Witty image provided by Salena.

Originally posted on my blog at http://www.candyforidiots.com.

Let me just set the record straight on my views of Global Warming. I believe that there is such a thing as climate change. We see it four times a year with our seasons. Throughout the history of earth, we see evidence in Ice Ages, etc. We see natural cycles and patterns that are irrefutable. I believe that it’s absolutely possible that our earth is going through a climate change right now, and that our planet might indeed be warming. However, I refuse to believe that mankind is responsible.

I have a fundamental problem with the “science” of Global Warming. Any scientific reasoning or experiment begins with something called a hypothesis. A hypothesis is defined as “a proposition, or set of propositions, set forth as an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena, either asserted merely as a provisional conjecture to guide investigation (working hypothesis) or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts.” A proposition is defined as, “the act of offering or suggesting something to be considered, accepted, adopted, or done.” The idea of man-made global warming is currently a hypothesis. It has been proposed as a reason, or excuse as to why the temperatures on our planet are rising. However, what’s being spoon-fed to us every day is that man-made global warming is scientifically proven and that if we don’t act now, our planet will be iriversably impacted. It is not proven. It’s not even close to being proven. For something on this scale, you will need generations and generations of data to even advance your hypothesis, let alone make a scientifically declared statement about the supposed fact.

Science can’t get it right. In the wake of hurricane Katrina, scientists were spewing the fact that global warming was causing these ”mega hurricane’s”.

[9/23/2005] Some people are pointing to global warming, saying that our use of fossil fuels has helped to heat up the planet and its seas, producing much stronger hurricanes.

Three new reports authored by prominent scientists—published in the journals “Nature” and “Science”—bolster that theory’s credibility.

“There’s good evidence to show that Category 4 and 5 storms indeed are becoming more common and a bigger part of the overall pictures of the hurricanes in the world,” said Kevin Trenberth, a scientist at the government-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Trenberth is the author of one of the papers, which links stronger hurricanes to warmer seas and global warming caused by humans. Global warming, he says, has caused increases in sea levels and in the temperature of the oceans, which increases water vapor in the atmosphere and provides fuel for massive storms.

That story was from almost three years ago. In three years, we haven’t had a hurricane hit the United States. And in three years time, science is doing a 180° on the issue.

Global warming isn’t to blame for the recent jump in the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic, concludes a study by a prominent federal scientist whose position has shifted on the subject.

Not only that, warmer temperatures will actually reduce the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic and those making landfall, research meteorologist Tom Knutson reported in a study released Sunday.

Ever since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, hurricanes have often been seen as a symbol of global warming’s wrath. Many climate change experts have tied the rise of hurricanes in recent years to global warming and hotter waters that fuel them.

...They attribute the recent increase to a natural multi-decade cycle.

Science can’t even figure out what in the hell causes hurricanes. Whether it’s warm water, cold water, luke-warm water, they don’t know! In three years time, our logic behind what type of weather causes hurricanes has completely flip-flopped! How in the hell are we supposed to listen to these scientists, who are working on only a couple of decades of data to formulate a reason as to why our temperatures are rising? Why are we allowing our government to discuss legislation aimed at reducing our carbon footprint in the hopes of cooling the planet? But wait people, I’m simply not done yet…

Average global temperatures in 2008 are forecast to be lower than in previous years, thanks to the cooling effect of the ocean current in the Pacific, U.N. meteorologists say.

The World Meteorological Organisation’s secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, said it was likely that La Nina, an abnormal cooling of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, would continue into the summer.

I thought our pollution is causing the temperature in the oceans to rise, thus causing the ice caps to melt? Or are the oceans dictating what our temperatures are? Who is lying to us? Which data should we take seriously? Who has the proof?

My point here people is that before you go out an buy a hybrid car in the guise of global warming, take a step back. You know the old saying “you can’t believe everything you hear”? Well, don’t believe everything you hear when it comes to global warming. Because if you listen closely, you’ll hear a lot of different reasons, which contradict each other, for the same thing. Science doesn’t know why our temperatures are warming, or cooling, or staying the same. They don’t know what causes it. They have ideas and they have predictions, but the best that they can come up with is a hypothesis. A proposition. Global policy set by the United Nations and governments all around the world (including ours) is being shaped by something I believe is naturally occurring, something totally unproven, and that should perk up your ears and should cause you to raise your voice.

