The title here is, of course, a bit tongue in cheek. It does, however, point to an ironic typo that appeared in an Enquirer story about the Campbell County smoking ban ban (or, you know, “repeal,” as it’s appropriately termed) that got posted early this morning. Take a look:
So, yeah. I’ve made it well known that I’m a former smoker, so a lot of the time I can be on the fence about these sorts of things. Smoking is, ultimately, a personal choice. If you’re willing to kill yourself in order to look cool (can we admit that smoking looks SUPER FREAKING COOL?), then by all means, have at it.
The flipside here, of course, is the argument as to whether tobacco smoke injures people other than the smoker him or herself. To my understanding, science seems to suggest that it does. ONE POINT SMOKING BAN.
Once we get past the lame, superficial “It’s a personal choice” and “Well, it smells bad” arguments, the brass-tacks-actual-data seems to all side with the smoking ban here. Except for one–and it’s actually a pretty shitty argument.
The biggest disagreement I’ve seen with smoking bans has invariably been that “This will hurt our bar business.” It gets bandied about by these pro-smoking crews pretty liberally. Where is the data proving this? Nobody’s ever provided ANYTHING showing this, to my knowledge. This means that I could be wrong–and I’m willing to accept that. So, it’s time to issue a challenge, I guess. Ready?
IF ANYONE CAN SHOW ME RELIABLE DATA THAT SMOKING BANS HAVE ACTUALLY INJURED ANY BAR’S ABILITY TO MAKE MONEY, I WILL SUPPORT SMOKING BAN BANS, AND WILL SUBSEQUENTLY START SMOKING AGAIN.
But I can tell you this: as a resident of Campbell County, I will NOT be voting for Brian Painter, Ken Rechtin, Pete Garrett, or Steve Pendery because of their association with the Campbell County Tea Party. It’s possible that we’ll come down with the plague if they’re re-elected. Nice progress, jerks.… Read the rest
. . . → Read More: Tea Party Gives Out Plagues. Yes, Plagues. Not Awesome. [Smoking Ban Ban]
