March 17 - Uganda.  An Anti-smoker's Dream Come True - Uganda has banned smoking in all "public places," officially defined as anywhere any non-smoker doesn't want any smoking going on, at any time, including smokers' own private homes. There's a partial exception. If you have no children, nor any non-smoking visitors, and you keep all the blinds closed, you can still apparently get away with smoking inside your own house. That's the big loophole the government can close at the next legislative session. Sales of tobacco products, and tax collection on same, are unaffected by the new law. Reportedly, a lone public health official suddenly declared the ban in progress, while all the other officials were away "at a burial," or something like that. No we're not making this up. It's a preview of Massachusetts in 2005. By the way, the police are confused regarding enforcement, and Ugandans are ignoring the law fairly universally. Pray they keep at it, and smokers, when making your next regularly scheduled visit to Uganda, pack extra ammo.

March 11 - UK- Smoking Ban A Bust - The Student Union at Britain's University of Leeds hedged its bet on political correctness. It prohibited smoking in Student Union campus buildings during the day but not at night. The daytime ban included Student Union bars, and the Union extended this complete smoking ban to the night hours, at one of its campus bars. At another bar smokers were merely segregated from their betters in the evening. At the Student Union's three other bars, and at its three nightclubs, smoking after 7 p.m. was left unrestricted. 

Surely these "moderate" and "progressive" steps would delight the whole student body and make the prohibitionist bars (only in this age could such a description be other than satirical) into a Mecca for the superior beings that all non-smoking boozers are. Surely everyone recognized the ungodly peril of "secondhand" smoke! Or so thought the social engineers at the Student Union. However, within just weeks student protests, and more importantly, the bars' cash receipts came in. So the ban is out. One month's painful financial losses were as much as the Student Union could bear. 

Can we anticipate an argument from anti-smoking activists, that if a partial ban in one set buildings was a remarkable disaster, then total town-wide, district-wide, or nation-wide bans would surely be a remarkable success? Unquestionably, yes, they're already starting at it. Will politically correct media wholeheartedly endorse that kind of logic? Absolutely. 

The government, unlike the Leeds Student Union, does not operate bars to support itself. Following in the long tradition of flim-flam artists, anti-smoking lobbyists oil their cons with flattery, and our legislators and bureaucrats just love being called "health heroes." So when will these puffed-up tyrants start listening to the private citizens and business owners who suffer the real consequences of government-mandated smoking bans? When we beat the message into them, till they hurt so bad, they can't bear it.

March 10 - Small Business Owners File Suit - A coalition of Washington restaurant owners sued the District yesterday in hopes of keeping an initiative off the November ballot that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants in the city.

Andrew J. Kline, the attorney for the restaurants, said the initiative is not suitable for the ballot because it would interfere with sales tax and cigarette tax revenue collected by the District. In addition, he said, the elections board has not followed proper procedures. Among other things, the board failed to give adequate notice of a public hearing on the measure last month, Kline said. 

I guess at this late date it would be useless to say also that smoking bans are an unjustified taking of private property and that, after all, there are no health benefits to banning smoking since secondhand smoke has not been shown to cause negative health effects.   Still, it's better to nip this ban in the bud so kudos to the small business owners who are not hiding their heads in the sand.

For laughs, check out the anodyne prose of the reporter:

A push for a statewide ban in Maryland also is under way, but the Senate Finance Committee recently killed the measure, making its passage unlikely soon. Delaware, New York, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts and California prohibit smoking inside certain places.

By "certain places" the reporter means every speck of private property.  The reporter knows full well that the only reason these states pop up in stories such as this is to persuade the locals that the smoking ban proposed by anti-tobacco special interests is a reasonable restriction that respects both property rights and nonsmokers health.  All these states are losing money hand over fist because of their smoking bans.  Connecticut and New York are both reconsidering their smoking bans and the issue is far from settled in Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts and even California.

March 9 - No to EU-wide ban on tobacco in the workplace: do not believe them – ‘The European Union’s commissioner for health and consumer protection, Mr David Byrne, has stated that he will not be introducing community-wide legislation on tobacco in the workplace. He made his comments at an EU conference in Cork—"Promoting heart health, a European consensus"—in response to a threat by hospitality industry sources that such EU legislation would be used as the basis for a challenge to the smoking ban that is due to come into effect in Ireland on 29 March.’

