Clearing The Air

An olive branch?....

Far be it from me to harp on one issue..... but I thought I would offer some constructive advice to the anti-smoke activists whom I debated with, during yesterdays MN., House committee's defeat of the smoking ban bill.

One of the funny things you hear during all these various testimonies is from doctors who have the audacity to testify to committee members and business owners, is that there will be no financial impact on their businesses...."you will force your patrons to refrain from smoking and you won't lose any money or customers"....so says the six figure salaried doctor. Who can doubt such logic, a doctor said it, it must be true! And the more gullible local governments such as Mpls., Bloomington, St. Paul city councils, and Henn. & Ramsey counties, as well as the MN. Senate buy into this bs., but perhaps some future campaign contributions from MPAAT, Am. Lung Assoc., Blue Cross Blue Shield, et. al. also help that bs. smell a little sweeter

........anyway I digress, my constructive advice to the anti-smoking activists is this..... instead of buying or attempting to buy our politicians, er...I mean lobby; why not put together a program that targets private businesses directly. It could work something like this, the above businesses; masquerading as noble organizations simply concerned about the public's health & welfare (more on this later); MPAAT, Am. Lung Assoc., Am. Cancer Society, Blue Cross Blue Shield et al would approach private bar & restaurants and ask them to voluntarily go non-smoking; if there is a loss of revenue in going non-smoking these organizations will reimburse the difference. If as all their expert Dr./bar & restaurant economists are correct it will cost them nothing. It will end the debate once and for all, and they can buy a smoking ban in the manner we in America are accustomed to, free enterprise capitalism.

Because the guise of government needing to get involved in second hand smoke as a public health issue is a farce that has now been exposed. The activist organizations have dipped into that well one time too many times, and I fear the public and politicians are ready to look at the facts, and reject any further smoking ban legislation........thank you St. Louis Park Environmental Health Department for letting the genie out of the bottle.

posted by marcus aurelius @ 11:34 AM