Two separate legislators from each house, the assembly and senate, are proposing bills to ban smoking on New Jersey boardwalks. Even though boardwalks are outside. Not to mention it has no effect on anyone's health but the person smoking. Oh... And it's legal!

If the state government feels that strongly about it, just make it illegal already! I'm certainly not for that, but enough with the selective prohibition. If you're an adult, you should be able to do as you chose, as long as you're not hurting anyone else. Second hand smoke may be annoying but it's not harmful in ANY meaningful way.

So should we ban anything that people find annoying? Smokers pay exorbitant taxes to purchase tobacco. Why should they be prohibited from smoking in a public space? Could they bring a class action suit against the government? Oh, they can't. And they have no real voice. No politician is going to stick up for smokers, or their rights. It would be wildly unpopular. Conversely doing anything to limits peoples' rights who do smoke is immensely popular...but wrong.

It's not a surprise that the two legislators who have crafted these bills are Democrats. I thought Democrats were "liberals." Liberal coming from the word liberty. Liberals used to be for things that constrained the government from taking away people's liberties, no matter how unpopular they were. Not anymore. They're power hungry, leftist autocrats who don't believe in our Constitution, but whatever the social theocracy of the day dictates. Of course if you do ban smoking altogether you'll continue to grow the black market and the violent criminal enterprises that control the drug trade to an even more enormous and monstrous level. So what do these laws, like the one proposed and the one about to take effect in January which outlaws smoking on all beaches and parks, actually do? Nothing. Something our legislature in New Jersey has specialized in for decades!

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