Ravenwood - 10/10/03 12:00 AM
The Montgomery County (MD) repeal of property rights started yesterday. The Washington Post reports that restaurant owners will have to play cigarette police and start enforcing the county smoking ban. Proponents of the ban claim that restaurants are going to reap a financial windfall as anti-smokers, who have apparently been held hostage in their own homes, are going to be lining up in droves outside bars and restaurants.
"It's not Puritanism," said Eric Gally, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association. "Secondhand smoke kills."Of course, puritan lobbyist Eric Gally offers no proof that passive smoking is harmful. After a 7 year World Health Organization study that tried to link passive smoke to cancer, the findings were inconclusive. Also notice how freedom grabbing Democrat, Nancy Floreen, claims that nullifying property rights seems "commonplace", because more people support it than are against it. Similar logic was used to support slavery, Nazi persecution, and Japanese internment.
Nancy Floreen, (D-At Large), who attended the court hearing, said the ban seems commonplace given the broad shift in public attitudes toward tobacco in recent years."Nobody would think twice about permitting smoking on a plane now," she said. "It used to be a way of life, but we have slowly but surely moved in this direction."
What really makes the ban seem unnecessary was this statement by County Executive Doug Duncan:
He said many restaurants in the county are already smoke-free.If there are already so many places for non-smokers to patronize, what is the point of forcing your social views on other people?
It is past time for the proprietors of hospitality businesses to go on general strike in localities such as Montgomery County.
Posted by: Brett at October 10, 2003 7:33 AMI do not know if there is any reason to visit this place (ie tourist attractions, sports venues) but I damn sure won't be visiting. Where is the ACLU on this one?
Posted by: Michael at October 10, 2003 10:07 AMWell, it's right outside DC, so if you visit the area, and stay in Maryland, you might stay there.
Posted by: Ravenwood at October 10, 2003 11:11 AMNo I won't. I don't use tobacco (of all the drugs I ever tried it makes the least sense to me) but as a matter of principal I will cooperate with this governmental decision to hurt its local businesses.
I get a sore throat, clogged sinuses, and red eyes at the least whiff of smoke, and I can remember when it was nearly impossible to go out (or to go to the bathroom in my highschool) without breathing clouds of cigarette smoke. Maybe I ought to applaud regulations like this, but I don't. They come in only when social forces have already made them unnecessary. There are smoke-free restaurants now - there's no need to drive the nicotine addicts out of EVERY restaurant.
Posted by: markm at October 10, 2003 9:26 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
