Posted on 09/30/2008 1:29:57 PM PDT by andrew roman
Today’s leftists – and some on the right – have decided that health is now a moral issue. It has become a value, a religion, as important and ethically relevant as any other value Americans hold sacred. This morality is manifesting itself through a combination of marginally coherent (and agenda-driven) feel-good science and the propensity of today’s liberal to emote as a process of creating policy. Clearly more critical than the ongoing war against Islamo-fascism is America’s real battle, the next true menace. While the word “victory” was vanquished by America’s leftists from any discussion relating to the war in Iraq, it is now the brazen battle cry in the Left’s fight to preserve this new value system. It is a struggle for the good of us all. The enemy is tobacco … and to these new moral crusaders, it is precisely our liberties and freedoms that enable this diabolical adversary to continue to kill innocent Americans.
Last Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education decided to do something about it by breaking out its can of regulatory RAID and helping to stop the freedom bug in its tracks. One day after a statewide ban on smoking took place in workspaces and public areas across the state, Pennsylvania became the first state to create completely smoke-free campuses at its fourteen state universities. (The American Lung Association says there are other campuses around the country - more than 130 - that have such policies, more or less, in place). Following the state’s lead, Chancellor John Cavanaugh decided to do what he could to save the children. As Martha Raffaele of the Associated Press wrote:
After discussions with university presidents and system board members, Chancellor John Cavanaugh said he interprets the law to extend beyond buildings at educational facilities to include all campus grounds, such as courtyards, parking lots and athletic fields. Cavanaugh, who took over as chancellor in July, said some classes occasionally meet outside, and the schools also hold outdoor fundraising events and receptions. "After all of that deliberation, we decided we would go on the side of caution," he said.
How fascinating.
I love it when liberals come down on the “side of caution.” (I’m willing to wager a vital body appendage that Mr. Cavanaugh is on the left).
I wonder if that “side of caution” is in play when these open-minded, clear-thinking educators discuss the viability of a human life in the womb. Perhaps that one flies above their collective pay grades. Either way, Cavanaugh and the gang – let’s call them “Mommy” for this discussion - have decided that smoking should not only be expelled from public view but must be abolished from every nook and cranny on Keystone campuses – including vehicles and secluded getaway spots. “Mommy” is obviously feeling good about herself having just implemented the strictest non-smoking legislation on college campuses in the country. It's another small step toward Utopia.
It reminds me of what Councilman Dave Warden of Belmont, California said two years ago (one of Belmont’s mommies) when that community was looking to implement the most comprehensive smoking ban in the nation. He summed it all up for the members of the council when he asked, “What if every city did this, imagine how many lives would be saved?”
Sheer brilliance.
That’s the kind of vision that communes and sit-ins are made of – not to mention totalitarian societies. It is also another example of the unmitigated arrogance of today’s leftist. They have taken it upon themselves to regulate and legislate our lives so that, presumably, we will never ever die. This is all okay, of course, because smoking is a filthy, disgusting habit that kills trillions each year. The fact that Mommy cares enough to imperil your personal freedoms should speak to the moral imperative. It’s ironic how these very same people whine about provisions of the Patriot Act being a direct threat to our personal liberties while justifying the government’s right to annex a person’s freedom to engage in a completely legal activity under the phony guise of saving lives – even though there is not a single human being who has ever been documented to have died from second hand smoke.
Not one.
Today’s purveyors of the new morality know better than you, and they’ll tell you so.
Talk show host Dennis Prager makes the point that if second-hand smoke kills as many people as is claimed by these totalitarian like-zealots – (some say as many as 50,000 a year, which would translate to nearly six people an hour dying in this country as a result of coming into contact with second-hand smoke) – then not only should the practice be banned outright everywhere, but those who are smoking need to be arrested and ultimately convicted for taking the lives of the innocent. Logical, yes?
When Belmont, California finally passed its landmark anti-smoking legislation into law last September, the ban was an outright prohibition of cigarettes in all areas of the city, except single-family detached homes. This prompted me to wonder, if second-hand smoke poses that kind of cataclysmic threat to everyone everywhere, why then are single-family homeowners immune in Belmont? Don’t they matter? Aren’t the potential “innocents” in that single-family home as much at risk as someone who lives three floors above a smoker in an apartment building?
It is all sheer nonsense.
Yet, “mommies” all over the country are getting precisely what they want. Should we expect the ACLU to step up and defend personal liberty? (*gag*). Perhaps a better question is whether or not anyone truly believes that once the evil of smoking is wiped clean from the lives of people everywhere, it will simply end there.
The New York Sun today, for example, has an interesting article on the next battle about to be waged against the latest and most diabolical civic enemy – salt. Government infringements on personal choice always begin with “harmless,” “reasonable-sounding” discussions draped in genuine “concern.” Recall that “fatty oils” have been banned from city restaurants. It was for our own good. (Jackboots anyone?) Before you know it, salt shakers in New York City restaurants will be a thing of the past. Customers will be allowed two licks of a salt block for each heavily regulated and precisely-measured serving of food.
The zealotry from the left when it comes to the smoking issue is remarkable. The anti-smoking crowd is among the most – if not the most – intolerant in our society, and they continue to push falsehoods to further their agenda. Despite inconclusive evidence, rigged statistics and studies that show that the catastrophic dangers of second-hand smoke are bogus (note the recent report by the British Medical Journalas one example), these people are more than willing to sacrifice your liberties for you. It is truly ironic how leftists aim to protect the physical body from selected poisons while scoffing at any suggestion that poisons of the mind and soul (hyper-sexed music videos, profanity-laced pop music, the banishing of God from schools, etc) have any kind of impact on people.
Morality, indeed.
Once the scourge of tobacco is eradicated and people stop dropping like Warner Brothers’ cartoon anvils from second-hand smoke, then we could turn our attentions to more casual fancies – like Islamo-facism.
As medics say, the first health care is to kill terrorists who threaten the security of the care area.
Free health care by dems is only for crack heads and people messing themselves up carelessly and on purpose. It would be the precursor to the biggest epidemics. THere is a reason why France, despite its healthcare, is one of Europe’s AIDS capital
Because ROBBERY is indeed being promulgated.. and when its over the money will have just disappeared down a black political HOLE... with MUCH drama..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.