In a blow to the primacy of private property, NH Governor John "Gosh, We're Bi-partisan!" Lynch yesterday signed into law a ban on smoking in all private restaurants and bars.

"I'm a fascist," he said... Just kidding. But technically speaking, what he has done IS fascistic, in the strict political definition. It also buys into the Marxist idea that the owners of the means of production EXPLOIT workers, which is baseless and false. Business people do not force anyone to work for them, and to have government step in to "protect workers" from the conditions which they VOLUNTARILY accept as part of their jobs is something Marx would have loved.

(By the way, Marx died penniless and hated by nearly everyone he met. No one attended his funeral, and he owed a great deal of money to them which he never intended to pay back. Perfect, for a guy who believed what belonged to others belonged to him.)

Business owners need employees and compete for them with other business people. Just like employees compete to get jobs, business owners compete to offer certain incentives to work for them. depending on the skills needed, those incentives will increase or decrease, just like demands for salary will increase or decrease on the part of the employee depending on what he can offer and what is being offered to him on the market. AND BOTH EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE must answer to the consumer and what he or she is willing to pay and accept for service/product. John Lynch seems to have been absent during his classes on basic economics.

It is not the place of the NH government to regulate private business. In fact, Section Two, Article 83 stipulates that the state may only regulate monopolies or companies that are working together in collusion. This is clearly not the case with restaurants and bars, or for any other businesses in NH except those that are granted legal monopolies in NH by GOVT DICTATE.

Governor Lynch must be held accountable for this egregious infringement on private property, private contract, and liberty.

Here is some of the text of the AP article, to whet your appetite:
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N.H. prohibits smoking in bars and restaurants

By Associated Press | June 20, 2007

CONCORD, N.H. -- Governor John Lynch signed a law yesterday banning smoking in New Hampshire's bars and restaurants.
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"The science is clear -- secondhand smoke poses a dangerous health risk, and that is why this new law is so important," Lynch said.

More than a dozen states and hundreds of cities and counties around the country ban smoking in restaurants, bars, or both. New Hampshire was the only state in New England that did neither.

The law will take effect in 90 days.

Supporters said the ban was needed to protect workers and customers from the health risks of secondhand smoke.

"Smoking is banned in almost every other workplace in New Hampshire," Lynch said. "We should not continue to subject our hard-working citizens in the restaurant industry to the harmful dangers of secondhand smoke."

Opponents argued for education instead. They said restaurant and bar owners should decide when or whether to ban smoking, not the state.

They tried unsuccessfully to carve out an exception for "fully enclosed" smoking rooms in some businesses. The rooms would have been required to have separate ventilation systems, and employees would have been able to choose whether to enter them.

But ban supporters said allowing smoking rooms would make it difficult for workers to say no to their employers. They said the rooms would be bad for smokers and their children and for anyone seated near their doors.

Social, fraternal, and religious organizations and their private events are exempt from the ban. Smoking is permitted at the organizations' public events, such as bingo nights, only if smoking areas can be segregated effectively.

New Hampshire already bans smoking in public buildings, offices, and workplaces, except in smoking areas that are effectively segregated. Smoking also is banned in schools, child-care agencies, hospitals, grocery stores, elevators, buses, and tramways.