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Title: Understanding the North Carolina Smoking Ban
Source:
AFP/Google
URL Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/af ... M5g-duwUbV5glu3kB4N6bFpPjXQFHA
Published: May 19, 2009
Author: AFP
Post Date: 2009-05-19 19:16:14 by Deasy
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Keywords: ties, rights, kindred, redress
Views: 381
Comments: 20
North Carolina is the house that tobacco built, and now its former sustenance is officially on the law books as being against the law to consume in public. If you think about the implications of this they are sweeping. News reports indicate popular support for the ban. I believe it. RALEIGH, North Carolina (AFP) — North Carolina's governor signed a statewide indoor smoking ban into law Tuesday, signaling the end of an era in the United States' leading tobacco-producing state. "This is a historic day for North Carolina," Governor Bev Perdue said. "But more important than the history that we are making is the positive impact we are having on public health. "By banning smoking in our restaurants and bars, we will greatly reduce the dangers of secondhand smoke and lower health care costs for families," Perdue said. North Carolina joins more than 30 other US states that have similar laws. Virginia, another state with a centuries-old tobacco-growing tradition, adopted a ban in March. The new law prohibits smoking in restaurants and bars, with the exception of private clubs and cigar bars. The law, which takes effect in January, authorizes fines of up to 50 dollars for people who smoke after being asked to stop, and up to 200 dollars for managers of establishments who have twice been warned to enforce the law. The law's supporters say it will protect people from the adverse health effects of second-hand smoke, which the US Surgeon General says causes the deaths of approximately 50,000 people a year in the United States. Critics of the ban say it infringes on smokers' rights as well as the rights of property owners to set their own rules. Scott Bissette, an international marketing specialist with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said the law will hurt the state's tobacco farmers, who last year produced nearly 385 million pounds of tobacco worth more than 677 million dollars. North Carolina tobacco is exported all over the world. "Any time you put restrictions on smoking, you're going to curtail consumption," Bissette said. Poster Comment: Farmers talk over bales of tobacco before the start of the Wilson Tobacco Auction 2004 in Wilson, North Carolina
I include the article here, although you don't need to read it. What more do I need to say? 
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
ushistory.org, Declaration of Independence.
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#1. To: Deasy, christine, HOUNDDAWG, Cynicom (#0)
Note how the dictators work: they enmesh hapless businesses into becoming part of 'law enforcement'.
#2. To: bluegrass (#1)
it's disgusting that privately owned bars and restaurants cannot establish their own rules.
If gaining a majority to support liberty was your goal, the abolition of public smoking in a former tobacco colony should inform you of your futility. We are now two nations. The one citizen believes in personal sovereignty, personal responsibility, and personal free will. His or her freedom is nonnegotiable. Such an individual would never look to the government for permission to gather into groups of like minded citizens. Such an individual would never demand an opportunity to control the terms and conditions of association. What's more, traditions such as tobacco agriculture represent an old and dear history to this liberty-loving patriot. To see such a tradition limited by law to private places is an affront to the Anglo-Saxon foundations of this land. Any citizen who loves this land as the nourishment to one's soul that it has always been to its inhabitants, would find banning such tradition an anathema. The other citizen relies on government for personal well-being. He or she seeks to dominate others through the force behind the law, which has the power to take life away. This other citizen is willing to reengineer our entire society to new and innovative standards on a whim. This other citizen represents a new world, a new world in which mankind can make any particular rules of public order so long as others agree. This other citizen has been transformed into a fearsome social animal, snarling and glaring at his or her fellow man over whiffs of smoke in dark rooms where he would not want to go anyway. This other citizen has been overtaken by the invisible and transitory power of government, which has the power to grant what he or she wants, but also has the power to destroy. My fellow forum readers, do not underestimate your enemy. And do not underestimate their strength in numbers. They are the new America. We are a dying breed, we who love freedom more than life itself. Understand this new law. This is the law of the masses, a tyranny of the majority, the law of chaos, the rule of lawlessness itself. And it is the new law of our land. Governor Perdue smilingly signed it into law today.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThe law, which takes effect in January, authorizes fines of up to 50 dollars for people who smoke after being asked to stop, and up to 200 dollars for managers of establishments who have twice been warned to enforce the law.
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#6. To: bluegrass, christine, noone222 (#1)
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