Butt Out!
Leave ME Alone!!!
The buttinsky zealots of San FranFreakshow are at it again.
Gone would be smoking in all businesses and bars, which now make an exception for owner-operated ones.
Gone too would be lighting up in taxicabs and rental cars, city-owned vehicles, farmers’ markets, common areas of apartment buildings, tourist hotels, tobacco shops, charity bingo games, unenclosed dining areas, waiting areas such as lines at an ATM or movie theater, and anywhere within 20 feet of entrances to private, nonresidential buildings....Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed prohibiting tobacco sales in pharmacies, including Walgreens and Rite Aid. The city’s public health chief said the proposal is modeled after rules in eight provinces in Canada but has not been tried anywhere in the United States.
The Guy on the raadio asked, “where did such rabid hatred for smoking come from?!? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Yeah, Jack—it does.
It’s the first foray into heavy social engineering. It sold as being based on “science”—which has long proven to be fictitious but is still cited time and again. It is driven by some small annoyance to those who do not participate. [Smoke smells bad to those to whom it doesn’t smell good: so do most perfumes, air “fresheners” and stinky scented candles.] But mostly it’s based on selling the idea that government ought to be in charge of the smallest detail of other people’s lives. It is fueled by the Gladys Kravatz’s and Mrs Grundy’s deep desire to poke their noses into their neighbors’ lives and tell them what to do as “they know better!”
If the American citizenry will accept this level of intrusion into our personal lives and this level of restriction on our own and our fellow citizens’ personal liberties, we’ll accept dang near anything.
See: Global Warming
See also: Trans-fats Banned in Cahleefohrneeiah, which contains this inspiring phrase:
Mr Schwarzenegger, a progressive Republican, has not yet taken a position on the issue.
Now there’s a term for the age…
“... modeled after rules in eight provinces in Canada ...”
Well, heck, if it works for them, it must be good, eh?
“Schwarzenegger, a progressive Republican ...”
That’s from England, and they’re all a few bricks short of a wall. They’d probably label someone a “democratic socialist”.
Ooops - there are already such platypuses in the EU. Bad example.
Arnold stopped being a Republican a few months after he took office.
I’d just as soon everybody stopped smoking, but I figure that’s up to them.
Posted by ZZMike on 07/16/08 at 11:52 AMThe hilarious thing is how gravely California’s anti-smoking, do-gooder stance is affecting its economy. State pensions, for instance, were invested “responsibly” in non-tobacco, non-war related funds. The result? They’re now worth billions (that’s with a capital B) than if they would have been… and California’s wondering how they’re going to pay all those pensioners.
Posted by Venomous Kate on 07/16/08 at 01:02 PM
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