Posted on 06/13/2008 4:42:41 AM PDT by Invisigoth
The predominately Democratic California legislature is at it again, coming up with different ways to take your personal freedoms away for the sake of a few.
On the heels of attempting to make spanking a misdemeanor, the legislature now wants to make it permissible for a landlord to prevent smoking in apartment buildings on the pretext of protecting other tenants from secondhand smoke. The spineless legislator who sponsored the bill didnt have the courage to make it a crime under the states Health and Safety Code. The proposed legislation merely allows the landlord to make the decision, essentially making him the bad guy.
California was among the first to ban smoking in offices, bars, restaurants and other public places. Before you knew it, other states started banning smoking at sporting events, in your car if a child is present, within 25 feet of an entryway of a building, and even at some beaches. Why postpone the inevitable when you could just ban smoking altogether?
Critics to the proposed legislation like the Western Center on Law and Poverty maintain such law would discriminate against the poor, the disabled and people of color. Im not sure what a persons income, disability or skin color has to do with anything when it comes to smoking. But the point is those people, along with rich white apartment dwellers, will have yet another personal freedom taken away from them, if the California state legislature gets its way.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
This concept has existed since the beginning of civilization. And rightfully so.
But legislators should have only the power that we, the people, grant them.
It sucks, I know, but far too many people rely on our legilators to "guide" our freedoms.
The people of California seem to have granted their legislators this power. We can say they're idiots, if we want to ... but these folk (and people like them nationwide) keep being reelected, so ...
So we're back to my original statement, "The 'giving' or 'taking' of freedom is not to be left to the legislators."
The people of California are idiots. There, I said it.
I know you and I are on the same wavelenghth here. I just don't see any "gift" of freedom to one segment of the population, if the legislature curtails the freedom of even a few.
Again, the lead sentence:
The predominately Democratic California legislature is at it again, coming up with different ways to take your personal freedoms away for the sake of a few.
I think we do agree. However, I also think the lead sentence is misleading. It could be taken to mean that the Califreakout legislature has the interests of landlords in mind, when in fact “the few” are anti-smoking zealots who don’t give a rodent’s hindquarters about property rights, as others have mentioned above.
Well stated.
: )
What do you do if your tenant smokes in your condo, anyway? And how do you know if your tenant has smoked in the condo?
As for the consequences, there would be partial or full loss of the deposit.
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