Originally posted on my blog at http://www.candyforidiots.com.

I found a post over at RachelLucas.com and thought I’d play along. The point is, if you were elected temporary supreme dictator of America, what laws would you pass, appeal, etc, and they would say in place after you left office. Let’s start, shall we?

1) Since the primary purpose of the Federal Government is to protect the citizens of this great land, I would double the size of the current military (yes, double) and double their salary’s. I would place about a quarter of all armed services on the borders (north & south) to eliminate illegal immigration.

2) I would build the double-layered fence along the border of Mexico, which is already law, and I’d also spring one up on our northern border, too.

3) I’d eliminate the Federal income tax, and go back to tariff’s and taxing imports and exports as our primary source of federal revenue.

4) Since #3 is going to bankrupt the country, I would eliminate 99.999% of all federal programs and allow the states to make their own decisions as to how they want to run their state, not the country. Because a large centralized government always leads to fascism/communism eventually.

5) I would IMMEDIATELY allow the expansion of drilling for natural resources (oil) in the United States, regardless of the geographical location, and I would also end the suspension of building refineries. Also in my energy policy, I would allow for the creation of at lease 500 Nuclear Power Plans all across the United States.

6) The Constitution will be reviewed by me, and I will elaborate on what our founding fathers actually meant in their writings and my further explanation will be law. Specifically the second amendment. And when an amendment is passed to negate a previous amendment, they’re simply going to cross each other out. How silly is it to have an amendment on the books, and then another one saying that the first one is null and void. Just get rid of the stupid thing. Geez!

7) Our educational system will be completely overhauled. Teachers will be paid based on their results. If the results don’t meet certain expectations, they will be fired. Parents will be responsible for their children’s results, too. If a child fails to graduate, his parents will be fined and incarcerated for up to 2 years. The child who failed will then be required to pay back the government for all of the money it cost to have them educated as he enters the work force.

8) There will be an abolishion of the minimum wage. People should be paid according to their abilities, and that’s it. Also, there will no longer be bankruptcies. You will be forced to pay back the money you owe people, or your wages will be heavily docked until that is completed.

9) Our foreign policy will focus on peace and order throughout the world, specifically pertaining to the protection of our allies. We will no longer be involved with the United Nations and most of our international aid will be ceased until the country we are providing that aid to conforms to a decent country, such as ours. You might say, “What about the children???” Yeah, what about them? If a country is starved because we’ve stopped giving them aid, then they will rise up and take their country back and establish a country with morals and standards and goals, and produce a better quality of life. Then we will help them with aid, technology, etc. We will stop supplying and financing regimes.

10) And finally, all hippies will be deported. I just don’t like hippies. They stink and drive stupid scooters.

Well, that was fun! What do you think of my supposed rule?

Originally posted on my blog at http://blog.neelyandjohn.com.

Don’t get me wrong, I support a private companies choice to run their businesses as they see fit and I will never deviate from that ideal. However, while I support their right to make choices, I won’t support their decisions by giving them my business.

There have been several airlines in the past few weeks which have closed their doors due to bankruptcy.  Skybus has gone under, Mesa Airlines is on the verge of a bankruptcy, ATA Airlines has gone under, and pretty much every major airline is hiking prices and fee’s to compensate for the price of fuel.

While I don’t want to get into global warming in this post since my previous entires pretty much point out my position on the myth, I do want to point out that the global warming craze is one of the major factors for rising fuel prices. Ethanol, a product used to reduce the amount of fossil fuels used in oil production, is making the cost of jet fuel rise, as well as food prices, but that also is a whole other post… The point is, gas is high, fuel is high, and jet fuel is REALLY high right now. What does the largest airline in the country do, in such a horrible economic time such as this?

Well, this email I received from Delta pretty much explains their stewardship...

