I find it extremely comical that the legislators that are against the smoking ban only have a handful of stupid arguments against it. Their main one is crying about revenue lost from liquor and video lottery sales. Hey! This is a good thing, the less people are gambling and drinking, the less they are causing problems. I welcome it. The other ‘strange’ argument is that smoking in bars is the only pleasure working stiffs get. Interesting (Let’s not forget porn and all you can eat buffets). Guess what, these same working stiffs can pick up a 30-pack at the grocery store and go home and drink and smoke, and maybe invite their working stiff friends over. This is also a good thing, less drunk drivers on the road.
The Plagiarist had a toon in the Gargoyle Leader today that I ‘kinda’ understood. I have long known that FolkArts is against a smoking ban (because his crazy Republican friends have told him to be) In his toon he puts ‘the smoker’ in a government zoo, in turn implying government is trying to control us. Lets make it clear, a smoking ban is similiar to a gun ban in courthouses. A smoking ban is simply saying you can’t smoke your cigarettes around people who don’t smoke, it doesn’t take your cigs away or make them illegal. Just like a courthouse ban on guns, which doesn’t take you guns away or make them illegal, it’s about public safety, plain and simple.
Even if you are a state senator who is against a smoking ban because of ‘principles’ you have to be a complete ignorant A-Hole to vote against it. 70-80% of South Dakotans support it.
What part of ‘Representing the Public’ don’t you frickin’ understand?
I predict the ban will pass this week in Pierre and the idiotic debate will be over with.
And, once again, I don’t know why you insist on a smokng BAN rather than venting the smoke.
Just got back from Vegas where they allow smoking in the casinos and you can’t even smell it (unless you’re right beside the smoker) because they vent the smoke out of there.
I am an ex-smoker and sensitive to smoke, but I don’t believe in the smoking BAN.
And the gun analogy isn’t a fair one – you couldn’t vent the bullets.
I oppose the BAN on principle – MORE government control – DO this DON’T do that…
Are you SURE you’re not a Republican?
I agree with you on one aspect. Instead of a smoking ban, I think a better approach would be a ‘smoking license’ Any establishment who thinks ‘smoking’ helps their business they could buy a $10,000 a year smoking license.
Put your money where your mouth is.
Why do you hate our freedoms/amurrica?
Their main one is crying about revenue lost from liquor and video lottery sales.
This is why it’s never a good idea for a government to become so dependent on its citizens’ bad habits that if they quit, said governmnet is screwed.
One of our bad habits we need to break in SD is electing self-serving boneheads to our state legislature.
Yeah. The bonehead demographic is pretty high in this state, so they’ll always be well-represented in the legislature. Hopefully, the day will come when they aren’t all self-serving.
Publicly funded state elections. They cleaned house in Arizona when they implemented it. Now legislation that is actually beneficial to the populist gets passed.