Freedom Is In The Air (cough)(SMOKEFREE D.C. CREMATED)

TheAmericanSpectator ^ | Published 12/10/2003 12:08:48 AM | By Gene Healy

[fight_truth_decay]

WASHINGTON -- Mayor Bloomberg's New York is only the most prominent example of a city recently fallen victim to a bad idea whose time has come: smoking bans in bars and restaurants. Bans have been imposed statewide in California, Florida, and Delaware, and even deep in tobacco country, in Lexington, Kentucky. This year, the movement came to Washington, D.C. Backed by a $250,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the antismoking activists of Smokefree D.C. began lobbying the city council. Surely a well-funded effort to extend the ban to the nation's health conscious capital couldn't fail.

Or could it? On Wednesday, December 3, the D.C. city council held hearings on the Smokefree Workplaces Act of 2003, which would ban smoking in all D.C. bars and restaurants. Smokefree D.C. brought out former surgeon general David Satcher, a host of other public health professionals, and an assortment of college activists fighting for their God-given right to go clubbing without getting smoke in their hair. And an amazing thing happened: the council pushed back. Councilmember Carol Schwartz (R.-at large), who chaired the hearing, formerly the very model of a midatlantic moderate, suddenly discovered her inner Ayn Rand.

Schwartz repeatedly said that workers had a choice about whether to take jobs in bars that allow smoking. At one point, the owner of the nightclub Mirage averred that pregnant women had no place in smoke-filled bars, Schwartz cut him short, saying that it was up to the woman herself to make that choice. When antismoking activists claimed that most bar patrons wanted smoke-free environments, she told them to "put your money where your mouth is" -- go into business themselves and capitalize on that demand. Toward the end of the day, Schwartz declared, "this is America" and that she didn't want to live in a country that watched over its citizens' diets and lifestyles in the name of public health.

On the eve of the hearing, Schwartz cut the legs out from under the would-be-banners, introducing a competing bill that would provide a tax break to bars and restaurants that decide to go smoke-free. With a majority of councilmembers signed on to her compromise bill, and with Mayor Anthony Williams announcing his opposition to a total ban, it looks like the Smokefree Workplaces Act has been cremated.

Readers needn't like secondhand smoke to cheer that result. They simply have to resist the notion that adult Americans can't be trusted to weigh the risks of their lifestyle choices themselves -- a notion far more noxious than cigarette smoke. The epidemiological evidence shows that secondhand smoke is, at worst, a minor health risk. And it's a risk that's easily avoided: Smokefree D.C. published a list of over 260 smokefree restaurants, coffeeshops, and bars in the D.C. area. But the fact that workers and patrons have a choice was offensive to the antismoking activists, who, like Mencken's Puritans, are haunted by the notion that someone, somewhere is having fun.

Ideally, Schwartz's tax-breaks-for-smokefree-bars proposal would also be a nonstarter. The government has no business using the tax code as a vehicle for social engineering, and it ought not to put its thumb on the scale when a bar or restaurant owner is weighing the benefits of staying smoke friendly or going smoke-free. But unlike the Smokefree Workplaces Act, the tax credit bill doesn't coerce smoke-free uniformity. For the near future at least, smoking in bars will remain legal in D.C.

Given national political trends, that's an astounding result. The antismoking brigades came to one of the most pro-regulatory jurisdictions in America. They had cash to burn and the full force of the public health establishment behind them. And they lost. Is it possible -- just possible -- that people are getting tired of this nonsense?

Gene Healy is senior editor at the Cato Institute.

[oyez]

I've noticed that the service clubs at our local military base have all but about closed. Coulde it be that no one can smoke inside anymore? Nah!

[talleyman]

Smoke 'em if you got'em.

(When smoking is banned, only bands will smoke...)

[Gabz]

Could it be that no one can smoke inside anymore?

