Tennessee Senate Votes To Undermine Property Rights
Who let the nannies in my state? The Tennessean:
Smoking would be banned in most workplaces, including restaurants and bars, under a bill that passed the Senate by a wide margin today.
After several revisions, the bill mirrors a proposal from Gov. Phil Bredesen to ban smoking in nearly all enclosed public places.
The market is doing a fine job of restricting smoking. And, of course, property owners have a right to decide what otherwise lawful activities they allow on their premises. I honestly never thought this would even come close to passing in Tennessee, which produces quite a bit of tobacco.
Via AC, who notes:
Just remember, limited government and libertarian types, Republicans did this to you. Three of the sponsors and obviously a good amount of those in favor voted to ban smoking from enclosed spaces.
May 24th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Alas, this is an albatross that shall weigh heavily against my neck for the remainder of my living days (and possibly then some).
When this came to Florida, I just about broke my finger voting YES on the bill. The scent of smoke nauseates me, especially being an ex-smoker. Back then, I wasn’t politically anything, I just saw a way for me to go to restaurants without having to smell smoke.
Little did I realize what I was doing.
Now, I realize my error. Too late. I gave the state more power, and the state does not give up power easily, if at all. It’s too easy to use the government to bludgeon others into submission and we all forget that the very tool we allow them to wield against others can be used against us.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Next thing you know, they’re going to tell me I can’t expose my employees to toxic levels of mercury at work. Dammit, I own the building, I should be able to poison anybody who comes inside it!
May 24th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Not an apt comparison. Is such exposure an otherwise lawful activity?
But they do allow that at Oak Ridge.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
They’re doing it in Illinois right now, as well. The reason here is that municipalites which had banned smoking under home rule found that 40% of their restaurants and bar business had gone to the next town over which still allowed it. Along with the tax revenue. So they lobbied to spread the hurt to everybody.
May 24th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
When the .gov comes after peoples beer it will be too late.
H. Ross Bloomberg already dictates whether you can eat a hot dog that contains trans-fat.
No French fries for you.
It is only a matter of time before they come for beer and hot dogs. In the end they will probably tax fat people. 30 pounds overweight, pay the tax.
Reminds me of the Space Aliens from the Simpson’s. Does H. Ross Bloomberg look like Kodos.
May 24th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Ohio did the same. Don’t worry, it’s not creeping, pointless, nanny-statism — it’s for the safety of non-smokers. That’s why restaurants can’t even build smoker-only buildings outside of their main one.
Pathetic, but not surprising. I particularly like that it’s coming on the heels of a cigarette tax increase that’s supposed to fund schools. Brilliant idea there.
May 24th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Pathetic, but not surprising. I particularly like that it’s coming on the heels of a cigarette tax increase that’s supposed to fund schools. Brilliant idea there.
Maybe they have a funding plan like the seatbelt plan, only
with a spiffy slogan like;
You light up, we light you up.
I’m waitin on it.
May 24th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
I hate smoking and can’t stand the smell. I have never been in a restaurant that I couldn’t smell the smoke in my “non-smoking” area. All of that being said, I don’t like the .gov telling a person what he or she can or can’t do with their own property. Where does it stop? What seems unreasonable now might be OK in ten years.
I want smaller, less obtrusive .gov. Where is that lever in the voters booth?
May 24th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
It doesn’t.
May 24th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Smoking in restaurants in my area is so rare that we ask to be seated in the smoking section wo we can have privacy. I remember only one such occasion that the smoke was even noticable.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
And this coming from the same gov that subsidizes the tobacco industry.
Surely, the Gods must be crazy…
May 24th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Smoking in restaurants in my area is so rare that we ask to be seated in the smoking section wo we can have privacy.
I usually ask for smoking or first available. I find that even in the smoking section, hardly anyone is smoking.
A good percentage of NoVa restaurants are already non-smoking. Even then, I expect to see a state-wide smoking ban in Virginia within the next two years.
It’s neo-temperance. We’re too far gone down the anti-smoking path to do anything about it.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:38 am
Too damn bad the sissies were protected by all the new laws, such as seatbelt, child labor, etc. etc. In my day the stupid ones died and didn’t breed . The sissys ran away and didn’t breed. Now all the defectives and sissys do.
Oh yeah give me some more of that enlightenment.