An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Granola State
Employers ponder tough tactics to halt smoking
Weyers, owner of a health care benefits administrator in Lansing, Mich., gave his 200 employees an ultimatum in 2004: Quit smoking in 15 months or lose your job. He refused to hire smokers. Ultimately, he extended his smoking ban to employees’ spouses and monitored compliance through mandatory random blood testing.
Uh….I beg your pardon? I don’t remember hearing about the POS extending his gestapo tactics to spouses. And the state let him get away with this? Isn’t that a major invasion of privacy, not to mention a violation of one’s civil rights? But then, hey, what do I know. I’m just a wingnut, right?
California, on both the state and local levels, has been at the forefront of anti-smoking efforts with laws to ban smoking in public places. A law went into effect in January that prohibits drivers from smoking when children are in the car. Still, smoking costs the state an estimated $8.6 billion in direct medical costs and $7.3 billion in lost productivity a year, according to the California division of the American Cancer Society.
And I’d bet ya dollars to donuts, just about everyone of those “you better live the way we tell you to live types” are VERY so called pro-choice. It’s ok to murder babies, but when you’re adult making decisions for yourself? Hey, that’s a big no-no!
In addition to lost work hours, employers have a vested interest in getting their workforce to kick the habit, given that they pay a large portion of health care costs and are the main source of health insurance for more than half the population.
Hey! Here’s a novel idea! Get the hell out of the health care industry, and you just might see the costs decreasing. For a bunch of yahoos who have created a major problem to begin with, they are all fired excited about creating new ones, and controlling your lives t’boot! Ain’t that just like ‘em. sigh…
Safeway prefers to influence its smokers through incentives rather than penalties, said Larree Renda, an executive vice president with the grocery chain. “Our focus right now has been one of being supportive and trying to help people quit smoking,” she said.
Excuse me, but what if said person actually enjoys smoking, on his own time, and is in pretty good health? Are companies going to force people to quite drinking too? How many are in poor health due to drinking? How ’bout those morons who get behind the wheel of a car and drive while under the influence? Better thought….enforce some NO DRIVING rules. There are a lot of health care costs involved in drunk driving accidents. Wait a minute…..even better…..NO THINKING ALLOWED. You are no longer allowed to think for yourself. You might make a stupid decision, and cost someone an extra dime or two in the process.
I find it absolutely amazing that those who whine the loudest are the ones who want to control my life, in all aspects. Here’s an idea: How ’bout you run YOUR life, and I’ll take care of mine, eh?
The instrusion of personal life the left wants, the more they complain about the direction things are going. Damn. They get what they want, and decide it’s not enough. Are all these people so unhappy with their own lives, they want to make ours miserable too? It’s not just the smoking police, it’s every damn thing that comes along. It’s getting freaking old. They bitch about Bush destroy the Constitution, yet at every turn, they are doing just that.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a law that would ban the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products in the city’s drugstores.
Oh, it’s a right to spread HIV/AIDS, but it’s not ok to sell a legal product? It’s ok to push a destructive agenda on society, but not ok grown ups to make their own choices when it comes to smoking? Drugs are ok (marijuana, clean needles, etc.), as long as it’s not nicotine?
I know the whole state of California is full of libtards, so how did it come to this? When did the rational become outnumbered by the irrational?
I don’t care if you want to burn your lungs out, they’re your lungs…
And the fact that you have NO will power is OK too…
Smoke em if ya got em, just don’t smoke em near ME, I like having my fully healed and 100% fully functioning lungs back after I spent 30 some odd years trying to kill myself…
If you want to smoke, awesome… Am I in your will by chance??
And all the skateboarders, joggers, mountain bikers, skiers, motorcyclists, potheads, rollerbladers, etc, they were forced to give up their dangerous, injury-causing hobbies too, right?
Dammit, they’re coming for beer and ice cream next.
@TexasFred:
Smart ass. What makes ya think I’ve even got a will. Heh.
Ok, I get your point about smoking. (nothing worse than a reformed smoker….LOL) And to a degree, I will agree. However, ya might have missed the bigger point. The CONTROL of your life. Not you particularly, but you in the broader sense. Now, I know full well you don’t want someone coming in telling you can’t have Range Rattlers….ever….never, ever again. Just because they say so? Hmmm… Now you know they aren’t good for you, and they may cause some problems with your health down the road. Are you gonna let some nanny tell you you have to stop eating Range Rattlers, otherwise, you can’t have a job. Or Mrs Fred. She can’t have ‘em either. Cuz nanny says so.
I realize this is a simplistic way of putting it, but I’m sure ya get the idea. Shoot, you probably don’t eat ‘em any more anyway, cuz…. but that’s YOUR choice. I won’t smoke around you cuz I know it bothers you. I have enough respect for others….you too!
@HeatherRadish:
I don’t drink. I don’t like being around people who have been drinking, are drunk, or are suffering from the after effects. All beer drinkers must stop drinking beer. You are harming your health. You are hurting my peace of mind. Stop. Now.
Pfft! Yeah….big picture of that ever happening. Heh. But you stay away from my ice cream!!!