Do you remember the old joke: “Q.: How do you know when a used car salesman lies? A.: As soon as he  moves his lips”? Antismokers are compulsive liars – always.  It is their only way to exist. Extreme position? Not really. The Italian minister of "health", for example, keeps on reassuring the public that he does respect smokers' rights, while attempting to push prohibition every which way he can. By the same token, the EU commissioner, a few months ago, was fully in favour of the ban. What made him change his mind? Perhaps some buried, residual ethics floating to the surface -- or considerations for truth or freedom of choice? Now, that’s a joke! There are only two possible explanations for this reversal of position: the first is that Byrne and what he represents have come to the summation that they would be easily defeated by the defenders of free choice in a court of law.  Alternatively, they have found a better strategy to use the passive smoke fraud in their favour to install total prohibition, which seems to be the only goal of their parasitic existence. So, no deep breaths of relief (and inhalation of delicious tobacco scent) – not even cigars. Just be prepared for more insidious attacks, as antismokers and healthists never quit, as they are truly addicted. To put an end to them it takes uprooting solutions -- not stalls and band-aids.

March 8 - Clearing The Air - As a Republican senator readied a bill to permit smoking in taverns with air purifiers, a liquor industry lobbying team on Tuesday met behind closed doors with lawmakers to show how $3,000 devices can clear a room of smoke.

Sen. Ray Meier, R-Utica, is circulating a draft of a measure he intends to introduce within a few days. Meier, who voted for the law that bans smoking in workplaces, said he has received numerous calls from tavern owners in his district who say the prohibition is substantially cutting into their businesses.

"I told them: 'Nobody intended to put you guys out of business,' " Meier said.

His bill would allow bars that draw less than 40 percent of their revenue from food sales to be eligible for an exemption. They would have to install a filtration and purification device approved by the state Health Department and able to clean 99 percent of the contaminants out of the air.  (Times Union, 3/3/04)

Better late than never.  Senator Meier would not be receiving numerous calls from tavern owners had he listened to them rather than the anti-tobacco special interests prior to voting yes on a smoking ban law that is putting his constituents out of business.  Still, it's to his credit that he now realizes that prohibition is poison to small businesses.

Legislators of both parties are looking into air purification systems to eliminate tobacco smoke.  Needless to say the tobacco control industry is adamantly opposed to even examining whether the devices operate as advertised.  In all the years since tobacco smoke was "discovered" to be deadly, anti-tobacco has done its best to ensure that ventilation is never considered even though non-smokers and smokers alike would rather have air scrubbed of all irritants than see prohibition imposed.  Anti-tobacco has worked with various building management groups to promote the fiction that banning smoking will miraculously take care of all indoor issues.  The sick building syndrome, a phenomenon that developed after smoking was banished, demonstrates that tobacco smoke is the least of worries in ensure that indoor air is healthy.

March 5 - Connecticut Mulls Easing Smoking Ban - A year after passing a law that bans smoking in restaurants and bars, lawmakers on Thursday will begin considering some amendments to the legislation.  Smoking already is a thing of the past in restaurants. But for small bars and cafes that thrive on a clientele that likes to light up over a beer after work, losing even a few customers could be disastrous.

Ron Briggs, co-owner of Howard's Cafe in Waterbury, said a number of his customers have already joined private clubs, which are exempt under the law.

"We pay our taxes, we pay our bills, we pay our liquor license," said Briggs, who has been in business for almost 30 years. "We just want to be able to stay in business."

Rep. Leonard Greene, R-Beacon Falls, a ranking member on the General Law Committee, is pushing a bill that would exempt bars and cafes if they purchased air purifiers or smoke eaters or built smoking rooms.

Unfortunately the plights of the Ron Briggses fo Connecticut who will devastated by the smoking are of no concern to the financially motivated special interests who railroaded this unpopular smoking ban through the legislature.  It's up to the elected representatives to correct the situation they find themselves in after listening to and being conned by the lies of the tobacco control industry.

The evidence from New York state, Delaware and other locations makes clear that smoking bans are poison for business.  If smart politicians in Connecticut do not want to completely wipe out a large junk of the small business base that cannot survive after kicking out all their smoking customers they will amend the smoking ban or, better still, trash the whole ugly mess and go back to a time when property owners owned and directed their businesses as they see fit.

March 2 - Campaign To Take Back New York City - In response to falling sales and hordes of complaints by smokers, bar staff, and owners, numerous organizations throughout Manhattan are fighting back against New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's smoking ban.

Seinfeld, along with many other Upper West Side bar owners, is involved in a campaign to repeal the ban. The New York City Nightlife Association, in conjunction with the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association, is working toward an amendment to the ban that would allow smoking in bars where state-of-the-art filtration systems are in place. New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (CLASH) has also launched a campaign--and filed a lawsuit--hoping to see the smoking ban abolished.

"There's no compromising. Every time we compromise, it just comes down to greater limitations," said Audrey Silk, founder of CLASH.

