[freeeee]

Your right to pollute the atmosphere in public areas ends where my nose begins.

Fine. No smoking in City Hall.

Pubs on the other hand are private establishments. The owner invites you, and you choose to enter. If you don't like the music, patrons, drinks, food or air you can choose to go elsewhere.

[Right Wing Professor]

Pubs on the other hand are private establishments. The owner invites you, and you choose to enter. If you don't like the music, patrons, drinks, food or air you can choose to go elsewhere.

So your position is that no governmental agencies should be allowed to inspect pubs for health violations, and if you get Salmonella from eating the sandwiches, it's caveat emptor?

[Murtyo]

Ah! A perfect opportunity - Pub means Public House. Not State House, not Government House just Public House. If you have a Pub in a country like Ireland or the United Kingdom you have to let people in (you can kick them out if they cause a problem and you can bar them if they continue to cause problems), but while pubs are privately owned they're not private. (I'm trying to distinguish between "public" and "state"/"government". In the U.S. State or Government Schools are called Public, when in fact a better word would be "government" or "state" or "county" or "taxpayer" or some such. Society aka "the public square" is not government. Certain areas of public life concerns government but so too do certain areas of private and family life.

I think that owners of Pubs should be able to set their own rules about smokine without governments of any kind telling them what's permissible.

[Modernman]

Pubs on the other hand are private establishments. The owner invites you, and you choose to enter. If you don't like the music, patrons, drinks, food or air you can choose to go elsewhere.

Yes and no. At least in the US, the sale of liquor is highly regulated, as is the sale of food. For very good reason, too. Up until cities, states and the Federal government started regulating food and liquor, food poisoning was common and frequently deadly.

So, when a bar owner applies for a liquor license, he agrees to follow certain rules. A bar isn't a private place like your living room. For example, as a private homeowner, you have every right to bar people based on race, gender etc. from your home. A bar owner does not have this power.

To call a bar a purely private place isn't accurate.