Beijing Adding 40,000 Smoking Inspectors for Olympic Games

40,000 on top of the already hired 60,000 smoking inspectors in the city. That's a lot.

I smell a cultural exchange program here...China gives us adorable pandas, in return we could give China cuddly anti-smoking zealots.

First on the list: Mike Huckabee.

Are There Any Smokers Left in California?

Berkeley:

The Berkeley City Council has taken another step to protect residents from second-hand smoke by approving the first reading of an ordinance that will expand the number of commercial areas in the city that prohibit smoking.

The ordinance, which was approved unanimously by council members at a Tuesday night meeting, will expand on an already existing ordinance that prohibits smoking in certain commercial areas, said Julie Sinai, chief of staff to the mayor.

The Public Commons for Everyone Initiative was passed by the City Council in November and expanded previous smoking ordinances to include 16 designated streets and commercial areas where smoking would be prohibited, city senior management analyst Lauren Lempert said.

However, the city found that enforcing and properly notifying the public of those designated areas was more complex than city officials anticipated, Sinai said. Officials decided to expand the ordinance to include all commercial areas in the city.

The Public Commons for Everyone (Except Smokers) Initiative, might be a better name.

By far though my favorite statement comes from the Mayor of Berkeley, Tom I Hate Freedom Bates:

"Strong tobacco prevention and control policies will move us closer to developing a tobacco-free future for all Berkeleyans," Bates added.

You could make a joke about what other (insert habit here)-free future these tools want; but the sad fact of the matter is that it wouldn't be a joke...Full story here.

Patrick Swayze Attempts to Smoke the Cancer Out

God Bless him. The man doesn't have a quitting bone in his cancer-ridden body. Wolverines!

Puffing on a cigarette is not the most sensible thing to do when you're battling cancer.

But if, as reports suggest, Patrick Swayze has only a few weeks to live, he may think it makes little difference.

The once-athletic star of Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and action films such as Point Break looked gaunt as he dragged on a cigarette while waiting for his private plane.[...]

Swayze has been a 60-a-day smoker for years, and research shows that smokers are twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer as non-smokers.

That's a lot of cigarettes, for a lot of Man. Semi-related question: If you're not a famous actor who owns a ranch in Nevada, is it possible to be a 2 1/2 packs a days smoker anymore? I had a bet going this past summer with a few friends who said I couldn't smoke 100 packs in 100 days -- merely a pack a day -- and while I stopped the challenge because I realized that the $100 payoff was what I paid for about 20 packs; I still was having trouble doing a pack a day during the work week. Now, with total work place bans, as well as bans inside most social gathering places where you would traditionally smoke, it strikes me as awful hard to be a regular 2+ packs a day smoker.

Full story here.

In a Bar in Baltimore and Need a Smoke? Walk to Pennsylvania

150 feet is a long ways away. Contrast 150 feet to the standard 15 feet distance that some smoke-free municipalities demand in their bans.

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Banished smokers taking nicotine breaks outside bars in one of Baltimore City’s trendy neighborhoods are being told to move or face fines and arrest for loitering, bar owners said.

Hampden bar owners said they were shocked last week when police began warning patrons to move 150 feet away from the entrance of bars they were patronizing or face loitering charges.

“Loitering has always been a legitimate problem in the neighborhood that we couldn’t get police to deal with,” said Benn Ray, owner of Atomic Books and head of the Hampden Village Merchants Association.

“So why all of sudden is the Police Department being aggressive with smokers when they haven’t been enforcing loitering laws for 10 years?”

Maybe not in Hampden, but in the grimier neighborhoods of Baltimore, police in the past have had little problem in strictly enforcing the loitering laws. More:

At Frazier’s, a popular Hampden hangout, day manager Tabrina Sherman said the message police gave to patrons smoking outside her bar was clear.

“They were told they need to move 150 feet away or they will be fined first and arrested the second time.”

City officials said enforcing loitering laws has grown trickier since the statewide smoking ban went into effect Feb. 1.

