If these SmokeFreeAsshole ads don’t stop running on WIBC, I’m going to give serious consideration to going medieval on their ass.
4 Replies to “God damn it”
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A "surly curmudgeon[], suspicious and lacking in altruism." (Robert A. Heinlein)
I want to know where their money is coming from, and trying to figure it out makes for an interesting chase.
“Smoke Free Indy” says they’re a “coalition of state and local public health organizations, community based organizations, physicians, businesses, schools, the faith community, and Marion County residents” (carefully naming no names) and nothing whatever about where their funding comes from. They also operate a weblog. A cursory search of both sites didn’t yield any mention about a radio campaign.
Then there’s “Smoke Free INDIANA.” Interestingly enough, the base URL “smokefreeindiana.org” now redirects to Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation (state gov’t agency) “http://www.in.gov/itpc/”, although you can get to some of the old site via “http://www.smokefreeindiana.org/Default.aspx”. The old site seems to have gone dormant in 2007, and a quick look at the ITPC site didn’t reveal anything about a radio campaign.
Finally I found this: Emmis Community Outreach: Case Study
That page is undated, and has no mention of radio spots (past or current), although it does mention WIBC involvement.
Until I found the Emmis page, I had suspected that taxpayer dollars were involved somewhere (although I suppose “smoking settlement” money could be being used for “education”). The problem (and potential scandal) would be that since this is all about that bill in the legislature to expand the smoking ban, why doesn’t it count as political advocacy?
But now that I’ve seen that Emmis page, I’m not sure. If SFI was paying for those spots, that would be an expensive campaign. But it’s possible that Emmis is giving them otherwise-unsold positions, and possibly some production assistance. Again, the political advocacy aspect raises some interesting questions: The rabble-rouser asks: “If they’re giving away airtime time to advocate legislation, could I request equal time for some pro-limited-government spots?” Heh!
If we had a real press in this town, somebody might look in to it…
Unsold spots during Limbaugh? 🙂
The anti-smoking people almost make me want to go out and buy a pack of cigarettes and smoke my first cigarette. This despite the fact that my grandfather died from emphysema, which I’m reasonably certain was not helped by his being a lifelong smoker.
It has nothing to do with cancer or emphysema or any other health concern.
It has to do with the freedom of a business owner to cater to people who want to smoke, and the right of people who want to smoke to do so in a venue of their own choosing.
Indianapolis already requires big DANGER stickers on the doors of establishments where smoking is permitted. If you are a non-smoker and you are stupid enough to miss the clear warning that you are entering a smoking-permitted establishment, you get what you deserve.
Moreover, if you don’t want to work in a smoking-permitted atmosphere, get a job somewhere else.
The idea that legislators can abrogate the free market and our Constitutional rights whenever enough of their consitutents snivel and whine about something they don’t like seeing other people do is frankly mind-boggling to me.
And yes, that includes speed limits, the war on drugs, seat belt laws, and just about anything else that intrudes on my God-given right to be an idiot and kill or maim myself in some horrible way. The world would be a better place if more dope addicts died from their habits, more motorcycle riders died from head injuries, and more people died from being flung from cars because they weren’t wearing seatbelts. In my world, there wouldn’t even be 25MPH school speed zones — if the little shits wander out and play in the street after being told repeatedly not to, they deserve to be run over.* Improve the breed.
Some things just come under the heading of COMMON SENSE — and sadly, common sense isn’t.
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* And yes, I realize that school speed zones are instituted more for the protection of school buses and other vehicles going in and out of the school parking lot than they are for the protection of the random kid on recess who runs out in the street to chase a ball — but my answer to that is “a) put up a damn traffic light, and b) fence the school yards.” Stupidest excuse for a school zone in Indianapolis: the 45MPH stretch of Michigan Road just north of White River where it goes past the International School — which has a traffic light at its main entrance. I just love having to dump 20MPH coming down the hill in the southbound direction.