No More Nebraska Smoking
Well, the reprieve for Nebraska’s cigar bars was very short lived. Last month, the state liquor commission allowed the state’s 12 cigar bars to renew their smoking that expired on Halloween. The renewal was because the state’s attorney general was appealing a Supreme Court decision this past summer that ruled the exemptions for the bars was unconstitutional. Alas this week, the Supreme Court denied the appeal without comment so the bars will return their special smoking licenses and get new ones that prohibit smoking. All of the owners expect a drop in sales. No word on what actions, if any, may come next.
Maybe They Went Too Far
We’ve often talked about how far the other side must go before people wake up and perhaps, at least in one Massachusetts town, they’ve done it. This has been going on under the surface when the board of health for the town of Westminister, MA (population 7400) came up with the genius idea to ban the sale of tobacco. Yup ban it –no more cigars, cigarettes, pipes nothing. The idea was being kicked around since the spring but last month the board began telling store owners they could lose their permits to sell tobacco. That was when things got nasty.
(credit New York Times)
Last week, the board of health held a hearing in which 500 people showed up. And they were pissed. According to the New York Times:
…the hearing became so unruly that the board chairwoman could not maintain order; she shut down the hearing 20 minutes after it began.
The crowd started singing “God Bless America” in protest as the board members left under police protection. Angry residents circulated petitions demanding a recall election for the board members.
“They’re just taking away everyday freedoms, little by little,” said Nate Johnson, 32, an egg farmer who also works in an auto body shop, as he stood outside the store last week. “This isn’t about tobacco, it’s about control,” he said.
“It’s un-American,” put in Rick Sparrow, 48, a house painter.
According to the Times, residents say outside groups are causing this. Uh huh. American Heart, Lung, Cancer and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids all have been shopping plans like this… They simply want to pick off small towns and then get enough so that the state would go along. Of course actually banning the sale of tobacco hurts those municipalities and states who also live off the taxes so this is actually fair. The anti’s do this with smoking bans in Texas and other states and now they are going for a total ban. Again, according to the Times:
Dr. Corey Saltin and Dr. Payam Aghassi, lung specialists who have a private practice nearby, said that they understood concerns about free choice but that people who are subjected to secondhand smoke have rights, too.
“This ban is going to happen somewhere, sometime,” Dr. Saltin predicted. “But probably not in Westminster.”
And you wonder why the other side made up the research on Second Hand smoke? At least in Westminister even the non smokers finally figured it out.
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