Posted on 01/10/2005 10:52:26 AM PST by aynrandy
Hide your smokes and unhealthy contraband. The tyrants of wellbeing are back.
Apparently, the Denver City Council is never too busy to intercede with some good old-fashioned social engineering. And soon enough, smoking in restaurants and bars will be banned.
It's enough to make a holier-than-thou politician - with pristine pink lungs - shriek with delight.
Jeanne Faatz, at this point, is the lone voice of reason on the council. She still believes in trivial things like free enterprise and property rights.
She's sort of an outsider. And although she won't admit it on record, I'm certain the other council members put shaving cream in her shoes, lock her out of meetings and blow spitballs at her.
Don't misunderstand me. Faatz hates smoking. She detests the habit so strongly that she can't stop complaining about it - it causes her to be hoarse and sneeze and makes her stomach coil. She hates being put in this position, protecting smokers.
But Faatz, in contrast to the missionaries of healthful living, appreciates that the ban is not a smoking issue but a matter of freedom.
Faatz loathes sitting next to a smoker in a restaurant. Who doesn't? But she does something extremely peculiar: She gets up, walks out and finds an establishment where she doesn't have to.
"My decision comes from the fact that you have private ownership in business, and they should have the right to target whatever customers they feel the marketplace will give them," she explains. "If, indeed, nobody frequented a smoking establishment, I say, 'Right on, the marketplace has spoken."'
Faatz believes choices and decisions are key in a free society. It's expedient to say, "Yuck, I don't like smoke." But ask yourself this: Do you think government should dictate how a person runs a business? What about customers? Should they be allowed to decide whether they want an all-smoking restaurant or a nonsmoking restaurant?
What if the Denver City Council concluded that cellphones at work should be banned because they have been linked to brain tumors?
Are there justifiable reasons for intervention? Sure. If there is contaminated food or other hidden health issues, government must protect citizens. Full disclosure is imperative. But when the sign in front of a steakhouse reads "smoking allowed," adults should be able to make their own decisions.
Besides, a steady diet of steaks wrapped with bacon is probably apt to kill you a lot faster than secondhand smoke.
We all know what's next. "What about those unfortunate, powerless, coughing employees?" The logical answer given by Faatz is simply that "it is a person's choice where they work." Who is forcing you to work in a smoke-filled diner?
But for the moment, let's advance the argument further: If everyone with a risky job should be protected from all hazards, where would we end up?
You realize the stress a stockbroker goes through? What about the stress a cop experiences? Yes, stress kills far more people than the wildly overstated threat of secondhand smoke. And who can deny the dangers of being a bike messenger, a cabbie or a firefighter?
Smoke Free Denver, another group of sanctimonious nanny types, wants to sabotage freedom for smokers and property owners "to protect the health of Denver residents, workers and visitors from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke."
Well, what about the claims of tens of thousands of deaths due to secondhand smoke?
It's junk science. The University of Chicago's Dr. John Bailar, a critic of the tobacco industry, has produced a detailed analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine debunking the supposed link between secondhand smoke and heart disease. His study is one of many.
But if you don't believe them, there are long lists of smoke-free establishments for you to go to. Enjoy.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
Banning the amazingly offensive habit of smoking in public places is such an obviously good thing, that the attempt to build a cocoon around it, as if it has any meaning other than the selfish, irresponsible desire to enjoy a drug in a certain modality (setting a weed on fire) is laughable. It's similar to fatties saying that they have the right to intrude on your space on an airliner, and not have to pay for extra space; it's somehow a "right." The good news: lots of people are seeing the argument for what it is: a matter of policing repugnant public behavior. BTW was that foul old sow A. Rand a smoker?
We're really at loggerheads here, aren't we????? I was a Jets fan and hated the Giants!!!!!
But like you, when they moved they lost me as well. I never particularly cared for Howard Cosell, but I always liked, applauded, and agreed with his stance when he instisted on calling them the New Jersey Jets and the New Jersey Giants. I have the same attitude about the Colts. The radio stations I worked at in Delaware carried them, as did the station I worked at in Maryland.........so I remember well when they snuck off in the night for Indianapolis.
