Smoke Free Rules Choke Up Congress

Photo from source, Politico

The whole idea of smoke-free environments is a good one on the whole. As a part-time smoker (I know, I should give it up altogether), I do get annoyed though, and the militancy of the anti-smoking crowd. Here in Las Vegas--of all places--they tried, and mostly succeeded in their goals.

They couched the anti-smoking measures as being "for the children," but that was just a foot in the door. Since it was immediately evident that casinos would not go smoke free, it was decided (somewhat arbitrarily) that anyplace that serves food must ban smoking. Unfortunately for many business, food was a part of their gambling/drinking/eating business model. Some sports bars stopped serving food. Some bars divided their business between eats and drinks.

But it became clear that it was not "for the children" so much, when some of those split bars offered takeout service to their bar side, and got in trouble for it. No kids were at the bar, mind you, but they were supposedly violating the "spirit" of the law. Maybe, but they were not violating the "spirit" of the rationale behind the law.

Anyway, the point of this post is that the anti-smoking lobby has reached the halls of Congress. And they're none to happy about it! The award for the funniest line I've read all year is highlighted below in red.

[Excerpt]

Lawmakers, staff pan smoke-free Congress

A new rule banning the sale of tobacco products on House of Representatives grounds has got Capitol Hill smokers — we hate to say it — smoking mad.

“The health nannies’ arbitrary ban on a legal and heavily taxed product bodes ill for the future marketing of Mountain Dew and Moon Pies,” said Rep. Thaddeus G. McCotter, an infuriated Republican, and smoker, from Michigan. . .

Read more at: Politico