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The liberals feed their sense of righteousness and power by passing laws that control our behavior and thoughts. Our only defense against their assaults on our liberties is the ballot box. Let's throw the bums out!

I wonder if the legislators who throw together these sorts of statutes ever stop to wonder why there weren't smoking bans on private property for 200-something years. Do they figure all the politicians who came before them were just "stupid," or too "chicken" to take the brave step they've now taken?

Clouds of cigarette smoke are no more yucky in 2003 than they were in 1953. The self-inflicted dangers of smoking aren't any more evident now than they were 20 years ago. So which part of the equation has changed, making this legislation possible?

It's simple: the erosion of respect for property rights. We've let enough other infringements occur over the years that when something like this pops up, it can just slide right through and into place.

Makes you shudder to think what will slide into place next. Because each infringement only makes greater ones possible.

The worst thing is, most Americans are likely to be complacent about this stuff -- or will even applaud it. Most now take for granted that our legislators are there to design the optimum society for us all, to keep tweaking and tinkering to manipulate things for the "greater good." This mindset is entrenched now in the language of political campaigns: voters demand to know how the president will "manage the economy," or how their state senator will be "working for us all."

It's the language of socialism, just as smoking bans are acts of socialism. And socialism, via the mechanism of democracy, has won.

Another failure on the part of smokers to make their case. When will they change strategy ? Its almost too late.