Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch, and “Sir, put down that fag and keep your hands where we can see them.”
A painter and decorator from Ceredigion says he is “dumbfounded” after being slapped with a £30 fine for smoking a cigarette in his own van.
Gordon Williams says he had popped to the shops earlier this month, when he was pulled over by council officials.
“I was told that because my van is my place of work I had broken the smoking laws […] I am dumbfounded – the van is only insured for private use and to get me to and from work,” added Mr Williams, from Llanafan, near Aberystwyth.
h/t Paul
This post is a perfect counterpoint to the one about the kid dying from the taser.
On the one hand, officials gone insane with power going after an innocent bystander. On the other, officials acting with extreme restraint while arresting a known dirtbag who was armed and dangerous, and the POS goes and dies on them anyway despite everything. Those racist b@stards!
The lesson? It is GOOD to be a dirtbag!
Biff,
You opinion is valid. But, I still have to hold my breath walking by smokers outside. I can avoid them indoors now, thanks to the new laws.
For years I was forced to inhale second-hand smoke in every area of my life except in my own home. I grew up when smoking was allowed in theatres and I got a bigger high than my friends who were smoking.
‘Course, I could also die walking by perfumed candles and cosmetics, which the drug stores put near their entrance. I cover my mouth and sprint.
Personally, I feel sorry for people with an addiction to nicotine, having seen the devastation in family and friends. Worse than the cancer is emphysema. You don’t have an enemy you would wish that on.
Biff, your point is valid.
But, smokers controlled the universe long enough and we all know without the laws in place, none of us could sit in a theatre without inhaling someone’s smoke, or have a meal in a restaurant without the air poisoning us.
Unfortunately no laws (yet) prevent drug stores and department stores from having scented candles and perfumes at the entrances. But, thankfully, intelligent people are now providing us with fragrance-free areas.
There is an alternative, of course. I (and other sufferers) could live in bubbles.
Sorry for the double post – took 15 min., unusual length of time.
How many laws are just enforced as “revenue tools” ?
A few weeks on CBC.ca there was an article about smog in Beijing.
In the comments section a lively debate ensued, and one wacko tried to tell me that smoking 3 cigarettes in 30 minutes was more polluting than 6 diesel engines idling for the same amount of time.
I challenged him on it, saying I was quite willing to go into a closed garage and smoke 3 cigarettes in 30 minutes if he was willing to stand in another garage with 6 diesel engines idling for the same amount of time.
He didn’t take me up on my challenge.