"People who happen to enjoy a legal product are being told they can't go anywhere," Silk said. "You can't even open up a smokers' club, which really tells you what this is about ... It's not about protecting anybody. It's about keeping people from smoking."

Even if there were no sneezing people, nor any matches, incense, fireplaces, cars, factories, dust, lint, pets, fresh paint or cooking odors anywhere in the world, concern about "secondhand" tobacco smoke would still be a joke. Windows are made for opening and private business owners were always free to ban smoking in their establishments if they wanted to. Government-mandated smoking bans are wrongheaded, hysterical, divisive and tyrannical. The health cult is entrenched, vastly funded, vicious and uncompromising. Today's horde of Puritans are bent on social engineering, and will ban every free choice, and every joy in life they sets their sites on, until this is forcibly stopped. New Yorkers are fighting, and defying, and they must keep at it.

March 1 - Lawlessness In Washington State - Tobacco consumer advocacy group, Forces International, said the ban violates state law.  Skerlec, the appeals court commissioner, “did not overturn or vacate (the earlier) ruling that the Pierce County smoking ban violates state law,” said Norman Kjono, a spokesman for Forces International. “Skerlec ordered a stay of enforcing Judge Culpepper’s order while the case progresses through the Washington appeals process. A stay of a previous order is not precedent.

What we confront in Pierce County is a frightening situation where a special-interest smoking ban that violates private property rights, damages small business and negatively labels persons who smoke as ‘killers’ is to be enforced, despite the fact that a Superior Court judge has ruled that the ban violates state law. The question is will other counties choose to follow that example?“

The Pierce county smoking ban controversy took an ominous twist last week when a single court commissioner on the state court of appeals ordered the smoking ban to be reinstated, despite a county superior court ruling that the ban was illegal under state law.  The court commissioner's action means that, while the appeal processes grind forward, the county can enforce a smoking ban that has been ruled illegal.  

So we have a law that has been overturned yet still continues to be enforced.  Such an arrogant upending of established legal processes would be astonishing were tobacco not involved.  The tobacco control industry is firmly in control in Washington state.  When its illegal ban is overturned it merely shops an appeal to a sympathetic judge and violà, the illegal ban is still in effect.  Citizens should be concerned that special interest power plays are trumping the law and the courts.

February 23 - When Absurdity Is Codified Into Law -
As ridiculous as this seems, isn’t that exactly what has recently happened with Bainbridge’s passing of a “no-smoking” ordinance. Rather than allowing the business owners to have the right to decide, “Big Brother” steps up and decides! I agree that non-smokers have rights; however, there were already several restaurants operating as smoke free. Both smokers and non-smokers have rights concerning such matters but more importantly, the business owners should make this call.

Bainbridge, Georgia recently introduced a bar and restaurant smoking ban. A man named Bert Steen smoked in a diner as a deliberate act of civil disobedience. He plans on paying $150 in fines and court costs, to avoid spending thirty days in jail, but he also intends to appeal. Mister Steen's neighbors understand his indignation. They see through the absurd veneer of anti-smoking propaganda. Anti-smoking has become the bellwether cause of hysterics and zealots, hypochondriacs, technocrats and control freaks of all stripes. With regard to tobacco 1984 came along right about on schedule. Too many people shrugged. Things are much worse now. Every aspect of common civility, and personal liberty, are seen as fair prey by the sick social engineers of the twenty-first century. More and more Bert Steens, and armies of their neighbors, are awakening to the need for active rebellion.

February 23 - Ban Destroying Small Businesses - December sales taxes declined between five and 15 percent from the same month a year ago at several one-time smoker hangouts, the city said. The names and the number of businesses included in the sampling were not available.  Some bar and restaurant owners had warned the ban would cost them business because the adjacent towns of Evans and Garden City don't have similar restrictions.  Noreen Romero used to patronize Dutch's Bar in Greeley, but on Thursday she stopped to drink and smoke at Scooter's Bar in Garden City.

"I go to the bars where I can smoke," she said.

Tom Kidder said he sold The Brewery bar in Greeley because he didn't think he could survive under the smoking ban. He said he's scouting locations for another bar in Evans.

It didn't take long for the bad effects from the Greeley, Colorado smoking ban to hit the pocketbooks of the restaurant and bar owners.  They knew that their business would decline once the smoking ban went into effect yet the politicians listened to out-of-town anti-smoking special interests' promises that throwing out smokers is good for business.  

What's sad is that the small business owners being driven to bankruptcy might now support the same liars who as they go to the neighboring smoker-friendly cities preaching more local smoking bans.  This time they will be selling a "level the playing field" fraud which will not bring in more customers but will make all cities suffer the same losses that Greeley has.

