Ray LaMontagne

[Uma]

I suppose there'll be a barrage of " WTF... "'s at this, but chill out just a lil' bit.

Good stuff is being done here my friends, but some times I think it's healthy to grab a hold of the person you value most, crack open a good bottle of Merlot, spark up somethin' a little on the mellow side and set a little time aside.......

It won't hurt ya much.

http://www.myspace.com/raylamontagne

Peace isn't so bad.

[telecasterisation]

[Newspeak International]

It's ok uma, if the neo cons Zionists had a spliff every now and then, I don't think the world would be in the state it's in now.

[marky 54]

i agree with tele about smoking, but getting rid of it dosnt really limit the nonsense you breath in. look around the roadsides see how black things get on busy roadways, run you finger across them, or brush a piece of cloth over one and see what happens.

yes we are also breathing that in to and it carnt be doing any good, should drivers be looked on as being creul to kids also?

[marky 54]

"Bring on the ban, can't be soon enough."

i also agree with this and i smoke unfortantly, but a ban would mean i carnt and that can only be good. but where does it stop? or do we just move on to targeting other groups of people when the cancer rate continues to rise and it becomes obvious it wasnt just smoking causing it and damaging peoples health.

will people have the same passion about banning what ever else is exposed as damaging? even if its something you do now and like doing?

[flamesong]

Things don't seem as bad thse days because a lot of the pollution is 'clean'. I remember the first time I went to London about 30 years ago and experienced the 'black snot' - I was pretty horrified - but they didn't call London 'The Smoke' for nothing. Nowadays everything seems cleaner but allergy related illnesses such as asthma and eczema are more common than ever.

As for the smoking ban, I have been to Scotland a lot over the last year or so and I feel liberated from the smell and general anti-social aspect of smoking when I am there. You are even prohibited from smoking on railway platforms. Bliss.

I have some sympathy for smokers (as a former smoker) but I think that if the LVA had got its shít together five years ago, when they first smelt the coffee, they could have introduced a voluntary code of having one room in every pub nominated as a smoking room (not a non-smoking corner - smoke doesn't recognise conceptual barriers) and there might not be a blanket ban around the corner.

For me, it isn't just the demand for the right to poison oneself I can't understand, it's the pathetic dependency and the exploitation of the multinational drug dealers who keep replacing all the dead smokers with ever younger addicts.

Nobody who is in the slightest enlightened should defend the tobacco industry any more than the arms industry.

[karlos]

You still get black snot everytime you travel by tube

[marky 54]

[marky 54]

anyone who dosnt get why i see driving as the same as smoking heres why!

its bad for my health if i breathe in car fumes.

it sticks to your cloths and makes them smell(not as bad as tobacco smoke but its still dirty)

and if you brush the railings or walk into them like i did then unless your wearing black you will have a dirty black mark down the lenght of your trousers that has accumilated from car fumes on the railings

and the number one reason is the planet which cars have had a larger effect on than any amount of smokers could manage even if they chain smoked.

i realise its impratical to stop people driving etc but before people go of their rocker about smokers they should think about what they are doing also and what effect that has.

but i find its a case of justifying(because you do it) one thing, whilst complaining about and other because you dont fit in that catergory.

regardless ban smoking i agree, but dont make me feel guilty for it by using words that can also be applied to car fumes also if you drive, i want future generations to have a planet left to live in.

if you dont smoke and dont drive call me what you like you have ever right to .

[marky 54]

how the hell did this get to smoking anyway? i clicked the original link and i carnt see anything to do with smoking

[telecasterisation]

Whenever the smoking debate is raised (this time prompted by 'sparking up something mellow' in the opening gambit), the direct comparison is always drawn with cars and their output. I have always believed this to be the playing of the justification card, in other words, I do this, but you do something equally as bad.

The internal combustion engine, whilst highly flawed with many inherent and associated problems, pumps water to dry areas, takes sick people to hospital, brings teams of dedicated fire fighters to your house when there is a fire, allows your local supermarket to keep stocked with foods from around the globe and without it, society would collapse as it currently exists. Smokers don't smoke because the internal combustion engine exists - they do it because they are drug addicts.

Global pollution from car exhausts is totally another subject and smoking unquestionably stands on its own, to compare it to a method of transport is totally unequivocal. I have yet to see a debate where smokers list the wonderful things smoking brings to society, it can only ever be debated by including 'other' bad things that non-smokers do.

Having said that, I do own a car, but it has the lowest possible fossil fuel emmissions, 35 quid a year road tax and 65mpg because I acknowledge that I don't need to drive around in a 'badge' to impress the neighbours. I walk to the shops where possible and use public transport where practical.

In my experience, most smokers are thoughtless and selfish, with little to no regard to anyone else around them. It is a habit/addiction like no other as it directly impacts everyone in the immediate vicinity and it isn't done for any other reason than to get a fix.

[marky 54]

[marky 54]

i also agree that certain transport is far to important to be fussy, however if i smoked a cigertte in the street on the way down to the shop is differant to a man to lazy to walk to the shop so goes in his car why?

[telecasterisation]

[marky 54]

i understand now why you sound alittle mad about smoking, but unfortantly it not just people who are selfish with smoking around others than kill people or children is it.

you keep saying cars are in no way the same, what you keep doing is telling me smoking is bad but driving is fine.

tele your trying to justify driving because you do it. cars kill more children that cigerettes and who knows how many children develop illnesses from breathing car fumes and that sicky petrol smell that gives you an headache.

[marky 54]

smoking should be banned and is bad my only point is others should think about the things they do that are just as bad!

drunk drivers, speeding drivers any form of pollution that can lead to deaths(including children) no body can claim to be perfect tele and i dont care if you think driving is somehow differant in your world, it isnt.

[rodin]

[marky 54]

[marky 54]

im a smoker (scum of the earth with no regard for anybody if you like, even though i do think of others around me and smoke away from them but i smoke so im scum) and im saying and agree smoking should be banned but at the same time ask people to think about the things they are doing that are also bad before thinking they are somehow perfect compared to smokers(which was my only point and driving was my example).

i carnt for the life of me understand why drivers are so defensive and dont like being put in the same postion smokers are in even though they know what damage cars are having on the enviorment and peoples health.

im sure smokers reacted this way also in the 1930's to anyone suggesting smoking should be considered bad.

like i said way way above now in thread and one of my first posts, those who do it try to justify it and only attack the things they dont do.

i cannot wait till a ban for smoking comes in then when im at the end of my tether i carnt walk 300 yards to buy some, it is an addiction and should be banned and certainly in public places(i never smoke there anyway but have seen others), but people have to think about what they are doing to and ways they can lessen their bad effects on other people before hunting smokers as though they are witches.

justify driving all you like and im sure more drivers will turn up to defend their hobby but like it or not it is just as bad.

millions of people manage without cars and if people only used them when absoultly amust then we would all be healthier and better of.

i will not take abuse while lots of mr idle bones take the car everywhere they go when they could easily of walked, its no differant to smokers having no regard to others and the people around them.

[Uma]

Well I guess it's my turn to use the "WTF" euphemism.

I mean, what the FUCH ? are the majority of you respondents on about?

Let me backtrack just a tincy wincey bit......


I said you're all doing good things.

And that sometimes you ought to indulge yourselves in a little pleasure to offset the strain of this seriousness.

It's about music.

Not cigarettes.

Not marijuana.

Not even Merlot.

Ray LaMontagne is a human being .

We sorta need a few...............

[Graham]

[telecasterisation]

[telecasterisation]