Al Gore Praises the City for Cutting Greenhouse Emissions
In what critics called their biggest fear, the recent vote to ban smoking in public parks has become the “gateway” banishment that has led the city down the dark and addictive road of harsher rules and stiffer regulations culminating in yesterday’s announcement that as of November 1st, breathing will also be forbidden in public.
“This will have a terrible effect on small business in the core,” said Scott Knies of the Downtown Association.
In an impromptu protest, several hundred iron lungs were rolled onto Santa Clara Street from the desolate San Jose Hospital building, chained to trees and parking meters, and put in operation as city officials look on helplessly while good oxygen was wasted.
In reaction to the disturbance, Councilman Pete Constant, the lone dissenting vote on the breathing ban, said, “I’m not even much of a breather, but I think people should be allowed to breathe in our city if they’d like - - have you ever been in one of those iron things? Awesome.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore made an unplanned stop in San Jose last night to praise the city and its leaders for what he called a “selfless act to save our planet by eliminating the discharge of carbon dioxide through the process of human breathting.”
I think we ought to ban lungs,” said Councilman Forrest Williams. “Let’s just get rid of them altogether.”
Al Gore is backing the proposal since he invented the iron lung and wants all the royalties. He misses all those tobacco profits.
Okay John, I’m done laughing myself silly. You pretty much nailed it, more asinine discriminatory laws that can’t be enforced. More violations of our personal rights just to win some elected an election, or to appease small groups that don’t get how petty and ridiculous they are. I understand this new ordinance goes so far as to allow the Police to fine you if you’re smoking in your own car, near a park! This is absolutely unbelievable. Are you sure we aren’t in Nazi Germany? You know where only the chosen ones were allowed to live their lives, and survive?
Well, it didn’t take long for someone to bring up Nazi Germany. How sad. As if there is a shred of comparison to anything occurring here and what happened in Germany. It’s almost not worth even commenting on this site when someone makes that stretch. Suffice it to say that banning smoking in public parks is a health issue. If folks can figure out a way to smoke in the park and contain their smoke so I don’t have to unwillingly inhale it, great. If they can’t then keep your smoking confined to where others don’t have to have their health damaged because of your habit. Hardly Nazi Germany and insulting to anyone who lived through that time or lost family as a result of that terror. Let’s get a grip folks.
#3- My mother was born and raised German and lived through the war. My father fought in that and two other wars, and he fought for our freedoms. My mother told me many stories of how their rights in Germany slowly disappeared, until one day Hitler was in charge, and deciding who lived, and who died.
I think you are missing the point I’m making, and smoking is just a small part of a big problem. We can’t sleep walk through life. Everyday your rights are being taken a way, and if that’s okay with you fine, I respect that, but it is not okay with me.
Everywhere you go you can see camera’s filming you. Now it’s filtering what you view in the libraries, what Police Officers can and can’t say, whether you can smoke in your OWN home, car, or outdoors. It’s laws being created that allow one group special privilege and not another. The list of disappearing rights and privileges is endless. Look at opening Police reports and investigations that will expose victims and witnesses to God knows what. Why? All to sell a newspaper, magazine, or get more ratings on TV for God’s sake.
I hate the smell of BBQ smoke but I don’t expect people to stop. And the smoke from a BBQ is much more harmful to the air quality, and our lungs, than a lone smoker in an outdoor park. I don’t hassle people for BBQ-ing, I just don’t go near them. I hate alcohol, but I see people drinking in parks, getting drunk, tossing bottles and cans on the ground. It’s sickening. But I don’t think people should stop drinking because I don’t like it. I just stay away from them, and respect their right to do their own thing, as long as they aren’t damaging my property, or physically harming me or someone else.
You may see my example as extremist, but I don’t. More and more our government is mandating how we live, how we behave, on and on. And if you don’t think that our country could end up like Germany, you aren’t very aware of the history behind that horrific event.
Dear Al Gore:
Welcome to San Jose where rights are defined by the self-righteous indignation and best intentions of a collection of people with limited IQ’s and stunted world views. You see Al, San Jose is a place where you can’t smoke in an empty park, but you can enjoy porn in a crowded library. In San Jose, civil liberties are negotiable…and the law is applied arbitrarily.
