Anti-Smoking Sentiments Reaching Fever Pitch

VIOLATING THE RIGHTS OF NON-SMOKERS?!
Okay, I don't get it. Let me see, this is America, where the free-market approach rules, where personal freedoms are cherished, where alcohol and tobacco products are legal, where you can go have lunch at salad bars or at artery-clogging grease joints, where you can put your extra money into savings or spend it at slot machines knowing they are programmed against you.

Why in the world do Americans let politicians meddle in the free market, and disallow restaurants, bars, mom-and-pop establishments to make their own decisions about smoking in their premises? We do not need big government to waste time and law enforcement resources on prohibiting the use of a legal product when the free market is and has been perfectly capable of addressing that subject.

You can go to wine bars, biker bars, gay bars, strip joints if you like (or avoid them if you don't). If I don't like hanging out in places frequented by rednecks, or those with chains hanging from their nostrils, I don't have to. Thanks to the free market, there are public retail establishments fitting any taste and preference, including non-smoking bars and restaurants that have increasingly been springing up in response to a changing taste and market.

Just as jobseekers and patrons concerned about their moral health are not forced to apply to or frequent gay or strip bars, those concerned about smoke in the environment are free to go to smoke-free alternatives.

The enmity and discrimination in some circles and communities toward smokers is shocking, and reaching an irrational fever pitch. I have witnessed an encounter in which a man waiting outside a hotel lobby, with his car running spewing the usual stuff, utter derogatory and hateful comments toward a smoker standing by a trashcan.

What will come next? Will they be lined up or hauled off? WHO will be next? Will the auto industry be sued for knowingly selling product that spews carcinogens? Will second-hand car smoke (or the alluring smoke from hamburger joint chimneys) lead to law suits or communities outlawing cars (and hamburgers)? Will the consumption of full-fat ice cream or hot dogs within city limits be prohibited? After all, obesity is now known to be more costly to society than cigarettes. (I am a non-smoker.)