On Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:41:44 +0000, Mike O'Sullivan
wrote:
>David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the royal duchy of city south and
>deansgate wrote:
>>
>>> One thing that stills gets me is the smoker lingering in the doorway.
>>> Plenty of that still going on.
>>
>> Some US states have laws which ban smoking within a certain distance of
>> an entrance. It seems to work there IME.
>
>I've read about this. How do they cope with smoking pedestrians just
>passing by their front door I wonder!
I live in Washington state, where we have the most Draconian
anti-smoking law in the US. The law was a ballot measure, voted on by
our beloved populist citizenry. The law bans smoking in all buildings,
public and private, and also bans smoking with 25 feet (8 meters) of
any door of any building, public or private. Indian reservation lands
are exempted.
You can still smoke in your home, in your yard, or in your car. You
can walk down the street smoking. But you cannot linger within 25 feet
of any door that is not a private residence.
Some have argued that the 25-foot rule is unduly injurious to privacy
and freedom to assemble, as some busy avenues have no areas that are
less than 25 feet from a door.
In practice, the 25-foot rule is largely ignored and unenforced. But
the smoking-in-a-building rule is strictly enforced. A hippie Turkish
hookah place in Seattle was driven out of business immediately, as
have "cigar bars". A good friend who owned a popular
restaurant/tequila bar fought the law bitterly. He smoked openly in
the bar and encouraged others to do so. He was featured in a few
national news outlets. When the nanny state came to fine him, he
accepted the paperwork. Multiple written infractions were paid in
full. He figured a weekly infraction fee was better than losing
profitable customers. It didn't last. The city hounded him mercilessly
and eventually he faced jail time. He relented. The place closed a
year later - unpaid taxes. He couldn't keep up.
I don't smoke, but I oppose the law. I agree that non-smokers have a
right to a (mostly) smoke-free public life. I also think I'm entitled
to screaming-baby-free transatlantic flight, but I rarely get one. No
one wants non-smokers imprisoned in a smoke room. But life is a
tapestry. There are happy sunny Elysian fields and there are gray,
smoky dive bars with brown-stained TV screens. The current clamor for
banning everything "bad" is stripping us of our humanity.
I wonder what the final goal is of the nanny state. Is it some idyllic
1950's consumerist space-age puritanism? Or is a dreadlocked
wheat-free Dead show? Or is it a white-tiled Gucci gated community? At
what point can the nanny state claim victory?
I, for one, group the nanny staters with the Bush chickenhawks. They
can all sit down, shut the . up and let me finish my GandT while I
get this busty bubblehead to follow me home. Y'all are crampin' my
style. Bugger off.
- TR
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