June 30 - Demonizing The Opposition, It's The Anti-tobacco Way - When the Tempe, Arizona city council passed a draconian smoking ban the results were predictable; massive financial losses for the city's businesses that were forbidden to accommodate their smoking patrons.  The smokers voted with their feet and took their patronage and money to neighboring cities that still honor property rights.

A group of concerned residents prepared a citizens' initiative to take to the voters.  If passed, smoking would again be permitted in Tempe's bars.  Even this mild modification of the smoking law has galvanized the moneyed interests that pressured the city council to pass the smoking ban in the first place.  Due to their inability to argue issues using facts and logic the smoking ban proponents are smearing the private citizens who prepared the initiative and are petitioning a judge to have it thrown out before it reaches the ballot box.  Much better to win through intimidation rather than let people make their own decisions.

June 26 - Smoking Ban Unlikely  - Denver's proposed smoking ban, likely to suffer defeat in the City Council on Monday, also appears to have little chance of being approved by the incoming council.   Not one of the 10 just-elected City Council members said they would support the ban in all restaurants and bars, while five said they would vote against or were leaning toward voting against it.  While four council members said they were undecided, a review of their positions on the smoking ban before the May general election shows that they generally didn't back it.

For those unfortunates stuck in California, New York, Delaware and Maine, read this story and weep.  Basically the Denver city council is against smoking bans because they are harmful to business and inimical to property rights.  The council members also are agreed that there is no time to bring up what is essentially a trivial issue.  Hats of the Denver and keep voting for these good guys.

June 24 - Zero Tolerance - If there were only one restaurant in the United States, perhaps located in the middle of the vast salt flats surrounding the Great Salt Lake, that allowed smoking, was open only to smokers and was fully staffed only by smokers, the tobacco control industry wouldn't rest until it had been legislated out of existence.  The zealots are not concerned about health, they are interested only in crushing completely those who enjoy a legal product that they deplore.

In Cleveland the anti-tobacco rabble have found a city councilman to do their bidding and, as always, have the bucks to stage anti-smoking stunts and conduct phony polls.  According to them around one third of the city's residents smoke.  This is hardly a small minority yet anti-tobacco cannot find any room for compromise.  The city must be smoke-free or else.

Resistance to prohibition is strong there and anti-tobacco will have to buy quite a few politicians before Cleveland trashes property rights and personal choice.  Worse, other views are making their way into the pages of the generally anti-tobacco press.

Norman Kjono, a spokesman for Forces International in Seattle, said in a phone interview Friday that his organization opposes further controls on tobacco consumption as part of its consumer-advocacy campaign against government intrusion into the lives of average citizens.

The Forces group also opposes the so-called war on being fat, Kjono said, and believes smokers "have the right not to be gouged so someone else can make money."

He said anti-smoking campaigns rely on money from the settlement agreements that the tobacco companies have entered into. The costs of those settlements are passed on to smokers.

As it becomes clear that anti-tobacco is merely a front for a pharmaceutical marketing effort, resistance grows.  The evidence from Delaware, New York City, as well as other locations where prohibition has been imposed, shows that smoking bans not only cost individual businesses big bucks but they cost government sorely-needed revenue, especially in this time of budget deficits.  The smart politicians would be wise to give anti-tobacco the cold shoulder.

June 24 - Slow Learning Curve In New York - Studies have shown within the past year that while patronage at New York City's bars and restaurants has declined, the opposite effect has taken place across the Hudson River in Hoboken, N.J., where there is no smoking ban. Bars and restaurants in Hoboken say their business has soared up to 20 percent because of area residents spending their hours after work in New Jersey establishments instead of New York City hangouts.

So bad is the New York City ban that residents of America's greatest city prefer crossing the river to New Jersey to eat and drink.  Rarely have the results of a needless smoking ban been so glaring.

Rather than learning from the evidence before their own eyes, the politicians continue to crack down on smokers, an activity that doesn't bring in any revenue and only causes resentment.  The whole state will now feel the pain that New York City feels since the complete smoking ban has now been duplicated across the entire state.

While the hospitality industry reels, the geniuses in Albany have imposed an unenforceable law on the residents that forbids them to buy cigarettes on the Internet.  Fat chance that this law will staunch the flow of money exiting the state to find its way into the pockets of vendors who don't charge the ridiculously high cigarettes taxes of New York.

"They're (New York State) trying to collect money that doesn't belong to them," said Audrey Silk, president of New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment. "Smokers have been pushed to the limit."

As for what the average smoker might have to do in the future, Silk said it's only a matter of time before smokers start making their own cigarettes at home.

"Believe it or not, that would be legal," she said. "All they would need is the tobacco and the machine to roll it. Even though they'd pay a tax on the equipment and tobacco, it would be much less than what the state demands from them now," said Silk.

Rather than design new ways to stick it to smokers, the politicians should cut the tax and repeal all smoking bans in restaurants and bars.  That they won't do the right -- and profitable thing -- indicates that they are in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry that is behind all the tax hikes and smoking bans. 

June 23 - End The Ban Says NYC Councilman - A Queens city councilman who once supported the smoking ban now says it should be snuffed out - or at least amended to exempt bars.

"I think it's time we revisit this," said Councilman Tony Avella (D-Queens). "What the mayor said would happen hasn't come to pass."

Before April 1 ban, Mayor Bloomberg had downplayed its possible negative effects on city businesses.  But Avella said his office has been inundated with calls from struggling bar owners and angry city dwellers tired of smokers clustering on sidewalks.

It's become plain to those whose IQ's are larger than their shoe size that prohibition is not working in New York City.  Sales are down dramatically and the effects of throwing smokers out into the street is enraging even those who once supported the smoking ban.  Mayor Bloomberg has already indicated that the ban will not be revisited.  Of course he would say that since he has based his whole tenure upon this one, trivial issue.  The city can go bankrupt and businesses can be decimated and he will hold firm.  It's up to the people to refuse to honor this ridiculous and destructive law and for the council to get up from its supine position and start representing the people who put them in office.

June 23 - Injecting Race Into Alcohol - The report shows "that the industry is directly targeting black kids," said Rev. Jesse Brown, executive director of the National Association of African Americans for Positive Imagery. "African-American kids tend to be trend-setters in what they buy, so the industry thinks if it can get more African American kids to buy, it can also get their white counterparts to buy."

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, said the report indicated that "the alcohol industry needs to take a better aim at its advertising practices because it is way off the mark by targeting teens."

We'll treat the attempt to tar the liquor industry as resorting to racist tactics to hook underage black kids with the contempt it deserves except to note that the quote by the Reverend Jesse Brown is itself an example of blatant stereotyping.

The most important aspect of this phony study is the participation of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  As the name demonstrates, MADD was set up to address the problem of drunk drivers wreaking havoc upon the nation's highways.  As time passed MADD has evolved from an organization advocating strict law enforcement into a front for prohibition.  From taking drunk drivers off the road, Madd's goal now is to set up a zero tolerance for drivers who have consumed any alcohol whatsoever.  From a zero level of alcohol allowed in a drivers bloodstream, MADD will then proceed with its goal of eliminating alcohol use entirely.

June 23 - Taste Buds Of Destiny - A new study of children of alcoholics suggests that people at risk for alcoholism may experience some flavors differently than those not at risk for the drinking disorder.  Researchers found that men and women who were not alcoholics -- but had an alcoholic father -- found salty tastes less appetizing and sour flavors more intense than did their counterparts without alcohol-addicted dads.

The findings may one day "make it possible to identify people with a paternal history of alcoholism who are at greatest risk of developing the disorder themselves," study author Dr. Henry R. Kranzler said in an interview with Reuters Health.

