Posted on 08/02/2005 10:24:13 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
These people who enact these bans truly do not get it and end up running taverns and bars out of business. I could understand for restaurants (though it still should be at the owner's discretion whether or not to ban smoking) but taverns and nightclubs? Forget it.
BUMP
I love the smoking ban in Hennepin County (Minneapolis) here.
When I go out to the bar after work, I can do so without being in a cloud of smoke.
My clothes no longer smell like I've been sleeping in an ashtray.
My lungs feel better too.
These smokers can step outside and have a cancer stick if they want to. Many bars have set up a small area where smokers can go if they want to light up.
OPEN YOUR OWN BAR....................
Who are you to dictate who an owner serves? do you demand the menu and prices conform to your personal likes?
At the beginning of the year I was watching one of those prediction things about what was going to be "in" and "out" this year, and it predicted that home theater type stuff would be way in as people chose to stay home and party more, just stay closer to home in general. I thought that with the smoking bans, that was probably right. Sorry bar owners, that probably means a lot of you will be looking for other work. Bars aren't really quite moral anyway, with all the fights and everything. And the smoking and the drinking and the lose wimmin.
Eugene has the same ban. They gave all the bars a 6 months extension to build a smoking deck. Most did and it's been great. The smokers go into a ventilated, covered deck with a central gas heater and the smoke stays out there. It's been great for everyone.
If these guys in this Wisconsin town were smart, they'd start construction immediately on a smoking deck. It works.
"My clothes no longer smell like I've been sleeping in an ashtray."
There is the crux of these phoney laws.
Grats on your swell feeling lungs, hows your liver?
:p
If taverns and nightclubs would go smoke-free, according to the busybodies' logic, they'll gain more customers, right? So...why aren't business owners opening up smoke-free establishments then?
Let the free market decide, instead of special-interest busybodies who con local governments into banning smoking.
I also live in Minneapolis, and I admit that it is nice to be able to go out and not have to immediately take a shower and do laundry when I get home.
However, I am still against smoking bans in principle; bars and restauarants should be able to set their own policies, and customers can decide whether or not they want to patronize a business based on its smoking policy. Plenty of places banned smoking before they were required to by law.
Why don't the smoking nazis just out law smoking in the usa?
Surely they have the votes to do this. It's not like we have the right to do anything warmfull to ourself any more, cause after all government is responcible for everything so just out law smoking.
Two years ago Madison, Wisconsin told restaurants to build special ventilation systems or else they're going to enact a smoking ban.
The city lied to the business owners. They enacted a smoking ban anyway, and guess what? The business owners just wasted thousands of dollars on smoke-free ventilation systems.
Besides, patios and decks won't do smokers any good when it's 10 below zero. This is Wisconsin, not Cancun.
I suppose you were happy when that lying idiot Pawlenty got his tax increase passed as well.
The next smoke out day smokers all across the country need to light em up. Force the police to arrest them, they don't have enough jail space for everybody. This crap is getting out of hand.
"Let the free market decide, instead of special-interest busybodies who con local governments into banning smoking."
Problem is that I get taxed to fund Medicare, Medicaid, etc so that those who choose to smoke can then get treated for bronchitis, lung cancer, MI, TIA, stroke, etc.
If the patios and decks are nice enough that the antis might want to use them then soon enough they will be mandated non-smoking too.
So more people will stay home and drink and smoke, resulting in more people drinking underage and consuming larger quantities of alcohol (Those who die of alcohol poisoning rarely do so at a bar).
Am I posting on DU or something?
Yeah, there's nothing like inflicting your own personal tastes onto everyone else, at government gunpoint. I mean, you used to be able to start a non-smoking business before, or convince a business owner to cater to nonsmoking customers before the ban, but no, it's much easier to ban all smoking establishments, and then you can go wherever you wish, and enjoy the smoke-free air. Well, at least while they remain in business.
Next thing you know, government will mandate that you eat vegetables, exercise, and cut down on the sweets. It's good for you, just like quitting smoking is. You'll just love those intrusions into your life, it you like the smoking ban. And don't worry, next year we've got tooth-brushing and floss monitors scheduled as well. And even better things for the future!!
Comrade.
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