Quarantines may be justified

Tarapia Tapioco comesefosse at ntani.firenze.linux.it
Sun Apr 20 08:25:55 PDT 2003


Harmon Seaver wrote on April 19th, 2003 at 13:54:57 -0500:

> On Sat, Apr 19, 2003 at 12:30:22PM -0400, stuart wrote:
>
> > 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.

Then don't go where there's tobacco smoke.

>  (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".

Well, most of us normal people _don't_ get sick from minor whiffs of
car exhaust.

Since you apparently do, I suggest you avoid it.

> > 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.

Fine.

Of course, this means that if I ever smell your farts, or your various odors,
or start smelling rotten fish from your wife or daughter, I'll fine you $500
per offense.


--
Tom Veil





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