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Tuesday 8 February 2011

Why are publicans supposed to subsidise the law?

Just had an E mail from Freedom to Choose and one thing that caught my eye was.

FIGHTING BACK!

Ohio; USA:  Keith and Pam Parker are among a group of bar-owners who, since August last year, have been invoicing their Health Department for the cost of policing the ban.
Pam admits she doesn't expect the Health Dept to cough up but explains:

"If they want to put in writing that it's THEIR job, not ours, then our reply will be to have one of their inspectors report to work at our tavern every day at noon.  They can't have it both ways."

So far there has been NO response from the authorities - so a 10% penalty has been added to the outstanding bill.
Ohio has spent $4m dollars enforcing the ban, and penalised some 939  businesses, the vast majority of which are family-run establishments and private clubs.  The bar-owners are seeking an exemption for licensed bars, which traditionally cater to smokers and are, in any case, strictly off-limits to under-21s.

It might be an idea if pubs over here got together and billed their local authority for having the affront for putting the onus on them to police this odious, divisive, fascist law.

If nothing else it would tie up your local smoking enforcement department so that they would spend more time in rebutting the claims, than actually being able to spy on pubs, bars, and social clubs, etc.

I went to a party

ciggie

I was invited to a party last Saturday which was held in a pub. If you haven’t noticed, there is a little hint in my sidebar intimating that I’m one of those foul smokers. What made this pub different is that it had a proper smoking shelter which actually gave the occupants real shelter from the elements.

Now I’m not going to tell you where it is, because it most certainly flouts all the puerile rules by the anti-smoking fascists.

It was a haven of comfort with tables, comfortable seating, lighting, and enough heaters to ensure that one complete power station would have to be permanently on line to supply it. Enough to drive a hundred global warmists into an early grave I hope. The shelter was spotlessly clean with plenty of ashtrays which were emptied on a regular basis. All in all, an oasis of plenty for the smoker.

At the time the shelter was about 85% enclosed from the elements but the neat bit was that if an anti smoking facilitator , or what ever you want to call one, turned up, the Perspex windows could have been jettisoned in less than 60 seconds.

The shelter has been up since 2009 and no-one in this loyal pub community has ratted yet to the anti-smoking Nazis. On the other hand if one had turned up, the 200 ft cliff at the end of the patio might just have been a deterrent to any action being taken.

It really was a nice place to be. Mind you I felt like shit on sunday morning.

Iranium. The Movie.

 An interesting little film about recent history of Iran. More chilling is it's aspirations.