Public smoking heavily restricted in San Antonio now?!

[Arcade Man D]

And you don’t see the irony in even saying that? Com’on think about what you just said there. Until a ban went into place a business wasn’t having problems. Only after the ban is in place and broken, resulting in many fines does the business go under. It wasn’t the fact that smoking was taking place, it was the fact that smoking had suddenly become illegal resulting in many fines that brought that business down.

No, I don't. When new food safety regulations were put in, restaurants were shut down for not complying with them, too. And it's not like they weren't given a month-long grace period to come into compliance, either.

[Greenday]

Wow, it must be hard to comply to a law that says "No smoking inside", especially when given a month grace period? How did the government ever figure that bars/restaurants would be able to get people to stop smoking in their establishments after a whole month!?

[muses_nightmare]

I think the whole idea that businesses will be shutting down or really hurting because of a smoking ban a bit laughable. Maybe that's because I've grown up living in a place where all bars/restaurants/clubs/basically anywhere indoors is non-smoking. People will learn to deal with it, my parent's generation did here.

[Greenday]

Where the hell do you live? I've never heard of one until the bans came into effect.

[Plaidman]

Where the hell do you live? I've never heard of one until the bans came into effect.

Muses lives in Canada. BC if I remebered right.


There is a world besides USA you know....


Anyway: I bring it up again to all the people that scream to nonsmokers to just go somewhere else.

What happens if you go into a bar full of nonsmokers, and light up. Do you really belive it's fair for you to /kick/ them out just because you want to smoke? They were there first.

Or what happens if there is no nonsmoker bar or restraunt? Again, your basically stating that you have more rights and can do more, simply because you choose to smoke and others choose not too.

A bar that has a ban, doesn't mean you can not smoke anywhere. All states, that have bans? The bars have a nice big fat patio right outside the bar for you to smoke. It's covered. It's warm. It has music playing. You walk twenty feet to smoke.

That is a very fair compromise for nonsmokers versus smokers. Everybody can have a good time. Nonsmokers don't have to go to a smokefull bar to have a drink, and smokers still get to smoke at their bars.

[KitterCat]

Wow, it must be hard to comply to a law that says "No smoking inside", especially when given a month grace period? How did the government ever figure that bars/restaurants would be able to get people to stop smoking in their establishments after a whole month!?

I’m saying that it should not be up to the government to interfere in a private business owners business. Smoking is currently legal. If someone wants to let their customers smoke in their building they should have the right to do so.

Where the hell do you live? I've never heard of one until the bans came into effect.

Not sure if your talking to me or Muses. I live in Maryland. Where yes there is a ban on smoking in pretty much any restaurant or bar. Before the ban went into place you may wonder what did I do when I was invited to go out to a bar and hang out with the few friends that I have that smoked? I made my own personal choice on the matter. Sometimes I said “No” and sometimes I said “Yes”.

The difference is I didn’t try to tell some restaurant owner what they could do in their own building. I think needing to have a ban for an act that is perfectly legal in the street is wrong. Its only now illegal because the majority are driving over the rights of a minority.


Hobbs, please excuse the fact that at times I miss a letter here and there. My spelling is horrible to put it mildly and was trying to make sure I‘d gotten all of the corrections when my little one interrupted me. From time to time I do miss things.

[Hobbs]

Hobbs, please excuse the fact that at times I miss a letter here and there. My spelling is horrible to put it mildly and was trying to make sure I‘d gotten all of the corrections when my little one interrupted me. From time to time I do miss things.

Oh, I didn't mean anything by it. I just kept reading it and my grammar-proper mind kept going "Aaaahhhh!" So, I guess you could say I did it to silence the voice in my head...

[MadMike]

Smoking is currently legal.

So is banging my wife, but I can't do it in any bar, restaraunt, or any public place for that matter.

OK, I'm being a smartass here, but the point I'm making is that just because something's legal doesn't mean that it's OK to do it everywhere. And as far as government restricting what business owners can do, it's really nothing new when you think of it. There are certain health and safety laws that must be followed. For example, a restaurant would not be allowed to operate with a pool of raw sewage in the floor, even if all the employees and customers were OK with it.

[AdminAssistant]

I’m saying that it should not be up to the government to interfere in a private business owners business. Smoking is currently legal. If someone wants to let their customers smoke in their building they should have the right to do so.

Should business owners also be allowed to freely discriminate against certain races or religions? How about the handicapped, LGBTs, women, midgets, or redheads? No, but there are places that would discriminate against those groups if there weren't federal laws preventing it.

Capitalism and/or the 'free market' doesn't solve all of our problems.

When I moved to KC, I didn't know many people. So, when I got invited out to the bar, I went to the bar. How else was I going to get to know my colleagues? So I went and sat in the smoke and went home coughing up a lung and stinking. The only other option was to sit at home, be a hermit, and generally be ignored for the two years I lived there. Well, that's not happening. Thankfully, they passed the ban the second year I lived there. Bar business went up, and my life got significantly easier. There was a patio for the smokers to go to so they could get their nicotine fix.

So, now the onus is on the smokers, if they are so desperate to hold a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other, then they have a choice to make. They can either sit in polite society with the rest of us, or they can suck on their cancer sticks at home.