And once so identified, then what?  A lobotomy to eliminate even the desire to try alcohol?  Mandatory pre-Alcoholics Anonymous attendance?  A special alcohol tax to care for these budding alcoholics?  Or, maybe, just ban alcohol completely to be on the safe side.  Of course this study is junk and even the researchers say that a link between taste and future alcoholism is "unclear."  Well, duh.  Of course its unclear because such studies are always ambiguous, contradictory and meaningless.  The only clarity they provide is that this society is going broke keeping legions of grifters and con men rolling in the money.

June 18 - Rhode Island Says No To Prohibition - PROVIDENCE -- There will be no ban on smoking in Rhode Island workplaces this year, despite support in the Senate and momentum in neighboring states.  House Speaker William Murphy wants a commission to study the effect such a ban would have, including on state revenues. The move ensures the General Assembly won't approve a ban before adjourning in the next few weeks.

Critics worry a ban on smoking would curtail business at gambling parlors in Lincoln and Newport. The state shares in the profits from video lottery terminals at the businesses.  Some restaurants also fear they could lose customers if a ban is imposed. The Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association, which represents more than 500 businesses statewide, has led opposition to a statewide ban.  Gov. Don Carcieri also had concerns people's right to smoke in private could be unfairly restricted, spokesman Jeff Neal said. The Republican governor does not smoke. - Associated Press, 6/16/03

June 18 - Resistance Continues In New York -  Bar and restaurant owners statewide started a second week of protests Monday against the state’s public smoking ban, saying they will hit the state in the wallet before the ban hits theirs.  In the Rochester region, at least a dozen watering holes shut off their Quick Draw machines Monday to punish the state for enacting a statewide ban of smoking in bars and restaurants. The law takes effect July 24.

“My opinion is that New York state, it’s becoming so socialist. It’s unbelievable,” said Andy Willmes, owner of Snuffy MaGee’s at 814 S. Clinton Ave.

No, New York state isn't becoming socialist.  Socialists would never be so stupid as to interfere with businesses on such a trivial level during a period of economic hardship.  With the state going broke, any loss of revenue to the government of New York will be painful.  When politicians are so wedded to furthering the financial agenda of the pharmaceutical industry -- a deep pocketed, huge political donor that makes money off every smoking ban imposed -- it's clear that fiscal prudence, let alone a commitment to personal liberty, gets tossed into the garbage.

June 16 - Outdoor Bans; New Frontier For Oppression -  Graham Lloyd-Bryant, a self-described liberal Democrat, says he knows things are "really scary" when he finds himself agreeing with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, a conservative talk-show host, on personal rights.

"Our economy is circling down the drain, the tax base needs fixing and we're spending time on stupid things like no smoking in parks?" asked the 46-year-old smoker and Bend resident on Thursday. "There are more important things to do."

Smoking bans are paradoxically wildly illiberal yet are overwhelming promoted by those who describe themselves as "liberal."  They've got the science wrong and they've got the labels wrong as well.  In Bend, Oregon the usual gaggle of suspects has worked their poison on a few dunderheads to impose smoking bans in the the city's parks.  Such bans are unenforceable but law enforcement is of no concern to the tobacco control industry.  Tobacco Control's purpose is to manufacture hatred against a group it has targeted for elimination.  To reach that end lying is the order of the day.  Although there are no studies at all regarding secondhand smoke hazards in the great outdoors, the proponents of the Bend ban cite studies that claim secondhand smoke is hazardous indoors, even digging up the old discredited chestnut conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency.

These are the type of statistics that infuriate Norman Kjono.

"The risk of secondhand smoke has not been credibly proven by credible science," said the 56-year-old smoker of Redmond, Wash., during a Wednesday phone interview. Kjono is the U.S. legal issues adviser for Forces, Inc., an international nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that supports smokers' rights.

Kjono said that each of the studies that has concluded secondhand smoke is dangerous is flawed.

As proof, he cited a 1998 ruling by U.S. District Court Federal Judge William Osteen that discredited the statistical methodology in the 1992 EPA study.

With a lack of evidence that secondhand smoke is hazardous either indoors or outdoors, the anti-tobacco operatives are now advocating bans on the less deceptive, but more reprehensible, grounds that rendering smokers miserable and despised is a social good.  Inflaming hatred has no place in a civilized society and policy-makers must refuse to go along with the private passions of a bunch of haters.

June 16 - No Smoking Ban For Michigan -  A growing number of states are passing laws to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. But don't hold your breath waiting for Michigan to join them.  The sponsor of legislation to bar smoking in Michigan restaurants -- but leave bars and bowling alleys alone -- can't even get a hearing before a legislative committee.

"They plan on deep-sixing my bill again," said Sen. Raymond Basham, D-Taylor, who introduced his bill in February. "This is the third time I've introduced this. The chair of the committee where my bill was referred said I would never get a hearing."

Laura Lucas of Farmington thinks that's the way it should be. Lucas, a private investigator and longtime smoker, said she's glad the no-smoking legislation isn't going anywhere.

"It's ridiculous. I'm sick of people telling me what I can and can't do," said Lucas as she sat at Sean O'Callaghan's Public House in Plymouth. "We have a conservative government that's supposed to stay out of our lives."

There are those labels again.  In it's real meaning liberalism means keeping the government out of the citizens' lives.  Same goes for conservatism.  What ever they label they use, the Michigan legislators are to be congratulated for giving prohibition a pass.

June 16 - Non Smoker Laments Loss Of Liberty -  Delaware's latest excursion into nannyism is the euphemistically titled Clean Indoor Air Act. Recognizing that the anti-smoking education campaign that began in 1964 is a failure, the champions of clean living are making it difficult or impossible to smoke. The rationale is that the health of non-smokers is jeopardized by those who partake in the nasty habit. Non-smokers, I guess, don't have enough sense to avoid smoky environments.

A non smoker weighs in on the creeping prohibition that is threatening to submerge the country.  As a resident of Delaware the writer is well aware what that law has done to the economic and social well-being of the state.  Many non smokers, including those who dislike being around tobacco smoke, recognize that the paternalism inherent in smoking bans is far worse than the stray whiff of tobacco smoke.

June 12 - New York Expands Prohibition To The Streets - Kim Phann and a buddy had stepped out of Sha's Big Time on Friday night to smoke a butt when a cop slapped them with a pair of summonses.  The charge: "loitering in front of business."

"We can't smoke inside because it's against the law," Phann, 23, told the Daily News. "What are we supposed to do? Go home to have a cigarette?"

"Blame it on Bloomberg," they said the cop told them before driving away.

So in Michael Bloomberg's New York City standing outside of your place of employment smoking the cigarette that he has forbidden to be smoked inside is now illegal.  Not even in the Health Reich, California, has fanatical fascism progressed so far.

June 9 - Speakeasies Are Back - Since Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban kicked in on May 1, it's never been so cool to smoke in New York.  It's still just as dangerous to your health - a staggering 400,000 Americans will die this year from smoking-related diseases - but it's never been such a guilty pleasure, or so much fun. Most smokers haven't felt this rebellious since they quit high school.  

To paraphrase the humorist Will Rogers: Banning smoking is like Prohibition; it's a good idea, but it won't work.  Last year, the roof terrace of Ken Aretsky's celeb-friendly Patroon went begging for customers.

"Now that smoking is illegal in most of the city but legal up there, we've had people clamoring to go up there," Aretsky says.

The reporter on how New Yorkers are thwarting the nannies should realize that the "staggering" 400,000 figure exists only in the imaginations of anti-tobacco con artists and, even if one were to believe the number, around half of the death toll consists of people who are 75 years and older.  At least the reporter is honest about how popular smoking is, especially with those who are responsible for making -- or breaking -- night time venues.  Anti-tobacco said that smokers, like sheep to a slaughter, would docilely listen to the elite running the city and health cartels and meekly quit smoking.  The reality shows that these nannies are divorced from reality and have no understanding or love of humanity.  The reporter puts it best:

Put another way, a smoking New Yorker who can't find some place to smoke in the city is either not much of a smoker - or not much of a New Yorker.