I lived in Delaware for 21 years, the majority of my adult life........and for most of those years I loved it and loved living there. My husband was born in Massachussetts, but grew up in Delaware, spent better than 10 years out west and came back. It started really changing about 10 years ago, but it was still tolerable, although getting gradually worse.........and then we became parents. That's why we now live in Virginia.
It's very similar to "airline fattie" behavior: the right to offend. One of the best things govt. does is police behavior. The "might makes right - leave it to the property owner" idea isn't working very well, if you've noticed. The idea that smoking is a "right" is silly nonsense, as more people are noticing. It is repugnant personal behavior - nothing more.
Well,it's great that you like where you live now and that it's a good place to raise your daughter! :-)
You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.
You have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the liberal bullcrap that private businesses are public places.
You are the type of non-smoker that will get nothing but courtesy and consideration from smokers.
There's a small town not far from me that has 2 really great old fashioned luncheonatte/coffee shops. Both do a booming business. One permits smoking, the other doesn't. I enjoy patronizing both........it's my choice to enter either, and the owners' choice to permit or prohibit smoking.
That is the way it should be.
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!
Since my opinion of baseball is similar to yours on football, let's agree to disagree on sports (I won't get into golf) and just not bother discussing any of it at all!!!!! I like you and enjoy FReeping with you far too much to let something of little interest to me (sports) cause us to fuss with each other!!!!!
We absolutely love living here....I'm so happy we did it. We made the right choice.
And now my right choice is to place my ear to the pillow that is calling me (as soon as the dogs decide they are ready to come in)
Goodnight, FRiend.........FReep at you soon.
And the feeling is mutual,I assure you.We always have such fun on a thread together. There's no need to muddy the waters with extraneous "stuff".
I'm so happy for you and your family. It's important to like where you live,but for,some,they're stuck where they don't want to be for one reason or many.
Good night my friend.........pleasant dreams.
But muddying the waters with extraneous "stuff" is so much fun.............
but you're right, we don't need to do it.....the antis do it for us!!!!!!
Thank you, my FRiend, thank you very much...Freep at you soon
</i>fatties</i>
Yikes!!
Hmmm...that's odd. Sorry about that.
Cool! I'd seen the thread, but not seen the screen grab! Thanks.
I didn't see it posted.........but I saw it on Brit's show!!!!
But yes,the antis do quite a lot of "muddying"!
Freep ya soon..........................
I was just serving dinner,when that came on and I screamed at my husband : FREEP,FREEP IS ON WITH BRIT! LOL
Memory of some blubber-based blabber on an airline seating thread from awhile back riled me. (;<)
HEE HEE HEEE..........we're on the same wave length!
I'm actually responding to 2 of your posts in this one...........
I've been back and forth with so many threads and pings tonight that I didn't bother to check the front page, and so I didn't see the postings about Brit referencing Free Republic. But I did see it when it aired live at 6pm EST..............and again the replay.
And now I'm going to go keep my standing date with my [illow.............otherwise my face is going to land on my keyboard.
This time it's smokers - what will be next?
This seems to be happening in a lot of nations - Now - if drinking was also gone after with such gusto - others might understand it better as a true "health" issue - Drinking is well documented to cause problems - but is the urge there in all these nations to ban drinking - No - (I know, it was tried once in America - and failed - ) - But this is today - and the reason being given is health - Considering that - this drive to do away with smoking in all these places does not ring true - that is for it being done for "health" reasons -
With pushing the same sex issue - that seems to be also taking the same path as the smoking issue in many nations - Is it - what one nation does - others follow - ?
Does anyone see a pattern developing - What "one" side decides is PC - then that is what goes - around the world - it seems -
Should all others on Earth - just let it happen - around the world - giving up rights along the way -
The PC people just love it when silence is the answer and they get their way -
just my thoughts - I know it's been said that silence is golden but to everything there is a time and place - and sometimes silence becomes far from golden - especially when people so willingly give up their rights to please one side or the other in the wacky world in which we live today -
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