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<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Brian Austin Whitney:
Patty,

Government regulates all sorts of things at bars and restaurants. They regulate how food is handled too. Should they have no right in saying how cleanliness standards are enforced? Should they not be able to forced places to keep rodents out? It's a health concern. People in some countries live with bugs and rats and have no health problems (some eat both). Should we stop inspecting health codes in bars and restaurants too? Also, Government gives business license for operation. Having a business open to the public is not a right in our country either. It's a licensed priveledge. And if liquor licenses have run out in an area, you don't even have the legal right to open a bar.

What about capacity limits? Should the government stick their noses in or out of that factor? Isn't it up to the customer to decide whether too many people are in a venue? Isn't it up to them to decide if they want to risk their lives or be trapped in a fire? What about all the other regulations? Seriously.. why is banning smoking an unreasonable precaution, but all these other health related regulations are okay? Aren't people on this post suggesting NONE of those government restrictions should be in place?

I used asbestos as 1 simple example. If you don't like that one (not sure if you were stating that asbestos is just fine for your health and should still be used going forward or not), choose any of the above. If you don't want to acknowledge those, I'll come up with plenty more.

As for the car exhaust crowd, I agree, we should definitely ban running car engines inside bars and restaurants as well. I doubt many people will have a problem with that either.

Brian</font>


There is already a city in the US, i think in Maryland is about to ban all outdoor smoking EVERYWHERE, inside and out. You don't find this a huge problem when the government tells you THEY OWN THE OUTSIDE AIR?


As far as your other comments. You are referring to laws and codes that go directly to the safety of the food and patrons. These are laws and codes that one knows before they even go into business. It's illegal to pick up meat off the floor, it's not illegal to smoke. Furthermore there is no scientific proof secondhand smoke causes anything.

Check this out: FLORIDA CITY BANS OUTDOOR SMOKING IN FRONT OF KIDS! http://www.local6.com/news/2928081/detail.html

How any American can support this disgusting abuse of power is beyond me. Conformists let big brother run their lives. Americans with a backbone value their rights and fight for them. The same government who invaded Iraq claiming weapons of mass destruction sold them chemical agents over a decade ago. I'm truly amazed at how people trust this government to do what's best for them and are willing to not only watch their rights go down the drain, but do the flushing themselves.