Ciggy With Those Fries???
This past weekend, after several hours of shopping in Pittsburgh, my wife and I looked for a coffee shop to rest our weary bones and have a cup of coffee. Because we were shopping close to the University of Pittsburgh, there were plenty from which to choose. The first one we entered was so filled with cigarette smoke we could barely breathe. After a hasty exit, we found another shop across the street that had a no smoking sign in the window, so that’s where we went.
That is the difference between a conservative and a liberal. I don’t smoke, and I know that smoking is bad. If I go into a place where smoking is allowed, I leave and find a no smoking establishment. Sometimes it means going across the hall, or going across the street, or simply choosing to go home. I don’t need the government to tell me what to do. I am an adult, and I have choices. The same goes for those who choose to work in a smoking environment. They can simply choose to work somewhere else.
Ohio’s recent public place smoking ban goes into effect December 7. Ohio is a state that cannot afford to educate its students in a proper fashion (it has yet to comply with an Ohio Supreme Court order to find an alternative manner of funding public education), or run the county jail because it is overcrowded (Mahoning County is under a Federal Court order to limit prisoners in its new county jail – the criminals are walking the streets), or properly funding the courts (Girard Municipal Court just finished a major legal battle over court funding while Mahoning County had the same battle with its Juvenile Court), all of which are normal and proper functions of government. Instead, it is going to have to spend its scant resources on being smoking police.
New York City has now banned trans-fats, which are supposedly bad for us. I don’t know if that is a fact. For years, I was told butter will kill me. We should use margarine instead. Now am told margarine will kill me, so now we should use butter….and who knows about eggs, which are good or bad depending on the latest scientific study. Food purveyors started using trans-fats as a result of the food police complaining about saturated fats. So now the cure is worse than the disease. Where does it end?
That is the problem, it doesn’t. Every adult knows that eating a steady diet of McDonald’s does not make for a healthy lifestyle. Neither does jumping over a stack of cars on a motorcycle, or climbing Mount Everest without proper gear, or going out in the freezing cold without a jacket, or being distracted by a cell phone while driving, or…well…you get the picture. It is the government’s job to inform us, not to order us. A conservative knows this. A liberal wants the government to hold our hand.
If the government can regulate how much trans-fat goes into french fries, it can regulate the amount of fat content in the steak that is on your plate with the fries. It can regulate how much salt you put on that steak. It can regulate how much sugar is in the frosting on your dessert if you are allowed to have dessert at all. It can regulate how much you can weigh by preventing you from getting a drivers license if you exceed the limit, perhaps? All in the name of promoting the public health. Don't believe it can happen? Never underestimate people who know what is good for you.
Enough. This is Big Brother at its worst. It is a slippery slope. Ultimately, many of those complaining the most have a hidden agenda around how much money corporations are making rather than your health. Is this really what you want from your government? I don’t. And I am getting concerned.
That is the difference between a conservative and a liberal. I don’t smoke, and I know that smoking is bad. If I go into a place where smoking is allowed, I leave and find a no smoking establishment. Sometimes it means going across the hall, or going across the street, or simply choosing to go home. I don’t need the government to tell me what to do. I am an adult, and I have choices. The same goes for those who choose to work in a smoking environment. They can simply choose to work somewhere else.
Ohio’s recent public place smoking ban goes into effect December 7. Ohio is a state that cannot afford to educate its students in a proper fashion (it has yet to comply with an Ohio Supreme Court order to find an alternative manner of funding public education), or run the county jail because it is overcrowded (Mahoning County is under a Federal Court order to limit prisoners in its new county jail – the criminals are walking the streets), or properly funding the courts (Girard Municipal Court just finished a major legal battle over court funding while Mahoning County had the same battle with its Juvenile Court), all of which are normal and proper functions of government. Instead, it is going to have to spend its scant resources on being smoking police.
New York City has now banned trans-fats, which are supposedly bad for us. I don’t know if that is a fact. For years, I was told butter will kill me. We should use margarine instead. Now am told margarine will kill me, so now we should use butter….and who knows about eggs, which are good or bad depending on the latest scientific study. Food purveyors started using trans-fats as a result of the food police complaining about saturated fats. So now the cure is worse than the disease. Where does it end?
That is the problem, it doesn’t. Every adult knows that eating a steady diet of McDonald’s does not make for a healthy lifestyle. Neither does jumping over a stack of cars on a motorcycle, or climbing Mount Everest without proper gear, or going out in the freezing cold without a jacket, or being distracted by a cell phone while driving, or…well…you get the picture. It is the government’s job to inform us, not to order us. A conservative knows this. A liberal wants the government to hold our hand.
If the government can regulate how much trans-fat goes into french fries, it can regulate the amount of fat content in the steak that is on your plate with the fries. It can regulate how much salt you put on that steak. It can regulate how much sugar is in the frosting on your dessert if you are allowed to have dessert at all. It can regulate how much you can weigh by preventing you from getting a drivers license if you exceed the limit, perhaps? All in the name of promoting the public health. Don't believe it can happen? Never underestimate people who know what is good for you.
Enough. This is Big Brother at its worst. It is a slippery slope. Ultimately, many of those complaining the most have a hidden agenda around how much money corporations are making rather than your health. Is this really what you want from your government? I don’t. And I am getting concerned.
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