IF THEY WEREN'T SERIOUS, THIS WOULD BE HYSTERICAL

The Cigar Show ^ | 2 October 2002 | Chuck Cason

[SheLion]

The movement to get the Dallas City Council to pass a city ordinance to make ALL establishments 100% smoke free is gaining momentum. They advocate preventing a bar or restaurant owner to make his or her own decision about giving a choice to the customer. They advocate putting into LAW that you can't... CAN NOT... smoke anywhere in the City of Dallas. "Well, how about the cigar bar in Del Frisco's after a big steak dinner?"

Nope. In fact if they get this passed, they might come back and try to get a law passed that we can't eat a big steak dinner because they found a study that suggests that the side-effects of other people enjoying a steak is bad for "the children".

In fact, there is no stopping a group of people organizing, coming up with their own "research", and lobbying to take our rights away because they don't like what others do.

 I know that sounds ridiculous and that is why no normal citizen, who enjoys the rights that people before us fought and died for, ever thinks that anything as absurd as a law to take away any of those rights could be even considered as serious. That is where we have been wrong... dead wrong. It seems that advocates share a certain trait with politicians: they both feel the need to get "involved" with the issue of guiding our citizenry. In the meantime, our citizenry is comfortable knowing that our Constitution is protecting us so we can go about our daily lives working and enjoying life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Well, guess what? We were wrong.

There is a group in Dallas that is working hard to "ban" smoking in any establishment in the city limits.

They contend a restaurant owner has no business making a decision about his or her own policies. They think that the local government should decide what type of customers they should try to attract. This group has even stooped to the over-done, we-should-do-it-for-the-children-and-if-you-disagree-with-that-you-hate-children tactic.

 They wonder why when they are with their "children" (because after all, they are pro-family... aren't you?) and someone in a restaurant lights up, the government isn't there to protect the health of their family. They wonder why they are expected to make a decision not to go to that restaurant instead of making everyone around them change so they don't have to.

To find the wisdom in our system, it is often necessary to read what our leaders said a long time ago. It was Abraham Lincoln that had words for this situation:

"Those who deny freedom for others deserve it not for themselves".

Let me be clear. I do not smoke cigarettes. They are nasty and dangerous. There are probably many chemicals and poisons that are let out into the air by smoking. But I reserve the right to smoke one day, if I want to. I won't smoke at your church, school, or in your government building. If you don't allow it in your home, I will totally respect that. I won't smoke in your car, or even near you when I can... I am not rude. However, when I choose a restaurant that wants me as a customer so much as to have a section for me, and you want to go there too (because the food and service are great), we have both made a decision based on personal freedom. Since you have made that choice, why is it my fault that you aren't comfortable? Why do you insist that city government get involved to make sure your dining experience is more pleasant? If you walk by a club and the rap music from inside is so loud that it seems offensive, will you go inside? No, of course not, and you wouldn't run to the city council wanting a law against rap music.

You simply wouldn't go. Get it?

I am not even going to start in on the junk science and so-called "surveys" presented as "irrefutable fact" by this poster group for political correctness. I will give you the link to the web site. Twenty years ago this web site would have made a great satirical magazine. It would have shown, in a ironic way, how fanatics try to push their agenda using any scare tactic they can. Sadly, this is not satire. It is a group that will not be content until others behave the way they think they should. It is time for common sense to replace political correctness.

It is time that people realize a perfect world is not formed by laws.

 

Here is the web site. Enjoy. http://smokefreedallas.org/

[SheLion]

You are pathetic, you should move to Russia...... oh, I forgot, they have freedom now.

Keeps coming our of their box. To bash, trash and condemn us. Boy! Can you imagine the habits that this person has that WE WOULD FIND OFFENSIVE? ack!

And we wonder why are party is falling apart.

[SheLion]

This is in part, the reason the suburbs in the Houston and Dallas area are booming. Normal, well adjusted people move out.

There is a proposed smoking ban in MN. One big business is threatening to MOVE out if this passes. At least one BOSS is sticking up for his workers! It's all insane.

The health fascists are trying to take over America. Mind boggling.

[freeeee]

I want drug addicts kept out of public places

Public places? You mean city streets, and City Hall?

Restaurants, bars, etc... are not public places. They are privately owned. Yes, someone paid their hard earned money to purchase or build one. You have no more right to dictate to them what they allow on their property than they do forcing you to allow smoking in your living room.

Lately we've had the legal abomination of "public accommodation", which is an end run around private property rights. Essentially, it says that if a standing invitation to enter exists to the general public, then somehow the owner doesn't quite own his own property anymore. And that the guests the owner allows on his property somehow, magically can tell him how its going to be.

