I am afraid we are gradually having our individual rights taken away from us one at a time. Our country was settled by adventurous individuals who experienced many tribulations in order to find a place where they could be free to be themselves.

If we study the biographies of some of our greatest leaders, we find that they had many habits and personal vices which are not acceptable in our society today (i.e. cigarettes and whiskey and wild, wild women). I could provide a list of our great leaders and their habits, but anyone who studies them knows of these flaws. It is hard for me to picture F.D.R. without his cigarette in the long holder or Winston Churchill without a big cigar in his hand or mouth.

In the 20's our government decided to purify the population with prohibition. All of us are aware of the results of this movement.

God gives us the choice of doing right or wrong, but our "religious right" sure doesn't. They have risen above God's dictates and the 10 commandments, and evidently they feel they have reached a state of purification which allows them to cast the first stone regarding anything they disapprove of. It would not surprise me if we started burning witches again!! Thank God they have not found a way to do away with the "wild, wild women"!

Trouble is, liberals and conservatives are fiercely protective of liberty.

Until it becomes inconvenient or distasteful for the both of them. In which case, fuck liberty.

At last -- a sensible smoking ban! As written, the bill would allow indoor smoking after 2008 if establishments can show that they have air-purification systems that provide the same air quality indoors as outdoors.

God help Washington -- what have we done?! Why couldn't we do something reasonable along these lines?

Oh, lord. Give it up.

Drugs should be just as legal as cigs—smoke what you like (or shoot, snort, pop what you like), in your own home. You should no more be able to smoke pot in a bar than cigs, but pot should be legal. As for snorting, shooting, and popping, at least when people use heroin, coke, or pills in a bar no one else in the bar is forced to use the drug along with the addict. Pills don't float through the air and wind up in the mouths of people who don't want to use 'em. Cigarette smoke does, and that's why spaces that are shared by all should be smoke-free. You're free to step outside, have a smoke, and return—and bars should be free to allow open-air smoking on patios (the 25' rule is bullshit). But comparing a smoking ban in bars and clubs to prohibition is just retarded.

Hey - I like the 25' rule - though 15' would be fine.

I hate going out to a deck on a nice day to have a beer and getting smoked back indoors - and without a footage rule, this would be even worse after the smoking ban.

I never got more loaded from secondhand pot smoke than at a Bob Dylan concert outdoors at the Universal Ampitheater in my teenage years. Stuff blew back right in my face.

As for the 4' rule...what's wrong with it?

If you want to legalized prostitution - and prostitutes to fuck their johns in public - that's one thing.

If not, then a 4' rule makes perfect sense.

The news was greeted with grim resignation at The Spar Cafe in downtown Olympia, which has served as a tobacco shop and town gathering place since 1935.

"I'm a phone call away from selling," said owner Alan McWain, whose family has operated the landmark business for 60 years. "If you can't smoke in a smoke shop, where can you smoke?"

The initiative will prohibit smoking *in the few public places it is now allowed,* including bars, bowling alleys, card rooms and smoking sections in restaurants.

The initiative, effective Dec. 8, calls for nonsmoking zones of 25 feet near any public doorway, open window or ventilation grate.

Backers said it will improve public health; opponents called it overkill.

"I'm a nonsmoker, but it's mob rule," said John Foreman of Olympia, who voted against it. "Let me go to a nonsmoking bar if I want."

"As for snorting, shooting, and popping, at least when people use heroin, coke, or pills in a bar no one else in the bar is forced to use the drug along with the addict."

This is complete bullshit.

No one ever FORCED you to go to the small minority of smoking establishments left standing. You had free choice -- as did smokers, until you took it away from them.

Quit trying to make it sound like you were arm twisted in entering adult smoking establishments. You were not.

You're an adult, not a child, Dan, so please stop posing completely childish arguments.

it seems few people think about the owners of these bars and eateries. shouldn't an owner have the right to establish his or her own rules about what will be permitted in their business? maybe i am just a crazy libertarian, but it makes sense to me to allow people more freedom than less.