Posted on 01/20/2006 5:03:12 AM PST by SheLion
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A bill that would ban smoking in Utah's bars, private clubs and some workplaces passed its second reading in the Senate today.
It's a major hurdle for the bill sponsored by Senator Michael Waddoups of West Jordan.
The bill will need to pass the Senate one more time before it can move on to the House for consideration.
If it passes the House, it would make Utah the tenth state to ban smoking in bars.
Utah already bans smoking in most public places. However, the bill would exempt hotel rooms.
Waddoups says he wants to protect the health of bartenders, wait staff and musicians who are affected by second-hand smoke.
The Senate is expected to give a third and final vote on the smoking ban Friday.
THE REAL FACTS OF THE SMOKING BANS IMPACT ON BUSINESS'S
The Facts
Of course the businesses will be hurt that cater to the 25% of the public that smokes. Some bars and restaurants just naturally have that kind of clientele. The fact that smoking drives out other clientele doesn't matter. Some businesses don't need non-smokers as clients.
But I live in Germany where smokers do boycotts on *any* bar or restaurant that puts up a no-smoking sign to protect its workers and other customers from second hand smoke. Germany is one of the last holdouts.
Sweden just issued a federal no-smoking ban last June.
The result: I can now go into a bar or disco in Stockholm and enjoy myself without having to breathe other people's dirty lung air. I can't dance in Germany. The discos are too smoky.
Tell me again how that constitutional amendment to allow naturalized citizens to become President isn't going to get by the states.
So why should the government take away the clientele of those businesses?????
I seem to recalll Utah has the lowest smoking rates in the nation and I don't think all that many bars that cater to smokers anyway.........so why do this?
I think Republicans need to be very careful of the third rails in modern politics:
1) Watch the isolationist talk regarding the WOT and possible conflict in Iran. It only causes a huge split in the Republican Party now chock full of new-conservatives like myself.
2) Watch the talk about controlling or criticizing the sex lives of heterosexual males. Open season on homos is OK but not on heteros. A huge Republican base is at stake here. Wrong moves by the "Christian Right" can and will destroy the Republican Party as it is today.
3) Don't try to make opposition to smoking bans a Republican thing. It is OK if you have an opinion on the subject different to those who want to breathe fresh air...but it was very clearly a factor in Clintoon's 1996 landslide that Republicans mistakenly sided with big tobacco, etc, when the handwriting was on the wall that the vast majority of Americans neither smoke nor consider it all that cool that others do.
Clinton gained considerable power with this anti-smoking message. It caused people to look away from his allowing Pakistan to get nukes.
Carter also gained considerable power with his anti-asbestos message. There is no need to give liberals freebies by being the bad guys on such policies that the majority of the public prefer.
Since when does "the majority of the public" prefer policies infringing on the property rights of others.
Since when does "the majority of the public" prefer policies infringing on the property rights of others.""
I never smoked, but I detest this kind of legislation.
If you don't smoke- DON'T GO INTO those places.
There is absolutely NO compelling reason for anyone to enter a restaurant or bar where people can smoke if it offends them. I am more offended by the butt grabbing and flaunting behavior of gays. No one is even thinking of passing legislation on that topic.
I wouldn't ever attend a Raiders game because of the roughnecks that are prevelant there, and I love football.
JUST DON'T GO THERE!!
But don't tell a businessperson what his patrons can or cannot do.
[Since when does "the majority of the public" prefer policies infringing on the property rights of others.]
The battlelines are drawn mainly in the American red states and in Germany where the "leftists" are the ones who are defending smoking. In most of the rest of the first world (rest of Europe, American blue states), smoking is more and more considered something that can be done outside to be polite to others. But rural Illinois still allows smoking in bars...so the battlelines extend into blue states.
In Germany, the liberals believe that it was George Bush who is anti-smoking. They believe that American Republicans are trying to be "intolerant" of others by banning smoking.
As usual, this shows the total ignorance of the German press.
But it does point out that when you phrase it as "property rights"...you are developing your own angle in a world where bar owners don't have the right to allow women to walk around topless and serve alcohol either. Liberals in Germany take the angle that it is "intolerant" and not "multicultural" to regulate the air in bars.
