Here's last years Independence Day post. Not much has changed in the grand scheme of things. sure, there are new outrages & new birght spots here & there, but overall I don't think we're any closer to having the republic that the founders dreamed for us.
On top of it all today is the 4th day in Colorado where they decided that Marxian property rights theory trumps Lockean property rights theory. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with Colorado politics...
On July 1rst a statewide smoking ban went into effect. It proscribes smoking in public buildings or within 15 feet of any entrance to a public building. By public building they mean any building open to the general public, or any building which has employees working within. There are a few exceptions, such as casino floors, (grandfathered) cigar bars, the smoking lounge at DIA & any business with less than 3 employees. Bars are not exempt.
So Colorado's legislature & governor decided that the state should determine what legal activities occur within a building owned by any damn one. Marx trumps Locke here. & note we still have a governor with an "R" beside his name who hailed this as a victory for the state budget because it would lower the public cost of health care. The idiotic bastard fails to comprehend that Marxian/quasi-socialist health care is the problem.
So on Independence Day I'm dwelling & bitching & moaning about the loss of a little more freedom. I'm also contemplating where I'll move to.
I'd love to tell you that the principle of the matter so shocks me that I have no choice but to vacate such a place. But that's not the reason. When it looked like passage was certain I decided to leave the state. I don't really wish to; I kinda like it out here. But there's a very pragmatic reason for me to turn my back on this place.
I'd estimate that 99.5% of the folks who are in bars smoke. Now most of those folks will still go to a bar for a drink or two. But not a drink or twelve as was the case when they felt welcome. I'd further estimate that around 20% or so will say to hell with it altogether. Why go to a bar & pay jacked up prices to be served when you can swing by the liquor store & make a drink while smoking in your own (or a friend's) home?
That all translates into decreased revenue for bars, which means that one of the ways they'll be looking to save money is by paying the musicians less. Which means a thing usually considered a mathmatical impossibility occurs - it gets even more difficult to make a living playing music.
As much as I'd like to say I do it for the art I'd be lying. It's the music business for a reason. & when it gets to the point that a musician can make more money per night delivering pizzas or working at a car wash then it's time to move on to greener pastures.
I'm looking real hard at Montana & Virginia right now. I figure Montana is as good a place as any to try to lead a nice quiet life & Virginia is the place to start a revolution. So obviously I'm torn. :) Montana is looking attractive because - well take 15 seconds & look at their gun laws. They also have a very cool state level group to keep their eye on things - the MSSA. From what I understand concealed carry sans permit is not prohibited in rural areas. In other words you only need a CCW to "legally" carry in the cities. So 97% of Montana has a Vermont/Alaska style CCW law. But Virginia is nice. I used to play there now & then. Plus I do miss the ocean.
The main attraction is that Montana & Virginia will probably be near the last states to go for the smoking ban nonsense in any meaningful way. (The very last states to do so would be North Carolina & South Carolina imho.) Course there is something about states whose names end in "A". Though Idaho & Iowa just don't have enough consonants for my liking.
& please don't anyone dare suggest California. The reason this smoking ban nonsense happened here is the influx of Californians to Colorado. They're like locusts; they devastate an area then move to a new one & devastate it. Californians generally leave Cali because they see how screwed up things are there. Then they turn right around & push for the very same damn laws that screwed up Cali so bad in the first place. Not that I think all Californians are bad, I just see more of the statist/collectivist/Marxian mentality in Californians who relocate out here than say folks who move here from Georgia.
In any event if anyone has any info on the music scenes in Montana or Virginia then by all means don't be shy on clueing me in.
In the meantime I'm going to ponder Independence Day, what the founders would think about what we've come to, who they'd have shot first if smoking in Ye Olde Tavern had been outlawed, & whether to pack the reloading bench or make a new one after I move. I'll be doing all this pondering over a smoke or twelve in my own damn house. Or maybe I'll get my spine stiffened & walk out to smoke on the sidewalk before they prohibit that too.
Happy Independence Day ya'll. Smoke if ya got 'em.
Posted by Publicola at July 4, 2006 03:05 AM | TrackBackMontana passed a ban in April 2005.
"Beginning Oct. 1 [2005], the ban will apply to all enclosed places open to the public, including restaurants, stores, public and private office buildings and offices, government buildings, schools and public transportation. But in a concession to tavern owners, the ban won't apply to bars until Oct. 1, 2009."
http://www.billingsgazette.com/newdex.php?display=rednews/2005/04/07/build/state/15-smokingban.inc
Google MONTANA and SMOKING and BAN.
FWIW, Montana allows machine guns, but not silencers.
Sorry, man.
Erik
Colo. Spgs.
I would have recommended Nevada, but we have two, count 'em, TWO, anti-smoking referendums on the ballot this year. The most egregious of the pair is spearheaded by a hyper-labial harpy by the name of Buffy. I shit you not.
We'll see how they fare come time for the woolies to "exercise their God-given right." I refuse to take part in such a farce.
MB
Posted by: Fawkes at July 4, 2006 08:04 PMWell, doing a web search for "virginia smoking ban" doesn't sound too good either.
OTOH, "Two veteran Wyoming lawmakers -- Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper -- have said the Legislature may one day adopt a statewide smoking ban, but not for many years." (Casper Star-Tribune). Maybe by then there'll be enough FSW folk around to derail it.
But yeah, as of the moment, there are smoking bans in Laramie and Cheyenne. However, there's a petition campaign to overturn the Cheyenne ban.
BTW, I notice Munu is now filtering my website URL. Sigh.
Posted by: jed at July 6, 2006 08:15 PMWell, music, tobacco, guns, and kicking the sh*t out of AlGore when it counted...better check out Tennessee. We haven't yet banned smoking (hell, I actually still see live tobacco plants growing all over the place, but not as many as we used to...)
I'm a transplant from Arizona, and after the humidity thing became somewhat bearable, I kinda like it here. As for water, check out my blog: http://www.serr8d.blogspot.com/
I would think that if you are a boater TN would work. I'm a river rat, but anything wet works in the summer...
Posted by: Serr8d at July 9, 2006 07:20 PM"& please don't anyone dare suggest California. The reason this smoking ban nonsense happened here is the influx of Californians to Colorado. They're like locusts; they devastate an area then move to a new one & devastate it. Californians generally leave Cali because they see how screwed up things are there. Then they turn right around & push for the very same damn laws that screwed up Cali so bad in the first place."
Gee, no shit? At least there's damn little Calinfiltration in places like Cheyenne Wells . . .
'Berg
Posted by: Iceberg at July 11, 2006 10:52 AM
Virginia's gun laws aren't the best in the nation, but they are pretty good. Get a permit to carry, and the two worst laws (gun-of-the-month club and ban on concealed carrry in cars) no longer apply. And I can't see bars all going smoke-free anytime soon. So of course my recommendation is to head east.
On the other hand, if you're worried about the californication of western states, be aware that the same risk exists here. This commonwealth will never "Californicate" in the most literal sense of the word - geography alone precludes that - but we do get our share of transplants from Yankee states like NY, NJ and others that make California look like a pistol packin' redneck's paradise. These were, after all, the states whose earlier transplants californicated California itself. I don't see that crew getting the upper hand anytime soon, but you never know.
Posted by: Xrlq at August 1, 2006 11:39 AM