I am certainly one of the overjoyed non-smokers who is looking forward to the future of my nightlife now that as of July 1st, 2007, smoking inside pubs, clubs, etc will be illegal. I hate hate hate going out to a live gig or theatre show at a licensed venue and leaving with a sore throat and stinky clothes. When I go out drinking I've grown to accept that people will be smoking, and therefore spend as little time as possible inside the actual bar, and if I go out dancing and find myself having to keep a close eye on a fellow dancer's glowing cigarette butt, I don't return to the venue. I've also been known to 'accidentally' knock the cigarette onto the floor, and stomp on it in a flamboyant dance lunge.

So while this new law brings me great merriment, I'm not about to go buy tacky merchandise broadcasting my side of the situation. Apparently my opposition does not think the same way.

I stumbled across this site and had a look at the tastelessly appalling merchandise a company is trying to hock, to cash in on the funds of angry smokers who believe that it's totally fine to poison and pollute the air - air which obviously is shared by the elderly, the very sick, and the sensitive. I'm a singer and I will admit to fearing walking past a smoker in case I cop a lungful of foul smoke, which may leave me with a sore throat. Smoking has never been an acceptable pastime for me, mainly because of that reason - I have always regarded smokers with the same distain I reserve for rapists and other people I assume are mentally incompetent when it comes to respecting human rights. Of course, I've had many friends who were chain-smokers - you potentially cannot be in the theatre industry and never speak to smokers, unless you enjoy loneliness. But I'll admit that no matter how much I liked the person, to see them light up would whittle away my ability to respect them. After all, by lighting up in front of me and polluting my air, what respect are they showing me?

Anyway, let's cut from the rant and enjoy the stupidity of the people who have created the Pro-Smoking "Smoker's Right T-shirts" on the previously linked-to page. The non-vulgar version of this t-shirt reads:

WARNING: Stepping on my rights as a smoker maybe hazardous to your health.

Seriously, how many people read that statement before it was emblazoned upon countless crappy items available for purchase? And yet no one noticed that "may be" in that sense is in fact two words??

I guess all those inhaled chemicals are showing their sway...