Monday, August 10, 2009

Bee Copy Editor admits he called city government to ask if his neighbor is allowed to smoke on his own front porch

I'm speechless.

You'd think educated copy editors would have a grasp of the basics of liberty and private property ownership.

Apparently not so with Bee copy editor Reed Parsell (pictured at left). Parsell authored a piece in today's Bee complaining about how awful it is to live next door to people who smoke.

I kid you not. Apparently the burden of living next door to chain smokers was so great that he actually called city government to ask if his neighbor is allowed to smoke on his own front porch.

They are chain smokers, and they always do the dirty deed on their front or back porches. At almost any hour, a vile stench of carcinogenic gases from their filthy cigarettes can slither and slime its way through bug screens into our home, often into the nursery where one month ago, we welcomed a newborn. What had been an irritation before our daughter's birth has become a life-threatening problem. Secondhand smoke kills, something that even global- warming deniers and "birthers" could not sincerely contest...


Notice gratuitous slam on "birthers" and global-warming deniers... can't this guy make a point without resorting to a political dig??

Personally, I believe smokers in general, and our neighbors in particular, would react poorly to any conversation – no matter how delicately initiated – about their cigarette addiction. Asking a smoker to curtail or stop lighting up is akin to asking a National Rifle Association member if he would give away his guns.

OK, here is the gratuitous slam on NRA. Looks like he forgot to include the standard Palin slam.

Sacramento's city codes address the issue of smoking, of course, and mince no words about lighted tobacco's ill effects. "Air pollution caused by smoking is an offensive annoyance and irritant," states the introduction in Chapter 8.80. "Smoking results in serious and significant physical discomfort of nonsmokers and constitutes a public nuisance in public places and workplaces."


However, the codes also stipulate that smoking is allowed at "a private residence, including an attached or detached garage, whether or not the residence is utilized for office or other business purposes, except when such residence is operated as a licensed day care facility for children."


A copy editor by trade, I noticed that the codes, as they appear on the city's Web site, do not specify that smoking is permitted outside a private residence but still on the property, such as on a porch. With that slim bit of hope, I phoned the city clerk's hotline and asked whether smokers must stay in their homes, which could help our situation the tiniest bit.


"I'm sure the entire city would have heard if smoking on one's porch were not legal," the worker responded. At least she was sympathetic about our problem, saying, "It's a tough one. Wish I could do something for you."


What can you say about this guy. I could be wrong but I get the idea he is offended that a family of dirty smokers have infested his lefty mid-town enclave. (Thanks to the reader who sent this to me.)
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21 comments:

Dave D. said...

..This gutless slimeball doesn't have the nads to even mention it to his neighbors. He claims to know what they think because he's an omniscient asshole of the leftist breed. When Mr. Peckn'sniff started his water jihad I suggested it would migrate to smoking violations in the park. This lowlife bottomdwelling bedwetter has surpassed my lowest expectations

Anonymous said...

At least he is not being made to live next to a freedom fighter, a gun owner or a, gasp, republican. His bigotry and isolation flow so naturally in this thoughts, he is probably unaware of his own bias...even though they are legion.
This guy has rectocranial inversion so bad... it might be terminal.

Anonymous said...

It really makes you wonder how these people got the way they did.

How does someone even come close to rationalizing in their mind that they might have the right to regulate the personal behavior of others in their own homes on their own property?

What kind of education in this country would even teach such a warped and sickening ideology?

Anonymous said...

I hope his neighbor never has to fart.

Dr. Raucher L.S.M.F.T. said...

I suggest writing this guy an e-mail. Don't lower yourself to his level. You will actually be shocked at what he writes back.

I was shocked at his reply but will keep the code of privacy inherent in such communications!

If ignorance is blis, this guy is elated.

Anonymous said...

Relax, guys. It's a column. It's one person's opinion. It's a humorous look at one of life's little annoyances. Nothing more, nothing less. Just because you don't have a sense of humor doesn't mean that the rest of us don't enjoy laughing at ourselves once in a while.

McClatchy Watch said...

Dave D. heh

Anonymous said...

Bull. He is laughing at his neighbor and the people not like him...not at himself.
He is a bigot in a bubble.

Anonymous said...

Aww damn! I don't get to read the real life drama of a socialist propaganda elitist in his quest to mold his neighbor in his own image.

I am so disappointed I just might register!........................................Bwhhahahhahahha!

Anonymous said...

I wonder if this guy uses a power mower and leaf blower. Noise carries across property lines also. Does he BBQ in his back yard sending the stink of burning dead animals all over the neighborhood?

Do his children make noise that carries beyond their property line and disturb others? Does he have a dog that barks or a cat that craps in everyone's flower bed?

Anonymous said...

Why ANYONE buys a paper these days, except a business publication, I have no idea. The more these Marxist idiots are exposed the freakier they are.

Anonymous said...

Let me guess...vegetarian, drives a Prius with Obama stickers, is into cycling and blowing bubbles on warm, summer nights, voted No on Prop. 8, is a member of five different book clubs and kids called him "wimp ass" in high school.

Anonymous said...

McClatchy Watch wrote: can't this guy make a point without resorting to a political dig??

***

Pot, meet kettle.

Anonymous said...

Pot, meet kettle.





My, how original and witty you are. Did you think of that by yourself?

Anonymous said...

The funny thing is that he will probably die from mesothelioma/ lung cancer before he gets sick from his neighbors smoking.

The whole 21st and Q St building is filled with asbestos. They keep cleaning it up and telling us it is safe but we don't trust them.

Anonymous said...

10:50 PM

Yeah, they used to tell us that it was "sound proofing". The entire ceiling between the press room and mail room was coated with a thick layer of the stuff. No telling how many people it killed over the years and they blamed it on smoking.

Anonymous said...

Anybody who lives in Midtown is a social degenerate anyway. You have enjoy sex with animals, have 35 tattoos, a dozen piercings and purple hair before you look like a Midtowner. The place is a steaming pile of fecal matter and why anybody would actually want to live there defies all common decency.

Anonymous said...

A fleet of bulldozers is the only thing that will improve the living conditions in midtown. Why urban rot gets so much media attention is beyond me. The paper can't get enough stories about midtown, which is a tiny area of old houses. The residents don't even read the Bee, they read the super liberal weekly freebie!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the city government would object if he set up a machine that blew smelly, carcinogenic gases toward his neighbor's house all day.

Unless he stuck it in his mouth, that is.

Anonymous said...

Just remember that this hyperventililating nanny who looks to the power of the state for everything is editing stories you might read.
Would you believe him?
I wouldn't.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Are you kidding? I say, send the copy editor to Alaska. He needs to cool off.