Does anybody respect property rights anymore? The House of Delegates passed a bill restricting the rights of property owners from keeping guns off their premises (see “NRA Taking Your Property without Compensation“). Now the state Senate has backed legislation prohibiting cigarette smoking in most public, indoor buildings, including restaurants. If we’re lucky, the House and Senate will shoot down each others’ bills. (Where is Dick Cheney when you need him?)
According to John Reid Blackwell with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the legislation “would make smoking illegal in indoor places frequented by the public, with few exceptions, such as specialty tobacco shops, tobacco manufacturing plants and home-based businesses…”
I don’t smoke, my wife doesn’t smoke, and I discourage my children from smoking. But I think this is a bad idea. Restaurant owners should have the freedom to cater to their clientele as they wish. Most restaurants already have smoking and non-smoking sections. If some people aren’t satisfied with such separation, there is no lack of competing restaurants for them to patronize. Perhaps restaurateurs will make an effort to make them happier — perhaps by installing better ventilation.
Advocates of the liberal state, to my way of thinking, are just as intrusive as the cultural conservatives they dislike so much. A pox on both their houses.
