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.
No prob. :) I was beginning to wonder about Wild Turkey, though. He always shows up for the party! LOL
Oh thanks!!! Your ping was down behind exNavyChicks. I was hoping you didn't forget me. :)
Point!!!!
Hey, it's a trifecta.
LOL!!!!
Kevlar, alligator hide........all about the same!!!!!
Kevlar? More like hip boots for wading through sewerage...
You can forget Kevlar. That particular one is shooting blanks...;-D
Frankly, I just like talking about THEM behind their backs. They claim to be so scientific and only interested in the welfare of society. They're against smoking, but they regularly try to light up smoking posters. I think it's trolling, there's never any substance to it, they're just blowing smoke. ;-D
Randall, you are a hero!
I would suggest starting by banning them in restaurants first.
Well. I have my hip-waders at the ready, too.
They tend to be all bark and no bite. It's really like swatting flies most of the time.
Has anyone ever seen cinFLA, this thread's poster, and VRWC_minion in the same place? (I'm not sure I got the names right....I'm going to go see if cinFLA is still on the forum...)
He appears to me to need to get his head out of the bottle of Wild Turkey (good grief that's rotgut nasty stuff)
I can assure you both he is NOT on my ping list.
LOL...I think maybe he's a stalker on this issue, then. :)
I had to tell him three times to quit posting to me on another thread. He is waaaaaaaayyyy rude.
Update: cinFLA hasn't posted since last August 22, on a thread about "McMansions."
Ah yes.....time to go back to my old tagline....which was a group effort of CG, CSM, and myself...........(and one other person, but I don't remember who)
He's a n00b trouble-maker.
I've seen cinFLA and VRWC minion (now known as raycpa) on the same threads at the same time.
But you're right.....I haven't seen poor cinnie in a while.
Some people just don't seem to understand politeness, and so you have to give in and use the ol STFU line, unfortunately. :( I haven't had to go there yet, but came close not long ago.
As to the other? Hmmm...veddy, veddy in-ter-es-TINK!!
Curiously, Wild Turkey showed up shortly after cinnies disappearance.
Stalkers on this issue is not a joke........i've got my fair share of them, as does SheLion.
There is one that follows me all over the net, who after getting booted from FR started whining on another message board about how this site is nothing more than just a front for the tobacco industry and that Jim Robinson is a coward who won't let any anti-smoking "factual information" be posted here.
ROFL.
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