Why hasn't anyone done anything about this yet???!!!! I'm sick of it!
Posted on 10/25/2006 1:09:52 AM PDT by goldstategop
Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that Washington has cornered the market on government madness.
It is hardly the case, as the city leaders of Omaha, Neb., showed us earlier this month.
Not only did the city council cave into the pressure of the anti-smoking Nazis – banning cigarettes in 97 percent of public places – but this group of tyrants went further than any in America thus far.
City officials in Omaha, with the support of the police department, called on citizens who witness violations of the new prohibition to call 911 to report them.
911.
(Column continues below)
Silly me, I thought 911 calls were about emergencies. Apparently, smoking in a no-smoking zone is considered a high crime in Omaha – right up there with murder, rape and robbery.
There was, I am happy to report, one voice of sanity expressed amid the madness.
Bucking the voices of the establishment, Douglas County emergency director Mark Conrey said people should not call 911 every time they see someone light up in a restricted area. He said the very idea threatens Douglas County's emergency system.
I would think so. In fact, don't police and emergency responders in most cities across the country deliberately discourage all but emergency calls on 911?
Nevertheless, despite the plea from the man in charge of making the emergency system work, Omaha police and city officials insisted residents should use 911 to report smoking law violators.
Maybe it's a bid to raise cash, as penalties are $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second and $500 for the third and subsequent infractions.
Or maybe this is the type of crime city officials and police officers feel confident they can actually deter. Maybe these are the type of "criminals" they can actually bust – and without much threat to their own safety other than the possibility of inhaling second-hand smoke.
Maybe it seems like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill here. Maybe it seems like I'm picking on Omaha officials. Maybe it seems to you there are more important issues facing us than the smoking ban in a Nebraska city.
If so, then you are missing the point entirely.
This kind of insanity, this kind of tyranny, this kind of misguided political correctness is going to be the death of our great country if we're not careful.
These laws have a way of multiplying. Despite challenges to the anti-smoking bans in cities across the country, despite the way these laws hurt businesses, despite the way they destroy freedom and "choice" and "diversity" and all the other lofty buzzwords used by the very people inclined to impose such draconian laws, not one anti-smoking ordinance has yet been repealed.
Do I care about smoking?
No, not that much.
But I do care about freedom.
I know what you're thinking.
"Farah, don't smokers violate my rights and the rights of my children to breath clean air?"
Freedom is for everyone – not just non-smokers. I think property owners who want to allow smoking in their establishments – their restaurants and bars – have every right to do so. And people have the right to patronize those establishments or not.
If non-smokers are so organized that they can impose their will on others by force, why not just use that power to persuade some restaurants and bars it is in their best interest to remain smoke-free?
Besides freedom, I also care about truth. And the truth is that those who claim all kinds of terrible dangers from second-hand smoke are lying through their glistening white teeth.
Maybe it's time for some local officials to stop playing "follow the leader," by doing exactly what other cities are doing, and to start actually leading. That requires, by the way, the ability to think for yourself, which may be beyond the capacity of the Omaha political elite.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Pingaroonie~!
These NANNY-STATE morons are going to destroy our way of life if they're NOT stopped!!!
"Every member of the society spies on the rest,
and it is his duty to inform against them.
All are slaves and equal in their slavery...
The great thing about it is equality...
Slaves are bound to be equal."
-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
(1821-1881)
Source: The Possessed
Why hasn't anyone done anything about this yet???!!!! I'm sick of it!
"banning cigarettes in 97 percent of public places"
I didn't realize that the City of Omaha owned 97 percent of the property in their city limits.
That's the thing about fascism: it doesn't assume ownership of property, it places restictions on the use of property. That is a hallmark of fascism.
All the smokers should intentionally have themselves thrown in jail to create overcrowding and force the control nazis to turn killers and rapists loose on the streets.
Thank you. And for 'my swamp.'
Shhhhh, don't let the FR celebrators of this policy hear you say that. They will start writing in pain at the thought of their hypocricy.
Hey if it is like the Communists on our city council here on our town, they own and control ALL private property.
Killer sentence right there! Dead on observation! Who the hell "owns property" anymore?
This is the battle folks.......
FMCDH(BITS)
Because WE let them. Until WE stop them it will continue.
I'm ready.
Utter insanity.
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