Smoking ban on its way!

Yay! I am glad to see that the Council is leading towards enacting the smoking ban. There's been a pretty good discussion on DCist about it. For the record, I do acknowledge the "nanny government" argument as being valid. However, I do think that there are choices we make about the extent to which government should mettle in our lives. I do also think that it will be difficult for restaurants and bars to adjust to having so many people going outside. (Does Adams Morgan really need more people clogging up 18th St?) I also think, though, that a lot of "social smokers" will just not bother smoking, and people will smoke a lot less outside. I don't know, if smoking weren't so abhorrent to me maybe I'd be more sympathetic, but I do want to say that I see their arguments, I just think the benefit of a smoking ban far outweighs the costs. I think both sides are acting in their complete self-interest; more people see it in their interest to ban smoking than not.

This is interesting though:
More than 130 witnesses signed up to testify during yesterday's hearing, including bar owners, restaurant managers, bartenders, waiters and customers.

"I mean, really, you're treating us like children," testified writer Christopher Hitchens. He recalled the conviviality of Herb White's bar on P Street NW, where writers would get discounted drinks. Hitchens, a British citizen and enthusiastic smoker, said a ban would be un-American.

Is that the Christopher Hitchens, the Vanity Fair columnist? My mom used to subscribe to Vanity Fair. I've had a crush on him ever since. Well, I can't really have a crush on an "enthusiastic smoker", so I guess that's over. And "un-American"? It was a completely grassroots movement that brought it to the Council and gained support for it. Looks pretty American to me! (Sorry, now I'm just gloating.)