[PLUG-TALK] Do NOT extend the workplace smoking law

Paul Mullen pem at nellump.net
Wed Mar 9 08:02:48 UTC 2005


On Tue, Mar 08, 2005 at 09:51:50PM -0800, Russ Johnson wrote:

> In any case, no person has the right to do something that infringes
> on another.
---8<-----
> Someone elses smoking has detrimental consequences on MY life.  If
> you operate a business, and you invite the public, it's not
> "private" anymore.

Simply because the public is welcome to voluntarily purchase a meal
there doesn't change the fact that it's still a privately owned
establishment. It's not "public" in the (fallacious) sense that every
individual owns an equal share of it. And can you honestly claim to
believe that "no person has the right to do something that infringes
on another" while simultaneously asserting that the restaurant's owner
should not be free to engage in non-violent consensual commerce with
anyone he prefers?

> Of course, I wouldn't have a problem with banning smoking to the
> inside of ones house either. But that's just me, and about a million
> other people.

Well, hey, if you can get a big enough gang to back you up...

> I consider someone foisting their smoke upon my person anti-social
> in the extreme.

No one's foisting anything upon you. Quite the reverse, in fact.
You're perfectly free to move on to the nearest non-smoking
establishment. That apparently doesn't suit you nearly as much as you
foisting your desire to eat a meal without the irritation of lingering
cigarette smoke wherever you please, even if that happens to be a an
private establishment built with someone else's time and money.

> My home is a private establishment. A restaurant or bar is a public
> establishment, because the operator chooses to invite the public.

What if the owner placed a sign on the door that read "Open to
everyone but authoritarian dickheads named Russ." Technically, it
would no longer be open to the public. Would you then be OK with the
restaurant owners permitting smoking inside their establishment?


Paul




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