Bar owners seek vote to repeal ban on smoking

Boston Globe ^ | September 9, 2001 | Paul E. Kandarian

[Max McGarrity]

Dorsey Carey considers the evening of Sept. 1 the ''Saturday night massacre.''

Carey manages Handlebar Harry's bar/restaurant in Cordage Park. It's tucked at the back of a mostly deserted retail complex, but locals have made it a destination. While other Cordage businesses vanished over the last decade, Handlebar Harry's kept the lights shining brightly. Until now.

[Max McGarrity]

Just more "collateral damage" from the War on Smokers.

[billhilly]

Plymouth bars that violate the ban could face their own down time, Carey said. Infractions can result in $100 fines (though town officials say they will work to educate proprietors rather than impose the fines.)

That line, above all others, is at the bottom of the liberal agenda. "We will educate you" or "we will indoctrinate you" have the same meaning. All we have to do as a society is to take our losses in small doses until all is lost.

It almost makes me want to start smoking again.

[evilsmoker]

The only exemptions are private clubs...

I've always wondered what a bar needs to do to qualify as a private club. Any ideas?

[SheLion]

I wish I knew. One of the guys should know.

[evilsmoker]

Off the subject...but I just checked your website and those Jacka** awards were hilarious!

[Max McGarrity]

What constitutes a private club depends entirely on where you are, evilsmoker. Here in The People's Republik of Kalifornia, there can be no such thing because of the way the statewide ban/law is written. Which pretty much tells anyone who's interested just what the anti agenda really is, doesn't it? One bar here became a "Smoking Lounge" that was open to members only. They sold memberships for $1 and sold 600, nearly half of them to nonsmokers. The local city attorney had hissy fits when a judge agreed they were within the law, and filed another suit claiming they were engaging in "unfair business practices." Truth is, if ONE bar on top of a mountain at the end of a 25-mile dirt road in the middle of nowhere catered to smokers, some neurotic dirtbag nico-Nazi would try to get them shut down. To feel the need to control others to that extent is a mental illness.

[Badray]

"It's another thing they're taking away from people,.."

Now guys, it's only about cigarettes. It's not like smoking cigarettes is a right guaranteed in the Constitution. Complaining about this will only minimize the *real* problems that we have to look out for. [end sarcasm]

Be prepared for the real "government knows best" crowd that lurks here. The problem is, if we keep ignoring all these little infringements, we'll be too numb to recognize it when they come for the *real* ones.