Stogie News: Washington, District of Insanity
I’m a big fan of Washington, DC. After all, it’s my adopted home. Despite all the pockets of crime, the corruption, and a never-ending supply of power-hungry douchebags, the nation’s capital really is a wonderful city. The dynamic people, the history, the nightlife, the opportunity – it’s all here for the taking.
But, often due to the moronic government it houses (both national and local), Washington more frequently stands as a monument to politicians’ fallibility and mismanagement than it does to American ingenuity and freedom. Take these two recent, tobacco-related stories, for example:
A city-wide smoking ban (except for politicians)
As we reported in our latest Friday Sampler, DC’s fascist smoking ban went into effect on January 2.
The ban – which squelches freedom of choice in all restaurants, offices, bars, and nightclubs – includes an exemption for a few questionable locales: the ornate Speaker’s Lobby in the Capitol Building and all offices of senators and representatives.
So, basically, it’s OK to smoke indoors – as long as you’re a power-wielding politician.
Interestingly, new Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated she plans to extend the ban to cover those locations. This is ironically one of the few issues on which I agree with Madame Speaker (and the only instance you’ll find me supporting a smoking ban).
If the good people of the nation’s capital can’t light up, the fat cats on The Hill shouldn’t be able to either.
What’s 14 percent between friends?
The DC ban also includes an exemption for businesses that suffer a five percent decrease in revenue due to the law – a scenario that’s quite likely, especially given Virginia’s tolerance of smokers.
But newly sworn-in Mayor Adrian Fenty is hinting that he wants to raise that threshold to 15 percent. Apparently the young politician considers a crippling 14 percent drop in revenue insufficient to warrant restoring property rights to the business owner.
The move is winning Fenty accolades from anti-smoking zealots and self-interested “health advocates,” but we’ll see how well his popularity holds up when Washington businesses start closing their doors.
Tags: cigars