Well, there is already a word for semi-private ownership coupled by government directives, and never ever forget what it is - FASCISM.

[maxwell]

Well I am heartily dismayed to see this, chickie, 'cause I had designs on moving down to Dallas area next year... Hmmmmm... No smoking in any bar??? Even "Dick's Last Resort"??? AUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!!

I thought them Texicans had more sense...

[Joe Hadenuf]

Get out of Texas as fast as you can......

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I consider myself a sensible person, not because I don't smoke, have never smoked, can't stand to be around smoke and try not to ever smell cigarette smoke.

I consider myself sensible because I don't get mad if I go out (once every 4 years) to a bar and somebody is smoking. It is abar for heaven's sake.

You don't move in to a house next door to a smelter and then complain it smells funny in your neighborhood. And if I sitting on an outside patio eating lunch at work I don't expet every smoker to snuff out their cigarettes. All I do is if I was there before them I wish they would ask if it would bother me and if the wind is blowing towards me we can switch tables.

Somehow those easy solutions escape the smoking Nazis and some militant smokers are so tired of getting stepped on if you ask them to switch seats with you then get all bent out of shape.

It's just simple common sense/ common courtesy

[freeeee]

Your common sense is refreshing, if rare.

I agree with your approach, and I'm also a non-smoker.

[bonfire]

Incredibly, TX is now a P.C. state. Who woulda' thunk it?

[Protagoras]

Smoking tobacco (or pot) ought to be legal in one's home and a jailable offense outside it.

Only someone who has the mistaken idea that they have a right to tell someone else what rules to make for the use of their private property would make such a comment. The home and the business place share the same property rights.

Anyone who suggests otherwise should be jailed. It should be a jailable offence.

[maxwell]

It is abar for heaven's sake.

Thank you. You, sir, are a reasonable man. I will switch tables with you ANY day.

[Protagoras]

oops ,,,offence = offense

[alaskanfan]

It's just simple common sense/ common courtesy

A concept that is totally foreign to the pc social engineers so common in todays society.

Next they will determine that eating red meat should be banned.....ad infinitum

[freeeee]

Anyone who suggests otherwise should be jailed.

Not to nitpick, but I wouldn't jail them for merely suggesting such a thing. Freedom of speech, and petition of redress...

But actually doing it, on the other hand should get you that favorite of punishments - stuck in a hot, small dark room with a box of cheap stogies and you don't come out till you've smoked every last one to the stub. That'll learn 'em.

[cibco]

"Smoking tobacco (or pot) ought to be legal in one's home and a jailable offense outside it."

Your opinion ought to be legal in your own home and jailable outside it. Don't foul the air for the rest of us.

[Snuffington]

I want drug addicts kept out of public places, lest they corrupt my children or injure my own health. Smoking tobacco (or pot) ought to be legal in one's home and a jailable offense outside it. We can never get rid of drug addicts but at least we can keep them where they belong, out of the view and airspace of decent society.

I'm curious about your position on alchol consumption in restaurants. Or MSG laden french fries?

Do you consistently apply this standard? Or are you simply trying to get the force of government to enforce your personal preference?

[unixfox]

[Protagoras]

Not to nitpick, but I wouldn't jail them for merely suggesting such a thing. Freedom of speech, and petition of redress...

I keep forgetting to include the < /sarcam> tag line. Second time I have been called on it this week. :-)

[SheLion]

I thought them Texicans had more sense...

Texas has been pretty quiet of late. But being in the pocket of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation......well, Texas health fanactics must have been pounced on because they weren't controlling, restricting, banning and taxing the smokers enough. Got to keep those big grants coming IN you know!

Look how much RWJ Foundation is feeding into Texas:

Baylor College of Medicine
Houston,TX
Tobacco segment of a biennial symposium on minorities, the medically underserved, and cancer
1 year, ending 09/30/02 $40,000 ID#042887

Texas Congress of Parent-Teachers Association
Austin,TX
SmokeLess States: National Tobacco Policy Initiative
3 years, ending 05/31/04 $1,087,519 ID#041931

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Houston,TX
Efficacy of motivational enhancement and physiologic for prenatal smoking cessation
4 years, ending 09/30/04 $944,148 ID#040674

And this isn't including the money from the Tobacco Settlement!!!

TEXAS SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY - 2001

Check out what the smokers in Texas are paying into the economy! And the HEALTH FASCISTS want to kick them in the butt!

[SheLion]

It's just simple common sense/ common courtesy

Your a NON smoker. Not an ANTI smoker. There is one huge difference!!! Thank you for your tolerance of your fellow man. We need more like you!

[Tango Whiskey Papa]

Boy, would Sir Winston need a "good belt" of scotch this day and time.

---

"My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them." Sir Winston Churchill