Paul 1405 Comrade, you bring back memory's of my misspent youth.
Those words, change, the world is falling in to our lap.
You got that from the Communists,Marxist Leninist, we are the future.
Well most grew out of it a very long time ago.
Even as a kid, learning post school to read by stumbling past words I did not understand, then coming back.
I could count,never understood how but was faster than most in adding and subtracting.
Took that into my work life and it helped, could out count the boss every time.
Now getting old, but still count without a toy helper.
Greens get 12% so far their best.
And yes , understand your hope, more flee the big party's and gather at the small party's waste lands.
But it is a dream,two party preferred, know why we say that.
Maths,tell me I am just being nasty,or that I am wrong.
For every green voter, for the 12 in one hundred,88 will never vote for you.
Its about numbers mate not dreams

I an sick of the harrassment of smokers.Last i heard it was still legal.Let's do something about obesity it has surpassed smoking as the biggest killer and user of medical funds.The stench of smoking is nowhere near as bad as the smell of BO from so many grossly overweight people.I have smoked for 47 years,never been sick a day, never even had the flu.If i should become ill because of smoking i have paid my taxes all these years and so far,other than the usual necessary tests for women have cost the health system nothing.I figure a few cylinders of oxygen and some puffers would come to nowhere near the amount of health funds spent on the average citizen.I am a considerate smoker and go out of my way not to inconvenience any person with the smell and dispose of my butts carefully.

Geez, haygirl, don't you feel some sort of flattery that amongst all the poisons freely promoted in our society, yours is the one targeted for eradication...and you get a starring role as "Pariah of the Moment".

It is a fascinating irony in a society that boasts almost a liquor outlet on every corner, constant mega-emissions from vehicles, bucket-loads of preservatives in foods and fast-food outlets serving up dietary poison, that all of it can be overlooked in favour of targeting one particular fix. A sedentary, sugar and fat-laden lifestlye is apparently the norm.

Yes Poirot,i do feel priviledged to have been one of those singled out for preferrential treatment.Maybe i should quit the cigs and start gorging myself on junk food and alcohol.At least then i will get my share of the medical funds allotted.Maybe i will acquire a smoking related disease and die prematurely.That will save the govt paying a pension and forking out for all the old age related illnesses.Our oldest citizen died at 117 recently and she had smoked until the ripe old age of 114.I am more concerned about the noxious gasses escaping from all the vehicles on the road.

oug
I know there are many other pollutants and 'bad' things in society but this thread is about smoking. Does anyone posting a response on this topic have to caveat it by listing all the other bad things too.

Happy to comment on other issues too, but not to distract from the topic of this thread.

Why is it smokers think it is a direct threat against 'their' rights for some common courtesy to others.

Some cannot see the woods for the trees or should that be smoke.

Smokers on this thread have run us through the whole gambit of irrational argument about smoking. Everything from denial, "its all a Commie plot to take away the joys of smoking" to "I pay my taxes". Then there is the totally absurd line of argument " I knew a bloke who smoked 80 a day, lived to be 110." We even have the responsible smokers argument, "I recycle my butts in the compost bin so I can grow organic buck coy," There is more, like "why don't you tackle third world poverty before you attack us smokers." One of my favorites is "Us smokers have rights, we have the right to kill you with our addiction."
I am not advocating a total ban on smoking. If tomorrow science invents a plastic bubble which smokers can ware in public to contain their cancerous contaminations, I'm all for it.