Mommy (government) Dearest

One bright spot in Minnesota print media is the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Oh, to be sure, there liberal to conservative ratio is still awfully high. However they have a couple of columnists that are a breath of fresh air in the daily news. Craig Westover is one of the columnists - Joe Soucheray is the other. Westover has written extensively what many, myself included, have said about the smoking ban. Todays column describes what is going on with the "Freedom" to Breathe Act.

"John Adams' defense of British soldiers accused in the 1770 Boston Massacre (and of the greater principle of due process) gave us his oft-quoted observation, "Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Facts are still stubborn things.
Last week, the Health and Human Services Committee of the Minnesota House held a hearing on the Freedom to Breathe Act — otherwise known as the statewide smoking ban. In defense of a greater principle, Reps. Laura Brod, R-New Prague, and Tom Emmer, R-Delano, took on the cause of bar and restaurant owners who dare exercise their private property rights and permit smoking in their establishments. It was a good, old-fashioned political butt whipping. Brod and Emmer shredded the arguments of bill sponsors Thomas Huntley, DFL-Duluth, and Dan Severson, R-Sauk Rapids.
Unfortunately, the attitude that the end justifies the means is also still stubborn."

I have written at length about the smoking ban so I will just let Mr. Westover speak.

"Even if one favors a comprehensive statewide smoking ban, one ought be embarrassed by the bill passed out of the Health and Human Services Committee. Not only did ban supporters do a poor job of justifying the necessity of a statewide smoking ban, the Freedom to Breathe Act is a jumble of inconsistencies and potential unintended consequences.
And therein lies the problem: When legislation is predicated on inclinations and passions and justified by an altered state of facts and evidence, not only is the result unnecessary legislation, it's bad legislation."

We seem to be stuck in a cycle of bad legislation. What have we become, as a people, when we have to rely on the nanny government to take care of us (more on that later).

"Brod, Emmer and others raised numerous implications and potential unintended consequences of the Freedom to Breathe legislation. Does the bill inadvertently affect private homes used for business? Does public law that provides Minnesota the authority to enforce "criminal and prohibitory law" on American Indian reservations affect the legislation's attempt to exempt tribal casinos from the ban? When does a patron violation become a violation for which the establishment owner is criminally liable?
Normally, such issues are resolved in the committee process. Last session, eminent domain reform that limited when government could take private property for a public use passed through eight committees before earning a floor vote. This year, when Brod raised the question of what committees would be hearing the Freedom to Breathe Act, Huntley said he had no idea what the path might be, but he "would just as soon send it to the floor as soon as we can."
If the objective were crafting a bill that best served Minnesotans, then, as Brod suggested, it would pass through committees on local government affairs and public safety as well as commerce. But if the purpose of the bill were simply to ban smoking, then, as is Huntley's inclination, the quicker it got to the floor, the better — especially after Brod and Emmer shredded every health and economic justification for a smoking ban, save two.
By the time the committee was ready to vote, Rep. Ken Tschumper, DFL-La Crescent, was justifying the trumping of private property rights with the only undisputed argument ban supporters could muster — secondhand smoke smells bad."

Here's a hint for you Rep. Tschumper - if you don't like the smell of second hand smoke don't go where people are smoking!!!!!

"Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, finally clarified the real motivation behind the Freedom to Breathe Act — she declared a statewide smoking ban necessary to "set behavior norms" for all Minnesotans." (emphasis mine)

And that dear reader, tells you what this DFL legislature has in mind for you. After they are done with the smoking ban, what's next? Which leads us to Souch!

"Marty Seifert, a Republican representative out of District 21A in southwestern Minnesota, told me the other day that a legislator — I can't remember the name Seifert gave me — proposed legislation last week to ban glass bottles on a beach or in a boat. Normally, as the sound professional journalist that I am, I would call Seifert back and get the author's name, but what difference does it make?
We have elected so many legislators with strong mothering instincts that their names are interchangeable. Maybe it was Phyllis Kahn, the noted Nicollet Island chicken farmer. No, wait, she just proposed legislation to give kids the right to vote in school district matters.
Pretty soon these people will be in your closet, much less your home, making sure that you have the right number of stocking caps and mittens for what the meteorologists call those chilly mornings at the bus stop."

Souch nails it here. The same people who declare that government should never interfere in what a citizen does in the privacy of their own home when it comes to legalizing abortion or getting sodomy law repealed, have no problem getting into your home and your car and your boat to tell you what you can and can not do their!

"If you think the anti-glass legislation is a good idea, there is no holding you back. You will be right at home when the Legislature starts to meddle in your refrigerator now that the government has signed on as officially opposed to fat people.
God help us — and I mean God — when these officious snoops start legislating to combat what they believe to be global warming, as though they can influence nature. They will go from recommending energy-efficient light bulbs to a misdemeanor offense for not using them faster than a Ferrari can go from 0 to 60."

Garage logic at it's purest. We need more folks like Westover and Soucheray in Minnesota and in the state legislature.