Clearing The Air

Monday, August 01, 2005

This story is one of the reasons I was so happy to pass out Star Tribune Bias stickers this weekend at the Patriot picnic

I normally don't "fisk" star & sickle editorials or news stories (I guess that is redundant), because I don't read the socialist rag; but somebody pointed out this editorial to me today.

Editorial: Don't retreat/Push for statewide smoking ban

Hennepin County Board members say they're feeling pressure to modify the county's smoking ban......... They ought to slow down and consider the big picture.

The big picture, would that be that Hennepin county commissioners' actions haven't put enough bars & restaurants out of business yet? I have heard that only 13 establishments have gone out of business in those 4 months, and several hundred jobs lost. The editorial board would apparently demand more "evil" bars & restaurant owners file bankruptcy, firing thousands more employees I guess.

.. the reason they passed the ban in the first place: the board's responsibility for protecting public health

The editorial board and crack investigative reporting team at the star & sickle has neglected to follow up with the local environmental health department which conducted air quality testing regarding public health, opting instead to believe the pharmaceutical nicotine marketing plan (ie. smoking ban). St. Louis Park health department test results prove secondhand smoke is 150 times safer than OSHA guidelines....yes the very same OSHA which safeguards employee health.

The socialist rag goes on to say:

...recent survey results showing that 73 percent of Hennepin County respondents favor indoor smoke-free policies....

..hmmm that sort of conflicts with the star & sickle's own online poll this week 7/25/05- 8/1/05.

Instant Poll: What should Hennepin County do about its smoking ban?

Keep it just as it is-----------------------------4393-----------------36%
Give bars a break - like in Ramsey County-----1648-----------------13%
Don't know/don't care----------------------------75------------------1%
Exempt all restaurants that serve alcohol-------493------------------4%
End the ban now------------------------------ 5655------------------46%
Total----------------------------------------12265

....looming in the background: the statewide bill to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, which has yet to pass -- and which will no doubt be reintroduced in the next legislative session....

One problem with statewide action ever passing is the fact that the "tax and spend" state politicians just passed the tobacco "fee" to balance the budget....a statewide smoking ban would cut money for education & heathcare.....maybe RWJF, American Lung, American Cancer and the other beneficiaries of pharmaceutical nicotine legislation will pony up and pay for the state programs that a smoking ban would cut.

still further "grasping at straws" ideas are put out by the editorial board below

..Perhaps means other than retreating could be devised to help formerly smoke-filled bars through the transition -- something like small grants for advertising, or building patios.

You missed a few vendors like myself who have been put out of business, but since you're asking a large briefcase filled with non-sequential hundred dollar bills would do fine thank you.

And yet the blathering continues:

Public officials owe their constituents a long view of the public good. The long view is that indoor protection from secondhand smoke is important because it will protect health. And whatever the county's quick and early impact study shows, the long view -- as shown from experiences elsewhere -- is that both people and economies will thrive.

The long view is that everyone of the establishments in question are "private". The editorial board nor any government body has the authority, nor right to mandate their method of operation regarding a legal product -tobacco. The general public is not forced to enter a smoking establishment, there are already enough non-smoking establishments for the "sensitive" Brie eating, Volvo driving, tree hugging Druids to frequent.

Besides the lack of business from the dour, rage-impaired, Volvo-driving, free-range-alpaca clad matrons and their mousy, vegetarian, government-employed, ideologically-neutered mates- (underlings), or the patchouli-reeking, tie-dyed upper-middle-class poverty impersonators, eating overcooked pork and electoral crow crowd, establishes the fact that they do not frequent establishments whether they are smoking or non-smoking.