Gosh! I thought more people LIVED in that state! 
Posted on 10/03/2006 10:07:28 AM PDT by southernnorthcarolina
ELON, N.C. - Almost 65 percent of North Carolina residents would support a statewide ban on smoking in public places, and more than half prefer restaurants that don't allow smoking, according to a survey released Tuesday by Elon University.
The survey also found that 65 percent of residents support allowing city and town governments to pass local smoking bans, which is barred under state law.
"It appears that the historical ties to tobacco in this state are now essentially severed as anti-smoking sentiments prevail among North Carolinians," said Hunter Bacot, who directed the poll.
The survey of 649 people was conducted Sept. 24-28 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent.
The poll found that 69 percent of respondents request nonsmoking sections in restaurants while only 7 percent preferred the smoking section. Almost 60 percent said they prefer to visit entertainment venues that don't allow smoking.
Public places were defined during the survey as public buildings, restaurants, offices and bars.
However, when asked specifically about requiring all bars and restaurants to ban smoking, more respondents expressed opposition.
While 31 percent said they would oppose a smoking ban for public places, 42 percent of respondents said they disagreed that all restaurants and bars should ban smoking.
"The only resistance to a statewide ban appears when respondents are presented with the prospect of such a smoking ban being imposed unilaterally on all restaurants and bars," Bacot said.
You can call that democracy if you want but ultimately is tyranny by the minority. If you want to be fair to the minority target, then such referendums should be prefixed by stating that any such law that targets any individual group MUST BE APPROVED BY A MAJORITY OF ALL REGISTERED VOTERS!
As for the polls, keep in mind that they are geared towards substantiating a predetermined outcome and that many of those being polled quite likely don't even go out to dinner except for maybe twice a year and never even go into bars but yet their opinions are being counted as supporters of tobacco bans.........
The loss in revenues and ultimate closings of bars and restaurants due to tobacco prohibition is INDISPUTABLE FACT but what isn't being reported is how many of the people who voted for the bans actually were regular bar and restaurant goers anyway?????????
THEY DIDN'T HAVE A HORSE IN THE RACE SO WHAT THE HELL DID THEY CARE?
"The survey of 649 people was conducted Sept. 24-28 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent."
Oh, you gotta love how 649 people's opinion make up that of 65% of the whole state.
Moonman, are you one of the magical 649, that makes up 65% of the state's population?
I know how they do these polls to get the results they want. They did this in Minnesota when we were up there on vacation last summer. They ask the same question 11 different ways and get maybe 25 to 30% for it and 50 to 60% against on all questions but they sum it all up by putting all the "for it" answers in one category and simply ignore all the "against it" answers.
My husband has the perfect solution. You are exempt if you have a private club so he said these resturants need to make themselves private by charging .05 membership fee, give them a membership card, whoever wants one, and warn everybody, it is a smoking facility.
"these type of public "place bans" reeeeeeak of Big-Government Statism...."
It is a mistake to believe that governments come up with the idea of smoking bans on their own. Politicians are pushed by the American Lung, American Cancer Society, Non-Smoker's Rights, etc. all organizations which are funded by a pharmaceutical nicotine backed Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (J & J Co.).
Why would a pharmaceutical nicotine conglomerate want laws passed which ban tobacco nicotine use?
http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2006/09/now-that-rwjf-has-put-smoking-bans-in.html
If more non-smoker's stood up against these bans politicians would tell the pharmaceutical interests where to go. Alcohol and food are the next bans.....but if people stand by to let the smoking bans pass unchallenged, so too will the future bans easily pass based on the earlier smoking ban precedent.
http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2005/11/beware-next-ban.html
I can respect that people don't like to be around cigarette smoke. I understand why.
A few years ago after my daughter was born, we went out to a local restaurant in NJ after her christening and sat in the non-smoking section. She was sound asleep in her little basinette and a few people in the smoking section (this was pre health nazi days in NJ) were blowing smoke that was billowing in her direction.