February 20 - Prohibition Soon To Hit Ireland - Here comes the Irish smoking ban. It will go something like things have gone in New York. Certain fat-cats in certain fancy places will ignore the ban with impunity. Family-type restaurants will muddle through while most adult venues will suffer badly. "Smoking decks" may help some but not when it rains and surely not at all in the months when it snows. Obedient pub and night-club owners will tighten their belts or else go bust altogether. Those businessmen most bent on survival will adopt "smokeasy" tactics. Accordingly as the law is ignored place to place, customers will either gleefully cheat, or else gripe and move on. Certainly, there will be fiery arguments, or drunken brawls, or a killing here or there.

At the same time anti-smoking organizations will propagate biased studies and polls revealing everybody but everybody is positively delighted with the senseless fascist ban. Politically correct media will regurgitate the anti-smoking groups' press releases but over time the awful truth will become unavoidable, as disgust with government and disrespect for law, become the general rule. New York is backpedaling just months into its ban, while fighting lawsuits, brought by business owners and smokers' rights advocates. Irish defiance, and lawsuits, are already being planned. All this is brought to us by idiotic hysterics folks. The beat goes on.

February 18 - Anti-Family Smoking Ban - One busybody in Indiana was dining out recently when he encountered a situation that perturbed in greatly.  Since whiners are rewarded in this society his pet peeve will know be debated by a city council that is being urged to pass yet one more intrusive law.  The law would not ban smoking in restaurants but would instead ban customers younger than 18 years old.  As usual the anti-smoking busybody is incapable of following logical thought.  

Children who accompany their smoking parents to restaurants are exposed to secondhand smoke at home.  Forbidding parents to bring their children to a restaurant that allows smoking will "protect" their children for a couple of hours.  Enacting a law that specifically forbids children from being around smoking is setting up the first stage to ban smoking at home.  Since smoking has never been proved to cause harm to anyone, the politicians now considering whether to craft such a bill should rip up the busybody's proposal and toss it in the trash can.

February 17 - Statewide Smoking Ban Proposed - Georgia could be the latest state to ban smoking. State Sen. Don Thomas has said that he will introduce legislation that would prohibit smoking in all public places, including bars and restaurants.

"This is not an effort to make people quit smoking, it's to make it so their smoke doesn't hurt others," Thomas, a family doctor, told the Marietta Daily Journal. "I've seen firsthand the damages of smoking."

However, Thomas' proposed legislation will likely be met by strong opposition.

"There is only so far you can go to regulate businesses," state Sen. Chuck Clay told the Associated Press. "I'd like to see more smoke-free restaurants, but I'm not in favor of a statewide ban."

The good old family doctor quoted above is a liar.  Since secondhand smoke is harmless, the only reason to impose a smoking ban is to compel smokers to quit.  The pharmaceutical money pouring into localities to buy smoking bans is spent on the premise that smoking bans are good for their business.  They believe that when smokers are forbidden to smoke they will spend their hard-earned dollars on smoking cessation devices.  Dr. Thomas is a drug company shill whose legislation was written by the drug companies.  He works for them, not his Georgia constituents.

As the economic disasters caused by smoking bans in Delaware, New York, Maine and California become well known, smart politicians are looking more closely at the claims of anti-tobacco and are becoming more likely to listen to the restaurant and bar owners who know that they will lose money should smokers be shown the door.  At a time of economic uncertainty, it is insane to hobble a major business with laws that drive up to 30 percent of the population to stay home.

February 10 - Killing Off The Small Businesses - Viva Debris Comedy and Magic Club in Syracuse said the state’s smoking ban has put a damper on business.  Since the state's smoking ban took affect in July, there hasn't been a lot of laughs at Viva Debris Comedy and Magic Club. Business is down, way down.

"We have lost about 30% of our business which includes 30% of our staff," said owner Joe Delion.

The comedy club says the smoking ban hasn't only impacted their business, but other companies that it does business with have also been affected.  “Our liquor and beer salespeople are losing business. People who supply us with supplies are losing business, it has been a disaster," said Delion.

The laughs have been choked off, and the thrill is gone, at the Viva Debris Comedy and Magic Club in Syracuse, New York. Sales have declined thirty per cent since the state mandated a smoking ban. So staffing was reduced by the same margin, and management says the feasibility of the business, now hinges on its application for a smoking ban waiver. The Viva Debris can hardly provide a separate smoking room, in a venue based on watching a stage performance, so they are begging to offer two "smoking nights" per week. Just months ago, in the days before free choice had to be begged for, every night was a smoking night at the Viva Debris, as at virtually every bar and nightclub. Denny's might contain it, but Puritanism does not find a natural home, in places devoted to adult fun.

