if it is not as good as it should be, and complain about bad service, it does not give you the right to make unreasonable demands that go beyond the staff’s obligations. You cannot order a waiter to do anything beyond taking your orders and delivering the food. You cannot ask him to dance for you, you cannot ask him to clean your clothes if you yourself stain them, you cannot ask him to stand as you insult him and you cannot ask him to accept being put into an unhealthy environment that has no need to exist in the first place. There is no job description that includes “consciously give up your health”.