BS...smoking doesn't fall under PC.

IMO, it's more indicitive of a fractured family sructure of citizens parenting each other, built on years of mistrust...we can't give each other the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing, so we implement it for them.
even down to having to pre-pay for your gas..

I love smoking bans. I can't stand breathing in someones second hand smoke and shouldn't have to. My Dad smoked for most of my like and when he quit he was amazed how bad smokers smelled.

I don't know about clubs, but it applies to all restuarant/bars (810 Zone, Tanners etc...) I live in Leawood and I know it's banned there, Lenexa, Overland Park, and almost 100% sure Olathe. So I am assuming it's a Johnson County thing. Also heard that the pro smoking people where going to try and get this on the April ballot for the public to vote on. I'd have a hard time believing it would get reversed. Every body I've talked to is thrilled about it.

Because in almost every one of those cases tax revenue is spent to finance your choice or the consequences of your choice. Also, in every one of your examples, beyond the public funds being spent to subsidize your choice (typically via healthcare costs), your choice only effects you. When you smoke everyone around you is smoking whether they want to or not. You are effectively making the choice for everyone else in your vicinity.

In a vacuum I'm 100% in support of personal choice at all times. If there were a way to guarantee that your choices effected only you and that only you would be responsible for the consequences of your choices I'd say you should be able to do anything you wanted. But that's not the way our world works anymore. Unfortunately.

What if the people in my "vicinity" don't care? Do you claim to be the Official Spokesman of My Vicinity?

This is the part that I don't understand. If there is a demand for non-smoking establishments (it seems there is such a demand) and all of these places are making better money since being forced to go non-smoking, are all of the business owners in this country idiots? From this kind of evidence it would seem that they all missed a golden opportunity to go non-smoking and increase their revenue. It took the government banning smoking to help their bottom line. Go figure.

This is why I think this whole argument is silly. It absolutely should be up to each business owner and the customers are then allowed to vote with their pocketbooks. From the way it sounds, if we got rid of the bans a lot of places would stay non-smoking, it is better for their bottom line.

This is certainly a freedom of choice thing. Not for the smoker vs non-smoker, it should be about the freedom of the owner to cater to the customer base they want to attract.

Not at all. But your vicinity is changing all the time. No one is saying you can't smoke where you have complete control over your vicinity...like at home. But where you don't have that kind of absolute control you can't realistically say you know that no one around you cares.

Unfortunately this kind of logic doesn't seem to exist. The anti smoking Nazi's wish to impose their will on everyone regardless.

Maybe like a bussiness I own? ;)

I just hope that when the anti smoking Nazi's get their wish that they step up to the plate and volunteer to take on the property tax increases due lost revenue from tobacco. It's only fair.

Thanks. I was reading the KC Star online and saw that they are doing the same thing in Blue Springs. When they put it on the state ballot here about 5 years ago, it passed with an approval rate of over 75% so I don't see it being overturned even if it makes it on the ballot.

Haven't we already been through this? The business being privately-owned is inconsequential because it's considered a public place/space. The general public is permitted. On the other hand, if you turn it into a private club then the law looks at it differently.

C'mon, the answer is right there. If smokers and business owners have such a problem with the law, then just go private and take care of the problem.

Actually, that's the next thing - the healthnazis ARE going after people's rights to smoke in their own homes. There are condominium associations and apartment buildings that don't allow smoking, so even the rights a person should enjoy in his or her own domicile are now coming under attack from these fanatic pricks. How long until that becomes law?

As for my changing vicinity, there are places where smokers congregate. If all of them are smoking, who are you to tell them they can't smoke? Again, where does that power come from?

I'm not advocating the right of somebody to blow smoke in your kid's face. I'm advocating REASON and COMPROMISE. Hell, I don't even fucking smoke anymore. But there are worse things than breathing in a wisp of smoke - like watching our country morph into a police state.

JK with you and could not help myself. I would be interested if once a ban is in place will they allow a private bussiness to ignore the law.

I agree. Patriot act for starters. However...smokers make up approximately 18% of the population. We live in a democracy. Majority rule and all of that. If the non-smoking majority wants smoking gone...well, welcome to the democratic process in action.