The reaction so far to my story on the campaign to restrict public smoking in Glendale depends on which side you're on in the tobacco debate...

There's GGwinnie:

I have a reply for Eunice Kim.... how would she like to end up with lung cancer like my Mother. So Sad.. she weighed 76 lbs, couldnt eat or drink was in constant pain in spite of all the medicene she took. She sat up all night not able to sleep.. her inerest in llife was gone. she prayed to die.. SHE WAS A SWEET MOM AND GRANDMOTHER TO ALL MY CHILDREN. sHE IS SORELY MISSED TO THIS DAY... She would have loved to see her great grandchildren had she lived..I I miss her to this day... So Eunice, please dont smoke, live your life !!

And here's Rod Guilmette of Burbank, who has coined a collective name for tobacco regulators:

It would have seemed appropriate to mention that Steven Gallegos doesn't just work "with" the American Lung Association, but is under contract with them and with Glendale Adventist.

Using the terminology of Big Tobacco Control (a multi-billion dollar industry), he's a "paid shill."

As for smoking not being "American," 40 to 50 million American adults smoke.

Big Tobacco Control is addicted to smokers and smoking. Without large numbers of smokers paying huge excise taxes on tobacco products, tens of thousands in that industry (BTC) would be out of work. In addition, to cite just one of thousands of programs that have nothing to do with tobacco, funding for the national State Children's Health Insurance Program would have to be found elsewhere.

Whenever a state legislature considers banning the manufacture and sale of tobacco products in its state, Big Tobacco Control testifies against it. Why? From their own documented testimony: "It would decrease funding for their tobacco control efforts (no sales, no special excise taxes= no money for salaries).

Since Mr. Gallegos is a paid spokesperson for the American Lung Association and Glendale Adventist, can I assume these two organizations are now proposing that smokers cannot be true Americans? Did you check on that?

And between economic and emotional pleas, a caller who's against smoking also took time to attack immigration, which I guess is inevitable as the nation is still cycling through another wave of nativist fever (and especially so after our headline writers took time to hype-up the cultural angle).

As for the anti-smoking proponents, their petition has gotten 90 signatures as of 4 p.m.