17 Nov 2014: Firestorm Erupts in Anti-Smoking Massachusetts Town (Good one!)

[Anjaffm]

17 Nov 2014: Firestorm Erupts in Anti-Smoking Massachusetts Town (Good one!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/18/u...t_tnt_20141117&nlid=60534081&tntemail0=y&_r=2

WESTMINSTER, Mass. — The fury — and make no mistake, it is white-hot fury — went way beyond the ordinary wrath of offended citizenry. A plan here to ban the sale of tobacco has ignited a call to arms.

The outrage is aimed at a proposal by the local Board of Health that could make Westminster the first town in the country where no one could buy cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.

The uproar stems not from a desire by people here to smoke — only 17 percent do (a smidge higher than the statewide average). Many say they have never touched tobacco and find the habit disgusting. Rather, they perceive the ban as a frontal assault on their individual liberties. And they say it would cripple the eight retailers in town who sell tobacco products.

“They’re just taking away everyday freedoms, little by little,” said Nate Johnson, 32, an egg farmer who also works in an auto body shop, as he stood outside the store last week. “This isn’t about tobacco, it’s about control,” he said.

“It’s un-American”

The ANTZ are going too far with their bans and prohibitions.
And yes - ordinary citizens, many of them non-smokers and non-vapers - are standing up against this attack on personal freedom.

YEAH!

 

[DrMA]

Some of the comments on that piece are the patent manifestation of malicious and arrogant stupidity distilled through the ANTZ and other extremist progressive propaganda machinery into pure, unadulterated Evil. Here are a few of the most egregious ones:

• «If a person is stupid enough to smoke then they should forfeit their right to be a part of the decision making process»
• «The ban should go through simply due to the thuggish behavior of the crowd, never mind the pros or cons of smoking»
• «Nicotine Junkies of America, UNITE! We have nothing to lose but our chemical dependency - along with our inalienable right to poison the people around us»
• «the atavistic fury with which a public hearing on the issue was attended to says something else (it wasn't even a vote, just a chance for the public to weigh in) and that something is TMFN (Too Much FOX News) [...] I don't know when the US slipped into this mode of allowing any and all propaganda to be aired in the name of the First Amendment, but it certainly wouldn't have been allowed just a few generations ago»

This goes far beyond the typical ANTZ discourse that equates buying a cigar with stabbing babies in the eye with a hot fire poker. IMO, this reflects a deeply troubling trend wherein the "moral majority" extremists advocate unspeakable violations of basic human rights and freedoms in the name of their own version of the "moral imperative". This is the same exact mentality that compels people in other parts of the world to strap on a dynamite vest and push the button in a crowded market (albeit for a different "moral imperative").

 

[Anjaffm]

@DrMA:

I absolutely agree.
Smokers are the new "witches" and "heretics". Objects for the hatred of the nasty rabble in society.
For more recent history, compare people of a certain color and people of a certain religion. As objects.
Evil, hatred and nastiness does not change. Only the objects do.

There are quite a number of very good comments as well, though. About personal liberty. And the silly attempts to renew Prohibition.

 

[Nate760]

And yes - ordinary citizens, many of them non-smokers and non-vapers paid operatives for the tobacco industry- are standing up against this attack on personal freedom.

The above post is now approved by the ANTZ Office of Information Control.

 

[AzPlumber]

I've said this before but worth repeating. Round up all these ban happy control freaks and toss them into the Boston Harbor.

 

[Jake6731]

This is done and gone now: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...bacco-sales/iUqa8BceSI1wO4rFtpqkUL/story.html

 

[Nate760]

This is done and gone now: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...bacco-sales/iUqa8BceSI1wO4rFtpqkUL/story.html

Andrea Crete, the board chairwoman, cast the sole vote against withdrawing the proposal.

“I’m disappointed because we were trying to do something good,” Crete said in an interview after the meeting. “We could have made Westminster tobacco-free in the sense children would have no exposure to tobacco at the stores.”

Crete said she regrets not doing a better job of educating residents and business owners in the mostly rural town of about 7,400 about 20 miles north of Worcester.

“We didn’t want to stop people from smoking in private, but unfortunately that’s the way it came off,” she said.

Like a typical self-righteous "public health" quasi-fascist, she just doesn't get it. In her mind, the people who opposed the ban did so because they simply weren't "educated" enough. They're obviously just a bunch of blithering simpletons who don't understand what's best for them. It's the plantation mentality again.

