Second-Hand Vapor?
As of today, Iranians can no longer smoke their hubble-bubbles in public. Water pipes, as the BBC observes, have been at the center of Iranian social life for centuries. Puff on a qalyoun in a teahouse now, however, and you face a fine and confiscation.
Why? The mullacracy cites health reasons, but that's obviously nonsense. Water-pipeless Iranians will now be lighting more cigarettes. The Beeb speculates that the ban is an early shot in this year's campaign against "social corruption," which "includes poor observance of Islamic dress codes and public morals, parties involving alcohol and the mingling of unmarried people from both sexes." Young people, notes correspondent Jim Muir, "have recently taken increasingly to gathering around the qalyoun to smoke and flirt."
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Fucking young people
Yeah, I think they are trying to stop that. (Unless they are married, of course)
Hey, Mayor Bloomberg! You and the mullahs are on the same page. See:
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_10/nosidewalksmoking.html
[Contains belly dancer photo!]
Legalize hookahs! (and hookers.)
Kevin
(non-smoker)
My God (or Allah, if you will). Next thing you know these little degenerates will be . . .
DANCING!
That’s why the mullahs are against sex: Because sex could lead to dancing!
Hold on thoreau! Isn’t that why the Mormons are against sex? I’m sensing a convergance . . .
Not Mormons, Baptists. At least according to the joke I heard.
And that was only sex while standing up.
Bloomie may still be a nut about smoking, but it looks like NY’ers won’t have to go all Kevin Bacon on his ass, if he keeps his word.
The Bloomberg administration is moving to repeal the cabaret law, turning the tide from the Giuliani era “quality of life” enforcement of the law. From:
The Gothamist.com @ http://tinyurl.com/2bgkm
with link to NYT story @ http://tinyurl.com/yvoc3
(Yes, reg. req., but you knew that, right?)
“If I can not dance, I want no part in your revolution.” – – Emma Goldman
Kevin
Please, don’t give Maryilyn Musgrave any more ideas!
If I were the mullahs, I’d be trying to discourage people from meeting and talking about what’s on their minds, too. “Corrupting the morals of young people” is just as much of a pretext as public health.
Luckily, we don’t have to worry about unauthorized dancing here in New York. We have cabaret laws such that if you want to allow people to dance in your place of business, you need a special license. If you don’t have one, any dancing, belly or otherwise, can lead to fines, loss of liquor license, or forced closure of the business.
It’s great to live in a free country…
I often feel uncomfortable with “slippery slope” arguements, even though I have made them. But these days, like kevrob makes light of, and Amy Phillips makes sarcasm of, we (not just Bloomberg) do seem to be more like Iran and Russia every day(you folks read Cathy Youngs new article posted yet?). Just the other day someone in H&R using Putins testimony to support Bush (I was totally freaked on what that implied). I keep wondering, have we as a nation joined the Mullahs? Is this the kind of society we are going to become? Goddam I hope not. But the reasoning in Iran seems to be VERY similar to our reasoning these days.
“Islamaphobics Take the Fun Out of Arab Life.”
Early this spring a restaurant in Charleston, West Virginia, Sinbad’s, offering genuine hookahs to their customers was banned from doing so by the local “mullahs”. However it took awhile before these “green mullahs” decided this was smoking, since what was being smoked didn’t look like tobacco but a sweet preserve-like concoction. Mullahs are everywhere.
I’m sure the mullahs can’t wait to see the latest in “reality” TV:
http://extratv.warnerbros.com/dailynews/extra/0604/06_18e.html
The reality lockdown is going up in smoke with PAX TV’s “Cold Turkey,” a show that puts 10 chain smokers in a house for three weeks without cigarettes for the chance to win some cash.
But Executive Producer Stuart Krasnow said the show, hosted by A.J. Benza, is a sign of the times: “I think the people who smoke have become the enemies of society, and I thought it’d be a great idea to have a little fun with them and see what they could learn on the way.”
that must be some of that christian love i hear so much about? 🙂
pax is teh hottnez!