Try to imagine George Burns or Jackie Gleason, Whoopi Goldberg or Denis Leary, at a smoke-free comedy club. They would have no business there. That's what's happened to the business there. The victims of idiotic secondhand smoke hysteria keep gasping and falling, as legislators in Albany try to disguise their error, even while perpetuating it, with the bone-headed temporary waiver policy. The ban must be canned. Indignation will mount, defiance will spread, and lawsuits will continue, until the folly of the New York ban is reversed. Normal people do not believe the nonsense their "secondhand saviors" have fallen for and they want their freedom back. A significant constituency amongst these normal people, New York's smokers are indeed not so desperate to smoke at night spots, that they can't step outside to light up, nor are they so desperate for a drink or a limp laugh, that they can't just walk away, and not come back.

February 5 - Ban Proponents Getting Nasty - Slapped down in Pierce County, the tobacco control industry moves to Whatcom County, near Seattle.  This time it isn't going to waste its time and money imposing an illegal ban, as was tried in Pierce County.  Instead the county council voted "unanimously" to demand that the state legislature enact total prohibition in Washington state.

The council members appear to believe that calling smokers nasty names is the way to get the state legislature's attention.  We examine the phenomenon of elected officials denigrating their constituents all in the cause of putting over a fast one on the entire state.  We also put the lie to the "unanimous" vote taken by the Whatcom County Council.

February 3 - Breaking The Law Or Going Broke - "People assumed they were going to be able to smoke tonight, so I'm letting them," the owner said. "I'll take the hit."

"The hit" is up to a $1,000 for each violation and $2,000 in certain circumstances, according to the state Health Department Web site. The amount seems high, but to bar owners, it is dwarfed by the sales they have lost since the ban went into effect six months ago.

At Ziggy's, a bar and nightclub just off the Latham Circle, owner Shane Zyglewicz said he has lost half his daytime business because of the prohibition. And while the air was clean at Ziggy's on Sunday, by comparison to the two other bars visited by The Record, it was nearly empty. Just a few people sat at the bar.

Have you heard how good smoking bans are for bar business? Did you hear it from a Hellth Nazi? Try asking New York State tavern owners, and when they speak, your ears will sense the truth. Tavern owners have been taking it on the chin for months, so once Super Bowl Sunday came around, even some of the more compliant ones finally cried, "let the smoking begin!"

There's history here. Hellth preachers have tried to "sanitize" our bodies, minds, and societies before. Leeches really didn't know enough only to suck the bad blood, though their applicators insisted otherwise, while bleeding patients to death for centuries. Only lately, lobotomies and Eugenics were extolled worldwide by medicos, the types well-schooled in wrongheaded science, while lacking plain sense, or human hearts. Today, within such minds, belief in "secondhand smoke peril" is nothing short of devout. 

Eugenics, the "science" of Nordic superiority, originated in the USA and made its ugly way to Germany with the help of the original Nazis. Not just incidentally, Hitler's regime imposed identical anti-smoking measures, as are being practiced in the USA today. Of course, today's anti-smoking activists are trying to bring New York-style smoking bans, back to Berlin. The heavily-smoking German public is feeling mighty queasy about that as well they should. 

Whether pushing for a Judenfrei (Jew-free) or rauchfrei (smoke-free) agenda, certain types of technocrats convince themselves, that their goals are pure, sanitizing, and lofty. Their arrogance, and compulsion to control, is unbounded. Criticism of their goals and methods is dismissed or denied contemptuously, by "authorities" with such lofty opinions, of themselves. They expect you to believe every wrongheaded, senseless, and heartless word they preach. You have heard them. Do you believe them?

January 30 - He's Outta Here - Hotel Oneida is for sale, so folks worldwide can check it out on eBay.  They can also bid on it, with an asking price of $350,000.  Richard Pfhol, the owner, is selling this property, which features, among other things, two bars, because customers there can no longer light up.

"My biz is down, 50/60 percent that was during the slow part, now were going into the slow, it's not worth staying open," said Pfhol.

He says the state law banning smoking in bars and restaurants is ridiculous.

"I am a hands-on owner.  I am always in the building when it's open, and I can't smoke in my own building," he said.

We understand this business owner's decision to get out of New York. The senseless smoking ban killed his business, but more than that, it mocked his freedom. We hope he finds a way to survive in peace, as he proposes, in Florida. He had better know what he's planning. Florida's smoking bans may be somewhat less draconian than New York's but they're sure bad enough.

January 29 - Anti-tobacco Working On An End Run - Forces spokesman Norman Kjono said the judge “not only affirmed Washington preemption statutes and statutory exemptions from smoking bans for specific businesses but he also upheld the rights of property owners to permit lawful activities on their business premises.”

