Fleetmack.com - Ban the Smoking Bans!

Logo

"My classmates would copulate with anything that moved, but I never saw any reason to limit myself." --Emo Philips

Ban the Smoking Bans!
by Bryan Mack
11-17-2006

It's official, I'm 100% convinced that people are only looking out for themselves, and not for the best interests of our country. Our freedom is at stake here, and I'm afraid it's too late. Nobody listened, nobody read into things, nobody realized the effect their asinine votes were going to have on our country. Well people, prepare for the landslide, the landslide of our freedom going down the tubes.

Let me start off by telling you that I am not a smoker. Let me further that by telling you that I detest the smell of smoke. Secondhand smoke burns my eyes, makes my clothes stink, and if I'm in a car with a smoker, well, that's a double-whammy! In the winter if I'm riding with a smoker, they roll the window down to smoke. So not only do I smell it, but now it's loud and I'm cold. Cigarettes cause cancer and were an enormous role in the death of my Grandmother who passed away last year. People leave their cigarette butts everywhere, and even smokers flick them out their windows all while littering and with the realization that their car has an ashtray. (This one I will never understand, if they hate the smell of the butts, then why do they smoke?!). I could go on and on, but the point is, I detest smoking.

Fact: Smoking is legal
Fact: Smokers have a choice to quit
Fact: Patrons have a choice where to go or where not to go
Fact: Employees have a choice to work at a certain place of employment, or to not work there
Fact: Restaurant/Bar Owners can set "No Smoking" rules on their own if they so desire

Colorado, among many other states, has passed a smoking ban in bars & restaurants (with exceptions of Casinos). I have many qualms about this which all go back to the basic freedoms we are granted by our Constitution. While smoking is legal, the government can tell an owner that he cannot allow this activity in his establishment? What's next, telling the restaurant owner he cannot cook tuna fish because people in the restaurant don't like the smell of it? My point is, if it is such a terribly bad activity (which I agree, it is), then make cigarettes illegal. Period.

I strongly opposed this bill when it arose last year on the basis that it takes away personal choice. While it may benefit me directly, it would lead to more and more similar laws being passed (which I'll get to in a short while). How dare the voter try to take power away from owners of an establishment like this. I am astounded that governments at any level allow this to even be a bill, let alone be passed into law. When somebody owns something, it is his or her right to say what legal things can be done inside. If you don't like the rules of this establishment, it's simple, you go elsewhere. Say, for instance, that your absolute favorite meal in the world is an Old Chicago pizza. You have loved this for years but are fed up with Old Chicago as the smell of smoke is just mind-boggling and you feel it is harming your health. You realize you could order the pizza for take-out and not eat it in the restaurant, but don't want to as you like sitting in Old Chicago. Well, my friend, let me tell you that you fell in love with the place during a time when smoking was still allowed. So it turns out, you still liked it, there were just some things you'd like to change about it. Too bad shit-for-brains, it ain't your business. If you want it that way, open your own restaurant and run it the exact same way only without smoke. I hope it does well, and I'll personally go to your establishment instead of the smoker-friendly one, but it's nobody's right to tell an owner what to do with his or her business.

Same story for the employees of said "Old Chicago". They complain they work in a smoky environment. I have major issues with this as well:
A) They knew what they were getting into when hired
B) Nobody is forcing anybody to stay at his or her job, that's a personal choice
People complain and say they cannot make the money elsewhere they make at their restaurant job. My response: That's the price you have to pay. A stripper could complain that she has to take her clothes off to make the money she does, they should enforce a "Clothes must be on" policy at strip clubs, because she just can't make that kind of money working at McDonalds. Well stripper, the price you pay for making that kind of money is showing me your tits! Suck it up or quit, you have a choice.

Somehow, the government has placed "exceptions" on Colorado's smoking ban for Casinos. Isn't it interesting how when it's money going to the state which could be affected that we'll find a way to keep it legal?

Ames, Iowa passed a smoking ban in 2001, it was deemed unconstitutional by the state government's Supreme Court in 2003. Three cheers for Iowa! I hope we can get some legislation passed at a federal level which would ban these bans. Out of every issue on the ballot (Immigration, Stem-Cell Research, Iraq, Social Security, Abortion, Taxes, etc.), this is the one I feel the most strongly about. If I had more time on my hands (a full-time job coupled with full-time school isn't going to give me much time in the upcoming months) I would look into starting up a task force to get the ball rolling on this, that is how strongly I feel about this. Should anyone start a group which opposes smoking bans, I will give my full support with both finances and my personal time volunteering, to help out in any way I can. If legislation isn't passed to ban the smoking bans, what will be next? The landslide ...

Perhaps we will not be allowed to smoke in our own homes anymore.

Perhaps we will not be able to smoke in parking garages.

When will it be when the windows of a car must be rolled up in order for you to smoke in your car? I give it six months before this bill is proposed.

Just to reiterate:
If you don't like going to a place with smoke, stop going there.
If you don't like working in a place with smoke, quit.
If you want to stop people from smoking where you are, make smoking illegal altogether.

Comments should be directed here