«
»

Ban-Dead?

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2003

Will Wilkinson reports in the comments section on the D.C. city council meeting this morning, where they discussed the proposed smoking ban:

…it sounds like [D.C. Mayor]Tony Williams said he’d veto the ban. And Carol Schwartz submitted an alternative — with 7 co-sponsors! — that would provide tax breaks to businesses that become non-smoking, but doesn’t require anyone to do so. Health fascist and Vin Diesel wannabe Adrian Fenty was visibly pissed this morning. So I think the Schwartz thing is what we’re going to get. And I think we may have more or less won…. For now.

My first thought was, “great news!”

But my second thought was, how sad is it when a “victory” for personal freedom is not when our government decides to give us some of our liberty back, but when it merely agrees not to take more of it away?

Yeah. Guess I’m a cynic. Nevertheless, kudos to the Ban the Ban crew for a job well done.

Digg it |  reddit |  del.icio.us |  Fark

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2003 at 5:24 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Responses to “Ban-Dead?”

  1. #1 |  Stormy Dragon |  December 3rd, 2003 at 6:28 pm

    It’s not even the government agreeing not to take more of it away. There may not be a ban, but owners and patrons smoking businesses are still going to be punished by having their income transfered to the non-smoking businesses via the tax subsidy.

    So it’s really just the government agreeing to take away less freedom than they originally wanted to.

  2. #2 |  Anger Management |  December 4th, 2003 at 9:24 am

    MORNING ROUND UP

    First of all, a Giant Thanks to everyone who has hit the tip jar. If you haven’t done so, don’t fret. You will be forgiven – all you have to do is join the exclusive Give Don Money Club. Now,…

  3. #3 |  Gene |  December 4th, 2003 at 12:37 pm

    Radley, I’m unaccustomed to striking a note of optimism, but really, for once you’re too cynical here. This is absolutely tremendous news. Look at it this way: RWJ puts up a quarter of a mill, and they can’t get a smoking ban passed in the most pro-regulation, anti-nightlife jurisdiction in America. How incompetent is Smokefree DC? The ban passed the NYC city council 42 to 7. There’s a smoking ban in Lexington Kentucky for Christ’s sake! And they can’t get it done HERE?

    The nannies took one on the chin yesterday, and I for one am as happy as a kid with a new box of comic books. Hale-effin-lujah!

  4. #4 |  buy valium |  June 15th, 2006 at 7:19 pm

    valium ViaValT8898111-01-01-22