And although the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health vowed to appeal, Kjono said Forces International does not expect the appeals court to overturn last week’s ruling.

He also maintains that many of the special interests groups, senators and representatives who support Senate Bill 5791 hold a “hidden agenda” — one that presents a conflict of interest due to lack of full disclosure.

“We find that the legislators who sponsor such bills are connected in one fashion or the other to supporting use of pharmaceutical nicotine products,” Kjono said.

Kjono maintained that the legislators and special-interests groups who push for a statewide sweeping smoking ban omit information about their own involvement in pushing a heavy-handed anti-smoking campaign, funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  If legislators spoke openly about their involvement and respected the public’s right to know, he said, he wouldn’t be as angry.

“A vote to change current state law...is a vote that says Washington consumers and the will of the people count far less to our legislators than the will of special interests and out-of-state private foundations,” Kjono said.

Now that the smoking ban in Pierce County, Washington has been overturned the action moves to the legislature.  Descending like a swarm of locust upon the legislators are the political operatives working for anti-tobacco special interests.  The goal is a statewide smoking ban, a key component in the tobacco control industry's marketing plan to replace tobacco products with pharmaceutical nicotine.  This time they will not be operating in a media vacuum.  As this story makes clear, observant reporters are taking notes.

January 28 - Slow Burning Fuse - Here is what has been going on since the smoking ban went into effect. At a reccent cocktail hour at a large bar in Dedham, which once buzzed with dozens of patrons, there were six people present, three of whom were bartenders. The owner, near tears, said his entire life savings was invested in his business. He had also borrowed money to upgrade the ventilation system. He is losing everything. Diane Pickles, head of Tobacco-Free Mass. Coalition, along with her uninformed sheeplike legislators, couldn't care less. They believe smoking bans are for the common good and protect employees' health. They ignore extensive studies (notably a UCLA study of 35,000 nonsmokers published in the British Medical Journal) stating unequivocally that there is no correlation between secondhand smoke and disease in nonsmokers.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has the highest state cigarette tax in the nation. Restaurant smoking bans appeared in numerous Massachusetts towns in recent years. Some were ultimately reversed but others stubbornly held on despite restaurateurs' objections. Spreaders of hysteria had scored some wins.

In many places smokers could still eat, drink and smoke within the restaurants' bar sections. Of course distinct drinking spots, the taverns and nightclubs where smokers congregate, and where butts are commonly bummed by the occasional puffers, weren't affected by bans at the beginning of this slippery slope. At worst some taverns and clubs were forced to install pricey ventilation systems. Towns guaranteed that was as far as things would go. Decent people took them at their word. 

At the same time, venues like fast food joints and the chain hash houses, weren't hurt too badly. A lot of folks smelled the hysteria and tyranny in the air, but what the hell, there was still room for life to go on. Freedom of choice was diminished and too many people shrugged. So things got worse.

Most people are unaware of the fat pockets and organization of today's fanatical anti-smoking movement. Where ignored, it is encouraged, so it progresses. It cajoles, coerces, and lies pathologically. The result in Massachusetts was a smoking ban domino effect, in a cascade of towns, over the past year or so. For a whole lot of pubs and clubs, the diverse kinds of places where smokers and their friends had felt naturally relaxed and at home, the consequences of adhering to these senseless bans, were what you'd think. 

Outrage from bar owners and patrons grew. Anti-smokers and their enthralled legislators dismissed the complaints with contempt. FORCES readers understand why. To single-minded anti-smokers every casualty is collateral. Humiliating and ostracizing bar patrons is the primary goal, while putting bars entirely out of business, is sweet icing on the cake. After all, the activists are health cultists, and prohibitionist by general nature. So their assault on Massachusetts continued. Now a state-wide smoking ban is planned to begin, ironically enough, in July. 

We recall roguish Arthur Fiedler's quip, that he smoked Chesterfields, because they matched his overcoat. Unfortunately, thoughts of Boston aren't so jolly, as queasy, in 2004. For our stomachs' sake, we'll skip the Pops and the fireworks on the Charles, this July. The battle is already raging in neighboring New York and across the country. Bay Staters are belatedly catching on, and speaking up, ever louder. Fanatics can only be put down by force. The drum beat is starting to be heard again near Lexington Green.

January 27 - Lessons In Denial - "Younger people are now going to D.C.," said Claude J. Andersen, corporate operations manager for Clyde's Restaurant Group. Since the county went smoke-free last October, business has dipped 18 percent, while alcohol sales are down 30 percent, he said. The crowd that lingered at the bar after 9 p.m. has virtually disappeared, Andersen said.

"People said when we're smoke free they would come," he said. "Well, we haven't seen them yet."

