[Mpls] Benson and Goodman: ban it, and smoke-free groups must come

[Chris Johnson]

Michael Atherton wrote:

>Andy Driscoll wrote:
>
>  
>
>>When they all go nonsmoking, we crusaders will go 
>>a-bar-hopping to support our home-grown businesses.
>>    
>>
>
>Yea, you can go bar-hopping as long as the anti-alcohol 
>crusaders haven't make MN into a dry state by then.  What 
>goes around comes around.  The logical inconsistency with
>forcing your morals onto others is that your ability to do 
>so lasts only as long as your power; you have no recourse to 
>the higher moral ground in your own defense.
>
>Michael Atherton
>

It's Mr. Atherton's arguments which have no logical consistency here.   
Alcohol can be consumed safely and responsibly, and there is a fairly 
large amount of medical evidence that doing so in certain quantities 
actually improves one's health.  Smoking tobacco can never be done 
safely.  Nor does my having a drink next to you in public ever force you 
to consume along with me, unlike second-hand smoke.

Further, smoking bans have nothing to do with morals or forcing them 
onto others.  It has to do with public's right and the employees' right 
to breath clean air.  Nobody is stopping you or anyone else from smoking 
all the tobacco you want inside the confines of your own home.

Establishments which go non-smoking gain the opportunity to receive my 
discretionary spending, and that of others as well I'm sure.  Most of my 
extended family avoids smoky places.


Chris Johnson, Fulton