June 9 - On The Run; Coping With The Prudes  - Smokers are not going gently into this new city. For the last year, for example, most smokers I know have been dodging the new tax by buying their cigarettes online - the more resourceful from countries like Switzerland, where a pack costs about $1.60, including shipping. (By the way, thanks to the new taxes, I now smoke more because it's cheaper and there is always a carton lying around the apartment.)

Also, an anonymous contributor is underwriting a lawsuit against the ban, based on the First Amendment right to free speech and free association. It could be filed as early as June on behalf of New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, an anti-ban group, said Audrey Silk, the group's founder. They may find some inspiration in a Federal District Court decision on Wednesday that temporarily blocked Nassau County from enforcing its own new ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

THEN there are the smoke-easies. Smokers were cautious when the ban was new, unsure how this unfamiliar law would play out. But now these places - known mostly to their regulars and determined to keep out what one bartender called the "nonsmoking riffraff" - seem to be increasing.

Denny Lee has written an eloquent piece for the New York Times that, in a civilized society, would have been inconceivable.  Coming of age in the more tolerant 1980's the author laments the descent of a once great city into the gray conformity more appropriate to a California suburb.  Even though the tone is somewhat pessimistic Lee does end on an encouraging note.

June 5 - Nassau Smoking Ban Halted -  A federal judge on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction that effectively puts enforcement of Nassau County's workplace smoking ban on hold.  U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Hurley granted the preliminary injunction sought by Long Island restaurant and tavern owners. They claimed the smoking ban was vague and caused them irreparable harm.

Good news from the Long Island suburbs of New York City.  A stringent smoking ban, only a bit less draconian than New York City's, has been responsible for a 45 percent loss in the restaurant and bar trade.  Along with the dismal financial consequences of banning smoking, the restaurants and bars that brought the suit complain that the law is contradictory and poorly written.

This is a good start to regain personal freedom in New York.  The county, of course, will appeal so this story is far from over.  It's encouraging that businesses are not taking the bizarre interference of ill-informed politicians sitting down.

June 5 - Give That Man A Cigar! - The effort to ban smoking in indoor public places in Charleston has sparked a reaction in Columbia, as state Rep. John Graham Altman III has filed a bill that would prohibit municipalities from banning smoking in bars and many restaurants.

Altman, R-Charleston, said Tuesday that if bars and restaurants want to ban smoking, that's fine, but government shouldn't force them to do so.

"This is an issue of government becoming more and more socialistic and telling the owners and operators of private property what they can and can't do," he said.

Of course the anti-tobacco operatives, and their pet politicians in Charleston, are crying crocodile tears about the loss of local control should Altman's bill ever become law.  And of course if the state decreed that smoking be banned everywhere their fealty to local control would be history.  How about real "local control?"  How about letting the people who open the businesses, make the payrolls and pay the various taxes make their own smoking policies?  It can't get more local than the individual and his customers.

May 29 - Implementing Tyranny - Pity the poor Florida legislature who had to rip asunder property rights to accommodate those who bought a constitutional measure to ban smoking in restaurants.  To their credit Their hearts really weren't in it but they had no choice.  Florida, which depends on tourism, has now to smoking tourists to stay away.  Wanda Hamilton provides the historical context:

Just hours ago the Florida legislature passed legislation implementing--sort of--a smoking ban passed as a constitutional amendment by the voters last November. As some of you recall, the American Cancer Society, the AHA, the ALA, and the Big Pharma-funded Tobacco Free Kids spend more than $6 million to get the ban on the ballot and to heavily propagandize (and mislead) Florida voters into passing it.

But the legislators softened the ban a bit, not as much as they could have, but at least they did soften it some.

According to the ban legislation passed tonight by the state house and senate, people will still be able to smoke in "stand alone" bars that do no more than 10% of their business in food, on outdoor patios of restaurants and in membership associations (e.g. the VFW, the Elks) AND in designated smoking areas at airports.

From the bit I read on an AP report, apparently the legislature didn't approve money for enforcement but will depend instead on a mandated audit (paid for by the business owner) every three years to prove that an establishment that permits smoking indoors does no more than 10% of its business in food. The first audit would be three years from now, which legislators said would give business owners plenty of time to challenge that part of the law in court.

What a mess this is gonna be!

Except for some of the big chain restaurants, many of the local restaurants are still permitting smoking indoors (and were as recently as yesterday). Don't know when the new law is supposed to go into effect (it won't be at least until after the Governor signs off on it, which could be any day).

May 27 - For The Rich New York's Smoking Ban Is No Big Deal - It's a little different at the Oak Bar, which draws a well-heeled crowd that emits a joyful din in an atmosphere so clouded with cigar and cigarette smoke it can be difficult to see from one side of the room to the other. When you sit down at the bar, a small glass ashtray is placed in front of you immediately.

Smokers, like Lori Phifer, a travel manager with Sony Music, have embraced the Oak Bar with a sense of overwhelming gratitude. "I thank God for places like this," Ms. Phifer told my assistant, Johanna Jainchill, during an interview in the bar one evening last week.

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert contrasts two establishments and how they cope with Mayor Bloomberg's prohibition.  One is a neighborhood joint that adheres to the ban for fear it will be cited and fined out of existence.  It's customers must exit to enjoy a smoke, leading to complaints from neighbors about the crowds of people clustering on the sidewalk.  

The other is the Oak Bar in the Plaza Hotel.  At that exalted venue the smoking ban has been great for business.  No, it is not thronged with finicky nonsmokers grateful for the smoking ban.  The new found popularity is due to throngs of well-healed smokers who appreciate that the Plaza Hotel is successfully thumbing its nose at the smoking ban.  As is becoming clear, the elite do not do smoking bans.  Suffering from Bloomberg's batty Puritanism is only for the working and middle classes.

May 23 - Calling Elliot Ness - Federal agents raided tribal smoke shops across Washington and Idaho yesterday, reopening a lingering dispute over the taxation of cigarettes sold on Indian reservations.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with help from state investigators, descended on three stores licensed by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians simultaneously with raids on Eastern Washington and North Idaho reservations. Agents used sealed search warrants that were issued by a U.S. District judge in Spokane, according to tribal officials.

Residents of the Washington/Idaho border can be forgiven for thinking that they woke up from a trip in a time machine to find themselves in the midst of a bad movie chronicling prohibition.  The report doesn't mention it but one can visualize the Feds wielding axes to obliterate the carts filled with demon tobacco.

This story about the invasion of the Feds and  Washington State law-enforcement agencies is very skimpy about what prompted the raids on Indian territory.  Taxes are mentioned but no specific violations are cited in this report. If this action weren't occurring in the United State, it would be easy to assume that the raids weren't backed up by any real law but were enacted to keep the rabble in line.  In this case the rabble would be the Washington State smokers who will not pay for overtaxed cigarettes and who are buying their smokes in Idaho and on Indian reservations.

Surely more details will become available but until then, an ugly spectacle of government might trampling down the doors of small businesses remains very troubling.

May 23 - We're Number One! - Big Tobacco has had it with Gov. James E. McGreevey.  The governor's plan to raise cigarette taxes by 40 cents to $1.90 -- which would make New Jersey's the highest state tax in the nation -- has tobacco companies launching an all-hands-on-deck blitz in opposition.

This month, Lorillard Tobacco Co. launched a $1 million radio and newspaper advertising campaign in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania arguing that tax hikes will benefit only cigarette smugglers and the mob. One features the scowling mug of a mobster wearing a pinstriped suit and a pinkie ring.  Philip Morris has its representatives calling legislators and reporters to preach about the "unintended consequences" of higher cigarette taxes.

One doesn't often think of New Jersey in superlative terms.  Maybe that's why the Democrat governor is hoping to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1.50, making the New Jersey cigarette tax the highest in the nation.  Finally a chance to be number one.  Number one in lost revenue.  Number one in smuggling.  Number one in black-market violence.  Now that's a legacy all residents can really enjoy.

