I wish she would "Heart" getting a cop to patrol my neighborhood.

his lame argument that his employees can just find other jobs if they don't like sniffing hydrogen cyanide and ammonia all day

So do we then ban all dangerous jobs, even if the employees know the risks and are willing to take them? No more meat cutters, NASCAR drivers, bull riders, welders, fighter jet test pilots, acrobats, etc?

I think Angela Hunt is great, but I totally disagree with her on this.

BacaonAss the problem with Republicans like yourself is that you just can't put yourself in anybody else's shoes. Something tells me if there was a couple of people who constantly smoked while you were at your job cleaning bathrooms and there was a law banning them from doing so you'd would look at it differently rather than just putting your hands up and saying, "Oh heck, I guess I'll just get another job" .

No new cigar bars.... ever?

Then let's also ban the auto's since they contribute to most of the air pollution anyway...

STAY OUT OF MY LIFE CITY OF DALLAS...
LET ME CHOOSE!!!!

ww

toots: can you let up with the BaconAss stuff? Please? You are embarrassing us like someone with Tourette's who has to shout out profanity and contrarianism because he can't help it. Makes me a little sad to be alive.

IgnoreLander, was I talking to you? Your sense of importance is over the top. Now go back to your seat and shut the fuck up already. Nobody cares about your pathetic attempt to "get Toots".

P.S. There was no profanity in my comment towards your fearless but ignorant leader. Get a clue.

Of course, those employees won't have jobs because a lot of restaurant and the majority of bar business will have moved to surrounding cities that still allow smoking. If smoking is so hated by patrons then why aren't we hearing about a ton of super-successful non-smoking restaurants and bars?

And to Hunt's argument: If an environment such as that existed, with people "spraying chemicals" in the air, then OSHA would be called in and the place shutdown. So if smoking is just as bad, then why aren't these places being shutdown as hazardous work environments without additional laws needed?

The nice thing is toots, I don't have to be spoken to to speak. Down your medication and tell your caretaker it's time to lock up the keyboard again today until you have demonstrated that you can use it responsibly.

p.s. "get Toots" implies that I waste some sort of energy on the likes of you which os of course way off the mark. I just get so tired of your juvenilia disrupting the adults who are trying to have real conversations.

Now kindly go away before Wilonsky comes back and tells us to play nice.

p.p.s "Get a clue"? How very John Hughes of you. Shall I gag you with a spoon too?

So do we then ban all dangerous jobs, even if the employees know the risks and are willing to take them?

Perhaps I'm missing the point of this commentor, but the idea of this ban is to make workers' lives less dangerous, yes. The movements to include fire exits in all factories, enacting (and enforcing) child labor laws, banning the use asbestos, et al were argued as 'reaching to far', too. Someone will always see the "rights of workers" a bad thing.

Medication? Troll 101, ignorelander. I see you've taken the course.

You started this fight asshole so its up to you to stop it before you are forced to post comments on the KRLD web site. You are way over your head.

Oh, and thanks for explaining what "get Toots" means......lol

Idiot.

There you go Toots, showing what great enlightened humanitarians all you intellectual liberal free-thinkers really are... telling people that they should stop smoking, telling people to sit down and shut up if they er, speak out of turn and say something that you disagree with- and on online blogs no less. Makes me wonder what kind of a "Mommy dearest" control freak you might actually be in real life, and also makes me a little sad for your kids and husband. Or maybe it is your husband who's the control freak and you use online forums to lash out. Either way, I'm very sad for you and very afraid for our future if we have to look forward to eight years of assholes like you telling everyone else what to do. Thanks, but no thanks.

Troll 101 is right Toots. And the thing is, while I think these little baby flame wars are fun, I don't care at all who my targets are. It just seems, in my experience, that anytime I go fishing, I seem to hook the same sad little specimen -- the whiny liberal. Lest you think you can spot my allegiance, the only thing I despise more than a liberal is a conservative.

But while conservatives at least TRY to argue politics (however misguided they sometimes are) I have never seen a group more prone to resort to personal attacks ("You started this fight asshole", "Idiot", "Nobody cares about your pathetic attempt to "get Toots") profanity ("BacaonAss", "shut the fuck up already", and threats ("its[sic] up to you to stop it before you are forced to post comments on the KRLD web site. You are way over your head.") All of this on a POLITICAL discussion. And you might want to check on who started it -- I think the worn-out, tired, and unfunny or clever to begin with "BaconAss" was the first point of contention. Meanwhile I was just trying to inject a little humor.

