commentaries

Restaurants and bars are a lot nicer without the nasty tobacco smoke. Great regulation!

People will be healthier because of this regulation and that is a good thing.

"...the toast to be given will be one of pitying the incremental passing of our private-property rights." Well said and true. They nibble away at them every day, because they can get away with it all in the name of "the public good".

Apparently the State of Virginia allows smoking in restaurant/bars, but they ENFORCE nonsmoking areas with stringent ventilation systems. And this compromise has worked. EVERYone is happy. Minnesota should do likewise.

I agree with Mr Yarbrough, during my 67 years of life I guess I never noticed or minded the cigarette smoke in bars or resturants. It was a way of life for years. A lot of property owners have suffered thats true. I for one have cut back on going to the American Legions in Apple Valley and Rosemount, cause I enjoy a smoke with my drinks. It just isn't the same anymore.

I sure don't miss having my hair and clothes stink after spending a couple hours at a bar. I don't think the change has hurt smokers that much. Most bars have patios (with fire pits in the winter) where smokers can hang out and bond over a cig.

Not all regulation is a bad thing. I think we are all better off due to the smoking ban. You are still free to poison yourself, you just aren't free poison those around you who just want to eat some food or get a beer in peace. If establishments are going to advertise themselves to the general public, they are obligated to provide customers with a safe, clean and decent environment. This is not about the freedom of business owners. It is about the responsibility that comes from doing business with the public. We already expect restaurants to have fire exits and be free of rats and mold. This is an extension of the same basic idea. If you can't provide your customers with a safe and clean place to eat a meal, maybe you shouldn't be in business in the first place.

I don't miss coming home from a club and having to throw my clothes out on the deck and shower to get the smoke out of my hair before I went to bed. I remember taking my kids back to Wisconsin before their ban took place, going into a restaurant and all of us becoming nauseated by the smell of cigarette smoke. Good riddance.

I have never been a smoker in my life. When I could not shake a serious cough that lasted for months, I saw a pulmonologist who diagnosed me with reactive airway disease - similar to asthma, but not quite the same. According to the well-known and respected pulmonologist, the probable cause was growing up in a household with a parent who was a heavy smoker. I am grateful to be able to go to a restaurant or other public place and not be subjected to others' cigarette smoke.

The responses to this are frustrating. People who respond with, "it's nice to not have to smell smoke," completely miss the purpose (or in this case, the specific non-purpose) of government in a so-called free society. Government is not something that should be used to take away freedoms in order to make people comfortable. Our democracy was founded specifically to protect freedoms even though it was uncomfortable to do so. It is a horrid shame to see the steady and certain decline of this republican experiment. Within 200 years there will no longer be a democracy in this country. And it is because of "laws" like this, which are really just tyrannical oppression masquerading as democracy. Sickening.