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RE: [78attendees] WARNING !!! Re: Maastricht to Brussels-Nat-Aero, Sat 07:09

2010-08-30 02:39:06
Randall Gellens [mailto:randy(_at_)qualcomm(_dot_)com] writes:

At 10:06 AM +0700 8/30/10, Glen Zorn wrote:

  > Are there any smoke-free restaurants near the site, or even
anywhere
 in Beijing?

 Don't worry: the Disneyfication of the planet continues apace & the
Chinese,
 being good capitalists, have also discovered the profit advantages in
 controlling human behavior as opposed to actual air quality.  I'm
sure that
 you will be able to find many places to soak up your preferred
mixture of
 toxic pollutants without any offensive additions.

Of course different people see things differently, but I find it hard
to see how you can compare not being forced against one's will to
smoke to Disney's bland entertainment.  

A little less hyperbole would go a long way toward making this conversation
productive: nobody is forcing you against your will to do anything, let
alone smoke.  Everybody makes choices every day, always choosing those
things they perceive as preferable (if possible).  Maybe Qualcomm is
actually forcing you against your will to go and breathe the abysmal air in
Beijing for a week but I doubt it: they would probably be happy to save the
expense & you could always resign.  Even if there were no non-smoking
restaurants anywhere in China you would have a number of options for feeding
yourself for the week.  If, in that situation, you were to enter a
restaurant I doubt strongly that it would be because you were in chains with
a gun to your head; rather, it would be because you found it preferable to
the alternatives.  

Personally, I have no
interest in controlling anyone's behavior, *except* that I prefer
that someone else's choice not drag me into it.  

A one-man spaceship sounds like the only answer, then, since other people's
choices 'drag you into it' virtually constantly.

If you want to
drink, shoot heroin, skydive, whatever, I don't care at all unless
you try to force me to do the same.  When someone smokes in public,
every else is forced to smoke as well.  

Nonsense: there is always, at least, the option to move away.  

If you want to inject
nicotine during an IETF session or at dinner, I could not care less.
Just don't force me to as well.  

I can only assume that you never actually been forced to do anything; I
cannot otherwise explain your cavalier use of the word.

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes wrote, "The right to swing my fist ends where the
other man's nose begins."

Again, refraining from hyperbole would be helpful.  Only in the most fevered
imagination could a person smoking 25 feet away be equated with a personal,
physical attack.


I really cannot figure out what what you are saying about the
Chinese.  I am not aware of them controlling smoking in public, so I
assume you're talking about something else, but what?  Can you please
clarify?

Sorry for the lack of clarity: I really thought that my meaning was obvious.
Anyway, especially since they "cleaned up" the town in the run-up to the
Olympics there are (in my experience) lots of non-smoking restaurants in
Beijing.  For example, all of the restaurants in the Shangri-La have
non-smoking sections.  Here is a link to a non-smoking (& cheap) 4* hotel
closer than the Nikko:
http://www.agoda.com/asia/china/beijing/jiu_zhou_commercial_hotel.html. 

...


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