May 22 - Sticking It To The State - One could say there's power in numbers, or even without.  On Monday, most bars, restaurants and hotels statewide pulled the plugs on more than 3,000 Quick Draw lottery machines in protest of a new law banning smoking in all public establishments.  Many bar owners, including those in Madison County, will keep their lotto machines off through Friday. Though bar owners risk losing some income by taking the action, they feel the sacrifice is worthwhile if they can somehow turn the tide on state legislators.

"This action will allow for the most dramatic demonstration of the impact of the protest," said Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association (ESRTA) President Bill Leudemann. "Bar owners can support the protest even if they're not a Quick Draw agent by encouraging customers not to play Quick Draw during the week ... we're not done fighting."

The state legislature and governor refused to listen to them when they protested the absurd state-wide smoking ban.  The small business owners are through with appeals to fairness and reason.  Their protest will make the state lose money a state that is facing a huge deficit.  The time for niceness is over.

May 20 - Coping With Oppression - Stories like this will one day amuse people in the same way that stories about alcohol prohibition amuse us now.  They won't believe that laws were once passed that forbade the owners of restaurants and bars to allow smoking in their establishments.  They will look upon the late 1990's and early ears of the 21st century as an era where hypochondria reigned supreme and shady characters got rich catering to the panic.  

They will, as do we, be inspired by the human spirit that refuses to knuckle under to the bossy do-gooders whose real goal is to grind out every vestige of pleasure from the world.  Pleasure is still very much part of the scene in Los Angeles.  Although the city is run by a gaggle of tight-lipped nannies, the citizens cope the best they can.  When smoking was banned indoors, the smokers, and the people who enjoy being with smokers, moved outdoors.  Over time the accommodations outside have become quite deluxe.  Now no restaurant or bar that hopes to cater to the young and trendy would consider opening without a patio.  That's where the action is after all and restaurateurs must cater to those who like to take their pleasures with a smoke.

May 16 - Montgomery Goon Squad At It Again -  Smokers and restaurant owners said yesterday that a proposed Montgomery County ban on smoking in restaurants and bars is governmental meddling that would drive business into nearby, smoker-friendly jurisdictions.

"It's going to cost us, probably millions," said Claude Andersen, director of operations for Clyde's restaurants, which has two franchises in the county, one close to the D.C. border. "It's going to affect our business a lot."

 "The government should stay out of how private businesses run their organizations," said Steve McKeown, 41, who smoked a cigarette during lunch at a Rockville Hooters restaurant. "It's rather intrusive."

That's putting it far too mildly.  It is fascism, pure and simple and far worse than "rather intrusive."  One component of fascism is government control over private enterprise.  The illusion of property rights are preserved but the actual owners are completely subservient to the state's interest.

Montgomery County has been wasting taxpayer time and dollars for the past seven years on one smoking ban scheme after another.  To date, all have failed but the goon squad never gives up.  Montgomery County borders Washington DC and Virginia, both with fairly smoker-friendly policies.  Should Montgomery County embrace prohibition it will be curtains for many of the small restaurants and bars that depend upon smoker patronage to pay the bills and feed the family.  I gang of anti-tobacco politicians that pulls that stunt is asking for voter retaliation.

May 16 -  Smoking Ban Driving Restaurants Out Of Business - The smoking ban could be the death of Manhattan's oldest family-run restaurant.

"It very well might be the last nail in our coffin," said Joan Condron Borkowski, owner of Billy's, the venerable Sutton Place chop house started by her great-grandfather, Michael Condron, in 1870.

At Billy's bar, the regulars - almost all of them nonsmokers - blasted the law they feel is threatening the neighborhood joint they've been frequenting for decades.

"Mayor Mike claimed he'll save 1,000 restaurant staff lives a year with this ban," said Lisa Barlerin, a lifelong New Yorker.

"Well, I'd say to him, 'Take a look at what this is doing to the livelihoods of those workers.' Poverty kills a lot more people than secondhand smoke."

The good news is that secondhand smoke doesn't kill anyone, ever.  The bad news is that "Mayor Mike" doesn't care about facts.  He only cares about impressing his will upon the city.  Mayor Mike is also a billionaire who couldn't care less if restaurant owners go out of business or whether bartenders and waitpersons are fired.  

In his callousness he resembles Joe Cherner, a crank whose anti-tobacco organization is funded with pharmaceutical money.  Cherner, who testifies throughout the country about the horrors of secondhand smoke, claims to live in New York City but actually lives the good life in southern France, a location where the restaurants would no more ban smoking than serve Velveeta cheese.  Cherner advises the struggling businesses to be patient, the good times are just around the corner.  Smokers will adjust and return to the restaurants they have abandoned in droves since the smoking ban went into effect.  

No, Joe, they won't.  California has been under the anti-tobacco regime for seven long years.  The growth rate in the hospitality business there is half that of the United States as a whole.  The smokers never did go back and the failed restaurants and bars haven't been replaced.  The state faces a $40-billion deficit.  Better stay in France, if you show your face in New York City, you're likely to be ridden out on a rail.

May 13 -  New York City Is Losing Money.  The citywide smoking ban has caused as much as a 50 percent drop in business at some city bars and restaurants, with some coming close to shutting down.

''The administration has stuck a knife in the back of the only industry that is holding this city up,'' Bill O'Donnell of the Corner Bistro told The Post in Monday editions. ''This was a vibrant industry that generated a lot of money for the city, and they went and killed it.''

Even the anti-tobacco press reports that businesses are already going out of business and full effects of prohibition haven't even yet kicked in.  Mayor Bloomberg and the anti-business New York City council promised this decline wouldn't happen.  Bloomberg even said that drink sales would accelerate as patrons, no longer needing to smoke, would have more time to drink.  That foolishness nearly got him booed off the platform but it's no joke that he his ruining people's lives.

May 13 -  Hard Times For Smoke-free City - Nearly one year after Tempe enacted the state's toughest smoking ban, sales revenues from downtown bars and restaurants have fallen 12 percent and at least a dozen bars and restaurants citywide have gone out of business.

"If this isn't the smoking gun on the smoking issue, I don't know what is," said Rod Keeling, executive director of the business group Downtown Tempe Community.

Figures provided by Keeling show income from downtown bars and restaurants was down 12 percent or $15.7 million in January through March, compared with $17.9 million in the same period last year before the smoking ban.

Tempe, Arizona is not a huge city and yet the loses are in the millions.  Smoking bans do cost money.  That they are disastrous is not controversial.  What is controversial is why politicians continue to believe, like slack jawed yokels mesmerized by a snake oil salesmen, the lies of the smoke-free racketeers.

May 12 -  Smoking Ban Snuffed Out.  Iowa Supreme Court rules against ordinance. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.--Ames partial smoking ban is dead.    The Iowa Supreme Court ruled against the Ames ordinance this morning in a challenge to the state's first partial smoking ban.  That means smokers in Ames restaurants and most bars once again can light up before 8:30 p.m. as of today.

With all the bad news coming out of New York City, Delaware and Massachusetts, people of freedom can use some good news.  The Ames smoking ban boils down to whether an Iowa locality can supercede the state smoking law.  A victory such as occurred in Ames, although very good news, doesn't address the root problems with smoking bans.  Since all smoking bans are enacted to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, the fact that there is no evidence showing that protection is necessary needs to be brought to the forefront.  Smoking bans are based upon a scientific fraud.  Those perpetrating the fraud need to be brought to justice.  A good place to start would be for the businesses who brought suit against Ames to sue anti-tobacco to recoup the money that was lost due to the smoking ban.

May 12 - Cutting Off The "Health" Charities - The smoking ban in Tempe is a year old now and the air is clean in my bar, the air is so clear that one can see how empty the place is of customers. The recession is a large part of the downturn in revenue, but the ban has given surrounding communities the competitive advantage. This ban is the "straw" that has closed many of the businesses and created unnecessary hardships.