“Particularly in front of bars where there have been a history of problems, we have asked patrols to be aggressive to enforce the loitering laws; however, the smoking ban changes the dynamic,” said Sterling Clifford, spokesman for the Police Department.

“This is an unintended consequence of two well-intentioned laws.”

Predictable. Every single bit of it. And it will only get worse has smokers adjust their habits and began to smoke as much as they were pre-ban once they get used to going outside for a smoke. Residents will start complaining about the increased noise in the early morning hours, and before you know it I'll be forced to smoke on a barge in the Patapsco River. Which minus the fish-kills and dead bodies, I'm sure would be a lovely experience.

Full article here.

The Last Gasp of Freedom

I know we have a few Baltimore readers out there.... Wherever you are in city, be sure to take advantage of your last night (until midnight) to light up in bars. As of Feb 1st, Baltimore begins to lose the Charm in Charm City, and joins the crowd of non-smoking cities. I may be overly emotional in this time of mourning, but to my mind I can't think of a smokier city in our country than Baltimore. Any nominations for a smokier city? Maybe Savannah? I'll even take pre-ban nominations...

Anyways, I'll probably be at Mick O'Shea's in 3 hours time enjoying my last few hours of freedom. I'll be the guy with a cigar in one hand and a cigarette in the other, wondering how I'm going to explain to my kids that you were once able to smoke in bars...

Trans-Fat Ban Starts in Montgomery County, MD

I had a laugh today when I read the Wa Post article about the enaction of Montgomery County's trans-fat ban. I was brought back to a car ride with my mother, about 20 years ago, when smoking was banned in airplanes. My mother was happy about this as she hates the smell of smoke. But young libertarian me countered: if you give the government the power to ban cigarettes because they are unhealthy, then you give the government the power to ban butter. "Oh no," my mother said, "they will never ban butter."

They have not yet banned butter, but they have banned margarine.

The Tastee Diner in Bethesda, pictured above, is not a big fan of the mandate. According to its owner, the

estimated the switch to a trans-fat-free menu will add $1,500 a month to his supply tab, which he will pass on to his customers. "Things are going to be a little less tasty and a little more expensive, but we'll survive," said Wilkes, who has owned the popular 24-hour diners since 1971, summarizing Montgomery's latest foray into the legislation of healthy habits.

If you give the government the power to legislate what you do not like, you also give them the power to legislate what you do like. In any event, individual liberty ought to trump the likes and dislikes of fellow citizens.

California Is Obsessed with Not Smoking

To build on Rob's post below, I just got back from a trip to the Bay Area and was amazed at the proliferation of no-smoking signs, especially at the airport. It is well understood that one cannot smoke in a US airport. We all know that. But California likes to remind you of that every five steps you take. There are "No Smoking" stickers everywhere in the Oakland airport. The frequency of the stickers betrays an insane obsession with something that never happens and, if it did, would not be the end of the world. It is easier to get a fake bomb through TSA security than it is to smoke inside of OAK or SFO.

And smoking is now also banned outside of those airports, where health issues cannot credibly be a problem. Smokers used to be sent to a fenced off area outside of the airports but that is now gone so they are banned completely, as no smoking signs are posted everywhere outdoors.

I was in wine country and the Healdsburg town center park had a big sign that said, No Smoking in This Park. SF has just passed a similar park ban. These signs are such Nanny State visual pollution that I can't imagine that smoking is more annoying.

As to the health justification of smoking bans, it has become clear that the anti-smoking lobby used that as an excuse to ban workplace smoking and now just wants to ban it everywhere, just as MADD morphed from an anti-drunk driving lobby into an anti-drinking lobby.

Smoking -- "The Scourge Among Urban Blacks"

We'll just let the New York Times keep thinking that it's Newport holding back inner-city blacks, and not..Oh, I dunno, the Drug War.

Didn't We Do the Same Thing?

Public service announcement in the Khaleej Times, the English, Dubai paper. I agree it's pretty tasteless...Although I seem to remember our government did a similar thing last year. Wait...now that I've gone back to check my previous post from last January, I see they did exactly the same thing. Just swap out tobacco for illicit drugs, and you have a DEA ad from '06.

