Here's One I'm On The Fence About

That's right. I said I'm on the fence. You gotta problem with that?

Anyway, so as we know, smoking is banned in public places including bars and restaurants in California and New York, and the trend is spreading (though where was the ballot initiative in Seattle? I thought they got enough signatures to get it on this year. Guess not. Anyway...). Now, believe it or not, it's spread to Europe.

I've heard they want to do something like this in Italy where, let's face it, it's illegal if you DON'T smoke. Those hottie carabinieri in their Versaci uniforms (they're fit but they know it...) will sidle right on up to you, criticize your taste in footwear, and give you a ticket for not smoking. Then they will pose for photos and get back to leaning masculinely (is that a word? Well if it's not, it is now) on their Ferrari police cars.

And this is awesome:

Tim Banham, 26, Ms Pagliarulo's colleague at a publishing firm, said he was a smoker but supported a ban and thought it should go even further. "It will help me give up ... but they should just stop selling the bloody things, take the machines out of the pubs. Then I'd have to either give up or get myself a fag dealer," he said.

Hee hee.

But I'm still on the fence about it. I'm a former smoker and I hate going into smokey bars and restaurants. It's nasty. But I also feel like it's easy for me to go to non-smoking bars and restaurants and leave the smokey bars to the smokers. It's not like it's any big secret that people smoke when they drink, and it's their right to smoke if they really want to.

But also... I mean, think of the bartenders and the waitresses who don't smoke, need their jobs, and have to inhale that crap every day. And also, I seek out non-smoking establishments and I know I'm not the only one. So I'm sure there's a bottom-line that business owners are looking at.