January 23 - Pierce County Smoking Ban Overturned - Smokers can light up with impunity again in Pierce County bars and restaurants, thanks to a Thursday court decision.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Ronald Culpepper overturned the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s controversial indoor smoking ban, ruling that it conflicted with state law.

The health department's lawyer pledged to appeal to either the state Court of Appeals or the state Supreme Court.

The taxpayers of Pierce County should be very irritated with the health department for threatening to appeal this decision.  Clearly the county violated state preemption laws when it enacted, at the behest of tobacco control special interest groups, a ban on smoking in restaurants, bowling alleys and bars.  Already the county has wasted too much money that would be better spent on projects or services that the taxpayers want.

We will be commenting on this victory in detail as more details become known.

January 23 - Changing The Rules Again - They banned smoking in bars in Toledo but with an exception for private functions or charity events. So local drinkeries established "Taverns for Tots," a charitable organization that holds members-only private functions, generally every night, at member taverns. No one gets in without buying a lifetime membership for one dollar. Then the folks can sit at the bars, and drink and smoke, as they and their ancestors did for centuries.

The City of Toledo says this is a sham charity, the private functions aren't really private, and the bars will receive citations. Well, the city's petty government is getting what it deserves. When government harkens to the shrieks of prohibitionist zealots it becomes deaf to its constituents. So resistance takes every available form. As such "Taverns for Tots" could not be more legitimate. 

Anti-smoking is in the frothing mouth stage. Decent people will not be ruled by vicious madness. Petty tyrants will not be obeyed. "Taverns for Tots" owners are planning to fight their citations. We hope these savvy Ohioans have good luck in court, and we trust that their talent for innovation, will serve any further test. 

January 23 - Lighting Up To Spite The Nannies - Many of those opposed to Pierce County's indoor smoking ban gathered for what could be their last gasp Wednesday at Tacoma's Pegasus restaurant.  Those who cared to lit up their cigars, Marlboros, Camels and Kools in defiance of the ban and signed petitions to recall members of the County Council who supported the ban and commiserated over what they see as an infringement of their rights.

Several nonsmokers joined them, including Scott and Amy Jackson, who waved an American flag and a sign stating "Legalize Freedom" on the sidewalk out front.

"We're here for liberty and freedom of choice," Amy Jackson said.

In today's America smoking a cigarette is a potent symbol of freedom.  Lighting one up is an act of protest and an aggressive show of defiance against the totalitarian mindset that has pervaded too many corners of this country.  Smoking, essentially a trivial matter, is now the cutting edge issue that separates the enthusiasts for brutal government control from the people who want to live their lives in liberty.

With the overturning of the Pierce County smoking ban, the wonderful people who came to the Pegasus restaurant can breathe a bit easier knowing that the goons have been set back.  They must not forget, however, that the brutes will not give up until the elected representatives finally realize that they represent all constituents, not just those who press a narrow, divisive issue.

January 22 - Smoking Ban Proposal Bites The Dust - Smokers can continue puffing away while eating in the western Kansas town of Scott City. The city council this week rejected a plan to ban smoking in restaurants.

Emily Bryan is one of five Scott City High School students who backed the plan. She says city officials should at least advise restaurants on the dangers of second-hand smoke, and identify ways to mitigate it.  
Bryan had approached the council last month about banning smoking at the city's nine restaurants. Four restaurants already prohibit smoking.

Restaurant owner Debbie Montgomery says banning smoking would have hurt her business, by limiting the number of potential customers.  Councilman Fred Kuntzsch says he was amazed by the number of non-smokers who opposed the plan.

We'll say it again. Secondhand smoke is not a danger to anyone but a hypochondriac no matter how many times anti-smoking alarmists tell us otherwise. So another defeat of a proposed smoking ban is a victory for the causes of sanity and justice. Anti will not quit swinging her big pocketbook while screaming of secondhand doom for all. More and more people (and not just smokers) are telling her to shut up, though, and we can all be most grateful for that.

January 21 - Smoking Ban Destroying Businesses - Pierce County casinos say the county's new smoking ban is costing them money and could cost jobs. So, they're fighting the ban in court.  But the county Health Department doesn't buy the argument and says, "show me the numbers".

"It's just not true," says Pierce County Health Director Federico Cruz.

Seattle’s KOMOTV 4 reports that nontribal casinos are losing revenues and probably jobs in Washington to Pierce County health’s smoking bans. That makes sense because in Washington casino patrons can simply go to a nearby tribal casino that does not need to enforce the ban due to tribal immunity. Despite such glaring competitive advantages to tribal casinos, and the common sense impact that they have on nontribal casinos, gubernatorial candidate Cruz stridently denies the Pierce County ban accounts for decreased revenues at nontribal casinos. Cruz proclaims the history of smoking bans shows hospitality business increases as a result of mandating the special-interest anti-tobacco agenda. A short few weeks ago the health department refused to stay the Pierce County ban, claiming that Seattle’s severe weather accounted for the decline in nontribal casino revenues, rather than the smoking ban.

