Posted 10/19/2006 05:34:00 PM by Douglas

It's a done deal now: Houston has made it illegal to smoke cigarettes while you're out killing your liver with toxic ethanol.

The City Council voted Wednesday to extend Houston's indoor smoking ban to bars, with several members acknowledging they went along reluctantly to forge a compromise on an issue that had divided the panel.

The measure, effective next September, will ban smoking in most bars and other indoor workplaces but allow it in outdoor patios, tobacco bars and several other exempted places.

And what a victory it is. A huge victory for all those Houstonians that want to buy alcohol in a bar, but are either too stupid or too lazy to find a non-smoking bar and feel that everyone in the room should cater to their preferences. All those whiners that think that the state knows what's best for them. Let's not forget about our cratering socialized medical institutions that will undoubtedly save millions of dollars in fewer smoking-related illnesses. But the biggest winner here are all the private insurance companies that will save even more than the state does at lower costs of providing medical coverage to those that pay their premiums. I can't fucking wait to get my refund check for my health insurance when their costs are lowered because the state is willing to issue confiscatory fines to those that chose to partake of behaviour they don't approve of.

What a glorious day for Houston. Fuck that, a glorious day for America! God bless her for keeping us all from making a bad decision.