Anyway, until Monday, endure my "spiel" err, I mean comments and updates. Or else you can get out and enjoy the warmer weather. Greg Lang Sunday 04-06-08
I took a rest after the mass-posting on Friday (ahh! spring weather!). I just checked and http://freedomtoact.com/ has passed 4,000 page views. This is remarkable for something I started on a late night lark less than two months ago. Thank you loyal readers.
On Saturday evening I saw Governor Tim Palenty an the replay of KTCA's Almanac. The Governor seemed to fudge, saying he had to look at it but he had to be assured that this didn't involve things like new additions to bars. This may be encouraging because, as I understand it, the "smoke shack" provision states that it must be a separate structure where bar personnel cannot serve or sell drinks. The exhaust from the "smoke shacks" could easily be ducted away from the bar and the entrance so the "anti's" will lose their argument that they are exposed to smoke at the bar or entrance argument. It is of course a "straw" argument. The real goal is to make smoking so difficult and unpleasant that people will quit. They of course won't admit this.
This "making them eat the dog food they are given" strategy doesn't work because America is still a democracy based on capitalism and people have "choices". Our history is replete with this. I have been studying the concept of "pubs" or "so-called "public places" I recently saw a program on "living small in Tokyo" Housing has excellent electronics (thing high speed Internet and cable TV) but it has a huge number of "boutique bars" sometimes under 250 square feet. The housing square footage is so small and cramped that people socialise at these. That doesn't happen here that much because we have more living space and paradoxically if things are "tense" because your behind on the "rent" going to a bar doesn't help things.
The "ambiance" for a World War II veteran and his wife at the VFW or a blue collar worker at a bar that basically only serves frozen pizza for food is no different that the yuppie" going out for a "dining adventure" (barf!) or the coffeehouse affection ado expecting the perfect "Joe" from their "barista". (equal barf!) Those are my experiences but economically booze, coffee and food are cheaper at home. If you don't fell welcome, you don't feel ambiance or experience then you tend to stay at home. You can drink, make dinner or make a coffee a lot cheaper at home.
What people lack by "cocooning" to use the popular term, is the sometimes random social contact surprises you get when going out and also the feedback. This tends to help keep people stay healthier and happier. Monday evening I have a plan to rent the Tuesday DVD release "There will be blood", being perhaps the first person in the Central time zone to watch it legally on DVD. I am looking forward to this because I liked Daniel Day Lewis in "Gangs of New York". This will cost me $1.07 per day. I'll look for some more "child appropriate" new release DVD's for the same $1.07. I will be meeting with people I know Tuesday afternoon so I hope to hand over the http://redbox.com rental DVD's to them. They live a block from a http://redbox.com kiosk and they always get them back by 9PM Wednesday.
Obviously, I can afford the dollar a day DVD rentals an the cost is small compared to what I spend in the visit with my friends. Nothing wrong with me watching a new release DVD or two but you can with drawl. Most of my friends are smokers (set to the tune of Garth Brooks "I've got friends in low places") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdMM89hIu9U I have seen this happen since the smoking ban. They aren't going to quit.
Larry Flints Hustler Magazine had the "A__hole of the month" award. If we had that it should go to St. Paul City Council member Dave Thune who who commented that he didn't want "8,000 republican lobbyists puking in his district." I've dealt with republican lobbyists and they are not known for "puking in public". We could take a page from the lefty playbook. When Assita Shakur (now a fugitive in Cuba) was a fugitive accused of killing a cop (sounds familiar) lefties put signs in their windows "Assitta Shakur is welcome here. How about signs in homes and businesses that say "Dave Thune is not welcome here." A business would have to serve him, that's the law, but they don't have to like it. Put up the sign, especially at a business in Thune's district an I'll post it at http://freedomtoact.com which is monitored by the national media who are looking for election "angles".
Basically don't let Dave Thunes comments die. Thune spearheaded the Twin Cities smoking bans. A lot of people I talk to who generally approve smoking bans and hope that fewer people smoke in the future (so do I) express to me worry that the anti-smoking "advocates" are increasingly become "jerks" (to put it politely). Dave Thune is a "poster child" for this. Wave that "poster" and don't put it down.
Enough for my "speil". Check back for the "good stuff" Monday. Greg Lang
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