Good points there Burzum. We all know that smoking is far from healthy, but so are a lot of other things. Last time I checked, mobile phones were thought to be antisocial and cancer-causing too, but you don't see people throwing around melodramatic accusations every time a phone rings (Well, apart from at the cinema!)
The tax income contradiction is bang on, but I guess what gets my goat personally is the cliches that people take on as opinion. It's the same old crap that's been said a million times before, and it all just feels a bit self-indulgent after a while. It's like the religious nut who keeps trying to convert people, not because he thinks they'll adopt his faith but because the attempt means that he's purer than them. I once had an avowed anti-smoker (i.e. a raging pain in everyone's rectum) ask me - in that puritanical tone of voice such types adopt -
why I smoke (After I'd just come in from a fag break outside, I might add). I told her it helped curb my involuntary farting spasms. Naturally, she completely failed to realize that I was taking the piss...
It's really simple - if you don't want us to smoke around you, ask politely and most of us will reciprocate. Just remember, you may not like the habit but that doesn't give you the authority to make assumptions about us, and we are not here to be 'cured', convinced otherwise or browbeaten. To all you cool non-smokers: thanks for your patience guys, these comments are absolutely NOT aimed at you.
And as Burzum said: it IS legal. Just be grateful we're not allowed to get our crackpipes out in public!