If you are against strippers in bars and restaurants, then you can drop your "property rights" argument.
The conservatives in Germany (Catholics) might be more like "it is best to be healthy and clean" in regard to banning smoking in public (but they are not pushing too hard on this angle). Everyone can have their own angle on this politically.
I know plenty of smokers in New York or Stockholm who now enjoy not having to breathe others smoke in bars. I hate to say it, but this is a no-brainer politically. The Republican Party doesn't need to make this an issue like it was in 1996 when Clinton kicked butt.
But you can keep fighting this on a local level if you feel it effects your business.
Alas common sense is not an important factor in these measures, nor does it seem to be a trait common to those proposing them.
I spent 5 years in Germany. Wonderful country. However, don't believe all you hear about second hand smoke. When the war on the smokers didn't work, then the highly paid anti-smokers started on this second hand smoke kick. Telling everyone that our second hand smoke is killing them. This is all BS!
The result: I can now go into a bar or disco in Stockholm and enjoy myself without having to breathe other people's dirty lung air. I can't dance in Germany. The discos are too smoky.
Funny. I started dancing when I was 8. Turned professional at age 16. Started working at sports shows, TV and night clubs (very smoky, no smoke eaters at that time), and I also smoked.
I was in top shape. Smoking never once hindered my dancing or ability to breath.
Do you really think it's a good thing for the government to dictate how a private business owner is to operate just because you can't stand the smoke? This is a very slippery slope.
[But don't tell a businessperson what his patrons can or cannot do.]
Lapdances are heavily regulated and I believe Republicans are the ones who push for regulation.
I have nothing against them, I just personally don't go there. Which is exactly what non-smokers should be doing regarding businesses that permit smoking. Instead of runing to the government they should speak with their wallets.
I have never considered this a "Republican" issue. In fact the prime sponsors of the Delaware ban were Republicans, and some of the most vocal opponents to the smoking ban were Democrats. This is not a party issue, and it's not about smokers.
I am familiar with many businesses owners whose business have been damaged by these bans, some of them are longtime friends and I could see first hand the damage done.
Why is it when we speak out against the smoking bans and the control and restrictions of smokers we are accused of working for Big Tobacco??!!
Big Tobacco sold us out! None of us works for Big Tobacco!! We have Smoker's Rights Groups all across the United States and over seas. Free Republis is not the only place the smoking bans are discussed.
I have emails piling up every day from all over about the forced bans and loss of business. We do NOT work for the sells out Big Tobacco!
Oh really? Clintoon sure loves his stogies though, doesn't he!
[Do you really think it's a good thing for the government to dictate how a private business owner is to operate just because you can't stand the smoke? This is a very slippery slope.]
But the slippery slope is already there. Lapdancing, toplessness...is all regulated. You are not allowed to operate in many places now without a properly inspected dishwasher. The Health Department can regulate what you can and cannot do to the nth degree in many places.
The corporate world is against smoking now.
I know large Republican business owners in red states who would fire any employee who they know smokes at home! With them, even if you go outside and smoke in your car...your history.
Why? Insurance premiums and the future requirements for keeping only a non-smoking workforce are only the tip of the iceberg. It is becoming socially and professionally unacceptable in a lot of places to smoke.
You can't love nicotine so much as to bang your head against the brick wall of such an obvious and irreversible trend.
The 25 meter law...it is because the employees in large buildings had created a gauntlet of smoke outside the main doors that innocent people had to go through just to enter the building. I have written to several corporate presidents in the past asking that the employees don't smoke outside the entrance.
Thank you so much. The anti's haven't duped you. And that's a very good thing!
Well, before the forced smoking bans, smokers had their little lounges and smoking rooms at work. Out of the fray of everyone else for their smoke breaks.
Then along came the forced smoking bans. Smokers had to step outside to grab a cigarette. Was this good enough for the anti's? Hell no!
Next, the anti smokers started screaming that they had to "walk through a wall of smoke" to get into the building. And there you have it. Smokers forced further out into the street no matter what the weather to have a legal cigarette.
And the taxes just keep getting higher!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.