Scary, isn't it........
Posted on 10/01/2002 11:16:00 PM PDT by 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/
Don't swim in private pools if you don't want to taste the piss that is allowed there.
This forum is used by some people (ccmay included) that want the power to initiate force, fraud and coercion against people (be the "higher authority") or seek to enlist government agents ("higher authority") to initiate force, fraud and threat of force against people on their behalf.
There have always been groups of people who have banded together to deny others of their rights. It matters not if they are doing for the same reasons as others.
Groups of resturant owners acting to squash competition by using government to deny rights are every bit as evil as those who would do it for other reasons.
Scary, isn't it........
Not so much about having RINOS in our party, but fed up about this smoking/property rights issue!
Why isn't the Republican party out front and center doing their best to stop these proposals from becoming law?
Think about it.
Thats majority rule. Unless smoking were specifically protected by the constitution like guns, the press, speech, religion etc then its perfectly alright for the majority to ban it.
Let's revise that for accuracy. Some restaurants want to go smoke free. But there's this pesky little problem - customers preferences and the presence of competitors that allow smoking. So banning smoking in their own restaurants just isn't good enough. Their competitors have the unfair advantage of catering to the wishes of the marketplace!
So, like all good little socialists, the no-smoking restaurants beg their masters to use their heavy hand "to level the playing field".
This is an economic movement
Yeah, it's an economic movement allright. It's an attack on free market capitalism by socialists.
Have a problem with this? I have a BIG problem with this. We do NOT need Big Government as a NANNY protecting us "for our own good." Yes, I have a BIG problem with this!
Easily swayed by special interest groups with BIG BUCKS.
It is the American way. Your in denail that this trend can be reversed. Its a done deal. The major chains want the laws changed and the end result will be increased profits for everyone in the business because maintaining the staffing and the equipemt for providing smoking and nonsmoking sections will be eliminated and with a state wide ban the income will remain the same.
Once the economics works against you your screwed.
It's Tyranny of the Majority, aka democracy. We're supposed to be a republic, remember?
Unless smoking were specifically protected by the constitution like guns, the press, speech, religion etc then its perfectly alright for the majority to ban it.
Amendment IX: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Amendment X: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
But hey, who said any of that matters anymore.
Ah,,, ochlocracy, the last line of defense for those who disregard rights.
Unless smoking were specifically protected by the constitution like guns, the press, speech, religion etc then its perfectly alright for the majority to ban it.
That's a non starter for anyone who has a rudimentary understanding of where rights derive from. Please review the Declaration of Independance for an explanation even a child can understand.
BTW, in case you don't even get the fundamental issue, it's not smoking rights being addressed, it's property rights.
Damn it's pitiful what is dressing up as a conservative around here lately.
I agree it is. And because of that, our name is sullied and cheapened.
The major chains want the laws changed
Corporate oligarchy?
Once the economics works against you your screwed.
"...o'er the land of the fiscally prudent, and the home of the accountant."
They sell out freedom and principles for power.
If I want to have customers smoke, why can't I? If people don't like smoke, they can take their business elsewhere. Why is this so hard to understand???
If this country is so free, why can't I start an all-smoking airline if I thought I could make money doing so?
Please add me to your puff list......
There can be a good argument made that it is fascism.
I agree. I've found it difficult to distinguish the fine nuances between communism, socialism and fascism. Sound like a good idea for its own thread.
I just call it "Totalitarian Socialism". You have rulers at the top who are "above the law" and you have us commoners, pesants who are "allowed" certain things by our rulers who use socialistic measures to take whatever they want from us.
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