Bartalk: Prohibitionists at work again

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Bartalk: Prohibitionists at work again
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The anti-smoking NAZIs have already had their social-engineering approved in Baytown, Pasadena, Sugar Land, Dallas, Austin, and Houston. They are ostensibly "helping" all the poor bartenders and waitresses who are catching cancer from the customers who smoke in their "work environment". Ahem - listen up assholes: If you really want to help these people, do something about the way their tips are calculated for tax purposes, which is a form of robbery. But it's really not about helping these poor souls - that's just one of the many lies told by the anti-smokers. Here are a few more:
Lie #1: Businesses need not fear laws against smoking. In every place where smoking in public has been banned, business activity has not decreased at all.
The truth: Their statement is based on only one statistic - the vacancy rate of commercial property. What they are really saying is that the prime locations occupied by bars and nightclubs will soon be rented out to other tenants. That's why they never say things like "bars haven't closed", because they know that they have. In Minneapolis, 114 bars closed the first year. In Columbus, Ohio 76 bars closed the first year. In New York City, 290 establishments are gone. In Dallas and Austin, scores of bars have closed their doors forever. The bars that survive? That's all they do. The live bands are gone. It might not hurt the occupancy rate, but it kills bars and musicians, and puts a lot of small restaurants out of business everywhere a smoking ban is passed - without exception.
Lie #2: This is a public health issue. Secondhand smoke is dangerous!
The truth: Our polluted air is made up of 140,000,000 parts car exhaust, 70,000,000 parts smoke from refineries, 40,000 parts natural methane, and .1 parts smoke from that guy on the corner sneaking a cigarette on his lunch hour. Kill the smoker. He's destroying the air.
People might not like smoke. They might find it unpleasant. But it's a huge jump to say it's actually harming their bodies, as though they were coal miners, soon to be diagnosed with Black Lung Disease.
The highest exposure level ever documented using sophisticated sensors was in Barcelona, Spain - where a bartender working 40 hours per week in a smoke-filled bar was found (by the World Heath Organization) to absorb the equivalent of 4.3 cigarettes per year via second-hand smoke. Is this guy at risk? That's like saying somebody who eats one candy bar a year is a candidate for heart disease.
If public health was the deciding factor in our laws and policies, the following things would be illegal: smoking, alcohol, McDonalds, skittles, television, cars, football, ice cream, motorcycles, cars - I could go on for hours.
It's important to note that there has never been a coroner's report in the history of this country that listed secondhand smoke as a cause of death. In fact, it has never even been listed as a contributing factor by any medical examiner anywhere. So far, not one person has ever officially died of this "danger".
Lie #3: Patrons will appreciate the clean air, and business might actually improve.
The truth: Bull biscuits! It has never happened, anywhere. And how does this address the issues of banning the use of a legal product on private property, or changing the rules midstream for business owners resulting in loss of cash flow & business value? When a large corporation lays off hundreds of cubicle dwellers, it's a national tragedy, but when hundreds of small business owners are suddenly deprived of their property rights, you want to talk about how nice your clothes smell? Also, if non-smoking bars are such a great idea, why hasn't someone opened a few of them? The fact is, the smoke-haters didn't go out that much before, and they won't go out that much after a smoke ban. If you're looking for the most sedate, boring, slow, uptight, anal-retentive, sober, unsexy crowd, you would find them at the "clean air bar" - if there even was such a thing.
Smokers, addicted & casual, make up the majority of bar and live music patrons. Banning smokes just causes them to take their business down the street to the nearest jurisdiction where smoking is allowed. It accomplishes nothing - except eliminating small businesses.
The real truth about smoking bans:
The first ban on smoking was initiated by Adolf Hitler, who hated tobacco smoke, and would not permit it in his presence.
Most of the loudest supporters of smoking bans for "health reasons" are some of the most unhealthy lard-asses you can find. Try banning Cheetos and Pepsi and see what happens!
This ban craze is powerfully fueled by fundamentalist religious zealots who realize that it will close down bars - which is their true agenda. It's no coincidence that the communities with the most "Christians" in office have already passed smoking bans. Pastors remind their flocks to get out and vote against smoking, knowing it is a weapon against demon rum. Bans are invariably proposed by the council member(s) who are of the most religious posture. Locally, that would be morons like Shelley Sekula-Gibbs - who likes to preface remarks with "...as a doctor, I think…" She's a dematologist for Christs sakes!
Will history repeat itself?
The last time this country went on a binge of Puritanism, the result was Prohibition. 80% of the public supported it - just as most people currently support smoking bans.
We are moving in the direction of state or national Prohibition of smoking. When it passes, we will see bootlegging, smoking speakeasies, smoke police, raids on establishments and maybe even homes where tobacco is believed to be stored or used. We will see the ultimate corruption of public officials and law enforcement officers, bribed to allow illegal smoking establishments to continue in business. Criminals will create a whole new hierarchy.
We will see pharmaceutical companies make trillions of dollars on their nicotine-laced chewing gum (at $50 a pack!) and other products already in production.
Ultimately, the effort will fail, because of this important fact: Any time you ban something, it becomes cool! Tobacco bans just make the young people want to smoke, you idiots!
But there's worse to come:
Once the role of government has been firmly established in regulating the personal behavior of its citizens, the next easy step is to begin regulating other forms of personal behavior, deemed offensive to the majority. Soon, beer, liquor, books, movies, coffee, videos, etc., deemed offensive, will be banned.
An entire generation of Americans has already been brainwashed to believe that if somebody lights up a cigarette in a room, everybody in that room will shortly come down with a host of fatal ailments.
Are we still in America?
Our government has in its' possession no document giving it the right to deprive a property owner of his rights over a legal activity.
If you are a non-smoker who hates the smell of tobacco, I sympathize - but I hope you understand the principle of business owners and tobacco smokers also having certain inalienable rights. You don't have to go there if you don't want to. Go somewhere else.
Anyway, until just one person dies of secondhand smoke somewhere in this world, I don't see what the big deal is. It's prohibitionism.
If I owned a club and was hit with a smoking ban, I would practice "civil disobedience" and look into getting a private club license.
Shame on the elected sissies in office who have let themselves be bullied into these bans that accomplish nothing but the elimination of local merchants and local jobs.
Shame on the voters who put them in power.