Posted on 01/17/2007 5:46:53 PM PST by suspects
If there's a heaven, it will have a smoking section. And if there's a God, it will be located at Club Habana in Charleston, S.C.
Reclining in an overstuffed chair, a Padron Anniversario Maduro in one hand, a perfectly blended martini in the other, a view of Meeting and Market on a summer's evening below ... who would want to disturb such an idyllic scene?
Politicians, of course. You had to ask?
The same Charleston City Councilmembers who banned "inappropriate language" from their public meetings (after a black activist dropped the "N-bomb") has now voted to strip private property owners of their most basic rights. It's enough to make me use another "N" word to describe Councilman Wendell Gilliard and Company:
"Nitwit."
For the moment, tobacco-specific businesses like Club Habana are spared the Smoke Nazis' wrath — for the moment. But does anyone doubt the jackboots will stomp them out of business asap?
What makes the smoking ban gestapo so frustrating is that it is so, so stupid. Forget the principles of individual liberty and private property (your elected officials have) — smoking bans are just plain dumb.
First of all, it's solving a problem that doesn't exist. Private businesses are already going smoke-free in response to customer demand, and without "Granny" Joe Riley tellin' the kids to put out them dang cigareets and go to bed!
So if there's no problem, how can the Smoke Nazis — like my fellow columnist Will Moredock — defend such draconian actions as stripping business owners of their basic rights? By playing the "panic" card: "Run for your life! Your neighbor's cigarette is gonna kill YOU!"
All parties agree that the Surgeon General's 2006 report on secondhand smoke provided essential cover for the Smoke Nazis like Mr. Moredock. He happily aped the reports' claim that "there is no such thing as a safe amount of secondhand smoke."
I'm not picking on Will. He didn't get the story any more wrong than the Surgeon General did. As every person who has read the 727-page report has pointed out (a group that does not include a single politician in the state of South Carolina, by the way), the study did not find any increased incidence of heart or lung disease whatsoever from the kind of brief exposure to secondhand smoke that occurs at restaurants and bars. None. Zero.
Sitting in a bar with a smoker never killed anyone, other than the occasional anti-smoking zealot whose annoying hectoring gets them beaten to death with an ashtray.
Yes, it's true that Surgeon General Richard Carmona claimed, "even brief exposure to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and increases risk for heart disease and lung cancer." However, there is not one finding in his own report — none — to back this up. It just more speculation by yet another Smoke Nazi willing to deceive the public "for their own good."
Don't take my word for it: Ask anti-smoking activist Dr. Michael Seigel. He supports government action to discourage smoking, but he also supports science and common sense. Despite what you see from South Carolina politicians, it is possible to do both.
Yes, if you live with a smoker for 20+ years, there is a small increase in your risk of cancer, but that's not what happens to customers in bars. Saying "there's no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke" is as dumb as saying there's no safe amount of beef because it's possible to choke to death on a single bite of sirloin.
Look, I could quote still more studies showing no "causal relationship between exposure to [passive smoke] and tobacco-related mortality" (British Medical Journal, 2003), and that sitting in the smokiest bar is equal to just 0.004 cigarettes an hour. But I don't have to, because you know I'm right.
You know it because you understand what life was like in the '60s and 70s, when a majority of American children had parents who smoked. Dad blew smoke in our faces at home, in the car, over dinner, in the bathtub. If it's true that even "brief exposure" is a killer, then pray tell, Mayor Riley, how come I'm not dead?
Seriously — where are all the dead 40-somethings? The incidence of smoking-related cancers should be through the roof as my fellow baby boomers, raised by chain-smoking moms and dads, gasp our last cancer-riddled breaths.
But we aren't. Lung cancer rates are down, and plummeting for the generation of smoker babies. Obesity, not Dad's smoky Oldsmobile, is our number one killer. And we were exposed to a lot more smoke than you'll get at Club Habana on their busiest night.
So why are Charleston politicians banning smoking on private property? Because they can.
Let's face it — nobody likes smokers. They won't even defend themselves. Smokers are so far down the social ladder, if there were a linguistic equivalent of the "N-bomb" for smokers, people would feel free to use it in public.
Except in front of the Charleston City Council, of course.
Too busy to respond corectlly....busy injecting on my Premier Excel.
It's happened here in Ohio -- citizen will be reporting on citizen soon: Here's a link to a sign that by law must be placed at every public place:
http://www.odh.ohio.gov/ASSETS/50F0940288AA4C57A44965B6543027FC/NoSmokingColor.pdf
I get the sense these anti-smoking kooks have gone too far.
Indeed they have gone too far. I'm an Ohioan, where the voters approved a ballot issue to ban smoking in ALL PUBLIC PLACES, during the November election. After it was put into effect, I stepped outside my local mall to have a cigarette during my break one day. I was plenty far enough from the door (20 feet) where no one entering or exiting the mall was even close to me. A mall security car was patrolling, the car stopped, the security guard got out and then told me I had to be 30 feet away from the door. Duh, and I thought their job was to focus on SECURITY? Stupid me.
What drives me nuts is that folks cant grasp the idea that you already have a choice, you dont have to go to the smoking allowed establishment. Haul your whiney butt elsewhere. Of and please do so on foot because I dont want to choke on you exhaust fumes
If anything, there should be an epidemic of aging stewardesses with cancer and heart disease from all those years of flying with smokers. I'm certainly not seeing it.
I quit smoking 9 months ago. I'm 50 yrs old. My wife still smokes. The smoke itself does not bother me, nor do I think it smells bad. However,now that I quit, I can smell the smoker's clothes and it really stinks. I cringe when I think that I used to smell like that.
Someone told me today that in New Jersey there's a state law in debate about "outlawing" trans-fats in food establishments. I don't care what anyone says it's nice to live in a "free" society ain't it ???
Another example of how they have indeed gone too far... I work in the tallest building between New York and Chicago in downtown Cleveland. The buildng has an underground ventilated parking garage with an exhaust system that automatically kicks in when exhaust fumes reach a certain level. The morning the no-smoking law went into effect in Ohio, the building management had their security guards go into the underground parking garage and take pictures of people smoking with Polaroid cameras. Never mind someone wanting to bring in a car bomb or someone stealing a car. The law also requires all ashtrays to be removed on the outside of buildings. Now, there's nothing but cigarettes butts lying around.
And articles like this prove smokers have no clue how to win friends and influence people.
PING. :-)
It seems like I remember something about pissed off South Carolina guys doing something once....
Viva the Nanny State.
From the Ohio Department of Health's website:
Q5: Are fines or other penalties currently being levied against individuals or organizations alleged to be violating the law?
A5: The law states that fines will range from $100 to $2,500 for a business and a maximum of $100 for individuals. Each day of a violation shall constitute a
separate violation. The schedule of fines that will apply will be progressive and will be based on the number of violations received by that individual or business
within the past two years. Fines may be doubled for intentional violations.
Yup...it's applied to non-smoking areas, where you can turn in smokers who light up in the ban-zone created by the smoke-Nazi's.
Pretty soon, smokers will have a bounty on their head paid for informants who turn them in!
Is this a great country, or what?
Smokers stink; non-smokers smell.
Yeah, it's certainly wonderful when 3/4 of the state's population turns the remaing 1/4 into possible criminals subjected to fines. A very nice way to treat your fellow citizens. I think they need a class on citizenship. Welcome to Nazi Germany.
EVERYTHING IN OHIO is now a NON-SMOKING AREA NOW. There is NO PUBLIC PLACE where smoking is allowed.
Sadly, you're right. But when it comes to faggots and dykes, blacks, or Hispanics, those are "minorities", and the MAJORITY can't discriminate against THEM, as it's depriving them of their Civil Rights somehow.
You have to be a designated "minority" to reap the benefits of the U.S. Constitution today....
Welcome to political-correctness.....
HA!
Ohio is screwed up, BIG TIME, since Taft's been in office, and with the invasion of ACORN and the loonies after the 2004 elections (they STILL think they won Ohio for Kerry and Diebold cheated 'em), but the state is turning bluer and bluer now, as NAFTA took the manufacturing jobs, and the baby boomers are now part of the entitlements crowd, retiring from UAW and USW jobs.
Who said we were trying to?
Not in the slightest.
What it does prove is that the neurotics among us are running things.
This is only one additional hint that modern man is mostly insane.
Thanks for the ping!
Too bad the smokers you come across do not use good personal hygiene or wear fresh clothing. My hubby smoked and he never smelled bad. He wore clean clothes and had good personal hygiene. Plus, brushing the teeth with mouthwash and gum always helps a lot.
Everywhere? Bars too?
You mean, bars like the Round House on Put In Bay? Will I be able to smoke at the Boardwalk? That's kind of outside.
First the "terrorist" silliness killed boating across the river in Canada, and now the smoking-nazis are going to make life miserable at Put In Bay. No wonder I spend so much time at home with my dog.
Seriously, does this ban apply to outdoor bars?
:O)
This coming from the biggest ANTI-Smoker in Free Republic! Oh yes!
We don't defend OURSELVES?????? 
Sad how they label a private business as "public," isn't it?!
Public property: That which is purchased and maintained by tax dollars for the benefit of all people.
Private property: That which is not purchased or maintained by tax dollars and is for the benefit of the property owner.
Pri•vate
adjective
3. (of a service or industry) provided or owned by an individual or an independent, commercial company rather than by the government.
It's not just smoking, it's everything! Ban this, regulate that, tax this and tax that.
Good point. In pure hypocritical fashion, the smoking Nazis are the same people that cry about freedom and censorhip when it comes to efforts on limiting the smut on TV. They say "If you don't like it, change the channel".
One of the usung benefits of smoking is its effectiveness in repelling snivelers.
Not true. My wife's fresh clothes smell after she comes in the house after smoking outside. I guarantee your husband's do as well. I couldn't smell any of this while I was smoking. It's after you quit that you regain a much better sense of smell.
Well, to tell you the truth, I would give ANYTHING to smell aftershave and tobacco on my hubby again. But you see.............he passed away quite unexpectedly in 2003...............
And since "I" have no intention of quitting, I will just have to keep up my good hygiene! Heh! Even my own Doctor can't smell any smoke on me when I go for my appointments. She has to even ask if I quit. So........not everyone has that prissy nose like you do.
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