Is This America?
Well, the hour cometh.
The New York Times, that paragon of liberal journalism (not always bad, understand) reported a story in its Sunday editions that found traction at PSI long ago
Guess what? New York patrons at bars and restaurants, which have been forced to ban smoking, are not happy campers, according to the NYT Sunday in its Styles Section.
Outlined beneath the headline: “Blowing Smoke at a Ban,” the story related how late-night patrons at the “GoldBar”, a Lower East Side lounge, as well as other establishments, simply ignored Mayor Bloomberg’s six-year-old ban on smoking anywhere in the city’s public or private establishments.
They lit up, danced, and smoked until the wee hours drinking their expensive bottles of choice.
The reporter said, “It is easier than ever to find smokers partying indoors like it is 1999, or at least 2002 (before the Bans).
“Smoking is now allowed in numerous nightspots, specifically just about any and every lounge and club with a doorman and a rope,” the story said.
Therefore, as PSI has argued in past posts, prohibition is not the answer.
In fact, there is a great deal of striking a match to the Bans in New York, according to the story. More and more people are lighting up and enjoying themselves while out for a night on the town.
That fact has not gone unnoticed by Ban bureaucrats. Citations for smoking in bars and restaurants have gone up since summer, according to the story.
In addition, the New York Health Department says it knows where the “trouble spots” are and intends to act accordingly.
“The department has increased late-night smoking patrols,” the new story says. The patrols run a “cat-and-mouse” game with smokers.
Does this sound like America to you? Or, maybe Russia under the Commies when everybody was spying on everybody else and reporting to the authorities. A gulag was not far off for those caught doing a wrong against the state. Where are America’s gulags? Is that next?
In addition to New York, smoking bans may be losing its grip in other states as well, the story said.
It quoted a piece from USA Today in which that newspaper said, “Bars in Chicago and Honolulu as well as in Ohio and Virginia were openly defying bans.”
You should not be surprised.
Some 27 states and Washington, D.C., have now passed the Bans that affect bars and restaurants (not to mention other public and private locations).
As in other locals, when New York instituted its Bans, bar and restaurant owners were the most vocal opponents. They remain outspoken against the Bans today.
And why is that, pray tell?
Pretty simple, really. They are losing money in a down economy.
It’s the economy, stupid!
Naturally enough, some bar and restaurant owners disagree. They say when they tell their patrons they will have to take their smoking outside (sounds like fighting words in the South), the patron quickly finishes off his or her drink, dashes outside for a quick smoke and returns to order another drink.
Yeah, right. I really don’t believe that bars and restaurants are making up any sort of difference in revenue from the quickie drinkers and smokers.
That is hogwash!
The other thing I really want you to notice is that now New York is also sending in these surreptitious characters to hunt down smokers. It is almost like the Wild West days, when bounty hunters roamed and shot to kill.
This sort of atmosphere is also reminiscent of Communist Bloc nations during the Cold War with their treacherous secret police hauling off citizens on hokey charges.
I don’t know about you, but I do not like this dictatorial approach to my civic rights.
If I am bothering you with my pipe, ask kindly, and I will put it out, or take it outside, provided it’s not cold enough to freeze my hinny off. If that’s the case, then you are free to take your smelly fish dinner outside, since I’m allergic to fish in smell or in solid states.
There is Middle Ground here, as the Dali Lama might say. We need to try to find it, rather than spying on our citizens who are out to have some cheer and fun in a restaurant or bar.
We do not need to be “citing” good, taxpaying citizens for smoking in public. That has the ring of a centralized government gone rogue.
Imagine: You are in a bar with friends. You light up (here you can insert pipe, cigar or cigarette) with your pals. A few tables away you notice a couple of beefy guys hunched over coffee cups. They begin to look your way, nodding and mumbling. You see them scribbling notes. They have dark shadows beneath their eyes.
They are the Smoking Police from the Bans Stasi Patrol. They are here to arrest anyone seen smoking, anyone with a pack of cigarettes, a pouch of pipe tobacco or cigar case full of nice Churchills.
Excuse me. Is this America?
What I do *not* understand is why clubs cannot self-designate as (even licensed) “smoking establishments.” Cities want the money–charge for the license and limit the # of licenses.
Good article. I am not sure if a smoking license for bars/restaurants would work, only because the scum bag bureaucrates would loose some of thier control. It’s all about control… and taxes.
I for one have stopped going out, I used to be out every night having a good time, but I will not go to a resturant or bar that will not let me have a smoke while I am trying to relax after a long day. Yes the economy has had some to do with it as I am still out of work but even when I was out working everyday these bans went into effect here, Ohio, and I stopped spending my money in the establishments that I used to frequent. I know the owners of the places around here have had fines and a loss of patrons to thier establishments and several have gone out of buisness as people that want to sit and have a beer and a smoke, be it a cig or a cigar or a pipe, have quit going to these places because they are enforcing these bans.