But we do have freedom of speech here, Al. You’re free to say anything that you want, so long as you don’t use any language that might offend any particular group. For example, you mustn’t say anything about enforcing immigration laws on par with most every other country in the world…you might be seen as a racist or a xenophobe.
Thanks Al for all that you’re doing to bring us a new, almost cult -way of thinking about the environment…it helps to get our mind of theses other minor problems!!
Pete Campbell
Yikes. Take a breath and relax a little. Of course I don’t want my rights taken away. That’s why I don’t want smoking in the parks because it takes away my right to breath smoke-free air. Why should I have to leave the park or move elsewhere—which usually can’t be done anyway because the smoke becomes pervasive throughout the park. Nobody is telling people they can’t smoke—just don’t do it where it hurts the health of others. If somebody wants to kill themselves smoking that’s their choice. Just don’t take me with you.
#6- “Nobody is telling people they can’t smoke—just don’t do it where it hurts the health of others.”
Not true! Read the ordinance.
You have a right to a smoke free environment, I agree, just as I have a right to smoke, if I so chose. I pay taxes and people who smoke pay taxes for parks, property, and sales like yours do, so why do you think your rights supersede theirs or mine?
Clean air doesn’t exist anywhere in this world. Hence global warming, cases of asthma, and allergies rising every year. I find it really hard to believe that you can sit in a park with BBQ’s, car exhaust, all the air pollution and truly think someone sitting 20 to 30 yards from you can give you cancer. It’s just ridiculous. People who don’t smoke, don’t live with a smoker are getting lung cancer all the time.
Secondly, it is an issue of personal rights. I pay for my car, my insurance, my taxes, my home, and NO ONE gets to tell me what I can do in my car, my home, or my country, and what I can’t do so long as I’m not breaking the law. And this new ordinance is not fair it is discriminatory.
It really bothers me when I see this kind of entitlement attitude in the world. We need to get it that as human beings we need to be respectful, tolerant of differences, and yes #6-get off our butt and move somewhere else, if someone is doing something offensive to our senses. Its called accommodating other’s rights to quite enjoyment of their own property, courtesy, and personal freedoms.
And finally, let me say this, not one of these Council Members or politicans turns down donations from smokers, you can bank on it.
Does my right to breathe clean air include a right to breathe air without automobile exhaust?
Assuming the answer is no, what’s the difference to your right to tobacco free air, and my right to gasoline free air?
Unbelievable would have us believe that the level of smoke in public parks is on a par with Tommy Chong’s smoke-laden joints in his movies with Cheech Marin. Gimme a break!!!
He chose his nome de blog wisely—his position is unbelievable
I’m an ex-smoker—2.5-3 packs of Pall Mall Reds per day. There’s nothing worse than a reformed anything for clamping down on what it is they have abandoned; yet there is no way I can believe that there is a micron of health benefit to banning smoking in the open space of a park. This is complete PC BS. I do wish, however, that the smokers wouldn’t drop their butts on the ground. I’d have no problem with busting them for littering.
Now, if we’re talking Rancho San Antonio or Quicksilver, I’d ban smoking; but because of the fire danger, not the specious claim that some diluted waft of smoke passing by me was somehow going to harm my health.
I walk around and through St. James Park daily—a drug haven—and I rarely smell cigarette smoke, even though junkies and welfare recipients will stop eating before they stop smoking.
What park has this huge toxic cloud of second hand smoke that Unbelievable claims is ruining her/his life? I’ll be happy to go check it out with her/him, and change my view if I have to fight my way through some toxic plume that Unbelievable postulates pollutes our parks on a regular basis.
Is barbecueing vegetables worse for the environment than cooking meat indoors?
I’m so deeply sorry for causing lung cancer, emphysema and cardiovascular disease.
JMO- Congrats on quitting smoking. That’s my goal for next year. I am a considerate smoker, even around people who walk by or sit in designated smoking areas and do their famous cough, choke, gag routine. I never smoke around children.
I agree with everything you said including littering. I have noticed that you can rarely find ashtrays, so I bring my own. I don’t like butts either. They harm kids and animals when eaten.
You can’t find many trash cans to dump bottles etc. in either. I see lots of litter in parks, on freeways, and on streets. Maybe that’s why.
