It felt really stale and lifeless to me, a clean, empty place for empty clean minds. I miss the smoke and the smokers.

My smoker friends intend to continue to smoke. I've met two people who said they are going to start to smoke just as a protest against the ban.

It's dismaying to read such insipid comments praising the inaugeration of state authoritarianism. Another manifestation of private pleasure has been outlawed by the good clean people of Washington.

It wasn't enough that more than 75 percent of all clubs were already smokeless. No, you had to persecute the small minority of smokers and clubs who were simply minding their own business, doing no direct harm to you.

No one was forcing you into certain clubs, and if your profession led you to inhabit places that you felt were unhealthy, then perhaps you should have chosen a different profession rather than persecute a minority of people who shared your workplace. At the very least you could have chosen to patronize clubs that were smokeless. You would have then been at least supporting the ideal of personal choice and the rights of private ownership of one's body and property.

Narrow-minded citizen vice squads will eventually ensure that illicit pleasure of all kind is completely controlled and outlawed. What's to celebrate?

Clean air is "stale and lifeless"? Melodramatic much?

The "narrow minded citizen vice squad" with their "clean empty minds" hasn't invaded your home yet, so here's a suggestion: Try double-fisting cigarettes at home to make up for the time that healthy citizens stomp on your "illicit pleasure" in public.

That way, everyone's a winner, and you can retain that charming smell you can't live without.

whatever. i got to see a show last night and i didnt have to smell the shit- and when i got home, i didnt have to smell like shit either. fucking brilliant.

Thank you, Cienna. I couldn't have put it any better.
Talk about the most unjustified claim of "persecution" ever…

I wonder when someone will stand up for nudists the way people scream and whine about the poor persecuted smokers? I mean, there's a lifestyle that truly causes no harm to anyone, and yet it's not allowed in most business or even on public streets! The humanity!

"Try double-fisting cigarettes at home to make up for the time that healthy citizens stomp on your 'illicit pleasure' in public."

Stomping is exactly right. "Healthy" it's not -- you had the perfect right to avoid a small minority of smoking venues. It's not "healthy" to impose authoritarian control on those who are simply minding their own business and enjoying their illicit pleasures.

In any case, as I don't smoke, your suggestion is mute. I am merely defending the rights of private citizens and private property, and deploring the authoritarian imposition of the majority on a legal minority.

It's the whiff of fascism -- or, in other words, state control. (See Webster's Third for a definition of "fascism.") And you support it. Wonderful.

No one was forcing you small sanctimonious fascists into smoking venues. You had free choice, as did smokers. Now you've taken their free choice away from them, by force.

You couldn't resist controlling their pleasure.

What illicit private pleasure will Washington's citizen vigilantes outlaw next?

When society completely imposes the long arm of the law on all of its vices, it loses its humanity.

The issue with smoking in bars, restaurants and clubs was that it wasn't a private vice or an "illicit private pleasure." Smokers imposed their habit on everyone in a music venue or a restaurant or a bar. Well, no more. Tough shit. Get over it.

"In any case, as I don't smoke, your suggestion is mute."

That would be "moot." And your argument is as shaky as your grasp of the English language.

"What illicit private pleasure will Washington's citizen vigilantes outlaw next?"

Probably masturbation. You've been warned…

"Smokers imposed their habit on everyone in a music venue or a restaurant or a bar."

They certainly did not. They, and the property owners who chose to have smoking venues, were merely minding their own business and enjoying their own pleasures. You, of all people, ought to understand what it means to enjoy illict pleasures.

You CHOSE to associate with them. It was your choice -- you had free will, as smokers once did.

You obtained your rights in virtually every public space available. It wasn't enough for you. You took the remaining rights of a small minority, in their small minority spaces, away from them.

Deal with it, Dan. The vast majority of clubs and restaurants were hospitable to you, and a tiny minority was hospitable to smokers. You still had to stomp out the pleasure of that small minority of people who were not imposing their habit on you whatsoever.

Your narrowmindedness and selfishness, and your autocratic tendencies led you to, once in a position of power, blot out the final small minority of people who did not share the majority power.

You all made a nice clean job of such vile work. Congratulations.