Oppressive little dictators

A week ago, I gave one answer to the question perplexing state officials... Why is Minnesota stagnating? That primary answer was Urban Planning... the forced, controlled reshaping of our communities to fit an image that destroys everything truly interesting or exciting. Is it any wonder that people who don't fit into the prim and stodgy well-to-do mold are likely to just abandon the area?

Minnesota just took another big step in that direction... a step that will drive people not only out of the cities, but out of the state, and it will kill even more small businesses.

The Minnesota House Thursday voted 85-45 to approve a measure to outlaw smoking in restaurants and bars. Voting yes were 74 Democrats and 11 Republicans. Voting no were 11 Democrats and 34 Republicans.

Remember when Democrats prided themselves on standing up for minorities and personal freedom? That day is long gone. Oh, they still manipulate rhetoric to fool themselves into thinking they're standing up for somebody, but it is a complete farce. They have become the blade for the bulldozer of oppressive nannyism.

They're not only walking all over a large minority who smoke, but within that roughly 20% of the population are a high percentage of black people... a minority Democrats have traditionally claimed to help. A high percentage of smokers are also poor, another minority Democrats likes to claim to help. For the poor, smoking is a small personal luxury that makes life a little more pleasant. Another minority group they're walking on are all the proprietors of eating and drinking establishments. Those business owners have always been able to declare their places non-smoking, and many did, but that wasn't good enough for the petty little dictators in our legislature... they want to FORCE all establishments to be non-smoking. A great many bars and restaurants have already been forced out of business by local smoking bans... now we'll see the same thing happen all over the state.

Perhaps the MOST ridiculous part of the smoking ban is that it will even apply to American Legion and VFW clubs... purely private, membership clubs of veterans who gave a lot to their country... now being told that they cannot smoke in their own clubs. Regardless of your attitude on smoking, that is outrageously dictatorial. Of course, I know the "logic"... if we're going to screw all the "public" bars and restaurants, we really should be "fair" and screw the private clubs too.

The StarTribune reported: The House bill would eliminate most indoor smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants, VFWs, American Legion posts and bingo halls. But it would allow bar and restaurant owners who get most of their revenue from liquor to install separate indoor smoking rooms, where there would be no service, if they received approval from local governments.

Separate indoor smoking rooms, where there would be no service
That clause, if it even stays in the final version, is indicative of what this legislation is all about. That no-service smoking room idea is simply punitive. They'll allow smokers to smoke in a special room, but there will be no service... not even by wait staff who are smokers themselves... not even by owners on their own property. To the anti-smokers, though, even that tiny special-room "privilege" is called a "loophole" that smokers don't deserve, and it isn't part of the Senate version.

Smoking bans have nothing to do with health. I'll get personal here... I'm 68 and I've been a heavy smoker for 52 years. I'll put my health up against anyone of ANY age. I've never been in a hospital overnight. I have no allergies, have had no surgery of any kind (except dental), and I work out every day. If a heavy smoker can be extremely healthy, how can a little secondhand smoke be deadly? The very simple and obvious answer is that it cannot be. Secondhand smoke is a complete invention by anti-smokers, and there is plenty of scientific evidence to support that.

This is all pure oppression of some minorities with little pull by other minorities with lots of pull and money. This is a David/Goliath battle, and David is losing. Anti-smokers talk about Big Tobacco money, but the BIG in this battle is on the other side. Corporations selling stop-smoking devices, pills, and programs are pushing this, along with big "non-profits" like MPAAT, using big money from the tobacco settlement. That money comes directly out of the pockets of smokers, and is then used against them. MPAAT has changed its name to ClearWay Minnesota to avoid the bad reputation it was getting for misuse of the tobacco settlement money. Being anti-smoking has made a lot of people wealthy, at the expense of smokers who are already being penalized by exorbitant taxes and oppressive restrictions.

If you doubt that the motives of anti-smokers are sleazy and self-profiting, ask yourself why they aren't pushing for making smoking illegal? The answer is blatantly clear... they want to continue to soak up the money. If everyone stopped smoking, they would be out of business. Their concocted gravy train would stop.

How can anyone think this legislation has merit? How can anyone be so ignorant as to not understand that, if this outrage can occur, that someone will come after a freedom YOU care about? This isn't just a slippery slope... this is a purely SLIMEY slope.

Smokers and small business owners, using their own spare time and money, have fought hard against this, but big money is winning the battle, and we will ALL be worse off for the loss.