Bangor Makes It Illegal to Smoke in Cars

[sweetycakes]

[Ovedya]

The shortsightedness of people never ceases to amaze me.

Marnie, I would suspect that I am even a bigger Civil Libertarian than you are, but children unlike adults cannot chose whether or not they want to exposed to harmful substances like second hand smoke in a closed vehicle. I am completely against the Drug War, but I see nothing wrong with this law. It is really an apples to oranges comparison as this is not about individual liberty, but rather it is a children's health issue.

Hmmm...I wonder when someone's going to make it illegal to feed McDonald's to children?

You know the vaccines that are in many cases required by law for children contain many harmful substances. You don't see many people complaining about that, or trying to change those laws.

It's completely ridiculous that I should be required by law to wear a seatbelt in my car, when there are no helmet laws for motorcyclists in my state.

I'm not to sure what you have against seat belts. If it wasn't for a seat belts I wouldn't be here now. There protection. I know old argument about what if the car catches on fire. Please.. it is a proven fact the seat belts saves hundreds of lives. Besides if your in an accident,and are seriously injured who is going to pay your hosptial bill if you have no insurance??? You got it the taxpayers, or the uninsured motorist on your insurance policy. Here in California we are paying some of the highest in insurance rates. When people don't follow the law and get hurt because it my insurance goes up, and I'm already paying over a thousand dollars a year for car insurance and that is with two perfect records. Oh by the way in California it's a law that you must wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle. Another good law.

I don't have anything against seat belts at all. I was addressing the contradictory messages in laws such as seatbelts vs. helmets. I was also addressing the issue of government interference in the lives of families. You know we're not a far cry from a law that makes corporal punishment (spanking) child abuse. There are groups out there pushing for such laws, in fact.

[Ovedya]

Forrest,

There is NEVER a time when the government should be allowed to tell parents what is good and what is bad for their children, beyond the bounds of civil law, of course. Don't misquote me on that. I am not advocating perverse stuff.

I for one a fed up; FED UP, with the arrogance of the Nanny State telling people what is good for them and what is not. From shower heads, to toilet seats, to those monstrous airbags, you cannot get away from the Almighty State! I am sick to death of it and I am unforgiving of the politicians who write this kind garbage into law and of the dumb, disinterested, uninformed citizens who blindly follow these blind guides.

I having a rough day. Does it show?

I agree!

[Ovedya]

This isn't about if people should smoke in their car or wear seat belts.

The issue is government interference with our lives.

I think you are missing the point.

I'm not missing the point. I don't want big government Katy, but when people are costing me hundreds more in insurace something needs to be done.

The ones costing you hundreds more in insurance are not those who don't wear their seatbelts. Those that cost you more are the road ragers who tailgait and the drunks who drive.

[Ovedya]

If you want to commit slow suicide and open yourself up to lung cancer and other smoking-associated diseases, at least don't subject other people to it. It is pretty gross that people smoke around young kids. Adults and older kids can make a choice to leave a public area where smoking is allowed or find a room in the house where no one smokes, but little kids have no choices or any way to defend themselves from it. Parents who murder their children go to prison, so it seems something serious ought to happen to those who infringe on their ability to get clean air and significantly damage their health.

You can't equate smoking around children to murder. That's just plain ridiculous.

If you live in a city like Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, just breathing the outside air gives you more than a hundred times the amount of carbon monoxide and other flourocarbons than a brief whiff of secondhand smoke. I used to live in the San Gabriel Valley in California, where environmentalists say that breathing the air is about the same as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

So many people are attacking the smokers when they should be focussing on the real problems. Secondhand smoke doesn't kill you nearly as fast as the stuff coming out of your tailpipe.

[Guest LadyC]

I am in my mid 40's and things are a lot different than they were when I was a kid.

When we went to the play ground the swings were 15 feet high and all your friends would yell jump when you got going real high....and we would jump.

The slides were a lot higher too, probably about 15 ft as well. They were metal and on a hot day they would burn your legs when you slid down...yet we did it over and over.

Then there was the merry-go-round. Not the safe ones we have today with the middle filled in, just planks for seats and it was easy to fall off when it got going fast.

All this play ground equipment was held together with metal bolts that you often scraped your legs on.

There was no mulch to soften the playground,,,just gravel.

When we rode bikes and skateboards no one even mentioned helmets and pads. If we fell and got scraped up we didn't run crying to Mama (she would get out the mecuracomb) we just brushed ourselves off and got back on.

We didn't have central air and we never thought it was too hot to go outside. We could run all day and never get tired. If our parents had suggested we stay in the house and play games we would have been horrified.

Bottom line, kids back then were tough.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for safety. But our society of Laws regulating everything is creating a nation of children who never are allowed to properly toughen up.

We have a family picnic every year that includes 4 generations. I notice that when we play Volley Ball it is the 35 yr old and up crowd that lasts the longest. The youngsters either get too hot or too tired to play for very long.

not only are the laws creating a nation of children who are never allowed to properly toughen up, but a nation of children with obesity... and then the government tries to blame it all on the parents for feeding their children fast food.

[Guest LadyC]

This isn't about if people should smoke in their car or wear seat belts.

The issue is government interference with our lives.

I think you are missing the point.

I'm not missing the point. I don't want big government Katy, but when people are costing me hundreds more in insurace something needs to be done.

The ones costing you hundreds more in insurance are not those who don't wear their seatbelts. Those that cost you more are the road ragers who tailgait and the drunks who drive.

and the illegals who get free health care.