Posted on 03/19/2007 10:22:16 AM PDT by pissant
A day after he implied that Ireland should not follow New York Citys example and pass a ban on smoking in all workplaces, Rudolph Giuliani called Mayor Michael Bloomberg to say that was not what he meant.
Bloomberg said the former mayor told him that he meant that Ireland, which currently has no smoking restrictions, should begin to restrict smoking slowly, rather than all at once.
He just thought that sometimes you go partways to get there, let people adjust and then go the rest of the way, Bloomberg said yesterday.
Giuliani said that it made more sense to restrict smoking to certain areas.
Pick and Choose Conservatives. State power is OK with them if it's an issue their nose gets out of joint over.
You are not telling the truth about my beliefs. Not that I particularly care.
An indication of your respect would call for a massive re-examination of all I believe.
You likely don't even know what is IN the Communist Manifesto. No countries have as high a proportion of smokers as the socialist Europeans and the Communist ones either.
There is no freedoms being lost by restricting smoking. Smokers are not free but for the most part addicted to the weed and incapable of stopping. There is no "right" to smoke and never has been.
Free association is not related to public accomodation and public licensing. You are still free to go to a smoker's home or private club just don't expect the same consideration when others are consulted.
How's that working out for you? I quit just about two and a half weeks ago. Most days I'm fine. Some days I'd french Helen Thomas if just to get the cigarette taste...okay maybe it's not that bad...Helen Hunt then.
I can't believe ANYONE would say any such thing........First off, the tobacco companies DO NOT fight the smoking bans in any major way, secondly the bar owners fighting these things are generally small business people trying to keep their business going and don't have a lot of time or money to deal with the legislative process.
But the most egrarious part of this is the sentence I bolded.........that is an out and out bald faced lie. The fact of the matter is there is MAJOR money in pushing the anti smoking ordinances, most of it coming from the Pharmaceutical manufacturers of "nicotine replacement therapies."
That's because it's a JaJ original. Only been posted once before.
Smoking is not a protected right. Merely a behavior which is subject to public sanction or prohibition. I no more have the right to smoke anywhere I wish than I do to run around nude.
A "private" business which is licensed by public authoritic is not entirely private.
More people have more rights than ever before in American history. In our past vast numbers of people were denied ALL rights and over half the total had them severely restricted.
Conservatives do not argue that business licenses cannot restrict the licensee.
What "industry" would that be?
So you needed the state to make you do what you wanted to do? And you think everyone else needs the state to do the same for them?
You're good baby, real good!!!!
They do when the rules are changed in the middle of the game.
This witch doctor might have blamed their diseases on evil spirits, which his potions would scare away. Our witch doctors blame them on evil tobacco spirits, with as convincing song and dance and potions of their own, which work about equally well.
The RWJ Foundation, the ACS, the MSA, the OTSG, ....
The anti-smokers lobby, in short.
I find it unusual that you have not noticed exactly how much money drives these anti-smoker campaigns...
It strains suspension of disbelief, to be frank.
Laws and public information campaigns take advantage of new information and adjust to it. Tobacco used to be widely advertised as a health enhancer as one tried to do above. It is NOT yet you act as though we should still pretend that it is.
Fats and other unhealthful foods do not affect the others in the room and so are dissimiliar to tobacco use. I can stuff my face with sweets and may disgust those watching the spectacle but it does not harm them. If I light up my stoggie in a small room it can do more than just bother some people it can endanger their health.
Newly passed smoking laws do not just affect licensees but everyone which is probably how they avoid grandfathering old licensees. Or the license is renewed annually so the laws affect them then.
My non-smoking restaurant-owning friend lost significant business as a result of then smoking ban in Jersey last year, and hates the ban so much that I've managed to turn him on to libertarianism.
Business owners should have rights to allow smoking or not. Patrons should have rights to attend or not attend smoking venues. Let the free market decide. Why is this concept so freaking offensive to people?
Even zoning restrictions normally have to do with health or safety issues.
Businesses that require heavy machinery aren't zoned for residential neighborhoods because of safety concerns with traffic or children.
Businesses that require the use of volitile chemicals aren't normally zoned for reidential or downtown because of safety concerns for the populace in general.
As for ETS causing harm, do your concerns also carry over to car exhaust? Smoke from your neighbor's fireplace chimney? Your, our your neighbor's, grill?
Understand, there are certain risk factors involved with smoking. These risk factors have not been scientifically proven to be linked with ETS.
An anology is, the jury is still out but the vigilantes are hanging folks anyway.
Anyway, we're not talking about zoning but regulation. Again, normally something is regulated due to health concerns that the public can't see for themselves about. Food storage, food preparation, cleanliness of preparation areas, the temperature that food is cooked, etc.
These are things that the general public don't normally see in their dealings with the business.
Property rights are, or used to be.
Once again, I am looking at the side that is resorting to government force, and for what reason.
No one forces someone to patronize a bar that allows smoking. No one forces someone to work at such an establishment.
The property owner, however, is NOT allowed to run how he sees fit a business that is driven by VOLUNTARY patronage. The anti-smoking activists are using government force to deprive basic property rights for voluntary association.
More people have more rights than ever before in American history.
Used to have rights. We are seeing those rights eroded more and more with each passing year.
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