Smoking Is Bad, but So Is Red Meat

It is truly commendable that smoking at outdoor school sports events has been banned in Santa Clarita.

Does that mean huge fans will be installed every 50 feet at outside auditoriums to protect the athletes from breathing the smog? And that smog-spewing vehicles will not be allowed anywhere near the stadiums?

A relentless campaign continues to deny tobacco users their right of choice, while Washington goes right on paying subsidies to that industry.

The pending health care reform program is, at the moment, planning to take further advantage of smokers by slapping a hefty additional tax on tobacco products.

Everyone, including those addicted, knows that smoking is an unhealthy habit. But, according to purported authorities, so are red meat, dairy products, alcohol, sugar and hundreds of other products.

I haven’t heard of hot dogs being banned at sporting events. Or processed diet beverages.

Take note whenever you visit a “smoke free” government building--or even a hospital--of the facility-provided ashtrays outside each entrance. The receptacles often need emptying, and sometimes white-coated hospital staff members are seen adding to the debris.

Are we going to relive Prohibition, this time with tobacco smuggled into the marketplace?

The recent establishment of a “smokers only airline” and the reported business downtrend at L. A. restaurants complying with the new smoking ban indicate what happens when independent people are denied their rights.

Isn’t smog a much more widespread source of “secondhand smoke,” and one where all of our efforts are truly justified?

Due to our undying love for the automobile, “Stamp Out Smog” signs are not seen at dealers’ showrooms, at service station pumps or on the freeway overpasses. But we take some of the joy out of sporting events by restricting smokers’ rights.