Posted on 01/27/2006 4:35:37 AM PST by SheLion
If Ohio voters are given the chance to vote on a proposed statewide smoking ban, let's hope our fellow citizens take the time to educate themselves on the big picture.
The proposed ban, unlike the local ordinance, prohibits smoking in all public buildings. It allows exemptions for private clubs, but not bars, bingo halls and bowling centers, as Toledo's ban does.
Smoking is not illegal. Unhealthy and expensive, but not illegal. If an American business owner wants to operate an establishment that allows smokers the freedom to smoke, why should their decision be overridden by people who aren't patronizing those places anyway?
In our Jan. 18 cover story, "Where there's smoke," several local bar and restaurant owners expressed their frustration with the proposed ban. Many of them described the impact of the local restrictions as "extreme" and detrimental to their business.
We also spoke with Stu Kerr, a former health commissioner in Findlay and the Northwest Ohio campaign coordinator for SmokeFree Ohio, the leading proponent of the ban. Kerr dismissed the bar and restaurant owners' concerns: "They'll bring up property rights argument. They'll bring up economic arguments ... it's bullshit."
Any group that dismisses economic arguments and property rights must be held in suspicion; if Kerr can discount these bedrocks of business so easily, he's trampling on precious entrepreneurial principles.
Sharon Kuhnle, owner of Twin Oaks Bowling Center on West Sylvania Avenue, said it best: "We live in a free society, and we're discussing a legal product. This needs to be left up to the business owner. Let the business owner run his or her business as they know it should be."
There's no argument from us that first- and secondhand smoke is deadly. Our solution is not to ban smoking from every corner of the city; our solution is to avoid places where smoking pollutes the air. That's a personal decision. That's how the free market works.
Let business owners decide this issue, not reactionary zealots.
And that is what freedom is all about.
You don't have to eat there. Nobody's holding a gun to your head.
oooooooooh think about your poor FReeper friends back in the states that can no longer do that, and smoke for us, promise? :)
I just lit up a Benson & Hedges Light in your honor. ;-)
I always reply, "So is living HERE."
Please be safe, ok?
Kuwait looks like a gorgeous Country. Ever run in Michael Jackson? hehe
Me too!
I wish people would stop saying that!
Smokers have big pockets. Big tobacco simply serves as a tax collector. They couldn't care less, so long as they can preserve a certain level of profit margin.
Me too!
Look! We've got one in Houston, USA lighting up in his office. Now, THAT'S encourging!
No stinkin' smoking laws here.
Ah, yes. I miss the freedom of the Middle East. I recall fondly walking around the City Centre Mall in Dubai joyfully puffing away (while unable to shake the feeling that I was doing something wrong).
You can still smoke in bars, though.
Texas. Go figure.
All the business owners need are the big smoke eaters similar to the ones used in the casino's in Vegas. You have to look to see if anyone is smoking. Because you sure can't smell it or see it.
The big smoke eaters are perfect.
I've only been in and out of Kuwait a couple of times. (You can pretty much smoke everywhere there, too. You'll see a "No Smoking" sign here and there, but the Kuwaitis ignore them completely. As did I.)
Michael Jackson is in Bahrain. The "New Orleans of the Middle East."
"*whine* But I may want to eat there one day! *whine*"
Oh sure. They tell business owners that they will get MORE business since non-smokers will flock to the business once smokers are gone.
WRONG! Lies and more lies.
Thank you for verbalizing that.
The current crop of mini-nazis are too young to know it.
Nothing of importance happened in the world until they were born...
Ban Damage: WI Smoky question
City bar owners ponder where to turn next
January 20, 2006
(excerpted)
How tough has it been?
Klinzing says sales are off about $75,000 compared to a year ago. He's had to lay off four employees, one-quarter of his staff.
More than a dozen tavern owners - part of a group called the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs - gathered at the South Bay this week to air on-going concerns about the city ordinance banning smoking in all workplaces which took effect July 1.
Larry Schmock, whose family owns four businesses in Madison including the State Bar & Grill, Blue Moon & Grill, Smoky's Club and the Good Times Neighborhood Bar, agrees that it's only a matter of time before Wisconsin enacts a smoking law that would level the playing field.
"The question is how do we stay in business until then," he said.
A statewide law would end the problems that have hit Madison's tavern owners. Smoking customers have literally been able to cross the street into Monona, Fitchburg or any other municipality to light up in a bar. Madison is the only community in Dane County with an indoor smoking ban.
"The guys in Westport are making money so fast they don't even have time to get it to the bank," said Al Tedeschi, owner of the Villa Tap.
Menthol? hehe
It really helps when management is based in Ohio.
I'm going to be smiling all day over that one...
Oh yes, that's right. Bahrain came to mind, but I typed Kuwait.
I don’t personally think I am going to die from 2nd hand smoke. That is not my concern with smoking in public places. What does concern me are the headaches and stench in my hair and clothes I get when I go to a club (or as in Greece, where I live right now – every where I go:). I LOVE to dance but I avoid going to dance clubs because I am just so disgusted with how I smell and the raging headache I get. I don’t care at all if someone wants to ruin their lungs in their own private homes. I’m not concerned with what anyone does in private as long as they are not hurting someone else. But I’m sorry, even if it’s not deadly, smoking hurts me. Maybe if smokers paid a dry cleaning tax that I could cash in on every time I go to a club I might be a little happier. There are liberals out there that are only anti-smoking radicals so they can piss off conservatives. Most of us against smoking in public, however, really just can’t stand to be around smoke. There’s no conspiracy here. I don’t like being limited to where I go because one smoker in a group of 50 will pollute the air. BTW, I consider myself to be quite conservative, especially on fiscal issues. I don’t like limiting people’s freedoms, but that’s what smokers have been doing to me for years!!! Feel free to call me names:)!
Oh puleeeze
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