Denial of the consequences of their agenda on consumers and business has always been a hallmark of tobacco control. When the business facts do not support their agenda’s claims denial is the order of the day. When confronted with blatantly conflicting information tobacco control will studiously ignore it, deny the information’s import, or attempt to manipulate the facts to “discredit” opponents and promote their agenda. This single-minded obfuscation on important public policy issues is dangerous to normal people and honest business owners. Denial regarding one’s personal affairs, though at times equally dysfunctional, is one thing; denial about the impact of one’s behavior on others’ legitimate interests is entirely another. When that denial is engaged in by public health officials whose mandated agendas have broad effect on public affairs it must be addressed through immediate corrective action.

Perhaps this sorry situation in Washington will become the seminal events that prompt removing from public office those who by their own behavior demonstrate how unfit they are for public service. Mr. Cruz has made the Pierce County smoking ban a central part of his campaign for office. Would he engage in such unseemly obfuscation regarding other issues, were he to be our next governor? 

Maybe Washington residents already have an indication of how Mr. Cruz would govern. Can we accurately predict future press releases from Governor Cruz’ office today? Perhaps Cruz’ press office will say: “No, there is no transportation problem in Washington, we merely need to ban people from lawfully driving legal automobiles manufactured by Big Autos; no, we don’t have a state budget problem in Washington, we merely need to add new taxes on potato chips, caffeine, bicycles and hiking boots to cover deficits; no, we don’t have a problem with quality food in Washington school cafeterias, nor are physical education and athletics in public schools given short shrift by our legislators, we merely need to ban soft drinks in school vending machines and tax the fat content of food for everyone; and no, we do not have a problem with the integrity of government in Washington, after all our most recent study “statistics,” funded by one of the richest private foundation special-interests in the country, show -- with a no less than a 80 percent confidence level and only a 50 percent margin of error, mind you – that taxpayers and consumers are secretly grateful we manage their lives for them, destroy their businesses, and mandate their personal choices to enrich special-interests who support us.”

That’s the bad news. The good news is that November is only a short time away and the campaign mating season is in full ardor. Public servants and politicians who impose mandates to serve special-interest agendas at the intended expense of the people are an easy choice for voters. The less obvious, but vastly more important, choice is to remove from office members of state legislatures who expediently stand silent while special-interests mandate a public policy and fiscal train wreck in our state. The time for self-serving silence regarding tobacco control in Washington is long past due. 

January 19 - New York: crime is usually down when criminals rule - Even the rabidly antismoking and junk science populariser BBC cannot ignore the fierce resistance of New York’s smokers, and the appearance of smoke-easies. And, for the first time in a long while, some criticism of the neo-fascist mayor appears – perhaps catering to the recent British government position that refuses to impose an all-out smoking ban in England.

“Rumour has it that on certain nights, in certain bars, the smoking ban is flouted by unspoken consensus: as curtains are drawn and doors locked, the regulars light up with an illicit frisson, united in the solidarity of the outcast. … you smoke outside with one hand, and drink inside with the other. Consuming alcohol in public is also illegal, of course.”  

But that is not all: the “control freak”, as reported by BBC, is now after street vendors and street artists. Of course, BBC cannot totally bash the fascist dictator (although the word appears) – especially when it comes to the passive smoke fraud: “Non-smokers are delighted to return home from the bars not smelling like chimneys. And there is boundless gratitude for the city's low crime rate, which has declined to levels unseen for decades.”

Perhaps it is even true. After all, the crime rates of Italy and Germany dropped dramatically between 1922 and 1945, when criminals were running those countries. Yet, for some idiots taking a shower and running a greater risk of being pick-pocketed seems to be a far graver problem than coming home with the revolting stench of fascism all over them. But perhaps they have got so used to it; they don't smell it anymore.

January 15 - Washington State Busybodies Awaiting Results From Pierce County - The King County Board of Health is closely watching how the litigation will unfold in court since the Pierce County smoking ban enacted this month roused restaurant owners to take legal action against that county’s health board.

Pro-smoking rights advocates are riled by the Pierce County ban.  Forces International is a tobacco and smoking consumer advocacy group that supports smokers’ rights. Redmond-based spokesman Norm Kjono said similar sweeping bans will probably result from the Pierce County action.

Now that state Attorney General Christine Gregoire “has made it clear in a letter” to Pierce County health officials “that she will not enforce Washington’s preemption statute regarding smokin