GREENVILLE SOUTH CAROLINA SUCCUMBS TO BIG BROTHER SMOKING BAN

Greenville, SC (TLS). The city of Greenville, South Carolina is the latest casualty to political correctness run amok. As of 12 noon today smoking is banned in city restaurants, bars, public places, hotels, and motels. Offenders face fines of $50 per offense.

As I have reported to you many times on The Liberty Sphere, this is an ominous trend in modern society that apparently is populated by those who feel they have the right to dictate our personal choices. Omaha, Nebraska even encourages citizens to dial emergency 9-1-1 if they see someone engaging in smoking in public.

This trend is not limited to tobacco, of course. New York City banned trans-fats. Sugar is another dreaded culprit as the food and thought police grab more power.

To soothe the fears of those who object to my crying foul over smoking bans, I also believe that citizens have the right to eat a meal without having to inhale a mouthful of smoke before lifting the fork to the lips. There are places, to be sure, where smoking is not appropriate, such as in a hospital room. The problem, however, is that the anti-smoking forces are not content with limitations. They wish to rid the entire society of cigars, cigarettes, and pipes. Little by little, it is not only against the law to smoke inside a restaurant but to do so in ANY public place.

There is even a move afoot by homeowners' insurance companies to enforce a no-smoking policy in private homes due to the 'smoke damage that occurs to the property.'

This is big brother at it's worst. Personal liberty means that citizens have the freedom to do unhealthy things if they so choose. Somewhere along the way we picked up the putrid notion that government must forbid citizens from doing things that harm no one but themselves.

This is not in any way the duty or task of government. Jefferson would be screaming bloody murder from the rooftops.

Here is a case in point of the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a chain smoker. Few pictures of FDR exist where he doesn't have either a cigar or a cigarette in his mouth. When the FDR Memorial in Washington was envisioned, the original plan was to depict the President as he was--smoking a cigarette with his head held high. This was characteristic FDR.

Yet, the politically correct anti-tobacco police entered the picture and screamed to high heaven about how bad a role model for our youth it would be for them to see the great FDR smoking. Thus, the statue of FDR with the cigarette was scrapped.

The thing is, the great FDR DID smoke. This is a historical fact. But the food-and-thought police never cared about being true to history.

In Greenville, SC, restaurant and bar owners are crying foul, claiming their business will be lost to establishments outside the city limits. They are correct. These owners have appealed the law passed by City Council, and they are awaiting the final word.

Wanna bet the forces of the politically correct crowd will prevail? Unfortunately for the Republic this is the trend all over the country.

I think I'm going out to smoke a good, strong Fuentes cigar from the Dominican, and then go blow the smoke into the face of a Big Brother wacko on the Greenville City Council....