Posted on 10/26/2001 6:36:38 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)
Gov. Mike Huckabee rejected a proposed restaurant smoking ban Friday, saying that while he personally opposed smoking, the state should not infringe upon the rights of people who smoke. The governor also questioned whether the ban was constitutional and said money spent fighting possible lawsuits could be better spent on smoking prevention efforts.
Arkansas' Health Board voted Thursday to ban smoking in businesses that make more than 70 percent of the money from food sales, citing the need to protect workers and patrons.
"I feel an appointed board without direct accountability to the voters isn't the best vehicle to make such sweeping changes in the law," Huckabee said.
The Health Board proposal needed Huckabee's approval before it could become law.
The governor said that if Arkansans wish to limit smoking in restaurants, they should ask their local governments or the Legislature for new laws or support smoking prevention and cessation programs.
"This was an opportunity for better health for all Arkansans, particularly those who work in those places who really have no choice," said Democratic state Rep. Jim Wood, who took the proposed smoking ban to the Health Board after the Legislature rejected it in 1999.
Here are some more great Arkansans (besides me, of course):
- Lou Brock (b. 1939)- This El Dorado native is considered the greatest base stealer of his era. After three seasons with the Chicago Cubs, Brock joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964 and fueled their World Series victory. During his 19-year career, the outfielder stole an unprecedented 938 bases, a record that stood until 1991. Brock earned the Roberto Clemente and the Jackie Robinson Awards, among others. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1985.
- Paul "Bear" Bryant (1913-1983) - Born in Moro Bottom and raised in Fordyce, Bryant picked up his nickname when, as a youth, he wrestled a bear at the Fordyce Theater. He was the head coach of the University of Alabama's Crimson Tide from 1958-1983 and became the winningest college football coach with 323 victories and six national championships. Five weeks after retiring as head coach, he died of a heart attack.
- Johnny Cash (b. 1932) - This "Man in Black" has been an established country music star for decades. He is a native of Kingsland and married to singer June Carter. The Hall of Famer is known for such hits as "A Boy Named Sue," "Orange Blossom Special," and "I Walk the Line." He had his own TV series "The Johnny Cash Show" (ABC, 1969-71) and "Johnny Cash and Friends" (CBS, 1976). He also starred in the movie "Gunfight" (1970). His daughter, Roseanne, has also become a popular country singer.
- Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (aka Jerome Herman Dean) (1911-1974) - Born in Lucas, this Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher won 150 games, mostly for the St. Louis Cardinals as part of the Gas House Gang. In 1934 he won 30 games, a record that went unbroken for 34 years. He was a hero and role model for many poor, rural Arkansas youngsters during the Depression. He later he became a popular sportscaster and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
- Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) - This Confederate general is considered a military genius by modern scholars and tacticians. After the war, Forrest contracted with railroad companies in Memphis and Little Rock to lay tracks linking the two cities.
- John Grisham (b. 1955) - Lawyer and best-selling author of such books as The Firm, The Pelican Brief,The Client and The Chamber. He is the publisher of The Oxford American, a monthly that publishes articles and essays based on the South. Several of his books have been made into movies. Grisham was born in Jonesboro and has lived in various towns throughout Northeast Arkansas.
- Scott Joplin (1868-1917) - Composer from Texarkana who is noted for his ragtime music. Billed as the "King of Ragtime", he wrote "The Entertainer" in 1902 which was later revived in the score of "The Sting" (1973).
- Brooks Robinson (b. 1937) - Retired professional baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles (1955-77). Robinson, a native of Little Rock, won 16 Gold Glove Awards, more than anyone else in the sport. He was named the American League's MVP in 1964. Known for his fielding, he is considered by many as the best third baseman to ever play the game. He was inducted into the Arkansas Hall of Fame in 1978 and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983.
It isn't difficult for anyone to "follow the money trail." A couple of years ago, after ex-smoker Gro Harlem Brundtland took the reins of the World Health Organization, several multi-billion-dollar, multinational pharmaceutical companies who produce overpriced and inefficient "smoking cessation" devices and products signed a "partnership arrangement" with the WHO. They agreed to the goal of a smokefree world.
Sweet deal. Big Drug pays the World "Health" Organization to wage war on smokers; the WHO then takes its efforts and money away from its mandated purpose--fighting starvation, infectious diseases and other true epidemics in the third world--and puts them toward engineering behavior so smokers will buy more products from Big Drugs who will then give more money to the WHO and so on ad infinitum.
Our own government agencies are just as guilty of collusion with this "enemy within" which seeks to overthrow individual liberties and private property rights. The CDC itself wasn't ready for the current bioterrorism on our soil--but in recent years they have spent billions of dollars on anti-smoker programs.
Even worse to many people is the blatant disregard for the law of the land by anti-smokers like the Robert Wood Johnson "Foundation," primary stockholder in Johnson & Johnson, maker of Nicotrol. Taxpayer money and charitable contributions are used to fund these taxfree organizations, who then turn around and use those funds to bolster their political power and buy pet politicians in total disregard to the IRS rules.
Because they are on the "politically correct" side of the smoking issue, they are apparently above the law.
This isn't an issue about smoking/nonsmoking, its all about the RIGHTS of Business owners to regulate what goes on inside of their establishments. Period. If you smoke and go inside a restaurant that prohibits smoking...don't light up. And if don't smoke and go to a business that allows smoking...go to a business that is smoke free. But for the government to demand that restaurants conform to no-smoking demands/laws or face fines/ and or closure is against everything this country was founded on.
These four "health professionals" are not elected by the people? Then what authority do they have to create laws that affect the people? The fact that they believe what they're doing is right, as you obviously do, doesn't make it so.
To suggest they are part of a world wide conspiracy and taking bribes is just nonsense. If the money trail is easy to trace, please provide some evidence that members of the Health Board have taken any money. By the way, there is a money trail from tobacco interests to the Governor.
Nowhere did I ever suggest these people are "taking bribes." But if they are guilty of getting laws passed that encroach upon the people's Constitutional rights, such as the right to run a business and make a living, then they are indeed part of the worldwide "conspiracy." whether you want to admit it or not. The War on Smokers is being waged from the very top levels of the federal government, from the National Institutes of Health in collusion with the World Health Organization, down to each local municipality. They all use what they call "Tobacco Money" (implying it was forcibly removed from the industry) to place ads, to sensationalize their latest junk science, to conduct 'polls,' to produce slick, professional anti-smoker materials to turn lawmakers into "true believers" like themselves. What they don't admit is that the money they use against smokers was NOT taken from the industry but from the smokers themselves, through punitive taxation and the Master Settlement Agreement.
And the same to you bud.
Number 1 - you might preview your posts BEFORE you post.
Number 2 - What gives you the idea that smokers are scofflaws? Look up the definition in the dictionary.
What gives you the idea that smokers break any more laws than anyone else? Or that they do not appear in court after they have received a summons?
As for littering, This is the only point you MAY have. Many smokers DO toss their cigarette butts out the window of their car. Just as many people will toss their fast food wrappers, beer cans, candy wrappers, etc out the window of their cars.
Why this makes smokers worse than anyone else I fail to see.
Enforece the existing laws and everyone receives the same treatment. Otherwise you are discriminating against people that consume a LEGAL product.
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