24 August 2005

ACT Government wins "Dirty Ashtray Award"

| johnboy

ABCC Online is reporting on the AMA’s broadsides at our local government’s smoking-in=bars-and-restaurants legislation.

[The] stance on smoking is illogical and makes a complete mockery of the intent of the original legislation.

If illogical legislation keeps winning awards the ACT Government is going to need a mighty big trophy cabinet.

On the other hand the AMA’s argument that the whims of non-smokers (of which I am one) should take absolute priority seems a bit flimsy to me. I want a dinner date with Angelina Jolie but I don’t expect (nor particularly desire) for it to be legislated.

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Just think mr Face, in 6 years you will be allowed to drink Fosters. I’m sure you’re looking forward to it.

I appreciate the words, I don’t beleive them though…and nothing you can say will make me.

Comment by Samuel Gordon-Stewart

say what please learn how to talk in english!!!!

lol like your granfather was. Australia is just a bunch of thiefs

*fosters Australian for piss*

The funny thing is, 100 years ago, he’d probably be on a ship to Australia by now.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart8:03 am 24 Aug 05

I appreciate the words, I don’t beleive them though…and nothing you can say will make me.

bye no it acualy it wasnt any of the things you have just said i was just fucking about trying to get a laugh and i got it thank you again

What made the wee shite so contrite? Either he got a kicking from the UDA (in which his dad seems to be a main heavy), or our tracking him back to his school has scared the bejabers out of him.
-Either way, nice to see an apology, no matter how appallingly written. Bye, Mr Small Face.

well ppl bye bye srry for being a complete dickhead

and smokin stinks ppl who smoke r just ass holes

any you will b happ to no my sister got 9 “a”s in her gsces today and 1 “B”

ppl i was a cheeky little gob-shite and i need my fuck kicked in this will b the last ever time i use riotact so bye bye

So although you’ve never dated a woman that smoked bonfire, you’ve tasted at least one…
K

I like a drink or two at the pub. my favourites in ACT are:

Wig and Pen.
George Harcourt.

I’d also never date a woman that smoked. Cant stand the taste.

i should also add that i dont smoke when im at the pub.

although i defend the rights of those who do.

Mael, yay for Canberra’s warm sun. This morning I spent most of a lecture asleep in it…
K

Ladys and gents, we have our next logline.

im not addicted to anything. i can have a smoke when i feel like it. or i can go months or weeks without one. i dont carry a pack around with me, i usually light up when im at home after dinner or with a glass of wine or brandy.

i would say that i inhale less cigarette smoke than i would inhale car exhaust fumes. you dont see me whining about car exhausts and how they should all be banned though.

dont confuse addiction, habit and desire.

We don’t ALL choose to live here……

Isn’t this whole site about whinging!?

Quit whinging about the cold harsh Canberra winters. You all choose to live here.

To quote the yin and the yang of the situation, you also get to sit outside in the balmy sunny afternoons, getting a bit of warm sun on your face, and all that heat.

As for me, I’m apparently sitting inside writing letters to the editor.

The fact that you HAVE to go out at 11pm on a cold night to have a cigarette reeks more of the results of having an addiction than something that you do for fun, however as you know I’m one to call an alcoholic an alcoholic.

Unfortunately for smokers, there is only one real cure to the situation, yes that’s right – self contained cigarettes!

No smoke, no smell, no offence! Just solid addictive nicotene… mmmm…

Just braving the cold to suck in a few chemicals is enough to deter me from smoking.

PS: When the mail man delivers my mail it always smells of smoke and it’s gross!

Hey Growling Ferret – why don’t you go back to New Zealand then.

Sounds nice bonfire. Sounds like a positive experience. I have no problem with a smoker enjoying smoking. Or not enjoying it. Whatever. That’s none of my business.

How do you figure that dropping your cigarette butts on the ground is not littering though?

there is nothing as relaxing as going and sitting on the step at 11PM in the cold air and experiencing the quiet and stillness of the evening, even in winter in canberra.

it allows one a moment of reflection.

i truly feel sorry for the non smokers who are inside drinking bovril or writing letters to the editor.

Oh ok. I wasn’t sure.

Its a bit wierd to say that dropping a butt is not littering….
What was the advert about people that drop butts? I can’t remember the slogan….

I guess smokers are sick and tired of people always telling them what they are doing is wrong.

But I say bring on the new legislation.
It will suck in winter for all the smokers to go outside and they will feel hard-done-by, but hey you better get used to the pain and the occasional uncomfortable lifestyle if you chose to be a smoker becasue it doesn’t get any better.

Smoking has more than 50 ways of making life a misery through illness and more than 20 ways of killing you. In general, smokers endure poorer health than non-smokers.

No, yours was right on. I was referring to bonfire’s post after yours in which he said “dropping a butt on the ground is not littering” and “people who complain about smokey pubs, umm, dont go there. sit at home and write letters to the editor, or go for a nice long ride on your monkey bike.”

Spitfire
Are you saying that I sound selfish?

Thumper, I don’t think Chalker’s last comment is meant as severely as he put it. I think it was merely a knee-jerk reaction to bonfire’s post which, after ORL’s message, comes off sounding very selfish in my opinion.