We all know that smoking bans are good for business.  Too bad the business owners going broke can't get with the program.  Since smoking bans are based on nothing, these people should be able to make money off nothing.  This business owner, reporting his losses due to a smoking ban, saves the best for last as he puts two and two together:

This past year is the first time since 1981 that I have not donated money to any charities. I will not contribute to the Heart/Lung Association or Cancer Society because the money is not all going toward research but to help fund groups like Dr. Leland Fairbanks', that take my business and rights away.

May 9 - Connecticut Tells Smokers To Go To Hell - Faced with a whopping deficit, an unfriendly business climate and rising unemployment, Connecticut passed a total smoking ban, prohibiting smoking in restaurants, bars and anywhere else people go to enjoy themselves.  Of course, as is always the case these days, "total" doesn't apply to the elite.  Cigar bars, the stomping ground of the rich and powerful, are not affected by the smoking ban that Joe Sixpack must obey.  Somehow secondhand smoke looses its toxicity where the bank accounts are big.

Beyond the evil of ripping up property rights the legislature and the governor, should he sign this poisonous bill, are callously incompetent by introducing yet one more variable of uncertainty during this period of economic stress.  "Do no harm" once was the motto of the medical profession and its wisdom pertains to all arenas of modern life.  Allowing proprietors to set policies that lead to their success has worked for a very long time.  Government meddling into the free enterprise system has a success rate that ranges from the mediocre to the horrendous.  Connecticut joins the select list of states who embrace failure with a gusto that is disheartening.

May 7 - What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been - Since the mid 1990's Maryland's Montgomery County has been a hotbed of anti-tobacco fanaticism.  The wealthy suburban county next to Washington, DC is populated with the anemic sort of elitists who believe in a government-enacted nirvana where everyone worships at the alter of Health and nary a politically incorrect utterance is heard.

The Puritans there have attempted to ban smoking in restaurants and bars.  They tried making smokers liable if their smoke crossed property lines and bothered the hyper-sensitive hypochondriacs who have no problem with fossil fuel pollution but get the tremors if they encounter a stray wisp of tobacco smoke.  One tiny village, attempting to ban smoking from its sidewalks and parks, gained international attention that turned into embarrassment when the mayor, the chief proponent of the outdoor ban, was caught molesting a teenage boy in the National Cathedral.

All anti-smoking attempts have come to naught and finally, after years of being kicked throughout the courts, the law that banned smoking in restaurants has been thrown out.  This is good news that follows the better news that the state of Maryland will not consider imposing a California type smoking ban on the entire state.  Maryland is one state that has benefited from a tough smoking ban as restaurants, bars and other public venues have cashed in on the huge traffic generated by smokers escaping Delaware's smoking ban.  Crowds are crossing state lines to dine, drink and gamble in states, such as Maryland, that recognize that catering to smokers is good business.

The Montgomery anti-tobacco goon squad will, needless to say, be back in force pestering the country government to try imposing new smoking ban laws that no one wants.

May 6 - Ban Raises The Roof - Smoking ban proponents promise small business owners and the politicians that represent them that eliminating smoking from bars and restaurants will bring in hoards of nonsmokers who have been staying home because they hate secondhand smoke.  After the smoking ban is enacted the nonsmoking hoards never materialize and the smokers take their business to localities that still respect individual choice.

Spectacular proof of the anti-business results of a smoking ban come from Tempe, Arizona where a owner of a pool hall spent $2.5 million to remove the roof and replace it with an elaborate outdoor cooling and heating system that will keep his customers comfortable as they smoke and play pool.  A hardheaded business man doesn't spent that kind of money unless he is sure his investment will pay off.  After watching his business decline 60 percent in the first month of the smoking ban, he knew he had to do something.

Of course this open-air pool hall will not make the anti-tobacco zealots happy.  Their goal is prohibition and after banning smoking -- a legal activity sanctioned by the state -- from the indoors they will ban it outdoors.  At some point smoking bans will collapse.  The pool hall owner can then take his million dollar receipt to city hall and demand a refund for his unneeded construction costs.

May 2 - Good news from the State of Washington! - We recently posted Norman Kjono's February 23, 2003 commentary "Rosemary's Baby," reporting on Washington State Senator Rosemary McAuliffe's SB 5791 and its companion bill in the House (HB 1868), which would have extended the state's ban on smoking in office work environments to taverns, restaurants, bowling alleys, etc. Washington's legislative session ended April 28th, with smoking ban bills failing to come out of committee in the Senate and also failing in the House rules committee. See The Seattle Times report on that bill.

No to tobacco tax hike - for now -- Washington also proposed legislation to add another 50 cents per pack tax on cigarettes, which passed House committee vote. According to inquiries at the Legislative Bill Room it is reported that bill also failed to pass, however there is an emergency session of the legislature to address budget issues that will reportedly convene May 12th. Whether or not that new 50 cent tax per pack of cigarettes can or will be revived in the special session is still open to question. We await news articles that confirm what legislators and the bill room report on the new tobacco tax, however at this point it looks like Washington smokers, as well as small business owners, scored two important victories this legislative session! No doubt the antis will be back again next year with new attempts to ostracize and loot smokers, while damaging the interests of restaurant and tavern owners, but for now it appears the special-interest anti-tobacco tide has been rolled back this year. We will follow up on these stories next week with additional confirmation, however we at Forces wanted our readers to have the benefit of breaking news as it unfolds.

April 30 - Thou Shalt Do As I Say, Not As I Do - The first rule to remember about smoking bans is that every last one of them is initiated by the elite.  Regular people don't care whether people smoke or not, as long as the smoke isn't blown in their faces, but those who are on top of the heap don't operate on egalitarian lines.  "I do not smoke," they say.  "Therefore no one must smoke."

Unless those who smoke are worth sucking up to, as this report about Mayor Michael Bloomberg yucking it up with a bunch of bigwigs at a party he threw after the White House Correspondents Dinner shows.  Yes, there was Big Nanny Bloomberg, who made banning smoking in New York City his top priority, sitting down with a bunch of rich men enjoying cigars.  

But it was a private party, some may remark.  Doesn't he have the right to allow his guests to smoke since he was picking up the tab?  He sure does.  Too bad Bloomberg has extinguished that right from all the private property in New York City that used to welcome smokers.  Too bad the bar owners and restaurant owners can't flout smoking bans as billionaire Bloomberg flouts his own self-professed convictions.

April 29 - Flouting The Ban - It's an attitude — calling it a movement would be a stretch — that combines equal parts yuppie-go-home schadenfreude and a new middle-class sedition, a sense of rebellion that may best be typified by the surprisingly widespread defiance of the recent smoking ban.

In fact, if behavior in a variety of Lower Manhattan bars over the last month is indicative, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg may have unwittingly unleashed the long-dormant bad boy and bad girl in thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens, creating a new petit criminal class that smokes furtively in bathrooms, the backs of bars and under tables. (New York Times, 4/27/03)

It's too soon to forecast that the anti-smoking Nazis have met their Waterloo in New York City but the signs are good that Mayor Bloomberg's tobacco prohibition is meeting the same resistance that greeted alcohol prohibition in the 1920's.  With millions of smokers living in a very small area, Bloomberg's smoke-free dream was always preposterous.  His prissiness now seems to have made smoking very cool indeed.

April 28 - American Anti Slams Northern Ireland Smoking Policies - Last week the announcement that the Royal Victoria Hospital was constructing smoking rooms for the convenience of staff, patients and visitors produced an eruption of outrage from anti-tobacco operatives.  Not surprising since there are plenty of them paid handsomely to address every situation connected to tobacco.  What was surprising is that they didn't bother to justify their displeasure with phony concerns about the non-existent hazards of secondhand smoke.  Instead they waxed apoplectic over the prospect of smokers being somewhat accommodated.  That, in the new world of social demonization, is intolerable.

