Hotline Founder: Smoke ‘Em If Ya Got ‘Em
JEFFREY SEWELL TAKES ON POLITICALLY-CORRECT ANTI-SMOKING JIHADISTS
FITSNews - December 28, 2006 - SC Hotline founder Jeffrey Sewell has a nice op-ed in The State newspaper this morning standing up for the rights of smokers in South Carolina.
Bottom line - it’s impressive. Not only is Sewell flying in the face of a politically correct jihad (which we like to see), he employs Revolutionary War analogies, verifiable economic data and (we’re not kidding) an Edmund Burke quote in doing so. That’s always nice to see.
Sewell’s op-ed is convincing because he’s not a “smoking Nazi.” He concedes that second-hand smoke is an infringement on the civil liberties of non-smokers, but argues that “outlawing smoking in privately owned restaurants — and especially in privately owned bars — fails to strike a fair balance in this question of competing liberties.”
Look for smoking rights to be an issue in the 2007 Legislative session as more and more municipalities pass bar and restaurant smoking bans.
UPDATE - It appears Mr. Sewell’s oped is the subject of some ink over on the LaurinLine this morning, as well.
Comments
By Roger Gary on December 28th, 2006 at 11:13 am
That guy has the writing ability of a retarded kitten. My conspiracy theory - Folks wrote it.
By poosndo on November 10th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I read to day that congress has decided to actually do some work, unfourtunately it was to push a bill through to increase the cost of ciggerettes. THat irritates me in many ways.
1) It will contribute to more problems then it will solve.
The SCIENTIFIC evidence is out there. The quite smoking stuff, don’t work. They have less the 20% success rate at one year time. It is time to look at this realistically.
I am an addict. I have tried and failed to quite many times. Please, I don’t expect pity, but I would like to avoid persecution for a mistake I made as a teen (trying to be cool).
Don’t fire me from my job, or make me stand in the freezing rain with no protection just because I need/ want a smoke.
If congress wants to raise money to fund children heath plans, here is an idea, increase the tax on junk food and games that are leading to an epidemic of obesity which leads to a multitude of medical issues and costs.
To erradicate smoking, allow us addict to have some dignity in our addiction, and simply raise the age of legal tobacco purchasing each year. THe fringes will get by but my 12 year old will NEVER be able to legally buy ciggerettes. In 50-60 years us smoker will be dead and the earth will be just a polutted by other noxious crap that is in our air.