The Bocker.com

According to a NY Times article today, charity bingo games have been taking a hit now that more and more states are adopting no-smoking indoors laws.  Are you surprised to hear that most bingo players are smokers? Or that bingo games produce hundreds of millions of dollars a year? My favorite aspect of bingo has always been that it is played in churches.  Places that tell their followers vice is a sin and yet offer casino night and bingo night as a way to raise money.  Since I know a lot of you won’t read the article I linked to above I will just pull out some hilights for you.

I can’t say I’m shocked that smoking and bingo go together “like peanut butter and jelly” according to the article, but I’m still shocked that smokers think they deserve the right to smoke wherever they want.  I have no problem with people smoking.  It’s their body and if they want to slowly kill themselves I’m fine with it.  But I never understood why smokers feel that everyone else should just suffer because they are addicted to cigarettes.  The fact is that smoke affects everyone within breathing distance and in this case the rights of non-smokers to be healthy trump the right of the smokers to fulfill their addiction. 

Why people even smoke in this day and age is beyond me.  Frankly I wouldn’t care if they taxed cigarettes 100% and used the revenue to do something useful like fix this country’s crumbling infrastructure.  Who cares if smokers couldn’t afford cigarettes anymore? They are a luxury item that are not necessary to a person’s life and people would be healthier if they were forced off of them through economics. 

I love some of the quotes from the article.  “You’ve got to get up and down, up and down, to go out and smoke,” said Judy Aiello.  God forbid you have to move out of a chair every once in a while, right Judy? I know you get winded after two feet but I’m sure leaving your seat won’t kill you.  “Why do all the nonsmokers have all the rights and the smokers have none?”, said Rhonda Covino.  Well Rhonda because our not smoking affects nobody, while your decision to smoke affects everyone.  I made the decision not to inhale carcinegens and I shouldn’t be forced to do so.  You want to smoke you can go outside and everyone is happy.  Well, I’m happy.

I did have one question with this article though.  How does the government decide that bingo is the accepted form of gambling, while every other form of gambling, be it live or over the internet, is illegal? I guess bingo isn’t addictive? (I don’t really believe this.  Anyone who knows any bingo players knows that they are no different than Poker players.)

Regardless I’m working on an indoor smoking device.  It looks kind of like a fishbowl and no smoke can enter or exit.  Of course air tends to not enter or exit as well, so I’m still working on it.