I understand the clubs are having a hard time at DAFB as well. Except for the bowling alley. About 2 years ago I ran into the (then) manager who told me the way he got around it was to totally wall off and put in a seperate ventilation system for a certain amount of his lanes to permit smoking. I don't know if he's still there, but if that is still what is going on, those lanes are doing a booming business because in a state as small as Delaware, everyone knows someone with base privileges.

Under the Delaware ban, fraternal organizations such as the Moose and Elks and the veterans organizations such as the American Legion and VFW were exempted from the smoking ban. All of those organizations not only saw a drastic increase in membership applications, they saw drastic increases in rentals of their facilities.

Nearly 3 years after the the total ban was originally proposed, and a year after it went into effect, I have still yet to figure out why the legislation is worded to specifically mentioned these groups, even though the law exempts "private" places and organizations.

The Delaware smoking ban is so onerous that even the Catholic Church was denied an exemption for it's bingo night.

[Gabz]

(When smoking is banned, only bands will smoke...)

I was talking with a guy last week that has a very popular DelMarVa Penninsula band who no longer even bothers to look for gigs in Delaware. None of the places he played prior to the Delaware smoking ban can book him any more - they can't afford it because they don't have the customers to cover basic operating costs, let alonepaying a band.

The good news for him is they now have more open dates to take the work closer to home!!!!!

[Gabz]

You know, I believe it is.

I don't know what ONDCP is, but if it is anything that is opposed to anyone, anywhere making adult choices about anything that is fun - you better believe it is funded in someway or another by RWJF.

Some people just can't handle the thought that someone, somewhere is actually having fun - and will do everything in their power to put an end to it.

[oyez]

If the clubs are shutting down because of the ban, GI's are going off base to drink so that means more DWI cases on the road. I just don't follow the bureaucratic logic behind the smoking ban.

[Gabz]

When we were fighting the smoking ban in Delaware (I was not involved in what was done with the military) that was one of the points we stressed. We also questioned how anyone, particularly in a base town, should be forced to tell someone in uniform, working to protect our rights, they were forbidden to smoke. To no avail.

Delaware is a small state and 35 miles is about the max drive from anywhere in the state. It's very easy to go to another state for happy hour, or dinner, or an evening out. But adding an additional 35 miles to a trip would bring problems to the roads.

We were told that wouldn't happen because everyone was in favor of the ban and other places with bans proved business increased after the implementation. Unfortunately we were a rather small group of bar and restaurant owners and customers without any funding and so pretty much were ignored.

1 year later and the the non-smoker business that was promised to the bar owners has yet to appear, and there are plenty of places ready to go under. The owners of some of the places my husband and/or I used to frequent have told us they have yet to begin to make up the losses they have incurred because so many people, like us, started going to Maryland. Hours of operation have been cut and staff have been cut in order for these places to remain open at all.

Sorry for my diatribe - I'm just still so incensed by the absolute lack of cojones of those who are supposedly elected to represent us that I can't see straight.

[lockjaw02]

I hate to be a wet blanket on this party, but while we got a lot more grass roots activity growing in the DC area and some excellent well-spoken local citizens giving testimony, the main reason they lost is that they forgot their winning formula and tried for a total ban in one shot instead of instituting them piecemeal. They always used to go for bans in restaurants first, and then use the restaurant owners wanting to get back business from bars by "leveling the playing field" to help go after total bans in bars and taverns. I can only assume they got cocky after winning NY and most of the Northeast this year.

You can bet they'll be discussing this at their anti-smoker advocate terrorist training camp that convened in Boston that started today. They'll be back.

[DumpsterDiver]

You can bet they'll be discussing this at their anti-smoker advocate terrorist training camp...

Oh, here's a seminar geared especially for me:

Cessation Strategies for the Older Smoker (50 plus)

"Key points: 1. Older smokers are at more immediate risk of a tobacco related illnesses, are in most immediate danger of quality of life decline, and may be more costly in terms of medical expenses and lost productivity."

I suggest that they just kill me now and put me out of my misery! :)

[Gabz]

Lock, my dear friend, why is it that everyone insists on totally ignoring what happened in Delaware?????

One fell swoop and it was everywhere, no ifs and or butts........