As if that wasn't insulting enough, she goes on to intimate (straw man alert) that the citizens didn't even understand what the proposed ban entailed, and thought it involved the outlawing of smoking in private residences. She even had the gall to go ahead and cast the lone vote in favor of the ordinance after the townspeople (who are, lest she forget, her employers) made it abundantly clear they wanted no part of it. This woman is a real piece of work.

 

[KODIAK (TM)]

Like a typical self-righteous "public health" quasi-fascist, she just doesn't get it.

I know it's a considered a major "win" but technically it only won by one vote. I've been following this news and can only wonder how this crap made it as far as it did. That's the unsettling part. Wow.

“Who do they think they are?” said George Keaveny, 70, sitting next to Rameau. “You want a beer, you get a beer. You want a cigarette, you get one. That’s the way it works in this country.”

I think George sums it up nicely.

 

[Nate760]

I know it's a considered a major "win" but technically it only won by one vote. I've been following this news and can only wonder how this crap made it as far as it did. That's the unsettling part. Wow.

I think the photo above the Globe story was very instructive. The two board members who voted "no" look chastened and regretful, like they've come to the realization that this thing was a bad idea all along (or maybe it's just a look of "How did we let that crazy woman talk us into this in the first place?"). Meanwhile, Ms. Crete sits there looking just as smug and defiant as can be, still secure in her personal superiority and moral rectitude.

 

[DancingHeretik]

I think the photo above the Globe story was very instructive. The two board members who voted "no" look chastened and regretful, like they've come to the realization that this thing was a bad idea all along (or maybe it's just a look of "How did we let that crazy woman talk us into this in the first place?"). Meanwhile, Ms. Crete sits there looking just as smug and defiant as can be, still secure in her personal superiority and moral rectitude.

But, not in her job!

 

[Nate760]

But, not in her job!

...

 

[KODIAK (TM)]

Meanwhile, Ms. Crete sits there looking just as smug and defiant as can be, still secure in her personal superiority and moral rectitude.

Every now and then I simply get blown away by the audacity of a single individual that chooses to "think" for the masses and impose their will on everyone. I see she's up for election again in April and intends to run. Curious to see how her misguided and distorted views of government intrusion fare this time around. It's best to dissuade this kind of ilk now before she one day aspires to a higher office.

 

[AndriaD]

Like a typical self-righteous "public health" quasi-fascist, she just doesn't get it. In her mind, the people who opposed the ban did so because they simply weren't "educated" enough. They're obviously just a bunch of blithering simpletons who don't understand what's best for them. It's the plantation mentality again.

As if that wasn't insulting enough, she goes on to intimate (straw man alert) that the citizens didn't even understand what the proposed ban entailed, and thought it involved the outlawing of smoking in private residences. She even had the gall to go ahead and cast the lone vote in favor of the ordinance after the townspeople (who are, lest she forget, her employers) made it abundantly clear they wanted no part of it. This woman is a real piece of work.

Notice she says she's going to run again, in April -- I wouldn't give 2 cents for her chances. "Public health is my passion," she sez... clearly she RELISHES her role as a "public health" stooge, and wants to keep trying to enforce HER ideas of health, regardless of what any of her constituents think -- I do hope they keep that in mind, when the election comes up -- this idiot woman is NOT looking after their best interests, she's playing out her moralistic control-freak domination fantasy.

Andria

 

[NorthOfAtlanta]

She sounds like a member of a HOA board who made it above her level.

 

[mightymen]

Andrea Crete, the board chairwoman, cast the sole vote against withdrawing the proposal.

“I’m disappointed because we were trying to do something good,” Crete said in an interview after the meeting. “We could have made Westminster tobacco-free in the sense children would have no exposure to tobacco at the stores.”

Crete said she regrets not doing a better job of educating residents and business owners in the mostly rural town of about 7,400 about 20 miles north of Worcester.

“We didn’t want to stop people from smoking in private, but unfortunately that’s the way it came off,” she said.

Just another example of we know better then you.

Not all but most suffer from intellectual fallacy - Thank God it's treatable by removing them from public office.

 

[Nate760]

She sounds like a member of a HOA board who made it above her level.

I wish I could like this more than once.

 

[AndriaD]

She sounds like a member of a HOA board who made it above her level.

What's "HOA"?

Andria

 

[Kent C]

What's "HOA"?

Andria

homeowner association

 

[Nate760]

homeowner association

Alternate answer: "If you don't know, consider yourself lucky."

 

[NorthOfAtlanta]

People who have to much time and nothing to do but hassle their neighbors. One HOA was fining a vietnam vet who had military stickers on his car. Your basic petty tyrants.