"This Land is Private Land, This Land is Public Land"
---
Consider this reader post at Overlawayered.com:
The post then proceeds to destroy the asinine analogy.
My concern, however, is how flippantly and carelessly the reader tosses around the word "public" -- exactly which "public" area would that be?
I doubt there is anywhere left in America where every truly "public place" (i.e., government office building, courthouse, airport, military base, etc.) has not become either totally smoke-free or at least has designated smoking areas. The issue, of course, is the casual willingness to impose constraints on private places, especially bars, hotels and restaurants.
(And please don't bother with the whole "don't you know that 'pub' is short for 'public house'?" Grow up.)
You're concerned about your right to breathe smoke-free air? STAY HOME! Or go to my competitor's bar down the street (or, better yet, my bar down the street) that has responded to market forces and has gone smoke-free.
The "right to breathe smoke-free air" in a bar or restaurant is as fictional as the right to drink free beer or eat free food or veto the band's music.
As I have previously plagiarized: Without property rights, no other rights are possible.
In the case of smoking, I am one of those who thinks someone smoking around me (in public, of course - they can do as they like as long as the smoke stays on their own property) is a form of assault.
Analogy - chlorine gas. A little more obvious, a little quicker, and therefore easier to condemn, but whatever crime someone who releases chlorine gas in a public place (or directly onto my property) is committing, a person who blows their smoke on me in a similar manner is committing.
The post then proceeds to destroy the asinine analogy.
My concern, however, is how flippantly and carelessly the reader tosses around the word "public" -- exactly which "public" area would that be?
I doubt there is anywhere left in America where every truly "public place" (i.e., government office building, courthouse, airport, military base, etc.) has not become either totally smoke-free or at least has designated smoking areas. The issue, of course, is the casual willingness to impose constraints on private places, especially bars, hotels and restaurants.
(And please don't bother with the whole "don't you know that 'pub' is short for 'public house'?" Grow up.)
You're concerned about your right to breathe smoke-free air? STAY HOME! Or go to my competitor's bar down the street (or, better yet, my bar down the street) that has responded to market forces and has gone smoke-free.
The "right to breathe smoke-free air" in a bar or restaurant is as fictional as the right to drink free beer or eat free food or veto the band's music.
As I have previously plagiarized: Without property rights, no other rights are possible.
All Related Posts (on one page) | Some Related Posts:
Posted by KipEsquire on
30 July 2004
To comment on this post, please visit the new blogsite.
