[Search4Truth]

Spot on!

[swarthyguy]

I see no difference between right and left on this issue.

Anal Control Freaks of both the left and right find joy and sustenance in these bans.

[netmilsmom]

ping!
How many of your freedoms do you want to give up?

[aardvark1]

Cigarette smokers are a numerical minority, practicing a habit considered annoying and unpleasant to the majority. So the majority has simply commandeered the power of government and used it to dictate their behavior.

Although I agree with the author's main point, the kind of logic displayed in the above statement won't help him. My guess is that Tracinski would complain that the minority has simply "commandeered the power of the government" in other areas.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Good Post Tailgunner Joe.

[Raymond Hendrix]

People want the government to be their mommy. It will not change now because people are used to being controlled and they are used to the hand outs. Too bad that America went down the tubes so quick.

[eBelasco]

Should anti-tobacco activists satisfy themselves with educating people about the potential danger and allowing them to make their own decisions, or should they seize the power of government and force people to make the "right" decision?

If second-hand smoke was a threat to my health, I should be responsible for removing myself from that threat. Cars are a threat to my health sometimes, so I don't walk on the freeway. I should not be able to restrict someone else from smoking.

[Just another Joe]

PUFF!

[Just another Joe]

The tobacco bans bulldoze all the barriers to intrusive regulation, establishing the precedent that the rights and/or liberties of the individual can be violated whenever the local city council decides that the "public good" demands it.

Used the word "rights" and you will have the statists demanding to see where that "right" is enumerated in the constitution.

[Nachoman]

Ordinarily, I would take the position against statist government, but I think this issue is somewhat unique. One non-smoker cannot ruin dinner for a room full of smoking diners. One the other hand, one smoker in a restaurant can screw up even the best of meals for everyone in the area.

[The Great RJ]

Health has little or nothing to do with the so-called smoking issue. It has far more to do with taxation. The true health crusaders want to ban all smoking for health reasons, but the liberals and other even Republican politicians cannot give up cigarettes as a major source of tax revenue.

If the health crusaders were to succeed, a major budget crisis would happen in nearly every state. However if economic forces prevail, the higher taxes will drive smokers to quit or seek cheaper sources (bootlegged, Indian Reservations, mafia etc.)also creating a budget crisis.

Sure is fun to watch!

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

THERE'S NO CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY FOR ANY BAN!

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

Buck Floomberg

[Great Dane]

Very well said.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Right now, I am in my second week of quitting. Of course, last night, I almost rolled my damn patch up and considered lighting the thing, I wanted a smoke so badly.

What I want to offer now is the occasional lucid thought I'm now having about smoking, that I haven't otherwise had in the past 25 years - and that is that the damn things are useless. My body doesn't have to have them for nourishment, nor do they act to relax me, or make me a little more convivial like a glass of wine or a frosty wheat soda. What the habit does is make me want to smoke in order to get rid of a craving which comes about due to my not smoking - it is a vicious cycle which feeds itself, for no damn purpose at all. It doesn't do a thing for me, it decreases my lung capacity and diminishes my taste buds, making me season my food even more heavily. Since my last one a week ago Thursday, I sleep better, food tastes better, and I feel more energetic and optimistic.

And no, it wasn't those stupid "truth" commercials, surgeon general warnings, or rantings learned by my kids at school - it was my realization that it wasn't doing anything for me but making my breath and clothing stink, while robbing me of lung capacity.

[jmc813]

WOD Ping

[Roscoe]

Ayn Rand described the effect of this two-pronged assault on liberty: "The conservatives see man as a body freely roaming the earth, building sand piles or factories--with an electronic computer inside his skull, controlled from Washington.

She was quite a crackpot.

[1Old Pro]

Politicians think they're Gods, when they take breaks from believing they're rock stars.

[americanSoul]

George Jonas, a conservative free-market advocate journalist and writer, who is rigorous regarding his facts, said recently in the National Post (Canada):

If you assign a risk factor of 1 for someone in the general population developing lung cancer then (based on a 40 yr. study of some 140,000 people where one spouse smoked and the other not):

non-smoking spouse's risk of developing lung cancer from 2nd hand smoke is 1.68

AND, the risk of developing lung cancer from eating potato chips is 6.4!

Maybe the nanny statists should ban potato chips.