Posted on 01/10/2005 10:52:26 AM PST by aynrandy
Hide your smokes and unhealthy contraband. The tyrants of wellbeing are back.
Apparently, the Denver City Council is never too busy to intercede with some good old-fashioned social engineering. And soon enough, smoking in restaurants and bars will be banned.
It's enough to make a holier-than-thou politician - with pristine pink lungs - shriek with delight.
Jeanne Faatz, at this point, is the lone voice of reason on the council. She still believes in trivial things like free enterprise and property rights.
She's sort of an outsider. And although she won't admit it on record, I'm certain the other council members put shaving cream in her shoes, lock her out of meetings and blow spitballs at her.
Don't misunderstand me. Faatz hates smoking. She detests the habit so strongly that she can't stop complaining about it - it causes her to be hoarse and sneeze and makes her stomach coil. She hates being put in this position, protecting smokers.
But Faatz, in contrast to the missionaries of healthful living, appreciates that the ban is not a smoking issue but a matter of freedom.
Faatz loathes sitting next to a smoker in a restaurant. Who doesn't? But she does something extremely peculiar: She gets up, walks out and finds an establishment where she doesn't have to.
"My decision comes from the fact that you have private ownership in business, and they should have the right to target whatever customers they feel the marketplace will give them," she explains. "If, indeed, nobody frequented a smoking establishment, I say, 'Right on, the marketplace has spoken."'
Faatz believes choices and decisions are key in a free society. It's expedient to say, "Yuck, I don't like smoke." But ask yourself this: Do you think government should dictate how a person runs a business? What about customers? Should they be allowed to decide whether they want an all-smoking restaurant or a nonsmoking restaurant?
What if the Denver City Council concluded that cellphones at work should be banned because they have been linked to brain tumors?
Are there justifiable reasons for intervention? Sure. If there is contaminated food or other hidden health issues, government must protect citizens. Full disclosure is imperative. But when the sign in front of a steakhouse reads "smoking allowed," adults should be able to make their own decisions.
Besides, a steady diet of steaks wrapped with bacon is probably apt to kill you a lot faster than secondhand smoke.
We all know what's next. "What about those unfortunate, powerless, coughing employees?" The logical answer given by Faatz is simply that "it is a person's choice where they work." Who is forcing you to work in a smoke-filled diner?
But for the moment, let's advance the argument further: If everyone with a risky job should be protected from all hazards, where would we end up?
You realize the stress a stockbroker goes through? What about the stress a cop experiences? Yes, stress kills far more people than the wildly overstated threat of secondhand smoke. And who can deny the dangers of being a bike messenger, a cabbie or a firefighter?
Smoke Free Denver, another group of sanctimonious nanny types, wants to sabotage freedom for smokers and property owners "to protect the health of Denver residents, workers and visitors from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke."
Well, what about the claims of tens of thousands of deaths due to secondhand smoke?
It's junk science. The University of Chicago's Dr. John Bailar, a critic of the tobacco industry, has produced a detailed analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine debunking the supposed link between secondhand smoke and heart disease. His study is one of many.
But if you don't believe them, there are long lists of smoke-free establishments for you to go to. Enjoy.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
I dont believe a word any government agency has to offer on the subject, as far as Im concerned liberals are totally corrupt they will do anything to cheat their fellow Americans. Since you seem to find their policies to your liking you must be one of them!
Its not a tax on me.
And you don't believe homes at heat before 1850.
It will be. Next comes "Fee" increases, pop taxes, gas taxes, diesel taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, property taxes, death taxes, etc.
Maybe since you dont like smoking you could perhaps move to
say the yukon and live outside where there a very few smokers in fact there arent very many anyones out there
and you could ban every practice imaginable youd be King of the Yukon!
Do you eat fast food?
You are incorrect about more statewide bans, but totally correct about the chains. I guess you have been actually paying attention to my posts on this subject. :)
And you and the rest of the anti smokers sit back and gleefully gloat in the demise of the local taverns.
Enjoy your Virgin Mary in the smoke-free Ruby Tuesday's......because that is exactly where this is all going.
If YOU don't like smoke and the establishment allows it, take your damn business elsewhere! Or do you like giving the jack boot of state even more power and influence over everyone elses lives so long as it follows you own opions on the matter.
BTW: You should change the motto on your profile page (Live Free or Die). It's obvious you don't believe in it.
Dear Lord woman!! And here I thought you were this prim and proper gal...roflol
Not you too. First I read that annie drinks and smokes, now you say you smoke too. On top of that you send your children to public schools. Oh the corrupted company I have been keeping! NOT! I love every minute of it.
We were planning our next yearly visit,when we got a new brochure in the mail,from the place we stayed in.IT WAS NOW A SMOKE FREE ZONE ...ENTIRELY...INCLUDING OUTSIDE,BY THE OCEAN.That was that;goodbye Maine.
Hmmmmm....You sound like one of those "hyphenated" name types....lol
LOL...great minds think alike, and all that jazz. :)
No you aren't! LOL
Rabid anti smokers die earlier then smokers.
They choke to death on their own bile.
In a small diner? the waitress.
Rabid anti smokers die earlier then smokers.
They choke to death on their own bile.
Do the FReeper world a favor - and a favor for your blood pressure and stay off the smoking threads.
You are being obnoxious and annoying, but because you are a long time FReeper I will not hit abuse on you...........but I'm not everyone and you actually deserve it.
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