Take a step back, look in the mirror, and I say a little prayer that you are able to step back from the brink and get your life on track. It's a tough one, pal.

Bob, see what happens when you post political and/or religious content? Maybe Unfair Park should just stick to Jessica Simpson and "Where's Greggo?"

But there are non-smoking bars, the patrons don't go to a bar out of necessity, they go there knowing full well that there is going to be smoke and they make that choice anyways, if they choose not to or they leave there are no repercussions to that. On top of that, there is no shortage of bar employees that smoke themselves and don't mind the smoke. If the owner, the employees and patrons want to smell dangerous chemicals and no one is forced to do so against their will then I don't see an issue.

Surely if there are so many people disgusted and offended by the smoke most bars would voluntarily go smoke free.

I was simply amazed when the owner of the Round up Saloon spoke in favor of the ban. You own the bar, you already have a non-smoking room that you don't enforce at all. If you are really concerned about the dangers of smoking, make your bar non-smoking, you don't need a law to do it, all it takes is a few signs and instructions to your employees.

I've never understood this need for the nanny state. I mean, if a restaurant wants to have topless waitresses, then they should! The free market will decide if that is a feature, like clean air, that will decide.

When all waitresses are clothed, business will simply go to the suburbs where they wear less.

Toots, you might be less irritable if you took up smoking. Just a thought...

On a (thankfully) unrelated note, I hope Hunt is not damaging some of the goodwill she has fostered by supporting this thing. She's just about the best thing we have going for us but I think she's way out of line on this smoking ban. Apparently I am not the only one either.

I was coming in here to read some intelligent discourse about smoking bans. I got 6th grade drama instead.

hey get Toots, why would you think Toots is married and has children? That's funny

Leppert salutes the citizens of this city with his middle finger on a weekly basis, but he's concerned a few people will hear an F or S bomb?

Hi Toots, you're off to a good start today... "shut the fuck up" and "pathetic attempt to get Toots".... hmmmm, really, I mean.... REALLY?? Schizophrenia meds just aren't working out for ya, huh?

While I normally love Angela and her city hall hotness in that red real-estate blazer she always wears, I have to take exception with her argurment. When people spray chemicals inside their own businesses, they're exposing said employees/customers to the same types of toxins and carcenogens that are in cigarette/cigar/pipe tobacco, save the smell is much better. Im of the thought process if your going to enact a smoking ban, then also ban the use of other cancer-causing chemicals as well, like pesticides, aerosol cans, cleaning products, detergents and perfumes/colognes.

Leave my little sucker alone Toot's. YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM. Tonight is his weekly back shaving.

Stop trying be me, you jerk. Find your own nic.

Don't forget the lube and the shaving cream baby. ;)

HEY!!! I thought it was my turn to get shaved!

Lakewooder, please make the animal noises stop. They are scaring my children.

Sorry, that was me. Ooops. Sometimes the little Lakewooder's hands get cold......hehehehehe.

That's it, I am out of here. Bob, if you can't control your blog then people like Toots will bring it down. I will never forget the names he has called me. "Fuck Face", etc. is just beyond public discourse. I am saddened and scared.

I agree, Lakewooder. As I didn't write this item -- Sam did -- I am not getting the notification for comments being posted to it, and till now I didn't realize the depths to which the discussion had sunk. For the last time, I will not tolerate name-calling, even from one anonymous poster to another. I will immediately delete any comments I see that take it in that direction. I likewise saddens me when I see legit discussions turned into what this thread's become.

John M-

I go to a bar on a regular basis. I do not smoke. None of the bar employees or bar owners smoke. It is not a smoke-free bar. There is, however, a giant smoke-sucker installed that cost several thousand dollars. When it's on full-blast, i.e., when the bar is packed full or when I had my party there and worried that the regular patrons would smoke inside, it works very well.

A lot of the other regulars smoke. A lot of times it's me and the bartender, the owner, and three smoking regulars. The smoke does get on my nerves; no matter where I sit, it manages to waft over and get just under my nose. Yes, it's irritating.

I think we live in a society where smoking and alcohol/bars are a given together. I don't personally know any smoker who complains about not smoking in restaurants (where your time is spent eating anyway). I don't personally know any smokers who would rather drive to the suburbs to smoke in a restaurant (then again, most of the people I know live well within the loop.) I think that most smokers have gotten used to the idea that smoking is relegated to bars.
Then again, my smoking friends also don't smoke inside their own homes or cars.

