Reply #38: Can we at least make them shut their windows? [View All]

[starroute]

I have allergic bronchitis. When my neighbor smokes a cigar in his living-room on a summer evening, I'm forced to run around closing my windows -- no matter how hot it is -- if I want to be able to breathe. Why shouldn't he have to close his windows instead of me, since he's the one who wants to indulge his vices?

Beyond that, the reason I have this problem is that my mother smoked. She died of it -- "insufficiency of breath" was the technical diagnosis -- and my dad, who never smoked, now has emphysema as well.

Smoking is not a victimless crime -- and it's not nanny statism to try to protect people from having their lungs ambushed by it. Even the libertarians have a saying that goes something like, "Your rights end where your fist meets my nose," and it's nothing but tobacco company propaganda to suggest otherwise.