Neo-Prohibitionism in Two Small Alabama Towns

December 19th, 2007 by Steve

It looks like anti-smoking, anti-property rights and anti-small business forces have two new Alabama targets. First, Baldwin Report reports that Baldwin County Now  is reporting that the Daphne City Council has plans in the works to stick it to small businesses in the city:

The council also voted in favor of setting the public hearing and the first read for an ordinance that would ban smoking throughout Daphne; the hearing is set for Jan. 7, 2008. Burnam cast the lone dissenting vote.

Doc reports that the Daily Home  is reporting that the city of Talledega might actually like some of those revenues from NASCAR fans who flock to the area to eat and drink and even smoke several times a year.

The City Council essentially held an open forum Monday night to discuss possible revisions to a ban on smoking in nearly all public buildings in the city passed by the previous administration. No action was taken during the meeting, however.

Owners of several restaurants and bars in the city complained their smoking customers were moving on to other establishments outside the city limits, where the ban cannot be enforced, and asked for the ban to be made optional for such businesses. Council President Dr. Horace Patterson appointed Councilmen Donnie Mille and Eddie Tucker to study the issue and report back Monday night.

“I was willing to compromise, even though I felt it was wrong, but I was willing to try and make everybody happy. But Miller just says let the businesses decide for themselves. I would be willing to restrict it to bars after 10 or 11 p.m.,” Tucker said.

Baldwin Report noted: “If smoking is so bad…ban the selling of cigarettes, too. Just let the government ban everything it deems unsafe for citizens.”

Here are a few things we can add to the list of unsafe items which should be banned, as well:

  1. Insulating foam
  2. Alcohol
  3. Enemas
  4. Sodium
  5. Hydrogen
  6. Palm trees
  7. Elephants
  8. Cars
  9. Laptops
  10. Knives
  11. Firearms
  12. Scrap metal
  13. Free concert tickets

Since thirteen is already considered an unlucky number, I’ll stop here. But I hope I made my point.

Posted in Regulatory Burden, Prohibition Mentality, Alabama Politics, Libertarian Movement




One Response to “Neo-Prohibitionism in Two Small Alabama Towns”

  1. GordonUnleashed » Blog Archive » Sesame Street Will Place Your Children in Grave Peril... wrote on 12/20/07 at 2:42 am :

    […] are right.  Let’s add Sesame Street to the list of things which should banned by […]

TrackBack URI

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

« Older entry Newer entry »