The Westminster tobacco ban issue gettin lively!!!

[SueandCootie]

I'm going to be having dinner in Westminster Thanksgiving weekend with my mutha. It really is THAT kind of town...thought this could get interesting!

Westminster Board oh Health ends meeting early - 7News Boston WHDH-TV

 

[FlamingoTutu]

That was hilarious! Thank you for posting it. Still chuckling.

 

[Str8vision]

In their proposed tobacco ban the town not only seeks to include e-cigs, but candy cigarettes and bubblegum cigars as well. I guess their logic is to ban the sale of anything that remotely looks like a tobacco product or that resembles the act of smoking rather it's harmful or not. In all the testing and research that has been conducted trying to find some form of health hazard associated with vaping the only thing the FDA has been able to come up with is to insinuate vaping could be a stepping stone to "smoking" tobacco. If that line of logic is valid, I suppose we should also conclude drinking water is a stepping stone toward alcoholism. Don't laugh, there's actually more science supporting the water/alcoholism link than there is supporting a vaping/smoking link. After all, empirical data will evidence that every single occurrence of alcoholism was preceded at some point in time by that individual drinkingwater.

 

[Wakefulpanda]

Is this the new hip thing? To impose draconian legislation on people? ... is going on lately?

 

[FlamingoTutu]

Is this the new hip thing? To impose draconian legislation on people? ... is going on lately?

Even at the expense of their own small businesses. Then again, considering how it went, maybe other communities will take heed.

 

[SueandCootie]

Can't wait to see the fun when they go after the beer...seems likely doncha think??? "But....but...the children!!!" Sigh...

 

[Ryedan]

I'm going to be having dinner in Westminster Thanksgiving weekend with my mutha. It really is THAT kind of town...thought this could get interesting!

Westminster Board oh Health ends meeting early - 7News Boston WHDH-TV

Well, that went well, LOL.

 

[FlamingoTutu]

Can't wait to see the fun when they go after the beer...seems likely doncha think??? "But....but...the children!!!" Sigh...

Liquor? She thought she needed an armed escort for tobacco, she'd be insane to go after booze.

 

[Racehorse]

Can't wait to see the fun when they go after the beer...seems likely doncha think??? "But....but...the children!!!" Sigh...

I know that feeling. I live in a dry county.......a dry RED county. Most of 'em like that around here......conservative country.

I'm a fully grownup adult and I can't even buy a bottle of wine. First time in my entire life I've lived amidst this kind of small mindedness.

 

[WattWick]

“The clapping everybody talking, nobody was showing any respect to the board.”

Worrying about respect in a room full of voters whose freedoms you are working to destroy?

"Let them eat cake"

 

[Racehorse]

“The clapping everybody talking, nobody was showing any respect to the board.”

Worrying about respect in a room full of voters whose freedoms you are working to destroy?

"Let them eat cake"

In other words, if somebody doesn't agree with your opinion, that automatically disqualifies them from getting any respect?

No wonder this country is going downhill. How about respectfully disagreeing? It is a 2 party system here in the democratically designed the american republic

 

[sparhawk]

I wonder how can some people be so freaking stupid when it comes to decision making...

 

[WattWick]

In other words, if somebody doesn't agree with your opinion, that automatically disqualifies them from getting any respect?

No wonder this country is going downhill. How about respectfully disagreeing? It is a 2 party system here in the democratically designed the american republic

Now you're putting words in my mouth. Respect is mutual. Taking away freedoms from the people you are elected to represent is, in my mind, pretty far from respectful behavior. So my rant was more a "Don't dish it out if you can't take it" than a rally to molotov the place.

No matter how civilized and respectful we are supposed to be; I don't think any politician or nation suffers any lasting harm from some heated (non-violent) confrontations. Rather the opposite.

Worst case tho... If I somehow (inadvertently) manage to screw up this country through lack of respect, I'm sure yours will still be perfectly fine.

(Hope this didn't come off as confrontational. Everything I type today comes out a bit... off..)

 

[Ryedan]

No matter how civilized and respectful we are supposed to be; I don't think any politician or nation suffers any lasting harm from some heated (non-violent) confrontations. Rather the opposite.

I agree and IMO there is not enough of this. Politicians serve the people and if people do not like the service people should make that known in no uncertain terms.

 

[Vermonster13]

Regulate everything. If you get elected to any sort of office you must be better equipped to decide how everyone should live after all.

 

[ppeeble]

Lovely quote, "cigarettes are the only consumer product that kills people".
Absolutely priceless.
Can't get the pictures out of my mind now of giant cigarettes falling on people. People being stabbed with a roll-up. Cigaraholics.........

 

[SueandCootie]

THIS is what scares me: From what our local newspaper is inferring, this 3 member health board has entire control of whether this ban is enacted or not, and no one else has an official say, opinions aside... the town selectmen (who had their own somewhat less lively but adamant public meeting) are against it, but they appear to have no means to stop it, and there will be no town vote. How can this be OK? What's next?

I was only half joking about the beer. Cigarettes are the only consumer product that kills? My ex passed away from alcoholism at 42, like his parents when he was still a child.

And what town will the health board members move to next? Don't think they're gonna be comfortable in Westminster any time soon...

 

[MamaRymes]

THIS is what scares me: From what our local newspaper is inferring, this 3 member health board has entire control of whether this ban is enacted or not, and no one else has an official say, opinions aside... the town selectmen (who had their own somewhat less lively but adamant public meeting) are against it, but they appear to have no means to stop it, and there will be no town vote. How can this be OK? What's next?

I was only half joking about the beer. Cigarettes are the only consumer product that kills? My ex passed away from alcoholism at 42, like his parents when he was still a child.

And what town will the health board members move to next? Don't think they're gonna be comfortable in Westminster any time soon...

Could the selectmen be petitioned to dissolve the health board? It would be worth a look to see who oversees the board and has the power to disband them.

 

[VHRB2014]

I woke of this morning and smelled something that I had`nt smelled in a long time.

The Sweet smell of FREEDOM. I am glad that this country got to the point it could`nt take it anymore.
And I pray that we remember for long time what demagoguery and elitism looks like when its being thinly veiled.

 

[PapaSloth]

I agree and IMO there is not enough of this. Politicians serve the people and if people do not like the service people should make that known in no uncertain terms.

I don't think it's possible to overstate this. Sometimes, the only thing that keeps politicians honest representatives of the will of the people is fear of the consequences of acting against the peoples' will. There is absolutely nothing to prevent the 3-member health board from doing what I'm sure they think is the "right thing," enacting the ban, regardless of what the people want, except personal fear of the consequences. I'm actually glad that the head of the board felt like she needed an armed escort when she left the meeting, maybe that will force her to pay attention when she receives the "written comments," instead of just ignoring them out-of-hand, as I'm sure she normally would.

Now, I'm not advocating a violent overthrow of the representative form of government or anything, but sometimes you need to shake the .......s up a little bit.