Althouse: Gov. Scott Walker, "after listening to people across the state," has changed his mind about something.

July 5, 2011

Gov. Scott Walker, "after listening to people across the state," has changed his mind about something.

See? He's listening to you, people of Wisconsin.

23 comments:

gadfly said...: Creeping socialism! The bar owners rights are being stomped upon. Patrons can vote with their feet.; 7/5/11, 8:21 AM
ndspinelli said...: It certainly is nice to go into a bar and not come out smelling like an ashtray. The last bastions of smoking are Indian casinos. After all, tobacco is a sacrament in their culture. But, it sucks having a guy banging heaters next to you when you play craps. It is however, their nation and I respect that.; 7/5/11, 8:22 AM
PSGInfinity said...: It'll do Gov. Walker absolutely no good. The Leftists will never forgive imposing Reality on them...; 7/5/11, 8:26 AM
AllenS said...: What spinelli said about the casinos. Bar owners that I know say they took a big hit.; 7/5/11, 8:34 AM
Scott M said...: Is there an exception for actual smoking clubs like cigar bars etc? I agree that it's stomping on privacy when the activity involved is a legal one.

When the missus and I sortie out for an evening sans rugrats, it's nice not to come home smelling awful. However, if it's our choice to go to the local, and excellently-stocked, cigar bar, we can do so.; 7/5/11, 8:43 AM
Lucien said...: Was does the linked article refer to a "one year anniversary"?

Are its readers really so ignorant that they don't know what "anniversary" means? (or even, "first anniversary"?); 7/5/11, 9:13 AM
traditionalguy said...: Does this mean that the images of fat capitalists and bankers have to remove them smoking cigars? The old movies from the 30s through the 70s had all strong men smoking. This is getting so confusing.; 7/5/11, 9:27 AM
MadisonMan said...: Before the state-wide ban, it was always jarring to enter a bar outside Madison, as I'd grown used to (and love) the non-smoke-filled haze of Madison bars. Even to enter a bar was to have my eyes water and then you get home smelling like you slept in an ashtray. Ugh.

That reminds me that I have to call up a friend and meet him at the Blue Moon because he owes me $10. And The Blue Moon is having road construction outside its front door.

@ScottM, I do believe there is a cigar-bar exception in the law. But it was in, then out, then in, etc., through the drafting process..not certain what the final form was.; 7/5/11, 9:42 AM
Carol_Herman said...: Cigarettes are expensive. Since the ban has been in effect, people who do smoke have found alternate ways to grab a cigarette and light it up.

This is like Scott Walker's "framing" episode. Which was a stupid idea. And, didn't become a winner.

Here, too. Something he said he'd do is erased from the memory hole.

Now, I don't smoke! The person in my family who did smoke was my dad. And, he got lung cancer. And, died in September 1958.

I'm not so sure it's the nanny laws that stop people from smoking ... I see a lot of Asian kids doing it. But I don't see an addicted society. I don't see the Marlboro Man strutting about.

Of course, the Marboro Man died of lung cancer.

But Scott Walker shows he has a defect. He wants to e a nanny. Not a Governor. And, what do you do if someone lights up in a public venue? Does the house have to call the police?

Or are their police raids?; 7/5/11, 9:51 AM
edutcher said...: Well, that loses him the Ron Paul vote.

All two of them.; 7/5/11, 10:35 AM
William said...: I gave up smoking for a couple of years back in the eighties. Back then you could still smoke in bars and restaurants. The maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity. I fell off the wagon. I tried again in the nineties. Cigarette smoke was at that time forbidden just about everywhere. I spent more wanting a smoke than smoking. It was easier to just give them up and, having given them up, much easier to keep them out of mind. Chalk up one for the nanny state.....If you give people enough time, they will eventually choose the prudent course. When seat belts first came out, most people didn't use them. Now it's second nature to fasten them.
't; 7/5/11, 10:53 AM
SunnyJ said...: Having become pregant at 40 and needing to give up smoking, drinking and coffee 19 yrs ago (well I kept the coffee or the child would have been healthy and I would have been a lifer for killing someone with my bare hands at the first stop light!); I resumed drinking 3 yrs ago when child gained a drivers license.

Periodically I will get a slap of craving a cigarette so strong that you would swear I had just had one an hour ago and would just have another. Genuinely makes me laugh outloud!

I am consulting actuarial science and planning the day I will resume smoking when the negative cascade of events jives with my life expectancy and creates the perfect momoent in time...where smoking will make no difference by the numbers. I leave the rest up to the good Lord. I only ask that my number doesn't come up before I get my cigarettes back.

Yes, my daughter thinks I'm nuts...and also objects to carrying my ashes around in a cute red box to sprinkle on her adventures. Hey, she's an only child of an old parent and I want her to have laughed enough at my demise to know she can let me go, and never feel alone with that decision. She knows I'm the product of my decisions all along the way.; 7/5/11, 11:24 AM
SunnyJ said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/5/11, 11:25 AM
Michael K said...: It is a fact that, not withstanding all the propaganda about how it has had no effect, a smoking ban will put about a third of the bars and small restaurants out of business over a few years. I'm a non-smoker and didn't go to bars anyway but these are the statistics.

Who needs jobs anyway ?; 7/5/11, 11:34 AM
Scott M said...: I'm a non-smoker and didn't go to bars anyway but these are the statistics.

Got a link?; 7/5/11, 11:42 AM
Anonymous said...: I am consulting actuarial science and planning the day I will resume smoking when the negative cascade of events jives with my life expectancy and creates the perfect momoent in time

I plan to start smoking when I am 70 and am already wrinkled. My one grandmother smoked and lived to 97 (on her own and healthy until 95). I have good genes.; 7/5/11, 2:14 PM
Revenant said...: My position on smoking bans is that (a) they violate the rights of bar and restaurant owners but (b) they make life far more pleasant for the overwhelming majority of the population, me included.

So while they're on the list of "government wrongs that must be righted", they're pretty far down the list. Somewhere below "legalization of polygamy".; 7/5/11, 2:26 PM
MadisonMan said...: a smoking ban will put about a third of the bars and small restaurants out of business over a few years.

My observations tell me that, in Madison at least, about a 1/3rd of all bars/small restaurants go belly up in a few years. To be replaced by...other bars and restaurants.; 7/5/11, 2:37 PM
Scott M said...: To be replaced by...other bars and restaurants.

This makes sense as the building is zoned for food service and, in all likelihood, still has equipment/ovens/etc installed and part of the price. It's far more likely that someone would start up another restaurant rather than, say, a sexetarium.; 7/5/11, 2:41 PM
PaulV said...: Hurting the bars may be a feature of bill rather than diseconomy.; 7/5/11, 3:11 PM
wdnelson93 said...: Speaking of how times have changed:

"I remember the day when..."

...in nursing school in Duluth in the mid-late 70's we followed a respiratory therapist around for a day. I'll never forget him giving a man who had a tracheotomy a respiratory treatment and than following that with a cigarette. What a guy.

Then in the mid-80's I took a nursing job in Nome, Alaska where the Head Nurse's office was this tiny closet-like room just off the nurses station. I think it had been a bathroom. She would go in there and smoke while working out the next month's schedule.; 7/5/11, 3:33 PM
Fen said...: also objects to carrying my ashes around in a cute red box to sprinkle on her adventures.

Its not really ashes. More like bone chips. But don't take my word for it, ask a funeral home to show you what it looks/feels like.; 7/5/11, 3:47 PM
george said...: Of the two I think you could make a much better argument that drinking hurts innocent bystanders more than smoking. I don't think either should be regulated.; 7/5/11, 7:25 PM