Nagging from a Nanny
By Dave Hitt on May 30, 2008 in Junk Science, Nanny Nation
Visitors to The Facts send a lot of e-mail. Half of the writers love the site and say thanks, the other half hates it, hates smokers, hates freedom of choice, and especially, hates me.
The fan mail is pretty varied. Some people like the stats pages, some like the study analysis, some like the list of business hurt by smoking bans and some praise the whole site.
The hate mail is all pretty much the same. It’s so predictable and unimaginative I could create a standard generic reply to use for all of them. The grammar is usually atrocious. Scatological references abound. About half of them are full of multiple exclamation points and question marks. Lousy formatting is common. Many are from anonymous accounts. All of them are smug and self righteous.
Here’s a typical one, which arrived last night. I haven’t changed the formatting or edited it in any way.
– – –
From: No Name <fozzy1985@hotmail.com>
To: hittman@davehitt.com
Date: Fri, May 30, 2008 at 1:26 AM
Subject: The Facts
What is funny.
How much ‘proof’ that is necessary to prove Second Hand smoke isn’t harmful.
Well you know what – it probably isn’t. But it stinks VERY bad.
Next time you are at a restaurant imaging a pile of dog crap sitting on your neighbors plate – and the smell is ‘blowing’ in your direction.
Sniff— mmm that would be VERY appetizing.
When I was a kid a Credit Union had a very thought provoking sign.
“So, you like to smoke. The by-product is it pilfers my hair and clothes.
I like to drink beer. The by-product of that is urinating.
So how about I drink and I urinate on your hair & clothing?”
Makes a great point, but two sentences aren’t enough to make a change.
Dave.
– – –
My Reply:
Nice grammar. What school you went?
Most children go through a scatological phase, when they are fascinated with pee and poop. It usually starts around age three and is over by age five.
However, based on the e-mails I regularly receive from your ilk, it’s clear that the majority of nicotine nannies never grow up. They are as obsessed with bodily functions as a three year old. At least half of the e-mail I get from your ilk has references to peeing in a pool, farting in your face, shitting in your salad, etc.
This provides a great insight into your mind set. You’re pathetically immature little children. No wonder you love nanny government. You need it; you’re not grown up enough to take care of yourself.
Retards,
Dave Hitt
– – –
On a related note, I’ve done some significant upgrading to the “Ban Links” page on The Facts. The original pages were far too long, disorganized, difficult to search, and cumbersome for me to maintain. I had five pages, each about twelve screens long. They contained about 200 articles about business that had been harmed (many to the point of closing) by smoking bans.
So I converted them all to a WordPress blog format, and had someone design a WP theme to match the layout of The Facts. Now they articles are easy to search, every post is categorized, and it’s easy for me to keep it updated. The stories from the original pages are in there and I’m working my way through a backlog of newer stories.
Here are the original pages. Here’s the new one. Let me know what you think.
I love it. Once you finally submit enough proof to these morons that second had smoke is harmless, they switch modes to saying it’s impolite, smells bad, etc. When has it ever been the government’s responsibility to protect the public from olfactory abuse? Why should the government legislate people being rude to one another? Is it the next step to enforce daily showers and saying “please” and “thank you?”
Nanny statists like this make me sick, and I can’t imagine anything more rude than using threat of government violence to get your way.
John | May 30, 2008 | Reply
To be more polite…
I guess the point would be that if a person wants to smoke and I don’t want to smoke. Why do I have to be bothered by the smoke?
My comment has nothing to do regarding government control.
What about all the litter on the roads from peoples cigarette butts? Yes I don’t throw my garbage on the ground either.
What this really comes down to is just a selfish ‘habit’ that doesn’t just effect oneself.
fozzy1985 | May 30, 2008 | Reply
I don’t know you and I don’t think my comments were meant to be hateful.
fozzy1985 | May 30, 2008 | Reply
You don’t have to be bothered by the smoke. Just don’t go to the few places left where smokers are allowed to smoke.
