Smoking is a personal decision and needs to remain just that: personal

This is the final draft of my second editorial for class, which was supposed to focus on a state or regional issue. The smoking ban is something I feel strongly about, and for some reason, I found it hard to write this editorial because I had to narrow down my reasons. If you want to read the long rant I posted earlier, complete with full arguments and a list of links, go here: Nebraska's smoking ban.

If you want to read the bill itself, go here: LB395.

On February 26, 2008, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law a statewide smoking ban that will go into effect starting June this year, outlawing smoking in bars, restaurants and most other workplaces. The signing came as a victory to advocates of the bill, which had been turned down time and time again in the past.

However, since the bill has passed, there has been both an outcry and a sigh of relief from various individuals and businesses around the state, and the idea of a strict statewide smoking ban has been controversial, to say the least. There have been exceptions, then rewrites, then more exceptions, then law suits – and the ban hasn’t even gone into effect yet!

Despite the arguments from both sides, no argument is more valid than this: there needs to be a limit as to how far one person can invade another person’s space. We have harassment laws, stalking laws, traffic laws, pollution laws, disruption laws and privacy laws, to name a few, and we will now have smoking laws.

Smoking is indeed an invasion of personal space. In establishments that still allow smoking indoors, the smoke from a single cigarette will find its way into the area of other patrons, whether they like it or not. Smoking and non-smoking sections make no difference, especially in the eyes of a restaurant worker or bar tender who doesn’t have the convenient choice to distance him or herself from the intrusion.

There is absolutely no reason why the public should accommodate a habit that not only harms the person involved, but also has the potential to harm innocent people unfortunate enough to breathe the same smoky air. The side effects of first and second-hand smoking, which include cancer and emphysema, are extremely dangerous, and it is in the public’s best interest that these diseases and their sources are kept under control.

Statistically, smokers make up a minority in this country. According to the American Heart Association, only 23 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women smoke, and the numbers are continuing to fall. We would never argue that the rights of a minority group don’t matter, but we would not step down on the fact that the rights of the majority are especially important. Even more important than group rights is public health.

Smoking is a personal decision, and any adult is free to acknowledge and accept the addiction and dangers of the habit. However, no one is free to push those same dangers onto unwilling citizens. We should be able to believe we are safe when in public, and although it’s a difficult standard to reach, small steps like the smoking ban will bring us closer to attaining that goal.

Alexandra Pelosi's "Right America: Feeling Wronged"

Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, worked on creating a documentary about John McCain's supporters while McCain was still running for president. She and her crew went to the rallies and interviewed these people, using the footage as a way to open up a conversation between the left and right, hoping that liberals would take away some sort of understanding by listening to what the conservatives had to say.

Or so, that's what she says. Actually, from the clips I've seen of the film, I can pretty easily agree with critics that the film is extremely biased and, instead of opening up conversation, it does nothing more than put these people up for us to laugh at.

Here's an excerpt of what Michael Leahy, a Washington Post writer, had to say in "'Right America:' Filmmaker uses a distorting lense"

It's drive-by journalism, to put it charitably, a string of stupefyingly brief hit-and-run interviews with a bunch of unidentified people who we know are going to say nothing that will surprise us. By then, we've already figured out they're going to be fried by Pelosi's camera. We know they're going to sound like yahoos, often goaded, always reduced to sound bites and caricatures.

All the conventions of the smirking, winking, belittling political documentary are abided by in this film. An inordinate number of the yahoos wear T-shirts and weird caps. There is the obligatory NASCAR tailgating scene with the requisite Confederate flags and some white guys saying they'll never vote for any black man. There are a couple of campaign events sporting all-American schoolgirl choruses who sound like they're right off the "Up With People" tour bus. There is a young guy whose T-shirt, meant to deride Obama, declares "Say No to Socilism," and when Alexandra Pelosi tells him he's misspelled socialism and asks him to define it, we know he's not going to be able to, that he's going to say something way wrong and stupid -- which he does, offering that socialism is "basically, it's like the views of Hitler. It's between like communism and -- I don't know what the other word is."

