Quarantines may be justified

[Harmon Seaver]

On Sat, Apr 19, 2003 at 12:30:22PM -0400, stuart wrote:
> On Saturday, April 19, 2003, Harmon came up with this...
> 
> HS>    Agreed, except for smoking in public. All smoking in public should be
> HS> banned. No one has the right to pollute the air I have to breath, in any way. I
> HS> shouldn't have to breath in or even smell someones else's drug as I walk down
> HS> the street.
> 
> You know, by exhaling, you're releasing dangerous carbon dioxide into
> air, which is air pollution, so I'm going to propose a bill to prevent
> you from breathing in public, because you don't have the right to
> pollute the air I breathe.

   Duh! You don't know much about biology, eh? CO2 makes plants grow. Plants and
animals interact that way -- they exhale oxygen for us and we exhale CO2 for
them. 


> 
> Smoking in public, that's an easy one to pick on. But the argument
> holds no water, unfortunately. Find me RELIABLE, UNBIASED evidence that
> second-hand smoke is actually dangerous, and I'll agree to ban smoking.
> 

   I could care less what any report says, I get an immediate sick feeling from
breathing tobacco smoke. And a great many other people do as well. 

 (snip)

> Car exhaust is far worse than cigarette smoke. Ban cars first.
> Oh wait, that'd be a bit inconvenient, wouldn't it.

  No, actually, banning cars in cities is a great idea. And, as a matter of
fact, since I ride a bicycle a lot, I often *do* get a sick feeling from
breathing car exhaust, at least from some that are apparantly burning
"reformutlated gasoline". 


> Wait, I know! Airplanes! They release more toxic fumes than anything!
> But that'd be inconvenient too. Hmmmm.....

   Not for me it wouldn't. I'm overjoyed at the prospect of all the airlines
going tits up. At least if the USG would let them instead of pumping more
subsidies into them. I took my last commercial flight about four years ago --
never again. 


> VOLCANOES! Yeah, volcanoes release more toxins into the air than the
> entire industrial revolution did! How do you ban volcanoes, though....
> 

   Toxins? Particulates, yes, but not many toxins. And you're right, Mother
Nature will always win in the end. 


> I'm sorry you don't like cigarette smoke. Don't stand downwind.
> Don't try to ban it, though.

   "don't stand downwind" -- that's a pretty simplistic answer. Impossible to do
when you're moving down the street. The bottom line is this: No one has the
right to do something in their space that adversely affects my space, whether
it's smoking in public or the farmer next door who sprays pesticides which drift
over to my land, or puts chemicals on his land which get into my well. 

> 
> Banning. Ick.
> I'm always very distrustful of people who want to ban things.
> There are always better ways.

   Sure, I guess I could just walk around with a pellet gun and zap anyone
whose smoke bothered me, right? Why not? After all, I'm not really seriously
harming them, just more like a temporary annoyance. 


-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com