I don’t smoke. I don’t like the whiff of a cigarette and frequently will come back from a certain pub, cursing the atmosphere in the boozer for making my clothing reek of ciggies. I think that so-called ‘passive smoking’, while it may not cause cancer or other health problems, is certainly unpleasant. I prefer to sit in the non-smoking bits of a restaurant if at all possible and ask people in my apartment not to smoke. So there it is.
And yet, and yet… I loathe the cultural jihad in the West that has been going on against smokers. The latest lunacy has been the decision by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to ban smoking in all public places. All of them. So even if the owner of a private restaurant or bar (which are of course private property) says it is okay to smoke, and the customers are okay with that, the ban must be imposed nonetheless. Never mind that no one is forced to go into a bar or restaurant if they dislike the atmosphere. This is a clear violation of property rights. Of course with true public spaces which have been funded out of tax, the situation is a bit different and with subways, safety issues to do with fire can be used to justify a ban, or partial one.
But Bloomberg, owner of a some sort of news company 
, is showing a total lack of proportion. Since September 11, 2001, New Yorkers have occasionally had many reasons to steady their nerves and enjoy the indulgences of this fleeting life. For some, it may be the taste of a delicious bagel, or a sip of a beer. But for many citizens of that great city, it has been about lighting up a cigarette.
Bloomberg is just another Statist Country Club Republican, i.e. just like the more overtly socialist Democrats… only less honest about his identical emnity to several property (except for his property of course).
Bloomberg seems to forget this will push the smokers in the small nightclubs and bars outside to smoke thus bothering the nightclub’s neighbors. In other words, Bloomberg will wind up pushing problems on the city.
Well- in my home state of Delaware, a complete ban on smoking in any facility open to the public goes into effect on Nov. 27. This ban covers the entire state and may even include private automobiles if used to transport kids to school.
Daryl: then there should be no pretense that private property actually exists in Delaware… except in the fascist sense of the term (I use the term ‘fascist’ here as a technical term, not an epithet): you can own private property just so long as you use it the way the state wants you to.
Mayor Bloomberg’s massive tax increase on cigarettes has made him a hero to organised crime.
Paul Marks.
I really appreciate Samizdata’s remark. It is logical and level-headed. I myself, am a smoker. However, I too, dislike smoking in Restaurants and, to a certain extent, discourage smoking in my house. Yet, to ban smoking in ALL bars and clubs is not only ridiculous, it’s pathetic, not unlike the man who inforced it. New York has never been a bloody Health club, for God’s sake. And, as someone remarked we are all going through very rough times at the moment so another constraint on our civil liberties is really the last thing we need. I realised a while ago that Bloomberg is an self important Ass. This latest fiasco only serves to reaffirm my belief