Congratulations, Washington…
…you just took another step towards complete nanny-statehood!
In the grand tradition of Kelo vs. New London, Washington State voters have jumped on the bandwagon to the feel-good notion of “public health” even while said wagon rolls over and squashes property and personal rights…
No longer can I enjoy the slightly seedy, character-rich, smoke-filled air of the Huricane Cafe or any other place that currently allows smoking… but hey, at least I’m safe from secondhand smoke! Just wait, in a few years we’ll be passing a law that prevents smoking in your own home, because at some future point someone else may live there and the effects of residual smoke will be too much to bear. Its for the children!
November 9th, 2005 at 12:33:48 pm
Amen. Laws like this are incredibly over-reaching. It should be a business owner’s right to decide whether to allow smoking at their location and it should be the patrons right to choose whether to continue doing business with said business based on whether they allow smoking/don’t allow smoking or any other factor they care to consider. There are plenty of businesses that cater to smoker and what the hell are they going to do now? In addition to making it illegal to smoke indoors, this law makes it illegal to smoke within 25 feet of an entryway to a publicly accesible building. In parts of the city like Capitol Hill, where the buildings are close together and the roads narrow, this effectively means you can’t legally smoke anywhere!
I don’t smoke, nor will I ever start, but I occasionally like the atmosphere of places like The Hurricane (Coffee, Cigarettes and Grease). What is next, a law prohibiting the eating of McDonald’s hamburgers in public? Frequent eating of hamburgers is probably just as likely to kill you as smoking and by eating said hamburger in a public location you are convincing impressionable youth that death by cholestorol is an socially acceptable form of suicide.
November 9th, 2005 at 10:24:16 pm
Daniel, your eating of cheeseburgers within 25 feet of me isn’t going to harm me in any way. If you light up, though, that just might.
I definitely see your (and Ryan’s) perspective on this, but as someone who absolutely cannot stand the smell of smoke (especially how it lingers in my clothing for hours and sometimes days), I am glad this law was passed.
Call me selfish, but I’m already eating way too many cheeseburgers for my heart to be in any shape to stave off second hand smoke too! ;)
November 10th, 2005 at 01:03:52 am
But Bernie, these days no one ever, ever, ever forces you to enter an establishment where smoking is allowed. You don’t want to eat at the Hurricane if it means you have to breathe smoke? Then don’t. You don’t want to go to the casino if it means you have to breathe smoke (unless its tribal, in which case the law doesn’t have effect)? Then don’t.
Once upon a time, I realize that so many places allowed smoke it was nearly impossible to avoid it. But these days, its easy to avoid it. In fact, I avoid it so easily that it surprises me when I find a place that does allow smoking. And those places, like The Huricane, often gain much of their character from this allowance.
A few decades ago, most people thought that “
eating of cheeseburgerssmoking of ciggarettes within 25 feet of me isn’t going to harm me in any way.” Who is to say that in another couple decades, child psychologists will “discover” that children emulate the eating habits of people they see at fast food resturants? Then with a law like this, what will prevent Dan’s prediction from coming true?It may seem ridiculous now, but may I remind you that the government interference in every aspect of life that we see today — and the melowness with which we accept it and even applaud it — would give most (if not all) of the founding fathers heart attacks.
To further drive the point home, having airbags in my car doesn’t have any affect on your health when I crash in to you. Indeed, it may even encourage me to drive more recklessly, since I feel more protected. Nevertheless, our federal government mandates airbags in all cars. Our state government forces you to wear a seatbelt at the threat of over-$100 fines or jail if you refuse that (by the way, I actually wear my seatbelt less because of this law, just to spit in the face of the
manwoman (Gregoire). So that law has actually made me less safe. But I digress. There are hundreds of examples of “for your own good because we know better than you” type legislation. Its just sad to see that here in Washington, we are so brainwashed that we wholeheartedly (60%!) agree that we want government to be our nanny.November 10th, 2005 at 12:49:35 pm
You might want to put a legend on that map, it just looks like a map of the counties in Washington instead of the election results.
November 15th, 2005 at 11:18:12 am
Well, Tim, it basically is a map of the counties in Washington because every single county voted for the ban. Cotnrast that to I-912, where there was some disagreement, primarily between those recieving the funds from the new tax and those simply paying.