Now believe me, I was definitely one of those people who was both horrified and amused at seeing the typical "racist republican hick" on YouTube and reading about them at liberal blogs and web sites. As a pretty liberal person, it was cheap amusement for me, but I never once thought they made up the majority. We all know that extremists are a crazy minority, and as an unfortunate result, they get the most media coverage.

There's a big difference between putting these people out there and saying, "Look! They're crazy! Let's point and laugh!" and "Here are your typical Republicans, let's try to pretend like we want to understand them, because it will make us look good and make them look like assholes."

I live in Nebraska, obviously, which is a red state. It's not the reddest of all red states, but it's still much more red than blue, especially in the panhandle, where I grew up. Almost everyone I know from back home is republican, and not a single one of them is anything like the stereotypical "racist republican hick" that gets brought up time and time again. By pushing that stereotype onto them, it's extremely insulting to their intelligence. Believe it or not, there really are some viable opinions and beliefs on the republican side, and even though I don't agree with a lot of those stances, that doesn't mean they're wrong. It's just a different way of looking at things, and I sincerely respect that.

Even people who didn't vote for Obama still consider him a good candidate for president. Most people agree that his election is a sign that America is stepping up with its promises of equal opportunity, and that it's a good thing. Democrats and Republicans alike respect him and are willing to work together with him.

Now, do I know people who truly believed Obama was the anti-christ? That Obama was going to tax them so much they'd end up on welfare? Etc. etc. etc.? Yes, and the simple truth about all of those people was that they were not informed. They stuck with only taking in the information they wanted to hear, no matter how logically flawed.

Alexandra Pelosi said she was "putting up a mirror." Well, maybe she should turn that mirror on herself, as she obviously fell victim to the same disease: MISINFORMATION. Had she maybe tried to find decent and open-minded Republicans, she would have learned a thing a two ... but she didn't, probably because she really didn't want to hear what they had to say, as her motive was to simply make them look stupid and reinforce her own opinions about McCain supporters.

As for the documentary, yes, I will probably watch it. But to try to coat it in "understanding the other side" is both biased and ugly. When I watch it, I'm going to watch it for laughs, plain and simple. Though to be honest, I'm probably going to feel sorry for those people. I'm also going to relive my relief of the entire presidential campaign finally coming to a conclusion.

It's more than advertising - it's catvertising!

Ok, so I know I'm a little bit late on catching the news here, but this advertising idea is just too good to go without comment.

There's a new video game out called "Fear 2," and after seeing my boyfriend play the free trial on his Xbox, I can attest that this game is indeed SCARY. Well, that is if you're afraid of aggressive ghosts coming at you in a bloody grade school hallway. That kind of thing gives me nightmares.

Anyway, as we all know, Friday the 13th is an equally scary holiday for those who may be superstitious. And what is one of the most well-known superstitions? Black cats = bad luck.

So whoever was in charge of marketing this game decided to take advantage of the holiday and related superstitions, and they created cat-sized t-shirts with the Fear 2 logo printed on them. Then, they put the shirts on stray black cats and let them roam the streets of London.

Explaining the ad campaign, a spokesperson for Warner Bros (the company who made the game) said, "Everyday people are bombarded with so many advertising messages that it can be easy to miss them. With our research telling us that Brits are actively looking out for signs of bad luck this Friday, it makes perfect sense to try and capture their attention that way."

Now people want to know: will this catch on and maybe show up somewhere in the United States, like New York City?

I think it could, but it obviously wouldn't work if everybody started doing it, and it would only be effective for a small category of businesses. Also, I'm sure that if it happened too much, there would be a risk of animal rights activists getting involved, which would probably hurt a company involved with catvertising in the long run.

But to be honest, stray cats probably don't mind a free t-shirt.

Kittens! Inspired by kittens!

I'm sure most internet addicts have already seen this video more than once, but I wanted to share it anyway. I think it's hilarious, mostly because I have kittens right now and they are crazy! Plus, my sister and I had a book like this when we were kids, though it was both kittens and puppies, and I loved looking at it. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen that book in years ...

Anyway, I decided to look this video up on the viral video charts, and as you can clearly see, its play has skyrocketed in the last few days, reaching 1,372,324 plays (at the moment) and 360 blog posts (now 361).


In case you missed it, here's the video: