"Confusion to our Enemies"
A popular bumper sticker in California accurately portrays the peasants' rejection of central control.
I know. A state where hardly anyone speaks ENGLISH anymore!
Press 1 for ENGLISH! Ugh!
Posted on 03/03/2007 1:16:31 PM PST by SheLion
A popular bumper sticker in California accurately portrays the peasants' rejection of central control.
I know. A state where hardly anyone speaks ENGLISH anymore!
Press 1 for ENGLISH! Ugh!
I think most FReepers realize the entire nation's population can be broken down into various 25 - 30% groupings for the purpose of exorbitant taxation and suppression of rights -all for the "public good". I'm not a smoker but the process and means used by the government stink to High H#ll and are very un-American.
So, don't we wish we had another Ronald Reagan???
"The taxing power...must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change."
Ronald Reagan - 1981
I think that's the essence, Diana.
Smokers, unlike the Anti-Smoking Taliban, respect the owners' property rights.
It's the owners who've been coerced into being enforcement units for the state, and who'll pay the consequences for defying the bans.
Smokers have two choices: ignore the property owners' rights and place them in financial jeopardy through fines and loss of licenses or stay away.
So smokers have in a manner protested, as witnessed by revenue loss by the business owners.
The only effective protest against the smoking bans must be initiated by the business owners, since their smoking customers aren't suffering any financial loss, which is quantifiable, and would seem to me to be a basis for legal action.
Of course, I'm not a lawyer....
Thanks, all. your comments make perfect sense.
'The People's Republik of Madistan' (near where I live) has lost close to 20 businesses due to the ban that's been in effect since July '05.
None of the businesses really did band together to fight this. Guess they believed the Smoke Gnatzies' propaganda that their now smoke-free bars and restaurants would be filled to the brim with non-smokers praising them to high heaven.
Didn't work out that way. It never does. :(
Meant to ping you to #45, too. :)
That's easy ... Casinos are heavily taxed, and have lobbyists who grease a lot of political palms at the local and state level.
Brilliant. Bears repeating.
The key is for the members of those groupings to band together into ( preferably national ) organizations with the resources to fight legal and political battles.
Legal battles are part of the struggle, but perhaps even more important is getting involved during elections to throw politicians out of office.
Any politican will be reluctant to vote for something like a smoking ban when he knows he's going to be personally smeared in television and radio ads when he's up for re-election. Negative ads work.
JMHO.
Of course! State Casinos pay the state big bucks. The reason the state anti's aren't going after them! The anti's know that Casino's will lose money if a smoking ban is imposed on them. So, less revenue, less money to the state.
The anti's suck the big one!
“Civil disobedience has been used for much greater causes,” he said Wednesday. Business owners who have lost business because of the smoking ban “should look at ways to appeal to nonsmokers.”
So this POS just ADMITTED the bans hurt businesses."
As a bookkeeper, I knew that a smoking ban would hurt business.
First, in order to have separate smoking and non-smoking areas, bars and restaurants spent THOUSANDS of dollars to re-design and re-construct their air-conditioning and heat systems. That money investment hasn't even been fully depreciated in their bookkeeping records. Now they are losing even more money trying to run a business.
Let the businesses decide: Let them have large signs on the front of the building:
We smoke in this business.
If you wish, come on in.
If you don't like smoking, please go elsewhere.
Plain and simple.
If I am old enough to drink, I should be able to read the signs perfectly.
If I am working in such an establishment and I don't like smoking- I will GO GET ANOTHER JOB!!!!!
Yearts ago, I used to work in a tire store. I coughed more there than any other location I ever worked.
Legal battles are part of the struggle, but perhaps even more important is getting involved during elections to throw politicians out of office.
Any politican will be reluctant to vote for something like a smoking ban when he knows he's going to be personally smeared in television and radio ads when he's up for re-election. Negative ads work.
Listen. Most of us have written thousands of letters to the lawmakers! Most lawmakers, once voted into office, become power hungry. They promise us the moon to get our votes, but once in office, all the give us is the outhouse.
We have also written to countless newspapers and given interviews over the radio and the phone! Many of us have gone to the state houses to speak in front of the Senate. However, they give us very little time, maybe 5 minutes, to make our case. Not NEAR enough to get the truth out!
And most of us do NOT have the funds to take these morons to court.
My favorite place to eat almost closed their doors after the first smoking ban in Maine in 2000.
The owner then invested in a very expensive liquor license to once again allow smoking and business started to boom again.
They then remodeled. The place is beautiful. 4 big ceiling air purifiers. Full menu. A beautiful glass enclosed non-smoking section. Sign on the entrance door "This is a smoking establishment. No one under 18 admitted without guardian."
It is a Sports Bar with the full computer golf game across the back wall; bunch of big TV's. Just beautiful.
But that still wasn't good enough for the state. A full no smoking ban went into effect a year ago January. I went once after the ban, was so miserable that I couldn't sit there like old times and enjoy the evening that I haven't put myself through that again.
And do you think the state will reimburse this business owner for spending his own money to be able to accommodate everyone? You can bet they will not.
To all you smokers who can still go into town or the city and go into a restaurant and/or bar or tavern.....order your meal and beverage and smoke, you better treasure every day that you can.
Maine went totally smoke free in 2003. That was my recreation: going out for meals a few times a month. It was wonderful. I didn't know how wonderful it was until we smokers in Maine lost that right.
So, take it from me! Enjoy the places that can continue to accommodate you and the ones who still have smoking sections!
So true. Here in the people's republic of Massachusetts there has been a smoking ban for some years. However if you go to any local bar you will find everyone smoking just the same. The cops have no interest in enforcing it and bartenders are not deputized under the law and have no obligation to enforce it. The chain restaurants and fern bars and hoity-toity towns of course are stuck.
Same here in Seattle. What's the worst part is you can't even have a cigar club. You know, where legal adults are "allowed" to enjoy a legal product with friends, served by and owned by people who WANT to have this kind of business. It completely eliminates the stupid argument about workers being "forced" to work around smoke. There was a great cigar lounge in one of the steakhouses downtown that actually was paying the fines and allowing smoking, because they more than made up for the cost of the fines in their revenues. But oh, no liberals can't have that, so they threatened to shut the whole restaurant down. I too am sad about a particular cigar lounge in Bellevue called Havana Dan's It had great cocktails, beautiful waitresses, and the best view of downtown in the world. It was always packed. They turned it into a wine bar, and now nobody goes to it.
Sad, isn't it? The highly paid anti smokers sure put a halt to the revenue for private businesses!
Here is a picture taken outside a private business in Washington State::
“Civil disobedience has been used for much greater causes,” he said Wednesday. Business owners who have lost business because of the smoking ban “should look at ways to appeal to nonsmokers.”
IOWs "F you, you peons. I know what's best."
Thanks for the ping.
BTTT
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