Joining the chorus is one Thomas Novotny from California.  There is not a chance in hell that Novotny will come within miles of the Royal Victoria Hospital yet the sinfulness exhibited there has him in such a snit that he is demanding that the trustees of the hospital reconsider their wrong-headed decision to make comfortable the people who, after all, finance the hospital through their taxes.  Novotny gets ink because he was once a US Assistant Surgeon General.  That post actually makes him less credible than any Tom, Dick and Harry who has an opinion on smoking rooms.

Not long ago there was a proposal,  unfortunately defeated, to eliminate the position of Surgeon General from the federal government.  Many felt that the position was irrelevant and, after the embarrassing conduct of the most recent incumbents, provided too much of a soapbox for mediocrities pushing batty agendas.  The conga line of Surgeon Generals range from C. Everett Koop who rewrote the definition of addiction to include nicotine then moved on to cash in on his fame to become the poster boy for dot com hype and corruption to Jocelyn Elders, high priestess of onanism, who advocated masturbation lessons for the nation's school children, followed by David Satcher who brought us the war on fat.  The current Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, has proposed giving tax breaks to people who exercise and quit smoking.

Thomas Novotny, a yes man for Satcher, was also an operative for the Clinton administration during its divisive and wasteful war on tobacco.  He now has a cushy job with the University of California pontificating, and agitating, on behalf of 'global health' issues.  In short he is a stooge whose opinions and objections to how a hospital operates in another country are irrelevant.

April 28 - And They're Off! - The annual race to enact the highest cigarette tax in the nation moved into high gear as a Washington State legislative committee passed a potpourri of sin taxes that include a nearly $2 tax on a pack of cigarettes.  Washington State basked in self-congratulation two years ago when its cigarette tax became the highest in the country.  Sales plummeted as rebellious smokers bought their smokes out-of-state or online.  "Health" educators waxed pompous over how successful their tax hike was in eliminating smokers.

Those heady days are a memory as other states, particularly New York and New York City jacked up their taxes, taking the banner of good health away from Washington.  With the committee approving yet another huge tobacco tax, the state is poised to become number one again.

As other states contemplate covering up their fiscal incompetence with cigarette taxes, its worth pondering why, as is the case in Washington State, it is the party of the little people that is most relentless in taxing the poor.  The committee that approved the new cigarette tax is made up of five Democrats and four Republicans.  All Democrats voted yes to increase taxes and all Republicans voted no.  So much for liberals' inspiring words about supporting the poor.

April 25 - Helena Smoking Ban Killed, Anti-Tobacco Vows Revenge -  As promised, the governor of Montana has signed a bill that wipes out the total smoking ban enacted in Helena.  Citing property rights and economic concerns, the governor withstood a massive pressure campaign drummed up by out-of-state anti-tobacco special interests.

Proponents of prohibition vow to challenge the new law in court or launch an initiative to overturn the legislature.  With plenty of money, anti-tobacco may indeed attempt to buy a constitutional amendment as it did in Florida.  Until then, Helena rejoins the real world where business owners make their own smoking policies without any directions from government.

April 24 - Importing Bigotry - The anti-smoking bigots in the United Kingdom are very excited about importing smoking bans to their country.  The success of the fanatics in New York City is fueling the hope to transform London from a truly world class city into Santa Monica on the Thames.  

As always the zealots are chortling over poll results, even though polls conducted and paid for by anti-tobacco are notoriously unreliable.  Even with a slanted poll barely one half of those polled want smoking banned in restaurants.  The poll notes that nearly a quarter of smokers would welcome such a ban, a result that defies common sense.

The tobacco control industry has found the perfect ally in the government.  Gareth Thomas, a Labour MP, will introduce a smoking ban bill on the grounds that, "'Breathing other people's smoke presents more of a risk than living in a building containing asbestos."

Strangely enough, living in a building that is insulated by asbestos contains absolutely no risk.  Those few who have been harmed by asbestos are those who worked directly manufacturing the stuff.  MP Thomas is indulging in inaccurate hyperbole, a known trait of anti-tobacco operatives.

Stating the truth, for a change, is one of the flacks paid by anti-tobacco to push for bans:

Judith Watt said: 'The Government has banned tobacco advertising, but the best advertising is an adult smoking. The less kids see that and see smokers having to go outside because it's socially unacceptable to smoke inside - that sends a clear message.'

So there you have it.  Banning smoking is not about health.  It isn't even about social mores.  It is about government targeting a minority of citizens for maltreatment.  Such targeting had a place in Nazi German, the Soviet Union and the American south of the Jim Crow era.  It doesn't have a legitimate place in the United Kingdom of today.

April 21 - It Isn't Over In Dover -  The struggle to get Delaware’s tough anti-smoking law either overturned or modified is just beginning. That’s the view of both a smoker’s rights advocate and a local bar owner after an attempt to weaken Delaware’s tough Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA) failed in the state Senate by a 14-7 vote.

Mike Dore, secretary of the Delaware United Smoker’s Association (DEUSA), and Frank Infante, owner of Bull Dozers Saloon in Smyrna, both said they were disappointed by the demise of the bill, and vowed to work with legislators sympathetic to their cause to again try to change the CIAA.

Dore maintains there are constitutional issues at stake and said the DEUSA has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union to look into the matter. Infante hinted he himself might run for public office in response to the uproar caused by the CIAA.

The defeat of a proposal to liberalize the state-wide smoking ban had no effect on the state's economy.  It continues to tank and and the hospitality business is still hemorrhaging.  Delaware has become the poster child of the damage prohibition does to economies and society in general.  The states on its borders are doing very well from the smoking ban as fed-up residents flee the state for more civilized locations where restaurant and bar owners make their own smoking policies, based on customer demand.

Delaware United Smoker's Association is getting the word out to the public and the politicians that secondhand smoke, the basis for the smoking ban, is not a hazard to the public and that accommodating all people is the best way to do business.  Check out this organization and become a member.

Delaware United Smoker's Association

April 21 - Challenging The Internet Sales Ban - A group of Internet cigarette retailers and two housebound smokers are suing the state, claiming its ban on online cigarette sales is unconstitutional.

The Online Tobacco Retailers Association, along with a Seneca Indian retailer, out-of-state online sellers and two disabled consumers, contend in the lawsuit that the ban discriminates against out-of-state online tobacco retailers and Indian retailers.

"Additionally New York residents will be deprived of the freedom to purchase tobacco on the Internet," said Ali Davouda, president of the nonprofit OLTRA.

The New York state legislature, the governor and the mayor of New York City believe that their citizens have less rights than those who live in the other 49 states.  They also seem to believe that these citizens will accept tyranny in silence and passivity.  As these politicians have been wrong about tobacco taxes and smoking bans, they will fail in their attempt to make their citizens captive to irrational government policies.

It's unfortunate that the courts have to be cluttered with suits that are filed in response to invalid government policies.  Those challenging the law that forbids online cigarette sales are to be applauded.  Whatever their motive, their suit to overturn this law is in the best interest of New York residents, whether they smoke or not

April 21 - Smokers Victimized By Unfiltered Greed -  No one should have to endure this kind of tax burden, and many smokers have said no and gone elsewhere. For instance, the state of Washington in 2001 estimated it lost almost $63 million because smokers bought cigarettes on the Internet, from Indian smoke shops or from other states.

Many states think that raising excise taxes will cut the rate of underage smokers. This is questionable when studies have shown that the biggest influence on children smoking is parents, not government action.

Dave Pickrell of Smokers Fighting Discrimination Inc. presents the facts on tobacco taxes.  In a nutshell, they don't work as intended.  Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.  Hiking the tobacco tax is insane.  It has been done to death and it doesn't work on any level.

April 18 - Cigarette Taxes, Black Markets and Crime:  Lessons from New York's 50-Year Losing Battle - New York's high cigarette taxes have spawned a massive black market that has diverted billions of dollars from legitimate businesses and governments to criminals.  More troubling than the financial losses is the crime associated with the city's illicit cigarette market.  The enormous profits that can be made smuggling cigarettes into New York have lured smalltime crooks, mobsters, street gangs, and terrorists into the racket.  Those criminals have engaged in a host of violent activities, including murder, kidnapping, and armed robbery, to earn and protect their illicit profits.  Such crime has frustrated law enforcement efforts to curtail it and exposed regular citizens, such as truck drivers and retail store clerks, to violence.

