Anti-Smoking Crusade Continues

I swear, we're a society of complete ninnies. Not only are state and local governments trampling on private property rights by forcing bar and restaurant owners to operate in smoke-free environments, but Chicago's new ruling mandates a "no-smoking zone" around smoke-free buildings.

"I don't think we need tape-measures. We do need a measure of reasonableness," said chief of policy Jose Cerda, referring to the 15-foot no-smoking zone around smoke-free buildings.

We don't need "reasonableness." We need laws. Laws that are black and white. Laws that specify the ground rules without room for confusion. Anything less is entrapment. Why don't we just cut to the chase and install force fields around all our buildings so anyone who walked too close to our sacred smoke-free establishments would receive electric shock ?

Joel Africk, chief executive officer of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, predicted the ordinance that gives bars and taverns until July 1, 2008, to comply would become "self-enforcing."

"It's a misplaced focus, if somebody forgets the first day the ordinance goes into effect, [to worry about] whether they get a ticket or a stern warning. When is the last time you saw someone smoking in a movie theater, in a supermarket, in a hospital? People want to obey the law," he said.

You can't make this crap up, folks. The whole point of government coercion is to make sure individuals have no choice but to obey the law. And it goes without saying: If you pass enough laws, pretty much everybody's guilty of something.