Kansas City Bans Smoking In Your Own Home If You're Poor

[numbersix]

and you can be sure that at least one of your neighbors is an anti-smoking zealot who will consider even a faint whiff of tobacco smoke as being the equivalent of pumping DDT into their apartment with a fire hose ...

lol! Sad but true.

 

[pitchfork]

If you're American (or British or Irish or French or German) then your government continues to subsidize the likes of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Société Générale, Deutsche Bank, et al. Virtually free money for these institutions from the Fed and the ECB has cost savers and pensioners hundreds of billions of dollars, give or take, each of the last 5 years. Should Jamie Dimon have a yacht? Should Lloyd Blankfein be allowed to smoke a stogie? Good questions.

 

[appointed]

And it is because of my neighbors that I going to have a little house out in the sticks somewhere one day just as soon as I can, so at least I won't have to worry about that. I hope someone sues and gets this law struck down or better yet people start making a stand and change some of this.

 

[simnettpratt]

Not really, it's because it's none of their f'n business.

Agree completely. It is not wise to give politicians the power to decide what a luxury is. I'm poor, and if I was living in government housing in Kansas City, should politicians have the power to tell me I can't smoke any of the baccy sjb3 just gave me?
As a regular citizen, should I have the power to tell politicians they can't smoke in their homes? For the Children?

 

[tuold]

I'm convinced that today the majority of Americans want what those first Americans wanted: A better life for themselves and their children; a minimum of government authority. Very simply, they want to be left alone in peace and safety to take care of the family by earning an honest dollar and putting away some savings. This may not sound too exciting, but there is something magnificent about it. On the farm, on the street corner, in the factory and in the kitchen, millions of us ask nothing more, but certainly nothing less than to live our own lives according to our values — at peace with ourselves, our neighbors and the world.

-Ronald Reagan
I wonder if this sentiment has any relevance anymore? Whether or not it's ever been true it strikes a resonance with me now. It sounds severe, but I'd be living on the street before I accepted government housing. It would be like prison.

 

[metarzan]

Good job Kansas City, it's a start! Ban anything you don't need to survive if your on my teet. Ban owning anything you can sell to get off my teet. Has pride and dignity been banned? If you need help getting by but can still afford the luxuries in life you've lost my respect. Just maybe if enough misery is bestowed upon you, you will get busy trying. It worked for me.

 

[woodsroad]

Please tell me, metarzan, if we start letting the government decide just what we are allowed to do, where we are allowed to do it, what we can buy, how we spend our time, where we can and can't travel, just where will it end? At what point will the government say "OK, that's the line" And who then is on the other side? What happens when that line shifts a bit to include a few more people, perhaps a few friends or family members? What happens when we give up a small chunk of personal rights that are protected by The Constitution? Will that be enough? Has it ever been enough? Has giving up our rights ever brought us more liberty? More happiness? Has a year ever passed in recent history when on New Years Eve you can honestly look back and say that there is less government interference in your life, fewer laws? More freedom? That thanks to what our government has accomplished, we are a stronger, more prosperous, more unified nation?
Let there be no doubt, The game plan is to divide an conquer. The Balkanize. To set us at each others throats. Then there will be only one winner, and it will not be you.
I gotta go catch my breath and smoke a bowl.

 

[simnettpratt]

Government is like a fire that never says, 'Enough'.
As six said, if poor folks are denied any luxuries, they're not really living. I don't mind folks on government assistance getting to smoke. We are pipers, not cigarette smokers, this ban would affect me getting to smoke Nightcap once on a while out of my one cob (actually Capt. Black, because I'd be poor).
That is none of the government's damn business.
I got an official notice on my apartment door one time. It said the city of Arlington had passed an ordinance that said, due to the risk of fire, no one living in an apartment could OWN a grill. Not USE a grill on your deck. Own a grill. Really made me want to go out and stuff my apartment with 500 grills.

 

[metarzan]

Well consider me divided. Divided from the lazy degenerates who refuse to at least try to be self sufficient and make the world a little better place. "They" divide themselves by continually accepting a free ride. Catering to the lowest common denominator is the reason for our ever decreasing freedoms. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done except a total reboot of society and I regret getting sucked into this debate already. :?

 

[bulletsnbriars]

This can only lead to people stepping off their property onto the sidewalk to light up. It won't really change anything; just give the government another inch so they can turn it into a mile.

 

[nurseman]

I have to agree, It is not your own home if it is being subsidized. Subsidized housing is a real issue in my town. I pay 2100/month for my unit and others get to pay $800 for the same unit. I pay it so I can live in the heart of town but why do we have to subsidize living in high rent neighborhoods ? If you go 2-3 miles out of town rents are about half of what I pay. We have a subsidized public transit system for this purpose. Of course this building is 100% non-smoking now even on your balcony or front steps so I am moving when the lease is up.

 

[salmonfisher]

Governments already determine a lot of what/who we are...
They set income tax rates

They set property tax rates

They set school tax rates

They tax tobacco n beer n spirits

They determine which legal drugs we are allowed to buy

They determine what additives can be in our foods
I highly doubt any of us have a day when big brother isn't involved in any little thing we do.

 

[condorlover1]

This is an interesting discussion. When I came to live in the 'colonies' the government gave me a Green Card and said you cannot access any government assistance for 15 years. I said 'No worries' and to this day I have paid my taxes and never asked Uncle Sam for anything. As Ronald Reagan once said the ten most terrifying words are ....'I am from the government. I am here to help'.

 

[sean81]

I would be interested in learning how they plan on enforcing such a stupid thing.

 

[numbersix]

I have to agree, It is not your own home if it is being subsidized.

I have a mortgage, as do many people. How would it be if the banks dictated how you should live in "their" home. IMHO, it's still an infringement on one's individual pursuit of happiness.

 

[simnettpratt]

@sean81: They'll want your neighbors to rat on you, as sfsteves said above. No possibility for someone mad at you to falsely report you there. It is not the govenment's place to tell me if I can smoke in my own home, or buy a 20oz soda, or hold an unpopular view.

 

[yaddy306]

I am of two minds on this. I agree that the Government shouldn't be able to dictate what people can do with their own money, in their own homes. If someone wants to smoke, drink, or eat caviar that's their business.

However, I have to say that when I see someone on social assistance, with no aspirations to work, being given a cheque each month that's intended to pay for rent and their children's food but is instead spent on booze, a little part of me screams out "That guy is getting drunk on my tax dollars".

 

[nurseman]

@six - in your mortgage there are tons of conditions dictating what you can do with the home. Try going a day w/o insurance on the home - they will buy you insurance and make you pay them.
Even so a mortgage is a pvt arrangement. This is a world apart from tax dollars paying a portion of your rent.

 

[condorlover1]

Maybe it is time for another revolution. I think the Brits from Great Britain did it last time. I came here for peace and quiet and sadly this sainted land is starting to resemble GB. George Washington for President anyone?

 

[yaddy306]

I think it's difficult to argue on one hand that Government has no business in how we live our lives, and on the other hand demand accountability and responsible spending by that Government. The two things can be at cross-purposes.