No, these words are not written by "pro-tobacco lobbyists".  This comprehensive and policy analysis on the harm high tobacco taxes does to society is the work of Patrick Fleenor, whose previous positions include chief economist of the Tax Foundation and senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.  Instead of being a panacea for cash-strapped states and localities, the sky-high cigarette taxes are boomeranging on the citizenry in ways that the greedy politicians didn't foresee.

April 18 - High Taxes Lead To Roll-Your-Own Response - Kansas lawmakers expected a couple of scenarios after they made the state tax on cigarettes among the highest in the nation: Tax revenue from tobacco sales would go up to help a weak treasury; and more people would quit smoking.

Nine months after policy-makers boosted the tax from 24 cents a pack to 79 cents, revenue is indeed up, though slightly less than expected. And there has been a dramatic decrease in the sales of cigarette packs.  But there is little evidence the tax has created what health advocates had hoped for: fewer smokers.

Of course there are no fewer smokers.  People don't quit smoking just because government jacks up the price, even to ridiculously high levels.  People do what people have done for thousands of years under the same circumstances.  They buy elsewhere, they buy from criminals or they substitute the state-sanctioned product with something else.  In Kansas they are rolling their own cigarettes and sales for bulk tobacco and the tubes in which it is packed have increased six fold at some locations.  Add in the internet, out-of-state and black market sales and it is not surprising that tax revenue projections by the tax-happy politicians are falling short.

"There's also the ‘defiance factor,'" [he] said. "I hear people all the time say, ‘Screw the state, I'm rolling my own. I'm taxed enough.'"

April 18 - New Yorkers Rebel Against Tobacco Prohibition - Mr. Bloomberg's hubristic campaign has been about the wellbeing of waiters and waitresses. But he's hurting their pockets to improve their health: People smoke and linger over drinks and those tips pay for acting lessons and miso soup. Now tips are in danger of going the way of all butts. In a lounge on Houston at 9 p.m. on a weeknight, our sibilant waitress told us in a stage whisper that we could smoke after 10. "We have to do something," she fretted.

Neighborhood joints have always been the de facto living rooms of Manhattan, but in a tough economy, what smoker needs the $50 drink tab and trips to the curb? Florida restaurants faced with a less onerous ban opted to rip out their kitchens and fire their chefs rather than tick off their partyers: Anyone in the restaurant business will tell you the bar makes the money.

Soon after prohibition became the law in New York City, a bouncer was killed while attempting to enforce the smoke ban in a bar.  The dead man's brother places the blame for this death squarely on Mayor Bloomberg.  Bloomberg offered his condolences to the grieving family.  One "man-in-the-street" theorized that the perpetrators "had issues" that may have not been connected to being asked to extinguish a cigarette.  Perhaps, but it seems clear that the young bouncer would still be alive had Bloomberg not imposed his morality on the entire city.  With this death the city indeed has "issues."

Issues like freedoms slowly being taken away and because of it some people are beginning to snap. This isn't just about smoking, it's about being boxed into a corner and being nagged day after day by a bunch of hoodlum nannies. The most volatile are losing it now and as this intrusion into everyone's lives escalates, even more are going to snap. Some will end up in jail wondering, "what in God's name came over me?"

Smoking isn't a crime. Prohibition, however, is. When the Volstead Act was in effect, the murder rate in the USA was 1 in 10,000 per year. After the Prohibition of alcohol was repealed, the murder rate dropped to 1 in 100,000 per year. This does not even begin to address the enormous profits that organized and disorganized criminals are making from the theft and smuggling of cigarettes.

When smoking returns, as it will, to New York City, Mayor Bloomberg and his simpering gang of prohibitionists will not receive any sympathy when they whine, "but we were only doing it for your won good."

April 14 - State Braces For Smoking Ban Backlash - Norman Kjono, an attorney with FORCES, a consumer group based in Washington state, is that case law is just now coming up to speed. He said there "absolutely" will be a challenge to New York state's ban likely brought by consumer groups and/or bar and restaurant owners.  One avenue of litigation being explored here, and already in motion in other states, is from the economic loss stand point.

"There are several lawsuits now where the business owner is claiming an unfair taking of profits from that establishment," Kjono said. "Let's say somebody has a business. There is certain amount of revenue and those revenues are reduced by a regulatory intervention ... The constitution provides they will be compensated for that loss."

Anti-ban litigation is only one encouraging trend that is threatening the drive for prohibition.  The role of the pharmaceutical industry in promoting smoking bans for financial gain, as reported in this article from the Troy Record, is becoming clearer and will give politicians pause when asked to endorse legislation that benefits one business at the expense of local small businesses.  Nothing brings Big Drug's involvement in lobbying for smoking bans more to the fore than the deal made between New York City's Department of Public Health and a distributor of smoking cessation devices.  Free quit smoking kits are available to New Yorkers who are pressured to quit smoking because of the prohibition enacted two weeks ago.

The answer to the question as to whether smoking bans are good for business has been answered by the experience of businesses in Delaware after its stringent state-wide ban was enacted.  Droves of customers have been driven from restaurants, bars and casinos who have sought smoke-friendly environments in neighboring states.  The hoards of nonsmokers who were promised by anti-smoking lobbyists have not materialized.  If the legislative entity that is responsible for imposing prohibition can be held liable for lost revenue, the smoke-free agenda will be finished.

Note:  "The Troy Record Reporter incorrectly identifies Mr. Kjono as an attorney, a correction has been E-Mailed to the newspaper. Mr. Kjono is a professional expert witness in securities (stock and bond) litigation, he is not an attorney."

April 14 - Legislature Terminates Helena Smoking Ban - Gov. Judy Martz won't veto a bill weakening city smoking bans despite claims from anti-tobacco activists that it subverts the will of local voters.

"To me this is a property rights issue," she said Friday, giving the reason for her decision.

House Bill 758, which exempts businesses with video gambling machines from local smoking ordinances that are more strict than state law, has cleared both houses and now needs the governor's signature to become law.  The bill overturns an election by Helena voters banning smoking in all public places, including bars and casinos.

Despite a last ditch roll out of a particularly loony study attributing a massive drop in heart attacks to the six-month-long Helena smoking ban, anti-tobacco lost big time in Montana.  Freedom was the big winner as well as property rights, as noted by the governor.  

"If this is a property right, then serving food on dirty dishes (in restaurants) is a property right," Cliff Christian of the American Heart Association said.

Hardly, Cliff.  Dirty dishes are conducive to the growth of bacteria that can be proved to cause illness.  Secondhand smoke doesn't spread bacteria nor has it ever been proven to cause any disease whatsoever.  The American Heart Association operative knows full well that banning smoking has nothing to do with preventing harm to nonsmokers.  The Helena smoking ban did have everything to do with advancing the sales of smoking cessation devices, which is why the ALA's patron, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest stockholder of Johnson & Johnson (Nicatrol) spreads millions of dollars around to promote smoking bans.

April 10 - Senate Votes To Retain Smoking Ban -  Responding to intense pressure from out-of-state anti-tobacco interests, the Delaware state senate voted to retain the unpopular state-wide smoking ban.  By a hefty margin the senators voted to kill a bill passed earlier by the house that would have modified the total smoking ban enacted last November.

There is no argument that the smoking ban has been a disaster for the state's hospitality industry, hitting the gaming revenues particularly hard.  Delaware, the second smallest state in the Union, is surrounded by states that allow smoking in restaurants, bars and casinos.  State residents are taking short trips across the border while out-of-state visitors are abandoning Delaware for more civilized locations.

