Who loves New York? You'll be loving it even more now...

That's right, Michael Bloomberg isn't just some bureaucrat with a Jewish-sounding name. He is a mayor that really knows how to work that Karcher in areas that need to be cleaned out, and one area that is being targeted is smoking. Smoking is already banned in restaurants and bars in the Big Apple but he wants to extend the ban to parks, beaches, boardwalks, pedestrian plazas, and other outdoor public spaces. I applaud him because smoking is really bad for your health, the taste and smell of cigarettes is appalling, and it's just a waste of money. A person sitting within one metre of a smoker outside can be exposed to levels of secondhand smoke similar to those experienced indoors. And besides, if kids see people smoke in public or in a movie, they'd think it's cool and start doing it. You can argue by saying you have the right to smoke on a beach or in a park, but a parent has the right to walk by with their child and not have to worry about the potential threat of an asthma attack. There are better bad habits to get into like junk food - obesity may kill but it doesn't kill as quickly as cancer.