I like the bar that I hang out at regularly. I would not want to choose another bar based on its non-smoking status. I think bar-owners offer smoking because again, I think we as a society look at bars as smoking dens. It's a cultural thing more than a "business decision" on the part of bar owners. Smokers go to bars because they know they can smoke in there; non-smokers stay away from bars because they know there's smoke in there.

Would I prefer it if my favorite hang-out were non-smoking? Absolutely. I am the rare non-smoker who likes to go to bars in spite of the fact that they are smoking dens. Would all the regulars stop going and find hang-outs in the suburbs if we had a smoking ban? Absolutely not. We have nice weather in Dallas nine months out of the year. I think smokers would simply move outside to our ample patio space in this town if smoking indoors were to be banned from bars.

Toots, I had a parent who was a 2-3 pack a day smoker who died of lung disease, so spare me your ignorant crap about me not being able to put myself in the shoes of someone who's being subjected to unwanted cigarette smoke. If my workplace started allowing smoking, I'd start looking for another job, and my employer would lose me (and probably several of my co-workers) to a competitor. Consenting adults make their choices and live with the consequences, end of story.

Like I said BaconAss, if the shoe was on the other foot you would "flip flop". That's my bet because no matter how big of an ego you have you can't buck human nature. If there was a law on the books that would get that smoker out of your office you would support it.

I grew up with a father who smoked 3 packs a day of unfiltered Pall Malls. So what? Your point? I know people who have never smoked a cig but got lung cancer because they worked in bars. THAT IS WHAT THEY DO. So saying, "Just find another job in another line of work" is stupid. Besides, I'm willing to bet there is also little bit of an "I'm better than bar backs and bartenders" attitude on your part. They deserve the smoke maybe?

Toots, did you read what Wilonsky just wrote?

Toots, seriously. You wanna make a point, make it. But RoB goes by "religion of bacon." Stick to it. Or your name-calling posts get adiosed.

What a bunch of pussies. You pick a fight with me and can't deal. Yes folks, we live in Dallas where the women are tougher than the men.

Robert, I'm sure BaconASS will thank you tonight over a couple of Shiners. Maybe you two can debate the top 10 Dallas bands of 1996 (while only being able to come up with 4 of them).

religion of bacon = on-topic discourse
toots = personal attack

But that will be the last time I point this out. Inadvertently, we fuel her (his? its?) presence here by acknowledging it. If we ignore it, it will eventually go away.

Robert, just a quick fyi... I didn't post the above (and below) comment.

"Lakewooder says:
That's it, I am out of here. Bob, if you can't control your blog then people like Toots will bring it down. I will never forget the names he has called me. "Fuck Face", etc. is just beyond public discourse. I am saddened and scared."

Regarding Toots, she doesn't bother me a bit. If she wants to have conversations with herself using different names (Lakewooder's Next Door Neighbor, IgnoreLander's gay lover and Anonmous), it's OK with me. Her insanity and paranoia is somewhat entertaining.

Ah, yes -- now I see. You are correct. And, Toots, I've never met RoB, and I do not drink Shiner. Is this where I throw out the invite for the Unfair Park Christmas Party? On second thought...

Man is Merten going to have fun this evening.... With apologies to Gordo, maybe we should start calling him "The Arsonist".

Of course,he can't control the idiocy we unleash upon this forum.

Man I would love to see all these people in a room together.

They are only this much fun with keyboards between them...

two things:

1.
"WW says:

Then let's also ban the auto's since they contribute to most of the air pollution anyway... "

actually, the agricultural industry--i.e. the animals who are tortured out of their existence so that people can have cheeseburgers contribute more greenhouse gases than transportation.

2. "Lakewooder says:

Leppert salutes the citizens of this city with his middle finger on a weekly basis, but he's concerned a few people will hear an F or S bomb?"

i'm not sure if this was the "real" lakewooder, but either way, i agree. mayor shutthefup has tried to end the open mic portion of meetings altogether. he would prefer it if no one in this city but he and the few people who paid for his votes had any say in anything in this city. i hope people remember that in the next election.

I've lived in four different cities where, when the spectre of a SMOKING BAN was raised, everyone ran about with their heads in their hands and said HOLY SHIT BUSINESS WILL CRASH AND THE WORLD WILL END!

Hey! Guess what? The bans passed, and Boston, New York, London, and Dublin are still are there and people still go out and have fun!

CRAZY.