When smoking is outlawed, we can only bum smokes from outlaws

I have been a regular smoker since I was 15. I have never once portrayed this as the smartest move I could have made. It has wrought a lot of physical and cumulative financial damage. It has made my clothes smell like tobacco, which is worse than the mothball and circus performer sweat smell that would usually permeate my wardrobe. I am at risk for any number of diseases and any personal insurance I buy would be way more expensive than some prissy non-smoker.
But guess what? It's my right to be this stupid. We are in America.
I've been reading about how NYC Mayor Generalissimo Bloomberg wants to ban smoking in public parks. I don't know how often you use the public parks in NYC, but the biggest problem with them probably isn't cigarette smoke.
People on methadone passing out? Weirds out the tourists.
Hippies that think they are musical geniuses? Ruined a nice day or two.
But cigarettes? Is this how far we are going to take this nanny-state crapola??

Apparently, yes. People love the idea. Non-smoking people, of course, but they're the ones whose rights matter, just because they are breeding and voting and not hacking up phlegm at the newsstand every morning.
Erosion of personal liberties means nothing to these people because they want to feel safe, and that illusion of safety can be granted by a megalomaniacal self-made billionaire that managed to get a city council shit-scared enough to let him run for a third term. Also he eats kittens. In front of children. In a cabin he has in Vermont specifically set aside for these kinds of activities.

Who's to blame? We are. We let it happen. We are apathetic and bored with politics. The NY state primary on the 14th had a turnout of about 10% of registered voters, which means about 5% of the voting-age population actually bothered. They are mostly retirees, because the rest of us are too involved in our Twitters, iPads, and facebookings.

(shakes fist, mixes self a Harvey Wallbanger.)