FREEDOMS

[blondie 11]

Tomorrow my state will join other states with banning smoking in all restaurants. I do not smoke, but it is not appauling to be around a smoker. Smokers have rights, and they vote. We are known as the tobacco state and will just run business over to W Va and Md, as they are so near. When do we have to stop giving up rights. Smokers have a right to kill themselves, if that is what it does.

[J Lee S]

Larry!! Damn your Smokin Ass!! Blondie, it's not that you don't mind ciggy smokers and such. Not so much that I care about chocalate eaters and KFC lovers..( I like the KFC) but we really need to have other people decide and pass judgement on our personal lives!! It is an absolute MUST!! If we didn't conform and get into the "Norm" we would not be proper persons of the Zombie culture that WE feel we should follow.

[larry kremis]

Larry? lol

Thanks for sticking up for us blondie. I think.

[blondie 11]

they should not take away the right for you to light up in a bar or restaurant in Va--I am with you bro

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Maria, I don't understand your reasoning. What if I want to sit in a bar and breath in smoke filled air? How does baning smoking in a bar or resturant satisfy my desire?

[Jack Z]

One crazy concept that has been floating around, is to give the owners of any business the freedom to run their establishment as they choose. Then give the public the freedom to patronize whatever business they choose ... Free choice may be a little radical, but you never know this liberty thing just might work ..........

[Ubu]

What a novel idea!! I vote for free choice.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Hear, Hear, I quit smoking for good somewhere around 1987, but I don't think I have the right to tell others that they have to quit. I don't understand why the following wouldn't work. Let the owner decide whether or not to allow smoking in their establishment. If they allow smokng they have to put up a noticable sign at the entrance declaring it as a smoking or non-smoking establishment and let the patrons decide where they want to go. Could those of you who do not agree with this line of thinking please explain your position. I promise I will be civil in any respose.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

Maria, When someone gets drunk and decides to drive a car, even if they had to place a big, brite light on the hood to warn others that they were drunk, I still might not be able to avoid them because If I need to get from point A to point B and the road they were on was the only road from A to B, I would have to use it. Plus all tax payers helped finance the building of the road. Now, if I want a steak and the only restaurant serving steak in my town, is owned and managed by a person that had served time in prison for threatening to kill me over a mutual girlfriend, would I have the right to insist that the owner leave his restaurant when I wanted a steak? Do you have to stop smoking, because you invited a guest to your house who doesn't smoke?
I am very liberal in most positions except individual freedom. There I usually draw the line. I just don't understand why someone should be required to act in a manner that does not offend or even cause injury and death, if the so called victim can choose to not be a victim. "Free Speech and the right to not be offended cannot coexist" I will be eagerly looking for your counter argument.

[Jack Z]

Well since I like to have a smoke sometimes after sex, and since "Virginia is for lovers" I'll just have to stop making love in Virginian restaurants ........

[darroll]

I don't smoke.
Smokers don't bother me.
To each his own.

[stillgoing]

When they banned it here in CA I was still smoking and as pissed as you. But after a while I noticed the bars were a lot less stinky and much easier on the eyes. Also I found you can still enjoy a drink or a meal without having a cigarette.

[CWO3ROBBIE]

SG, that is not the question. The question is, should the majority be allowed to pass a law that restricts everyone to actions that do not offend that majority. If you want to pass a law that prohibits smoking in buildings where people have no choice but to use, such as Hospitals, Jails, etc. fine. But I do not understand this no smoking in restaurants and bars law. It is a violation of my personal freedom. Of course, I don't think there should be laws against a lot of behaviors that are offensive to others. Now, let me state "I do not smoke". I probably won't frequent a bar or restaurant that allows it. I don't go to nude beaches either. But, I see no reason for outlawing either.