Despite being a smoker myself (I smoke outside or in my ventilated cigar room) , I was pissed. She was 3 weeks old. I thought about saying something to these folks. Then I thought of something; This is not my property. I don't own it.
We packed up our stuff and went down the street to a restaurant that was voluntarily non-smoking. Between drinks, appetizers, entrees, and desert we spent over $1,300 at this place. They made a lot of money because they were voluntarily smoke free and catered to what we wanted.
When I go out with the boys, I prefer a smoking bar.
The free market works. Fascism and communism don't.
Let the free market decide.
It's funny how the health risks supposedly associated with others smoking suddenly disappear when it means more money for our overlords.
_____________________________________________
ding, ding, ding, ding.
We have a winner!
Here's a shock...in corrupt blue state NJ they told the bar owners that their business wouldn't be harmed. But when it came to the State and their share of the $600,000,000 per year in revenue that the Atlantic City casinos pump into their coffers, the State acknowledged what is painfully obvious to anyone who can fog a mirror and reads a newspaper.
The casinos got an exemption.
As that great poet, humanitarian, and philosopher Gomer Pyle said "Surprise, surprise, surprise!"
Moon man, come back to us on planet earth.
MEMO
TO: Moon Man
FROM: Every bar and restaurant owner in in the Milky Way Galaxy
DATE: October 3, 2006
RE: Come back to earth
Dear Selfish, Nosey, Busybody:
Greatings from the blue and green planet 162,000 miles away. Having fun, wish you were here. When you do come down, just pay heed to how things are done in a free country (if your spaceship happens to land in the USA). If it lands in Iran, than keep up the good work...
Thank you for your bizarre, misguided, and misplaced interest in _____(name of establishment). As you know ______(name of establishment) strives to provide our guests with a relaxed atmosphere and great hospitality in which to enjoy our great food, wine, beer and spirits among their friends and family.
Your comments are always welcome.
However, after reviewing your demand to ban adults from engaging in legal activities like cigarette smoking on my property, a few alarming facts have come to my attention.
Upon consultation with my attorney and after reviewing the public records stored in City Hall, it appears that your name is not on the deed to this property.
In addition, my CPA and I have checked the invoices and have not found one bill that you have ever paid here.
Therefore, on advice of counsel, I must conclude:
This is my property! I pay the bills here! And if you don't like it there's the door. Don't let it hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!
Butt out, (pun intended)
The Management
Gosh! I thought more people LIVED in that state!
I also want to preface this by stating that I am a non-smoker by upbringing and personal choice. I am one of those people who never even thought to try smoking. I have no family members who have ever smoked…and shockingly this applies to my husband as well. We also live a very healthy lifestyle by “personal choice”. We are a 40 something Italian couple, so of course we have a garden…pretty much pre-determined by our genetics. We eat a very healthy diet. It is none of my business what other American citizens choose to do with their lives. It is none of my business if they smoke or what they eat! It never has been, it never will be!!
If you read nothing else from this post please read the following...it sums-up the other info. in a concise manner. Once again the saying that "If people Don't Know Their History They are Doomed to Repeat It" applies. It seems that in 60+ years and winning WWII we have not learned much; and are relinquishing the freedoms that our forefathers fought and died to preserve.
Hitler – Socialism – Islam (Sharia Laws) – Government Power Grab & The Correlation With Our Current Bans and Proposed Bans:
The first major campaign to use the powers of government to make people healthy did come out of the policies of Hitler's National Socialist movement. Hitler's Germany was feed a dose of government sponsored propaganda, much like state sponsored anti-smoking adverts. The German people were told: "Your body belongs to the nation! Your body belongs to the Führer! You have a duty to be healthy! Food is not a private matter!"
In addition the first major anti-smoking campaign anywhere was started by the Nazi government. Of course that's just where they started. They also turned their attention to alcohol, what breads people ate, even meat eating itself. It seems that many top Nazis, like Hitler, were avid vegetarians and advocates of the "organic" in food. The same lunatics bought into herbalism and made sure that Dachau, the first concentration camp, became one the world's leading sources for "natural" herbal remedies and spices.
