Driving drunk...smoking a phattee in one hand and a dromedary camel in the other...talking to your kids about freedom from you, while barrelling down on your soft furry puppies. My eyes are crossed with the irresponsibility inherent in my psychotropic dysfunction. In a self-righteous fury, I cede all liberty to the omniscient via the select elite who just 'know better' - The Professionals who prescribe, litigate, eviscerate and water board (and provide interest only lending) in their infinite wisdom. I cannot defend myself, or change my child's diaper, so I expect you, Fatherland, to do my thinking for me...better yet, change my diaper and make this world SAFE. Safe from those nasty few - those who think they can choose which words to speak without regard to those disadvantaged people the words may offend.

So I down more LSD with moonshine while revving my SUV and smashing the neighbor kid's bike in reverse as I cross over the white line that divides our driveway (backwards and left-handed in my rearview mirror). I ride hundreds of miles in my Hummer Chariot to pristine forests in protest of greenhouse gasses.

For it is important that everyone speak a language I can understand! And, everyone must respect those beliefs that matter to me. Because I am America! And, I must be SAFE! Freedom must be protected at any and every cost!!!!

Man, the "smoker's rights" people are literally the stupidest 'interest group' I have ever run across. You have no idea what point you're trying to make above; there's no logic to any of it. I know you're aiming for some satirical point, but it's just turgid idiocy.

For all your trying to make this some big liberty issue, or something to do with a "nanny state", it's a ridiculously easy decision to make. There's no deep issue involved here, no freedom of consciousness or conscience or expression. All it involves is the fact that you can't practice a physical habit in a way that pollutes the immediate environment of others.

You can try to mix everything together in some giant stew - the phantom of cigarettes being outlawed, the intrusions of the police state, and so on - but that's all just rhetorical nonsense.

You are 100% free to smoke in your own home and on your property. Perhaps some are advocating complete bans against tobacco, but that extreme position has nothing to do with public bans. You're just invoking a straw man as you desperately try to defend the indefensible.

You CANNOT smoke around me. Period. It is so obvious what is the fairest decision here, and it's the one that's been made. No smoking in public places. End of story.