I despise rap. I stay out of places that play it. I don’t demand that they change their business model, I just find a spot that fits my taste better. And I’d never try to force the rap-playing place, by law, to play music I like.
Sometimes I’m still exposed to raplike when someone is playing it at 120 db in a passing vehicle. I find it annoying. I don’t like it. But I put up with it, because putting up with things you find annoying is part of living around other people.
The reason you see so many more cigarette butts outside is because A) smokers have been forced outside and B) receptacles are seldom provided. When smokers were allowed to have smoking lounges in buildings they put their butts out in ashtrays. Now they’re outside, and there usually isn’t a safe place to discard a butt neatly. You can’t throw them in a regular trash bin, because even a butt that seems to be out can smolder for a while and then catch fire. The ground is the only safe place for them.
Where I work there used to be a butt catcher outside the back door, where people go to smoke. Then one of the nicotine nannies came up with a rule that no one could smoke within 50 feet of the building, and to add an exclamation point to it they removed the receptacle. Now there are butts all over the place, and they’re bitching about that. What did they expect?
Most smokers are perfectly fine with being told “you can smoke over there,” as long as “there” is a reasonable place. (Not 100 feet away in the rain across a busy highway, for instance.) But now smokers are being told they can’t smoke anywhere, and being harassed because they’re {start whine} too close to the dooooooor{end whine}, and bitched at for littler when the ashtrays have been removed. These problems have been created by the nicotine nannies.
Hittman | May 31, 2008 | Reply
I actually thought of some of the points you made. I used to play my music loud. You are correct about it bothering others. I was selfish.
The state I live in has made it illegal to smoke in resturants. Before the law no owner disallowed smoking. Most places had a non-smoking section, however there was a constant – wind of smoke.
With that said – there would be no place to go out to eat in my state.
So many butts:
I was thinking of taking a picture of one of the intersections in my city. Some days it is a “sea” of butts because people throw them out the windows of their cars.
One time I visited Nashville TN and some of the intersections beat my city’s.
Even if the butt catchers are 100yards away it still doesn’t give a person the right to litter. Just like if we have a wrapper and toss it out the window because a garbage can is a block away.
Simply put its boils down to love of neighbor.
Like you I put up with ‘stuff’ (rap) and just lump it and move on.
You are correct I believe a lot of smokers are just glad to have a place to smoke.
It is crazy though being controlled by a plant.
fozzy1985 | May 31, 2008 | Reply
I find that hard to believe. There have always been non-smoking venues around. Not bars, because non-smoking kills bars, but restaurants, for sure.
And if it were true, what a golden opportunity! Open a smoke free place and, if the nannies are right, you’d be rolling in cash as the non-smokers filled it up.
Of course, in the real world, that doesn’t happen, which is why nicotine nannies never have the guts to open their own place. Instead they use force to get what that want. Then when bars, restaurants and bingo halls shut down they lie about why it’s happening.
It’s crazy to think that enjoying something means you’re being controlled by it.
It’s even crazier to be controlled by Big Brother, who is being controlled by hateful, ignorant,lying, self-righteous do-gooders, who are being controlled by Big Pharma.
Hittman | May 31, 2008 | Reply
I have to admit, people who toss butts out the windows of cars piss me off.
Johnny Virgil | Jun 1, 2008 | Reply
I get pissed when anyone tosses anything out the windows of cars.
Evidently, only filthy cigarette smokers litter. Yet, if I walk anywhere in town, the amount of litter (by volume and/or weight) comprised of cups, straws, lids, plastic water bottles, etc., by far exceed that of cigarette butts (usually filters).
This, regardless of almost zero containers for cigarettes while there are many trash receptacles for standard trash.
Rod Guilmette | Jun 2, 2008 | Reply
The only thing I’ve every tossed out of my moving car was an anti-smoker. I have no idea how she got in.
Hittman | Jun 3, 2008 | Reply