Anti-tobacco special interests have been lobbying the neighboring states to enact similar smoking restrictions but have struck out in Maryland and Pennsylvania, both of which have declined to criminalize smoking.  A statewide ban has been proposed in New Jersey but it faces a tough fight in a state that has benefited greatly from the business of Delaware smokers who have flooded the state to escape the smoking ban.  There is no serious effort in the state of Virginia to ban smoking.

Surrounded by free states, the tourist season this summer in Delaware promises to be bleak.  Those who value freedom must continue to work the legislature and get another bill in the hopper.  The legislators need to have the feet held to the fire.  In tough economic times it makes no sense to trash private business and reduce state tax revenue lost to declining sales.  The economic losses will not be made up by the anti-tobacco cartel that pushed the ban through and it's already plain that nonsmokers are not rushing to fill the gap left by the smokers who have hit the road out of Delaware.

April 9 - Secondhand Smoke, More Deadly Than Combat - New federal regulations banning smoking in nearly all on-base, government-run clubs have hurt business in the Stuttgart military community, and possibly elsewhere.  The smoking ban, which went into effect at Morale, Welfare and Recreation clubs throughout Europe on Dec. 7, prohibits smoking inside buildings and within 50 feet of a structure. 

“People just stopped coming in,” said Terry Mitchell, manager of the Kelley Community Club on Kelley Barracks. 

On a recent Friday, the bar had seven customers, despite free chicken wings and egg rolls. The turnout was a substantial drop from the dozens of regulars in attendance before the ban.

The military is well known for its bizarre regulations but what's this with the no smoking within 50 feet of a structure?  Since secondhand smoke is not a health hazard to nonsmokers its doubly strange that the military is protecting a building from stray wisps of tobacco smoke.  It's a shame that military people are being treated like children despite relying upon them to defend the nation.  The secondhand smoke hysteria is a relic of a discredited past.  Catering to the smoke Nazi's at a time like this gives irrelevancy a new twist.

April 10 - Senate Votes To Retain Smoking Ban - Responding to intense pressure from out-of-state anti-tobacco interests, the Delaware state senate voted to retain the unpopular state-wide smoking ban.  By a hefty margin the senators voted to kill a bill passed earlier by the house that would have modified the total smoking ban enacted last November.

There is no argument that the smoking ban has been a disaster for the state's hospitality industry, hitting the gaming revenues particularly hard.  Delaware, the second smallest state in the Union, is surrounded by states that allow smoking in restaurants, bars and casinos.  State residents are taking short trips across the border while out-of-state visitors are abandoning Delaware for more civilized locations.

Anti-tobacco special interests have been lobbying the neighboring states to enact similar smoking restrictions but have struck out in Maryland and Pennsylvania, both of which have declined to criminalize smoking.  A statewide ban has been proposed in New Jersey but it faces a tough fight in a state that has benefited greatly from the business of Delaware smokers who have flooded the state to escape the smoking ban.  There is no serious effort in the state of Virginia to ban smoking.

Surrounded by free states, the tourist season this summer in Delaware promises to be bleak.  Those who value freedom must continue to work the legislature and get another bill in the hopper.  The legislators need to have the feet held to the fire.  In tough economic times it makes no sense to trash private business and reduce state tax revenue lost to declining sales.  The economic losses will not be made up by the anti-tobacco cartel that pushed the ban through and it's already plain that nonsmokers are not rushing to fill the gap left by the smokers who have hit the road out of Delaware.

April 10 - We Love You.  Please Don't Hurt Us. - Philip Morris took its traveling penitence show to Toledo where it begged for forgiveness, endorsed smoking bans, government regulation and swore fealty to junk science.  Although it now marches lock step with the Tobacco Control Enterprise it still faced sharp questioning from the good Toledo burghers who apparently believe that in these times of disintegrating skyscrapers, the war with Iraq and, closer to home, the abysmal economic future of rust belt cities, smoking is worthy of serious debate.

Philip Morris' policies have brought the company to the point where it trades its threatened bankruptcy for political mercy.  As the future of the company becomes more dire the best it can offer its stockholders and customers is a promise to keep paying protection money for as long as the tobacco settlement is in effect.  Instead of taking its considerable weapons and aiming them at the non-producers and non taxpayers that make up the anti-smoking cartel, PM grovels here and grovels there, constantly looking for a hand to scratch its head in place of the feet that have been kicking it for years.  Please put this useless company out of its misery.

April 3 - Montana Tackles The Helena Smoking Ban - A bill that would undo the city of Helena's smoking ban in bars and casinos cleared a House committee Monday night, after the same panel had earlier voted to kill the measure.  The House Taxation Committee voted 12-6 to endorse House Bill 758, which says any bar, tavern or casino with video-gambling machines is exempt from local anti-smoking ordinances that are tougher than state law.

HB758 would exempt Helena bars and casinos from compliance with the city's tough new anti-smoking law, which was affirmed last year by Helena voters.  The Helena ordinance bans smoking in all buildings used by the public, including taverns, casinos and restaurants.

Rep. Bob Lake, R-Hamilton, who voted for the bill, said one of the jobs of a legislator is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.

Anti-tobacco has its panties in a wad over the move to pre-empt, somewhat, local smoking bans in the state.  So far the only city to indulge in prohibition is Helena which passed a California-type ban that proved to be wildly unpopular.  So unpopular that all the big out-of-state anti-tobacco cartel guns for hire such as "Dr." Stanton Glantz who was the statistical expert for a laughable "study" that portrayed the bar smoking ban as the solution for heart attacks.

One one side are the hardworking men and women who have seen their profits slip away because of the smoking ban and on the other side are the enormously rich "health" charities and their local goon squad.  The odds are against freedom but Montana is not New York City.  The Big Sky Country has a long tradition of independence and individuality so culturally the state is very hostile to the goals of the tobacco control industry.  The grinding conformity and regimentation espoused by anti-tobacco is out of place in Montana and should be repulsed.

April 1 - Sorry, Old Boy, the Mayor Says 'No Smoking' - The city council's smoking ban, an effort to protect employees from second-hand smoke, has kicked in, and to the dismay of many members of those clubs, the law applies to cigars — and it applies to them.

"The attitude at every place I know is that this is the most asinine law they've ever heard of," said Michael M. Thomas, a writer and a member of the Racquet and Tennis Club, on Park Avenue. "I know of no more detested law than this."

Mr. Thomas doesn't even smoke cigars, but that's beside the point, club members say. The basic premise of clubs is that members should be able to go to their clubhouses and do as they please, which should at least include the option of lazing in a big club chair with a highball of single-malt scotch and a stinky cigar in hand. Having that option taken away without so much as a vote from the house committee, well, it's just very un-club-like. Steven T. Florio, the chief executive of Condé Nast Publications, a member of the New York Yacht Club and a man known for his love of cigars, actually quit smoking four months ago, but that hasn't changed his opinion of the law.

"This is way over the line," he said. "If you're a member of any private club and they have a designated area where you can smoke a cigar, I think that should be allowed. It's one of those nice things you can do with your buddies."

Reading this propaganda piece from the New York Times, an ardent anti-smoking rag, it's hard not to feel for the old boys who hang out in their exclusive private clubs.  After paying all that money to keep the undesirables out and now the anti-tobacco rabble is running the show!  On the other hand these privileged members of the elite could simply refuse to comply.  Amongst them are the real movers and shakers of Manhattan and a show of solid contempt for the nanny Bloomberg would get them more respect from the public than any of the philanthropic endeavors they stage to salve their consciences.

April  1 - Walk a Mile for a Camel? Not far enough anymore. - How times have changed. Beginning today, America's capital of freewheeling indulgence joins an increasingly puritanical nation in its war on tobacco. With the exception of a handful of upscale cigar bars, smoking will be banned from all public indoor spaces; four months from now, an even-more-draconian state law, signed last Wednesday by Gov. George E. Pataki, will outlaw even the specially designed, employee-free smoking chambers that the City Council had permitted in its legislation.

"This is really the end of an era," said B