Great Britian to Open Prisoner Style Theme-Park on Whole of Island in '09

Sure, more Brits are missing work for "drink related days-off"; but they also live on an island that does fun, Orwellian stuff like this:

UNDER-FIRE smokers are being targeted by CCTV cameras and issued with on-the-spot fines for dropping their ciggies outside pubs.

[...]

The action is being backed by North Wales Police, whose chief Richard Brunstrom is famously fond of speed cameras.

Roly Schwarz, of the Denbighshire Community Safety Partnership, which includes the North Wales Police and the county council, said: “CCTV is there to prevent and reduce crime.

“People know if they drop a cigarette butt we can identify them.

"Prevent and reduce crime." Fair point; it's just that you're going to have a tough time convincing people that littering is a crime deserving of any state response that can help to control it, no matter the legitimate concerns of the overreaching nature of the response. Or at least you think you would...Post title reference here.

Want Less of Something? Tax It

I never thought I would find myself agreeing with public health activists who push for cigarette taxation as the most effective tool to reduce smoking. But they got one thing right: taxing something means you get less of it. That rule also applies to work, investment, capital formation, etc. A WSJ editorial [sub only] today shrewdly observes that and the folly of proposing new government programs that rely on funding generated by higher cigarette taxes:

Cigarettes have become every pol's favorite tax target, and last year Trenton raised its cigarette tax to $2.575 per pack -- the highest state levy in the nation. Governor Jon Corzine forecast that the tax increase of 17.5 cents a pack would fetch $30 million in revenue to help balance the state's $1 billion deficit. Not quite. A new analysis by the Center for Policy Research of New Jersey finds that the state collected $23 million less revenue from tobacco taxes in Fiscal 2007 than it did the year before.

Anti-smoking and health advocates say this proves that high taxes on cigarettes reduce smoking. And they're partly right: When you tax something, you get less of it. If only politicians kept that in mind when they were taxing work, investment and saving -- as opposed to "sin."...

State cigarette tax collections may fall by an estimated $1 billion more if Congress goes ahead with its plan to raise the federal cigarette tax to $1 a pack from 39 cents in the name of funding an expansion in health-care spending of $132.6 billion. The Heritage Foundation calculates that, to make those numbers add up, some 22 million Americans would have to start smoking over the next decade.

So, light up, friends. You may kill yourself, but your bad habits will let the politicians continue theirs.

It is pretty ironic that more and more government programs rely on the fact that people smoke. What if everyone quit? Well, that might be the only great anti-smoking argument: to pull the rug out from underneath the Nanny/Welfare State.

Cigarettes For Cicero And Rob to Hand Out To Drunk Women At The Bar

Sometimes English translations don't work out so well over here. Or the innuendo slips through unnoticed. I don't normally smoke menthols, but I couldn't resist buying this pack when I saw it in the vending machine.

After You Come Down, But Before You Pass Out...

...read my posts.

When you have that pesky late-night craving for libertarian blogs (and don't tell me you don't), I'm your man.

I'm on a 9 month business assignment in Japan. And Baylen has agreed to let me try out this blogging thing after I get off work but before I hit the drinking circuit. Anyway, I'm not very good at the sappy intro thing, so I'll do it in one sentence:

I'm Nate, an aerospace engineer, huge St. Louis Cardinals fan, huge Jack Daniel's fan, and a smoker.

No hard feelings about the 2004 Series, Baylen... it was one game away from being the fuckin' Yankees again anyway...

Badass Side Note on Japan: Food and drinks are very expensive. But Marlboro Lights? About $2.65/pack. And I'm smoking in my hotel room as I post.

Cap Caps Capp Comeback

Behold, the Andy Capp statue, finally unveiled today in Hartlepool, England.

In what isn't even close to the oddest consequence of the country's smoking ban, which kicks in on Sunday, bronzed Andy is sadly the smokefree Capp of later years, which is something akin to celebrating Fat Elvis over his earlier, better self.

Though it's tough to tell in the photo, he's probably also drinking a mineral water, rather than an unhealthy pint of lager.