I live near Calabasas, California. It’s a pretty innocuous community, sprinkled with celebrities and your basic Los Angeles nouveau riche. The reason I bring it up is because Calabasas has a law. A law that seems to pop up in different communities around southern California. It’s gaining popularity around the country, as I’ve heard of other communities adopting similar laws. I like the law. And a lot of other people like the law. But I’m here to tell you that it’s a thousand percent unconstitutional. What am I referring to? The law that effectively bans cigarette smoking indoors or outdoors. But you can smoke pot. It’s legal, and you can buy it up and down Ventura Boulevard in any strip mall. All you need is a prescription. Note: Chiropractors are glorified knuckle-poppers, and not doctors.
I love that there are no cigarette butts on the ground, no smelly ashtrays and when I leave a bar after having a beer, I don’t smell like a cigarette butt. So this all leaves me quite conflicted. I like not getting second-hand smoke. But this law challenges exactly what this country is all about – freedom.
I told you that to tell you this. It seems like these laws are put into place to protect us. I think we have too much protection in the world today. At one time in this country, people drove without seatbelts, cars didn’t have airbags, heavy equipment didn’t make a beeping sound while backing up and you never saw a stick figure demonstrating the correct way to ride an escalator.
This all keeps the idiots of the world alive, so they can procreate and supply us with more idiots. I’ve said many times on this site, and everyone who’s ever ridden a bicycle with me knows, my only rule when riding is to wear a helmet. I’ve been known to go out and buy someone a helmet just to ride with me. I’m passionate about it. Wearing a helmet only makes sense.
Where's the helmets?
Yesterday on a bike ride with my friends, Karen and Caroline, we ran across this idiot. Karen pulled out her camera phone and snapped a couple of photos. By the way, though you can’t see traffic in the photos, this is a road in Calabasas that cars frequently fly through.
So I challenge you, Calabasas. If you really want to save people’s lives, don’t ban smoking, at the very least, make it mandatory that children wear helmets. There are a great many helmets out there. You can shop for them right through this site. I recommend you check out REI and Amazon if you are in the market for a good helmet.
Sophia Loren smoking...possibly near Calabasas
