sisboombaa

Sisboombaa is an independent thinker. Based on his experiences he is convinced he should be afforded at the least a small audience. He is no spring chicken and has lived through many challenges only to survive and grow. He is discriminated against for being a cigarette smoker. He is told everywhere he goes that smoking cigarettes k**ls, second hand smoke k**ls, yet why, if that's true, is he still alive. Been smoking for 63 years, inhaling his second hand smoke 24/7, now and for the past 15 years smoking 2.5 to 3 packs a day. Still alive. Last visit to a doctor the report on his lungs are good for his age and unbelievable for a smoker. Hard for the doctors to admit. They say smoking causes cancer. According to the medical and/or legal professions (class action suits) there is nothing that doesn't cause cancer. Can you name one? He receives more pleasure from smoking than socializing with the general public. He has become a recluse. He has not changed, society has. If society is right, then how do you explain the condition the world is in. He doesn't care any more as he is content in his own world. He wishes his loved ones and friends the best but it is up to them to deal with their situations. Good luck to you all. Feel free to comment but know he won't care what your thoughts are.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Noxema!

son of witless

Many many times Sir I have defended you and yours, yet I do not even know you. Actually I should h**e you because back in the mid 1970s I was forced to work in a small work trailer where a dozen smokers puffed away. It was my work station and their lunch room. Yet I hold no ill will. Not even the time I was at a water park and stepped on a lit cigarette butt with my bare foot do I hold a grudge.

Let me further explain. You and your fellow smokers are the most oppressed group in America. Now we all know that politicians like to raise taxes and liberal politicians LOVE to raise taxes because spending tax money is like sex to them and the best sex is screwing a taxpayer. The trouble is that taxpayers generally are grouped into whatcha call em, , , eh groups. Those groups resist being taxed. Some groups are stronger than others because they are organized or can be. Farmers, Beer Drinkers, Gun Owners, and Gays are some of the groups that a politician messes with at his peril.

But fear not tax raisers. There is one group that you can raise their taxes through the sky and they will never ever retaliate. So who are these public spirited taxpayers ready, willing, and able to shoulder the burdens of their neighbors ? Who are these people who are so ashamed of their collective activity that they will sheepishly pay many times their fair share of the revenue needs of their communities ? Why the smokers of course.

On behalf of my fellow tax c***ts I hope you smokers never die. You guys and gals are the bestest buddies the rest of us will ever have. I just do not get why my fellow citizens forever slam you guys. I for one will miss you guys when you are gone.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Zibbedy Zabbedy Zim Zam Sisboombaa.

sisboombaa

Whoa. There's a come back I can't intelligently reply to. I have no idea what noxema means nor does my dictionary. I submit to your response. Hope you win big. What ever that is.

sisboombaa

You and I have agreed on many things politically. Now having told you, this one issue has driven us apart. You have become a person unable to speak or write in a manner coherent to the English speaking population. Cigarette smoking is so important that you can't enjoy my support on issues that are destroying our once great country. I still wish you well.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

It was the make up remover. Take it all off!

sisboombaa

You have a pretty good handle on the situation of the smokers vis the non-smokers. But the rift in general is so big it boarders on the ridiculous. I can't believe an issue such as this can drive everybody so far apart. No wonder we can't defeat the left on important issues that are driving our great country to destruction. To be so vile on a small issue is to ignore the important issues. Whether sisboombaa smokes or not the response has shown a need to rethink what is important and what is needed to be a successful group within a great country. Hopefully we collectively can come to some constructive thinking and action before we lose everything.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Comment intended to mean your survival is magical. Mother-in-law smoked like a fumarole and died of an aneurysm at 87. Wife smoked and died of lung cancer at 65. One son is an i***t who continues to smoke. I am an ex-smoker, quit 40 years ago. Second hand smoke, particularly from filtered cigarettes, induces allergic rhinitis in me so I avoid it or eject those smoking from my presence.

I and my smoker brother have had numerous lung related breathing problems and at this point there is no telling whether our smoking habits or second hand smoke were the root cause. If I knew then what I do now I would never have taken up the habit to begin with. Very difficult habit to break because the tobacco companies have carefully altered the mix of chemicals in the smoke to maximize addiction.

son of witless

I have never smoked. Well not entirely true. I have smoked a very few cigars with brandy, but it was never a regular habit. However, as I have noted I worked with smokers, and I have a high tolerance for them. What I noticed when the whole anti smoking jihad really got in gear was that the seeming brainless demonetization was actually an orchestrated and carefully planned almost military operation. If you did not pay attention you could miss it.

First the general public had to be taught to thoroughly despise tobacco and smokers. You guys are the ultimate social lepers. Second hand smoke, no smoking areas, etc. However, the end game was this, taxes, taxes, taxes, and even more taxes. Not only did our Imperial Rulers make you guys into the lowest of the low to your fellow citizens, the real motive was to make you guys become ashamed of yourselves. Once that happened they could thoroughly rob your money from you and you guys would not fight back. Tobacco users are indeed as I said " the lowest of the low ". You guys are too ashamed of yourselves to organize and fight back.

Even your cousin smokers, the Pot Heads, are organized as they get Pot legalized. Yea they pay high taxes too, but they are organized. They are not demonized as you are. As I have pointed out gozillions of times on OPP, in society and politics the weak get attacked. They get over taxed and get demonized. Unless you organize you will continue to be spit on by hobos, urinated on by stray dogs, and have your pockets picked by politicians.

I do not say these things to be mean. I am blunt because I sympathize. " The majority are Wicked " as my boy Samuel Johnson once said. Minorities get bullied.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

One thing is for sure. There are a few folks in nursing homes who by not smoking or drinking or eating too much have out lived their brains. I would personally rather enjoy than end up like that.

son of witless

You bring up an interesting point. Quality over quantity of years. Here is another point. The rationale for over taxing smokers was that smokers cost more in health care than non smokers. That argument fails on two points. First, okay if that is true then all of that extra money collected from smokers should be only used for them. However , as we all know governments have trampled one another in their competition for that tobacco money to spend on all kinds of things unrelated to said smokers.

The second point I wish to make, except I cannot prove it, is that I believe by dying at a younger age, smokers likely cost less in the long run than non smokers. In the short run, yea a smoker with heart and lung problems likely cost more, but think of the total life span of both groups. From say 65 years old to 75 years old likely the smoker costs the system more. But then most smokers will not live past 75 if they make it to that. Lets us look at the non smoker. Lets say he or she on average lives another 10 or 15 years, a reasonable assumption. That last 10-15 years that person in terms of dementia, knee and hip replacements, heart and cholesterol medications, housing, and t***sportation likely costs more than their smoker brother who is dead.

sisboombaa

Yes, my father died a horrible death after five years in a nursing home that catered to dementia. After two years in the home he developed Parkinson disease, after three years he went blind. His Parkinson got so bad he had to wear diapers and his last year he had to be spoon fed. Two years before his death he had no idea who I (his son) was. My mother during her last two years didn't know me or anyone else and had to be spoon fed the last 6-8 months before her death. She was 97. She would most likely be alive today except that my children talked me into calling in a group who agreed to put her out of her misery by placing her in a drug induced coma until she passed away.

Cigarettes don't scare me one bit; out living my independence does. No way will I put my kids through what I went through with my parents. The day I lose my independence is the day I call it quits on this earth.