Don't get me started on smoking bans--our local city council passed one which went into effect July 1. There is perhaps no more visible evidence of distortion via violent intervention in the marketplace than all of the customers of a bar congregated around the bar's entrance (that is still allowed) while the entire bar's inside square footage goes completely unused on a Fri or Sat night.

When the ordinance was up for debate last fall, I naively thought, what better way to illustrate liberty than with such a simple and clear cut issue as this?

But just when you think you've been purged of all naivete, something new comes along to make you more of a cynic--I hadn't yet attempted to penetrate the idiocy and confusion of people's thinking on this. So what I really find really disturbing about that clip is the audience enthusiasm. I now regard all discussions of smoking bans as laboratories proving the failure of the public school system.