Fire It Up!!

Tonight was the first of three town hall meetings being held in support of a comprehensive smoking ban in Marion County. Anyone who knows me knows I abhor the loss of property rights. I was planning on making the meeting, but had to work. Sounds like more fireworks are in store, it's not my place to say, but the LPMC is adding someone...

Laws of the Best Intentions...

Are also the laws of unintended consequences. Smoking bans are just that....although noble in principle, the consequences are unintended, and usually severe. In a time of economic uncertainty, to put it best, some Indianapolis City-County Councillors think it's best to further control the free market.

Proponents say it's for the health of the workers. As a worker in the hospitality industry, the one potentially hardest hit by a comprehensive ban, I can personally say that it also has a disproportionate amount of smokers in its workforce. So to say it's for the workers is bollocks. Proponents say workers shouldn't be forced into working in a smoky environment. Bartenders and servers know what they get into when they work in a bar, and to say otherwise is pure bullshit as well.

Bar owners go into business for one reason, to make money. They do it by the following three rules:
HAVE FUN.
MAKE MONEY.
DO WHATEVER IT TAKES APPLYING RULES #1 AND #2

Eliminating options for bar owners eliminates their profits, which eliminates taxes, which eliminates city services. Remember, this law is made with the best of intentions.