The Slippery Slope Yields a Victim

Many of us on the right have been lambasted because we reject anti-smoking legislation. We just want to smoke, to selfishly have it our way, regardless of how damaging it is to those around us. First of all, I reject this argument outright because I am a non-smoker and there are few things in the world that piss me off more than some rude teenage punk lighting up a smoke right next to me so that I have to experience every nauseating drag. (I don't care much for that solitary line of smoke either that seems to waft in my direction regardless of where I am sitting or where the cigarette is placed.)

While the rudeness of these punks is astounding, I have found it a rare occasion when any smoker will not move their cigarette to a less offensive position once it has been pointed out to them politely that their gassy shit-smelling cancer stick is bugging the crap out of me. You see, most smokers don't want to be offensive, they just want to smoke. In fact, as tenuous as smoking rights are these days, most smokers quickly apologize and comment that they try their hardest to be polite smokers. Most smokers have gotten to the point that they appreciate being able to smoke, when and if they can at all.

I figure in a country where individual freedoms reign, I have three choices; I can ask smokers politely to move their cigarette, I can simply bear the smoke without saying anything, or I can voluntarily stay out of places where there is a lot of smoking. I figure that businesses should be able to operate as they see fit within their own private realms.

That, of course, is not good enough for champions of the nanny state that want to do their level best to remove every bit of offense, danger, and unfairness from all areas of society. These are people that I find much more offensive than smokers. While I want individuals to make good choices (and polite ones at that) I do not want the government regulating every part of our society, and I don't want these people to make my decisions for me, run my life, or attempt to control my actions through myriad punishments and rewards.

You see, I fear the slippery slope, and it is because of this fear that I have been so vocal about my disdain for unreasonable anti-smoking laws, the kind of laws that are being adopted around the country and are currently being pursued in Michigan.

In reverence to this fear and to helpfully point out to you that my paranoia is at least somewhat founded, I give you this item from Richmond, California, a town with a mission!

City officials in Richmond are snuffing out smoking in apartments, condominiums and public places, making it the hardest place in the San Francisco Bay area to smoke.

The City Council approved an ordinance this month that will ban lighting up in all multiunit housing by Jan. 1, 2011. Officials say smoking in multiunit housing exposes people to secondhand smoke, which can travel between apartments.

The city has already banned smoking in parks, farmers markets and other public places. Fines start at $100 for violating the bans.

When will the smoking police start pounding on the doors of neighborhoods where children are present, or where houses are closer than twenty feet apart, or during hours when pedestrians might be out on a walk? No one should be convinced that it will stop with an ordinance outlawing smoking in apartment buildings because with these people enough is never enough.

These people feel very comfortable making the rules in your home, from your smoking habits, to what is in your fridge, to the kind of windows you want to install, to the light bulbs in your fixtures, and to the car parked in your garage (that must be attached, painted to match the house, and be no smaller than 384 square feet.)

Wake up! It is time to cut these fascists off at the knees!

h/t Protein Wisdom