My original point was that I just don’t want government telling me what to do, when, and how. Nor do I want up tight moral majority folks mandating that I have to blindly follow their beliefs. Too many hypocrites, not enough common sense.
#13- Clearly you don’t get it. We will just agree to disagree, but your lack of respect for differing opinions proves my point. You have twisted things around, and replied in a very condescending manner. That’s too bad because we could have had a productive discussion on the real issues here, personal freedoms, governments interfering with rights to privacy, and freedom of speech.
JMO, nor I ever said that you do not have the right to a smoke free environment, but you seem to think the world needs to conform to your way of seeing and doing things, and no one else’s rights enter into your equation.
I too have gone to outdoor music venues. The drunks, and loud music offends my senses, so I am pickier about where I spend my money for entertainment. I don’t expect others to change to suit me like you do. I don’t walk around the world in a bubble thinking I am the only one who matters.
As to your statement that I blast my music in my car, where did you get that from? I’m 50, and my days of riding in a car with music that loud are long gone, but having said that, I drive by young folks all the time who do blast theirs. I just roll up my window because as you so eloquently put it, ” If all of us showed a little more concern for those around us and refrained from activities that infringed on the peace of others, maybe, just maybe, the world would be friendlier place.” I chose to turn that statement to another meaning and it is that, I will not push my beliefs on others and respect their right to live, without demanding that they conform to my way of doing things.
One day, I can guarantee you that a law will pass that will hit you where you live, and you will be the first person to scream about your rights. And when you do, I just hope you have people who are better listeners than you have been to us on this topic.
When the Mayor and Council start paying my car registration, maintenance, insurance, car payments, my gas, then they can tell me what to do in it, but until then, no way. When these people are running for reelection, they won’t get my vote, or my financial contribution because they are showing me that they want power more than they care about our personal rights, and freedoms. They are also showing me that they will continue to pass unenforceable, discriminatory laws. I think the Police serve us better by chasing rapists, child molesters, and murders, not SMOKERS in a park.
Yay!!!
A new law that will allow cops to harass more brown skin folks. Good job guys!
I have never understood the logic where it is okay to assault someone by claiming it is your right to engage in a recreational activity.
Personally, I feel most recreational and medical drugs should be legalized for any adult to purchase and use in private, but, as an ex-smoker, I can live with smoking restricted and/or banned in public areas, and around children.
When I breath carcinogens from the use of a recreational drug, or have my hearing and consciousness attacked and battered by unrelenting boom-boom car stereos, it irritates me. When the justification for these assaults is the argument, “Its my right”, I realize the other person is being unreasonable, and has no respect for others. They are number one, and are the only one that matters in the world.
For some reason, and with convoluted logic, some people feel that they have a right to assault others, and the people being assaulted do not have any right to not be assaulted by a recreational activity, which is what smoking and loud car stereos are.
Sorry, Unbelievable # 13, but yes I was at almost all of the Music in the Park events this year, and never felt oppressed by the exceedingly light level of smoke in the air. U R WAY TOO easily annoyed by minor irritations. “Clouds” of smoke, Unbelievable?? I don’t think so. Your claim is your name—Unbelievable.
Is cigarette smoke annoying? Absolutely!!! Is it the crime of the century that you seem to espouse? No way. There are many annoying things we face in this world, like the idiots they give drivers licenses to those who don’t know the function of or use the various mirrors mounted on their automobiles; or who use their turn signals, if at all, only AFTER their car is half way into the lane cutting you off.
CLOUDS of smoke as you claim?? ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. You have ZERO credibility on that issue.
You know, as I think back on other things you have posted, every one of them reflects your nome de blog—Unbelievable.
The Panther In the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
His vision from the constantly passing bars, has grown so weary that it cannot hold anyting else. It seems to him there are a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world. As he paces in cramped circles, over and over, the movement of his powerful soft strides is like a ritual dance around a center in which a mightly will is paralyzed. Only at times, the curtain of the pupil lifts, quietly—- an image enters in, rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles, plunges into the heart and is gone.
Being blinded by one’s own way of seeing things closes the door to any productive discussion, resolution, sharing ideas, learning something new, or healthy conversation. Have a great weekend guys. I’m off to smoke in the park while it’s still legal!
We sure got acquainted with Kathleen Flynn didn’t we?
