wait... I drink too! FUCK!!

5280@2, there was an article on CNN.com yesterday about air being as bad as secondhand smoke for kids: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/04/21/hm.dirty.air/

uh, okay.

For the record, I voted against the smoking ban AND I disagree with the idea. I say that as a lifelong non-smoker.

Stuff like this is why I think you can only be 100% pro-Nanny State or 100% against it. Folks who try to control the social behavior of others are never satisfied with marginal gains - every little victory (i.e. smoking ban) just encourages them to broaden and expand their agendas.

And for that ... well I guess I kind of support the smoking ban.

The other thing about the smoking ban, is that in the long term is actually better for the bars. People who like to drink and smoke still go out, but people who didn't go to the bars because of terrible/allergic reactions to smoke started going out again ... ie more business.

Banning alcohol in bars makes about as much sense and banning coffee in coffee shops.

Drinking ban = Stupid idea and never going to happen

Every victim of a drunk driver and child or spouse or other punching bag of an abusive drunken asshole can attest to the damage of "passive drinking". And that's even before you get into the whole business of having to put up with all the other life-disrupting bullshit that comes with alcoholism.

I am well aware that you can drink sensibly. 95% of my drinking friends do. It's even kinda okay to be young and stupid and go through the "lame drunken stunts" phase.

But to call attention to, and take action on, the assholes who make a career of it - and who inflict all kinds of damage with some vague social acceptance that "oh, he's just got his drink on, ha ha" - sounds like a good idea to me.

Will it be done in a "nanny" fashion? I don't know. Europeans know the value of "harm reduction" with so-called "hard drugs". Alcohol may not be seen as one, but it is, IMNSHO. Let's wait and see what they actually do before crying about prohibition...

However, I doubt most pro-Nanny Staters see it that way - they just want to control other people's behavior to bring it in to conformance with their own narrow likings. To them, this is just another step toward state-regulated social behavior.

I read the article but not sure how they think they would make it work.

"No smoking in bars in California now, and soon no drinking and no talking."

When I lived in Germany, I seem to recall talk of mandating that beer be priced higher than soda by law since in many places the opposite was true and some people felt it encouraged alcoholism.

Oh Straw-Red-Herring-Man of Considerable-Bullshit, what will they cry about when they don't have you?

I think I've soiled myself,why isn't the Nanny-State responding? I understand they are everywhere!

*sniffle