What I find bizarre is bonfire’s statement “dropping a butt on the ground is not littering.” How is that not littering???

i just love the tolerant anti-smokers. they are zealots, and you cannot win any argument with a zealot as they can never admit they are wrong, or change their mind.

Growling Ferret10:25 am 23 Aug 05

Someone in the ACT Govt should be brave and ban smoking in all pubs and clubs immediately – in NZ, EVERY pub and club is smoke free. The casinos are smoke free. And it made my non-smoking wife far happier to go out and enjoy a night out without reeking of second hand smoke…

As a semi-reformed smoker (only when I drink), it was brilliant. Smokers congregated in the outdoor areas, and the temptation of lighting up was removed when noone else was doing it.

The sooner this is brought into Canberra, the better… Isn’t it sometime in 2006 anyway???

people who complain about smokey pubs, umm, dont go there

Ummm, maybe non-smokers would like to go out and have a good time in pubs also. If said pub has a smoking section, fine, but smokers should stay in there. If it’s not well ventilated enough for your tastes, then stay at home at write letters to the editor.

Your rights end at the tip of my fist. If I punch you in the face, then I’m a prick. If your face gets in the way and then you complain about getting punched – you’re a prick.

pious anti smokers can KMA.

dropping a butt on the ground is not littering.

people who complain about smokey pubs, umm, dont go there. sit at home and write letters to the editor, or go for a nice long ride on your monkey bike.

just like eating maccas, smoking is an individual choice.

your rights end at the tip of my nose. if i light up and blow smoke in your face, then im a prick. if you arrive and complain about smoke – youre a prick.

I don’t even know why people continue to take up smoking these days anyway……Why spend money on killing yourself when you could save it and buy shoes!

I used to work in a couple of nightclubs in Civic and I used to HATE the idiots that would come and hang over the bar with their cigarettes, blowing smoke in your face and ashing all over the place.

Some would ash on people next to them, in the ice or just leaving the butt on the bar burning away.
Some people can be soooo hideous when they go out in public and have a few drinks……too many!

It is illegal apparently to smoke within 1.5 meters of a bar, so as I am a non smoker, I would politly ask people to not smoke when they were ordering their drinks and they would look at me like I was speaking jiberish.

They (smokers) always thought that they had the right to blow smoke in my face cause I worked in a nightclub and either told me to deal with it or start an argument over it.

Hello….Do I come to your work place and blow smoke all over you, become argumentative and basically be a jerk!

“I could put it another way. I think fat people should stop eating and start exercising, but I don’t go around complaining about them and telling them they are wrong. Indeed, I should go t McDonlads and tell everyone in there to go and clean up al the rubbish because thee is McDonalds wrapping paper everywhere.”

Are you trying to equate damaging ones own health to that of inflicting damage to the health of others?

Granted if I am in a designated smoking area I have no right to get pissed off at people who are smoking – even if they do blow the smoke in my face – I have an option as to where else I can go. I just resent those smokers who seem to think that it is OK to smoke just outside office / shop doors, thus forcing you to breathe the smoke (or hold your breath and wince your eyes) to go through the door.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart4:04 pm 21 Aug 05

Fair Enough…looks like you had an encounter with some average garden-variety idiots.

I agree with the tolerance thing. What I don’t agree with is the large number of smokers who don’t care whether it is a smoking or non-smoking area or that dropping butts is littering. I am aware that there are smokers who do the right thing.

I simply avoid smoking areas when possible and if in a smoking area don’t comment about it.

I have been out and in a non-smoking area before and had a smoker blow smoke in my face. When politely asked to not blow smoke in my face and that he was in a non-smoking area he picked a fight with me and decided that trying to punch me in the head was a good idea. After I slapped him and his friend (who thought picking me was a good idea as well)into the dirt they came around to my point of view. That is the type of attitude I am talking about.

G

Samuel Gordon-Stewart12:10 pm 21 Aug 05

Thumper, I agree with you, tolerance is what we require. As a non-smoker, if the smoke annoys me in a smoking area then I will move to the non-smoking area. I congratulate you for being tolerant of us non-smoking types and doing what you can to ease our comfort (blowing smoke upwards etc).

Special G, do I gather that you have some bad experiences with intolerant smokers? Or are you just an intolerant non-smoker?

Piggy, Go inflict your lung cancer on someone who wants it. When your out having a good time and blowing smoke in the non-smokers face your probably standing two feet away from the no smoking sign. You people just don’t give a shit.

Most smokers feel the world is thier ashtray and drop thier butts anywhere and everywhere.

G

“There is something very unusual and illogical about those laws. I have no problem with smoking areas, I just would like to see them be placed more logically…and perhaps have a bit more ventilation” i totaly agree.

tho i think some non smokers realy push the point way too far and become real pains in the arse. last thing i need when im out haveing a good time is to be told off by some non smoker and realy kill my night out.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart1:40 pm 20 Aug 05

There is something very unusual and illogical about those laws. I have no problem with smoking areas, I just would like to see them be placed more logically…and perhaps have a bit more ventilation.

Angelina Jolie…. *sigh*
You are a sick and twisted puppy.

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