No Quitter.

I am a smoker. I will have to quit someday, but today is not that day.

I would love to get my hands on the self-important, meddling yahoos that made people think the Ramsey/Hennepin County smoking bans were a good idea. I am not an advocate of cancer, nor do I think that a lack of evidence supporting the dangers of second hand smoke is synonymous with it necessarily being good for you, BUT...

There are major flaws in the statistics used to back up the "movement," and if you ask me, having to take out radio adds to get people to come to the cities following said ban is just sad. Take away people's ability to enjoy a beer and a smoke simultaneously and then beg them to come spend money anyway? Pathetic. What cracks me up the most is that after all their huffing and puffing that the ban would have no noticable effect on business revenues, bars and restaraunts are now having to cry poverty.

Here's my take on the situation:

1) There is no way that the amount of non-smokers that would be induced to begin patronizing area bars by a smoking ban could possibly offset the number of stubborn smokers that would be induced to just drink at home... or in Washington County (a stone's throw!).

2) Having worked many years as a waitress, a bartender, and the like, I can say that the primary, regular clientele of most bars are not health fanatics. This includes the people who work there. In fact, I would be willing to bet that unlike in the general population, smokers outnumber non-smokers in the bar and restaraunt industry by at least 2 to 1, if not more.
In this sense, the ban has been effected to serve the needs of the minority rather than the majority, and the activist claims that said ban was intended to protect the employees are largely moot. Most of those employees are pissed that they now have to go outside to smoke, just like the rest of us.

In short, it seems to me the whole thing is just an exercise in testing how much the general population will put with when it comes to the government trying to force them to live healthily. The only law more ridiculous is the seat-belt law. "We are the state government, and we demand that you keep yourself safe." Huh? I will stand firmly behind this law as soon as there is a plague of innocent bystanders being killed because some other person forgot to wear their seatbelt. I firmly believe in seatbelts. I wear mine religiously. But I will also defend steadfastly anyone's right to be an idiot and not wear one without fear of citation. The government is so hard up for money, it's ridiculous. Tax fast food. That stuff's terrible for you. I smoke cigarettes, and I won't even eat that stuff. Caustic.

Good grief. Maybe the mafia will get into "smoke easies" and show the government for chumps yet again. I shan't hold my breath... which I can't do for very long anyway... ;)