In the centrally planned society of Hitler and his health fanatics like Hess, Himmler and Göring, everything was of concern to the state. Proctor says: "Here as elsewhere in Nazi ideology, the liberal distinction between public and private spheres was abandoned. As one Hitler Youth health manual put it: Nutrition is not a private matter!'"……….
We Nazis understood that every German citizen must live for the state. And in the same way that wise farmers accept responsibility for the health of their herds, we used the power of government to keep our flocks healthy. We were disgusted by the addictive powers of cigarettes, since both mind and body were supposed to belong to the Führer. We succeeded in almost criminalizing the smoking of cigarettes.
Our Ministry of Science and Education ordered elementary schools to discuss the dangers of tobacco. Government-sponsored cultural and educational events were declared "smoke-free." In the late 1930s we called for increased taxes on cigarettes and later instituted bans on cigarette advertising. I am most proud of the legislation we introduced prohibiting sales of cigarettes to minors. We set up counseling centers for the psychological treatment of smokers, and we established smoke-free restaurants…..
CONTROL:
The rise of the anti-smoking sentiment in America coincides with society's shift from accepting personal responsibility to attaching blame for just about everything on someone or something else other than where the true blame resides. Along with abandoning personal responsibility, "enlightened" Americans have renounced reason and truth and have handed over the control of their lives to a power hungry conglomerate of politicians, lawyers, judges, and quasi health professionals.
SMOKING IS HARAM (UNLAWFUL) IN ISLAM:
This article was first published in JIMA (Journal of Islamic Medical Association, Volume 15, and No.4, 1983. The author holds the unique distinction and honor to be the first Muslim Scholar in the world to declare Smoking is Haram. He did with full conviction and courage. Twenty years later the Ulama have realized the truth and every Muslim country in the world is following suit by declaring Smoking is Haram.)
In Islam cleanliness and hygiene are emphasized to the extent that it has been considered a part of Iman (faith). It is very well known that a smoker's mouth is unclean and foul smelling "like a cigarette ash-tray." Allah (SWT) says:
"And forbids them what is bad." The Qur'an, Surah Al-'Araf, 7: 157
Islamic Food Prohibition per Sharia Laws:
For this reason Islam has prohibited certain foods due to their ill effects and permitted all other pure, good and clean food products. Allah Ta’ala says in the Noble Qur’ân:
“O’ Believers! Eat of the good and pure (lawful) that We have provided you with and be grateful to Allah, if you truly worship Him.”
Bans on smoking and foods are happening across the globe…an example from our neighbor Canada.
THE WAR ON FUN – Info. from Canada:
WARNING: Health Canada wants you to know that this book review was written while smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and eating burgers.
In it, Ezra clearly shows how big health lobbies, politicians, do-gooders, busybodies and lawyers are attacking personal liberties, destroying the long Canadian tradition of freedom, turning rational grown-up adults into children, wanting to replace parental responsibility by bureaucratic programs and creating a victimhood mentality. As far as do-gooders are concerned, people (i.e., you and me) don't know what's best for them and must rely on bureaucrats and politicians to tell them what to do...
Ping to an easier to read version of my freepmail.
That is only if it's smoking tobacco, pot is perfectly ok to them.
Ping to my post...I did just a little research. Took me just about an half and hour. I have become so disgusted with the current bans...and the specter of bans to come. So I seriously just typed in "Hitler" and "smoking"...and "Islam" and "smoking....and the treasure trove of verifiable, documented info. that leads directly back to Communism, Socialism, and all of those freedom killing "isms". I will be stepping away from the computer for the week-end...but keep the sentiment going...the complacency that is happening as these bans increase and just roll across America is sickening.
It IS sickening. And the private business owners say nothing, because they think it will never happen to them.
Then, when it does, they are smacked in the face with it and their loss of revenue is mind boggling. And the ban by then is nearly impossible to overturn. Sad state of affairs we have here!
Just like the following sign outside a private business in Washington state:
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