Zealots blow smoke on property rights

By Jim Waters

Buoyed by their success in forcing an un-American smoking ban on the private business owners of Lexington, Kentucky's anti-smoking Taliban is now conducting operations across the Commonwealth. For these zealots, anything short of a total prohibition will not suffice.

"Smoking is not a constitutional right," they preach. "Besides, it's bad for your health."

Both statements are true yet equally irrelevant when considering whether government force can be enlisted to ban smoking on private property.

Smoking is neither politically popular nor a constitutional right, per se. Yet it remains a legal activity. If successful, we wonder what government will try to ban next screaming babies or perhaps fatty foods.

After all, nothing in our Constitution addresses eating Big Macs at McDonald's either, yet the high fat content makes doing so an unhealthy practice, too. How long will it take the "obese police" (funded by an obesity lawsuit) to show up at city council meetings and demand that Big Macs be outlawed?

These government do-gooders seem interested only in bullying industries that happen to be politically incorrect at the time. After all, it's much easier to persuade citizens who may just happen to dislike smoking or fast food to side with them. But if unchecked, government's appetite for confiscation and power will never be satisfied.

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