And another thing that everyone seems to ignore is these bans encompass EVERY business, not just bars and restaurants. The media concentration is always on the bars and restaurants. Of course, so is the enforcement concentrations.

I don't know how it works in NY, but I know that in Delaware the majority of enforcement is based on anonymous complaints to the snitch line. Well the very few (under 18) enforcement agents are also the the very same inspectors that are in charge of making sure every food service establishment (including supermarkets) are maintaining standards.

I wonder what would happen if all of a sudden the snitch line in Delaware was inundated with calls about businesses other than bars or restaurants? Considering the head of enforcement for the Department of Health stated for the record when the ban went into effect that enforcement of the ban would be their number one priority........

Does anyone wonder why I suggest people do not eat in restaurants in Delaware??????

Closing Plenary: Surviving and Thriving in Difficult Financial Times

This must be party time - because antis have never encountered difficult financial times.

[lockjaw02]

I'm not ignoring them, Gabz. It obviously helped them tremendously in Delaware to have a Guv'nor like Ruthless Ann. After that and then NY, they forgot their old strategy.

[Gabz]

I agree with you.

3 years later and I still don't know what got into Ruthless Ann (I like that).........

For all the years I've known her, first as a State Senator and then as Lt. Governor, she was never like this.

She always opposed cig tax increases, yet got a doubling of the tax passed this year.

She never supported smoking bans, but all of a sudden decided her husband's death was because he was a smoker this past spring?????

Ruthless is the perfect description of her. As you well know, I don't live there any longer (thank goodness) but that doesn't mean I plan to stop working with my friends there. She is not the shoe-in for re-election she thinks she is.

Just what I need, a major election year nationwide, a critical Governor's race in Delaware, and the Virginia Governor looking for a 300% increase in cigarette taxes.

Sheesh - how's a girl supposed to find time for a PAYING job???????

[GladesGuru]

The owner might have raised the far more important issue of fetal alcohol poisoning syndrome. If a woman drinks when pregnant, the results can be pretty ugly, as the fetus is also "drinking' thanks to a shared blood alcohol situation.

Such complexities should be left to the individual, not some bumbling bureaucracy.

Burke had it right when he observed that those loudest for the public good had it least at heart.

[lockjaw02]

Maybe you'd like Ruth(less) (b)Ann better?

[Gabz]

Without the parentheses!!!!!!

[ILBBACH]

At first when I saw your post, I thought you were talking about my former piano teacher. We called her Ruthless Ann...

Damn, just thinking about her makes me need a drink!

[CSM]

Nice try, but that link is banned for me too. I am going to have to depend on my fellow freepers to fill me in.

[Gabz]

I can't figure these folks out......

This is from their website about their "book"

---

One of the products of the efforts of the United Fascist Union is our enlightening book, A New World Order for the New Millennium. It goes into detail about the dilemmas now facing America and the whole of Western civilization: Democracy, Christianity, International Capitalism, Earth Changes, U.F.O.'s, government cover-ups, and others. It discusses the fact that a Democracy is only a transitory form of government that inevitable leads to tyranny and oppression and also takes the liberal Christian churches of today into account for greatly contributing to the world overpopulation problem and working along with organized government to bring about the decay and destruction of Western civilization.

The dangers of International Capitalism are addressed, including the creation of a caste system through economic means and the resultant vast economic gulfs between the superwealthy elite and the remaining large bulk of the population.

Earth changes such as those predicted by Edgar Cayce and Nostradamus are treated in this text. There also exists the Golden Triangle Theory that states that the United States will be reduced from its present size to a small triangular-shaped land mass through the loss of many of its coastal states.

The tome covers endless topics such as New Age theories and Mysticism, the breakdown of society through decadence, the agents of chaos working to demoralize the American people, the looming threat of anarchy, and explains how "Corporate Statism" and our brand of Fascism can unite humankind in a new glorious era.

The book has not yet been published and offers to print it are being sought. If you would like a copy of the manuscript version, please contact the U.F.U.