Oh, Jesus... I can't fuckin' believe it....

[harmonicon]

So, I'm watching the BBC, and there was just a little report about the EU considering banning outdoor patio heaters - you know, the kind that bars have outside in places where smoking is banned inside. Why? Because they're horrible carbon emitting polluters!!! - each is worse than a car. HAHAHAHAHA!! So, there you go, fucko's. I hope you like your smoking bans now - thanks for contributing to global warming. Shit, I think I just had an aneurism. *sigh* We. Are. Fucked.

[SPKrazy]

1. what would jesus want

think about that

:shrug:

[harmonicon]

4. just a guess:

for someone to take them damn nails out of his hands and get him the fuck to a hospital asap?!

[Kutjara]

2. Honestly, we should all just die.

We can't do a single fucking thing that doesn't push the planet another inch closer to the abyss. Soon, someone's going to tell us that the simple act of sitting in a chair generates lethal levels of radiation.

[crim son]

3. Meh.

We are fucked because smoking is banned in public places? More, more.

[harmonicon]

5. we're fucked...

.... because every damn step humanity makes seems to plant our collective feet in a pile of shit. I've heard so much about smoking "polluting the air", which it doesn't really.... yes, I know there are concerns about health for those who are around lots of smoke, but smokers aren't actually polluting the planet's atmosphere in any significant way. So, smokers pushed outside, but bars and restaurants don't want to lose their business, so they have these heated outdoor areas, which, it turns out, fuck us all.... so the smoking bans have actually contributed more to pollution than smokers ever would have.

[crim son]

6. Ah, I do see your point.

I would contend that there are reasons for the smoking ban that do not have to do with general air pollution. But I am a nonsmoker and have always been, so am biased.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. Some restaurants around here

have outdoor electric heaters just for the lines waiting to get in. The heaters can get shut off, but that will just cut the restaurants' business.

What's a little carbon?
:hi:

[harmonicon]

8. yeah, exactly!

It's just a little carbon.... I guess it makes the air hot... not like we're hurting the air in anyway... OR.. if they do emit shit-loads of CO2 into the atmosphere, I guess you could say they're doing an even BETTER job of heating. But we can safely assume they don't do that, because then the companies that make them would be defeating their own purpose... unless they also make beer coolers - I'll have to look into this ;)

[DS1]

9. put a coat on if you're going outside

[MissMillie]

16. yep

exactly!

[Redstone]

10. Some day, in the deep, dark future, some historian will figure out exactly

when it was that the nannies took over the world.

Redstone

[DS1]

11. point taken

however, I see it as nannying to provide 'outdoor heating' for smokers.

"Shut the door, we're not heating the whole neighborhood" comes to mind. Now people are purposely putting heaters outside? It's nuts. Put a coat on if you're cold for the 3 minutes it takes to burn through a cig.

[Redstone]

12. Ah, but the Sissy Laws have put the bars in a very bad place. We had five bars

in this town three years ago, and now we have two. I have a friend in Germany who had to shut down her bowling allies / pool halls (3 of them) because her business dropped so drastically from the Sissy Laws in the one, what the hell do they call them in Germany, state, province, whatever.

Redstone

[northzax]

15. and that's the funny thing

the reason the laws had to be passed is that (and I work in a bar) it seems non-smokers will go to a smoking bar (if they have the option) while smokers will rarely go to a non-smoking bar (if they have the option) when DC passed the law, I remember a lot of non-smokers who said "wow, this is great, I am going to go out a lot more now there isn't smoking" guess what? they don't.

[Redstone]

17. No, they don't. And you can finds stats to support that, beyond just the raw

numbers of bars that have gone out of business.

But it doesn't matter; the zealots have picked off the easy target of the smokers, so now they'll go after the drinkers next.

Ten years from now, you'll be hard-pressed to find a bar ANYWHERE in this country.

Remember you heard that here first.

Redstone

[northzax]

13. not nannying, good business

if you can extend the season for your patio seating, and attract more business, why wouldn't you?

[TahitiNut]

14. 'cause some would cut off their nose to spite their face? (Just guessing.)

:shrug: There's apparently no limits to the insane zeal of some.