Take it easy, JMO, you’re going to hurt something. Having tried to enjoy several concerts at Music in the Park this summer while trying to survive the clouds of smoke around me (cigarette smoke) was not easy nor enjoyable. I realize you and Kathleen think that is OK—we disagree.
8 – The fewer cars the better for all of us—cleaner air and less dependency on foreign oil. Lets work together to get fewer cars on the road.
Kathleen – Since no one tells you what to do in your car do you think it is OK to blast your CD system so loud that everyone in the vicinity can hear it (BTW – there are laws against that, so you can be told what to do in your own car). I think you should be able to blast away until your windows shatter as long as I can’t hear outside. If all of us showed a little more concern for those around us and refrained from activities that infringed on the peace of others, maybe, just maybe, the world would be friendlier place. But, given the attitude of many folks on this blog I won’t hold my breath (even if no one is smoking).
I’ll smoke when ever and where ever I want. I don’t care if someone is offended by it. I will admit though, I do smoke mainly in my own yard.
You people compalin too much.
Look behind the ones that are creating the new rules on anything. The War on Iraq, Nazi Germany’s ideology, United States “Copycat” Walls of China, Germany.
Kathleen, you win the debate. Now go out and turn your lungs into asphalt. This is a free country.
Iraq is obviously not a free country, it’s costing us hundreds of billions, to blowup and pollute the atmosphere. Has anyone figured out yet that the countless factories that are cranking out crap for us in china are creating atmospheres that in weeks we will be breathing and drinking.
You know Kathleen , I think I’ll join you for a smoke.
Then I’ll go see a shrink. You can come too. JMO gave me his #.
Filters on cigarettes, What a novel idea!That guy should have gotten the Nobel Prize.
How about catalitic converters for park smokers. One could rent them like roller skates, or bicyles. Cool Huh?
Only in “Sillycan Valley”!
Next thing we know some idiot will outlaw eating “BEANS”. I’m just kidding ,Councilman Forrest Williams, don’t go there!
D.O.A.
Bluefox-
If smoking counts as “assault”, then so does driving. Both compel other people to breathe carcinogens, as you wrote.
Do I have a right to demand that no one else drive, because driving adds carcinogens to the air I breathe?
If not, then why should I have a right to demand that no one else smokes in public? It’s carcinogens down the old windpipe either way.
#20 – Greg
Do I have a right to demand that no one else drive, because driving adds carcinogens to the air I breathe?
Of course you do. We all know that cars are a tremendous source of pollution, although they do get a little cleaner each year.
The problem you will have is trying to convince people that driving a car is no different than smoking a cigarette in a park. I doubt if many people will agree that because smoking is not allowed in a park then cars, trucks, etc. should not be allowed to operate anywhere.
Unless you are trying to say that driving should not be allowed in the parks. If so then I can agree with that.
So this was done for health reasons.
Where is the scientific research?
In an open space, how close does a smoker have to be to a non smoker and for what period of time for his second hand smoke to actually be harmful to the non-smokers health?
Are there any FACTS behind this law?
That would be an awesome idea.
Compare Al Gore’s lifestyle with the President’s:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
If Gore truly believed that increases in CO2 were leading to ‘a planetary catastrophe within ten years,’ as he has repeatedly stated, he would immediately stop his polluting lifestyle.
Otherwise, he would be a traitor to the human race, wouldn’t he?
#24
In an open space, how close does a smoker have to be to a non smoker and for what period of time for his second hand smoke to actually be harmful to the non-smokers health?
Google is you friend. Just search on “second hand smoke” or “second hand smoke outdoors”.
From http://2006.confex.com/uicc/wctoh/techprogram/P2361.HTM
“Objective: What happens to secondhand smoke (SHS) outdoors?
Methods: Three experiments were conducted using real-time monitors for respirable particles (RSP) or particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PPAH) carcinogens to investigate the levels of secondhand smoke on two cruise ships in the Caribbean, in five outdoor cafes in Helsinki, Finland, and outdoors on a college campus.
Results: Smoking in outdoor areas of the cruiseship tripled the level of PPAH relative to indoor and outdoor areas in which smoking did not occur, despite the strong breezes and unlimited dispersion.” (emphasis mine)
From http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet6.html
“Exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system …
Breathing secondhand smoke for even a short time can have immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of a heart attack.”
