Reply #62: Frankly, yes.

[jobycom]

I shouldn't be allowed to throw firecrackers at someone. Smoking is just as bad. Sorry. But you're in denial if you believe otherwise. There's no Constitutional nor ethical right to smoke. There is a right to privacy, to control of your own body, to pursuit of happiness, and a general right to do what you want if you aren't hurting anyone else. But smoking does hurt other people, and it violates other people's rights to privacy, control of their body, etc.

One could easily argue that they have the right to fire a gun indiscriminately around them, as long as they are doing it for the personal enjoyment of it and not to harm anyone. Anyone who gets in the way is just whining because they got struck by a bullet that wasn't meant to hurt them. I doubt you'd back that argument. But you'll light up a cigarette thirty yards away from someone, knowing that your smoke could contribute to any number of fatal ailments in that person, at worst, and at best hurts them. If they have an extreme sensitivity to smoke--allergies, asthma, chemical intolerances, etc--you could even kill them. And you think you have that right. You shouldn't.

I know that argument won't convince you. Your militant denial is obvious from your previous post. But it's true, even if you don't want to accept it. Republicans don't like to accept that their Hummers kill kids in Iraq, or that the few bucks they save shopping at Walmart costs jobs and harms the environment. Everyone has something they deny. Cigarettes are yours, I guess. I would tell you what mine are, but since I'm in denial over them, I can't.