General Assembly To Business: We Own You HB2422

HB2422 passed the House and the Senate. It prohibits smoking in privately owned restaurants unless a "Smoking Permitted" or "No Smoking" sign is displayed.

I assume we are supposed to be grateful that this unconstitutional restriction to enterprise and personal freedom still allows smoking at all.

Somehow, I am not grateful, because this encroachment by government, minor as it may seem, is symptomatic of the slow but relentless suppression of free enterprise and individual liberty that affects each and every one of us.

HB2422 will be hailed as another necessary compromise by its proponents. I say there is no compromise possible when we lose our freedom. It is a matter of degree, sometimes lesser, sometimes greater, but extremely dangerous none the less.