The Defense
Look man I don't come down to where you work and slap the dick outta your mouth, so don't tell me what to do either.
Damn you, look at this you've made me resort to childish cut-downs.
I must say that I do not appreciate all this intolerance with smokers, mainly because I am a smoker, and I am not a vicious person, even if I don’t smoke for a day or two. I am not aiming to kill everybody through my smoking. Yet this seems to be the perception of the www.thetruth.com web-site. I in fact always ask the people I’m out with if it will bother them if I smoke, if they say yes, I will go outside so as not to bother them. Or, heaven forbid, I won't smoke at all.
The Courtesy
My suggestion is that smokers follow some guidelines, mainly to get these non-smoking upstart ass-holes off our backs about it. Now remember this is just a suggestion, I’m not trying to tell you what to do either.
- Ask before you light up around people who might be non-smokers.
- Don’t be afraid to go outside if need be. People in Austin, Texas don’t have any choice in this matter, city ordinance forbids smoking inside any place that is not considered to be a bar.
- Field-dress your cigarette butts, especially in your vehicles. You Military and Police Academy people know what I mean, for the rest of you, this means to roll the tobacco out of the paper (primarily the lit portion), stepping on it and putting the butt in your pocket, or trash recepticle.
- Don’t blow smoke in people’s faces, that’s just rude as hell.
- Don’t continually spark your lighter. God that’s annoying.
- Do anything but throw your butts out the window of your car, those really hurt motorcyclists.
- Avoid violent arm movements in crowded places, cigarette burns hurt.
- Don’t smoke while filling up your car with gas, that’s stupid, and it scares the other people at the gas station.
Now once again I remind you that these are just some suggestions, if you choose not to follow them, good for you, if you choose to follow them, don't restrict yourself to these rules, improvise, polite-away you won't hurt anyone's feelings if you're considerate about what your doing.