I've seen some good arguments from all angles. Kit, Bob, many of you.
I can definitely see the smoke being a concern for the bartenders and waitresses who deal with it all day long, as well as any singer whom smoke bothers. And, sure....anyone who is truly sensitive to it.
As for the rest, I've always viewed bars and nightclubs as places where people go to unwind, cut loose, perhaps even get a little rowdy and loud, be themselves among friends, or even fake themselves among strangers. While they *are* public places, they are restricted public places, allowing no minors and toddlers *because* of the nature of what goes on inside of them... adult endeavors of imbibing, as well as a plethora of other behaviors often not deemed suitable for the pursuit of youth...even if it's only that of being childish and wreckless adults.
Much as Bob stated, there's not much of anything healthy going-on in the average bar.
Your odds of dying in a car wreck after leaving a bar (with a few drinks under your belt) by-far surpass the odds of getting cancer from the passive smoke.
There are two big causes of cancer: genetics and high-stress living. Everyone reading this thread has cancer cells flowing through their bodies at this moment, yet they are routinely squashed by the immune system. Carcinogens are the elements which help trigger the development of cancer cells, yet it's a matter of genetics and the immune system as to what ultimately happens.
I'm not saying we should all bathe in carcinogens and take our chances. Yet, I seem to see a grossly exaggerated fear that people are going to get lung cancer from entering a smokey bar once a week.

Getting back to what bars are about, it seems to me that many generations of people have known what goes on inside of bars, and it's always been accepted that you enter at your own risk, so to speak...yes...even if that means you go home with a stinky sweater, drunk as a louse. You may throw-up 4 times in the next 12 hours, but damned that stinky sweater and those smokers!

I think smokers have the right to unwind in a bar, as do non-smokers. That's why I fully support non-smoking bars in additon to traditional bars. Of course, anyone is welcome in the smoking bars.
And for me the "anyone is welcome" sign wins hands-down, as in that atmosphere
we have people accepting people, people tolerating people, possibly embracing the differences in each other, and maybe even diggin' on the presence of somebody who truly isn't quite exactly like theirself.


-gary