All current Surgeon General second hand smoke information:
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/
General second hand smoke issues:
http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35422
I did not visit every web-site but I seriously doubt that you will find any web-site that states second hand smoke is beneficial to people, or that second hand smoke, irrespective of its location, has no negative effect on people.
#27 says:
“Nice try but everyone knows that this type of research is funded by organizations that get huge donations, who then turn around and pay lots of money to get the results they want, and only the results they want.”
I do not know that. Can you please provide some data to support your opinion?
#26- Nice try but everyone knows that this type of research is funded by organizations that get huge donations, who then turn around and pay lots of money to get the results they want, and only the results they want. All the taxes we smokers pay on our habit don’t really go to helping cancer victims. They go to overpaid members of boards, and to advertising about not smoking. Try googling that and see what pops up.
By the way, one of these studies you’ve sent takes place on a cruise ship. Cruise ships pollute the water by dumping waste, garbage, and fuel much more than a thousand smokers could by dumping their cigarette butts directly in the water at one time!
BBQ smoke is more toxic and harmful to our lungs and the air quality and no one bans them. On spare the air days we are asked not to BBQ, or drive. Never heard the media say, “And you dam smokers stay inside!”
Again, I do believe that non smokers have a right to have smoke free zones, but I also believe we smokers have the same right to have designated space too. It is a matter of fairness, and accommodating everyone without depriving one another. My taxes pay for parks, and I should have the right to smoke in an open-air park, just like people have the right to drink alcohol, BBQ, and blare their stereo in the park.
If you watch the news, everything is bad for you and causes cancer. I think we’ll all die from the pollutants in our food, drugs we take for medical conditions, and large companies poisoning the water, and the air long before second hand smoke kills anyone.
I agree with TJ Rodgers who once said, a coercive utopia is when you’re willing to implement YOUR good ideas by forcing OTHERS to do them. He said that he “deeply dislikes the Gore-crowd types who scream ‘political tragedy coming on, therefore you must do what I want.’”
Unbelievable # 13 opined:“If all of us showed a little more concern for those around us and refrained from activities that infringed on the peace of others, maybe, just maybe, the world would be friendlier place.” I couldn’t agree more. But that is a far cry from trying to legislate it.
#28- You seem much too intelligent NOT to know this kind of politics. But here goes, when you see an organization tacked on to a study, go Google their donors, and see where their grants come from. You sure won’t see opposing sides donating to these groups. You will be very surprised, if you can find it, the salaries of these doctors, heads of Boards etc. I know because I have friends that are doctors, lawyers, and are on some of these boards. We’ve had long conversations about the stress they go through keeping money coming in. It’s all about the money, always has been, always will be.
Secondly, in college, we studied how surveys, studies, and research are done. There are many flaws in the way the a hypothesis is formed; and is often disproved many times over the years by new incoming data, and new scientific and technologic improvements. I can tell you that NOTHING is absolute. That is of course if you’re discounting change! There are way too many contributing factors that must be weighed into any outcome or conclusion, not to mention personal bias, human era etc.
You cannot possibly convince me you’d ever conceive the American Heart and Lung Association would ever report anything other than smoking in or around this planet is harmful. They’d be out of a job!
I guess I’d like to ask you why cancer patients are prescribed Pot smoking to relieve pain, if smoking is so bad for people?
Always like to keep an eye on my customers. Glad to see #30 is doing the job we’ve asked her and many others to do. Keep planting doubt about any real health hazards from smoking and continue to point out that you can’t really trust the info from biased sources like the Heart and Lung Association. As long as our workers like #30 do their jobs, I’ll be able to retire in luxury in peace, quiet, and smoke-free air and if any of you yahoos think I am a hypocrite I’ll just have #30 defend me and tell you the real truth.
Oh, #30, the check is in the mail. Thanks.
#31- Thanks very much you’ve proven my point.
#30
I guess I’d like to ask you why cancer patients are prescribed Pot smoking to relieve pain, if smoking is so bad for people?
Because it works?
Because they are already dying?
Because pot is not addictive as are cigarettes?
Because marijuana smoking is not the same as cigarette smoking?
Because there is no relationship between the two activities?
Smoking marijuana is just the most efficient delivery system for THC. Medicinal marijuana does not have to be smoked to be useful.