A Stitch in Haste

Chicago's local hack politicians have voted to erode property rights by banning smoking in all public places.

Sorta kinda:

Chicago, aiming to follow the lead of other major U.S. cities, passed a law on Wednesday to ban smoking in most buildings and public spaces except for bars, where smokers can puff away until mid-2008.

Until the City Council action, Chicago was the largest U.S. city that had not tackled the second-hand smoke issue. Lawmakers approved a compromise that gave taverns as well as bars attached to restaurants until July 1, 2008, to comply with the no-smoking ban.

Because of course, second-hand smoke in bars is perfectly safe today. It only becomes a health hazard in 2008, and it is therefore perfectly logical not to ban it until then.

More:

One of the few confessed cigarette smokers on Chicago City Council said he supported the ordinance but questioned the wisdom of sending smokers out into Chicago's dreaded winter cold and keeping them 15 feet away from building entrances to partake.

"It's 20 degrees below zero (F) (-29C) and people are standing outside smoking," Alderman William Beavers quipped. "Are you going to kill us with pneumonia?"

How's the saying go? "Feed a cold, freeze a smoker..."

The "it's too cold outside" argument was tried in New York City, in retort to assertions that San Francisco's smoking ban had proven to be "no big deal." But our philosopher-king mayor, Michael Bloomberg, wouldn't listen. After all, who needs facts and common sense when you have the Politics of the Warm Fuzzy Feeling? Or should I say the "Politics of the Freezing Fuzzy Feeling"?

It's quite simple really. There is no such thing as "smokers' rights." There is no such thing as "non-smokers' rights." There are only property rights. And local hack politicians eager to quash them.