Subject: Carbon Offset x 2

Body: Let’s match green for green.

To celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd and in partnership with The Conservation Fund, we will match all carbon offset donations made via delta.com during the month of April.

It’s easy to offset your carbon emissions when you purchase a ticket at delta.com. And, 100% of the donations will benefit The Conservation Fund’s Go Zero^SM program, which plants trees to fight climate change.

This is just one part of our Force for Global Good initiative that strives to protect the world we fly everyday.

Visit delta.com for all your travel needs—near and far. Take advantage of our Best Fare Guarantee and book your next flight (while avoiding up to $25 in booking fees!). You also can reserve hotel rooms or car rentals, sign up for real-time flight information and check in online. Then visit our Delta Blog to see “under the wing” and behind the scenes as we share stories on ideas, changes and our people.

I’m not so blind to know that this is simply a PR scheme and that Delta is catering to the ignorant who are apart of the global warming hysteria. However, Delta just came out of bankruptcy, is in a great position to get back on their feet, and they are literally wasting money by matching carbon offsets.

If you’re not familiar with what a carbon offset is, let me tell you. The idea is for people who account for a lot of green house gas emissions and who feel just plain awful about the way they terrorize mother nature, can purchase these magical credits to account for their depraved lifestyles. So how exactly does this idea affect the change that we need to save the planet? Let’s explain it a little further…

A company will sell you a carbon offset, or a billion, they don’t care. The more they sell, the richer they are. Well, say your carbon footprint is 13.5 tons of green house gas emissions each year (which is on the high end). Say mine is only 5 tons per year. I can sell you the 7.5 tons I’m NOT USING OR NEVER WOULD HAVE USED so that you can feel better about yourself and so that you never technically go over “footprint”.

If you’ll notice, you never actually did anything whatsoever to help save our planet. You’re still emitting the exact same amount of green house gases you would have emitted otherwise, only you were a complete and total moron because you paid someone else so you could do it. Hello?

The real problem, however, more than Delta’s complete idiotic campaign to match your complete and idiotic act of actually purchasing these carbon credits, is that all three presidential candidates believe in this farce and want the United States to purchase these offsets from other countries who don’t exactly emit as much pollution as we do. Again, the same concept applies. The US emits about 20% of the earths total carbon emissions. Mexico, South Africa, Iran, Indonesia, and France only emit a combined 7.6% of the earths total carbon footprint. France, using 1.4% total can tell the US that, “hey, we’ll cut our emissions to 1% and sell you the remaining .4%.” What happens is France raises their taxes on corporations, fuel, consumption, etc. in order to lower their emissions by driving up the prices of everything, and the United States raises taxes so that we can afford to purchase these carbon credits and output more emissions.

The point is, you are doing literally NOTHING to curb carbon emissions and you are doing everything to raise prices of goods, raise taxes, and create more government control over your life.

I travel extensively in my line of work, and I fly a lot. I will avoid flying Delta at all costs because of their stance in this issue. They could invest this money by making sure their planes are safer by hiring more technicians to repair planes, which adds jobs to the economy and provides better safety for those who fly in their planes. Instead, they’re WASTING their money purchasing the equivalent of magic beans, to grow massive stalks, to reach the fictional giants on top of the clouds.

Listen, I know that everyone has their own beliefs. Some people believe in God, some people don’t. Some people believe in ghosts, some people don’t. Some people believe in aliens, some people don’t. And so on, and so forth. I don’t care what anyone believes in. Their beliefs and feelings are theirs, not mine and there’s nothing I can do to change them, even though I might feel like the world would be a beautiful place if everyone was like me. But seriously, believe what you want!

Whereas I feel that way about most things, the one issue I can’t look past is global warming. People believe this faux religion and are being guided by the self satisfaction they get because they think the little things they do are saving the world. Well, I hate to break it to you, global warming crowd, but that light bulb you use now, and that casket on wheels you drive, and that house hold cleaner that you use that got a new “all green bottle” isn’t going to do one single thing to save this world.

But don’t tell that to the 85-year-old American who just gave up his search for the Loch Ness Monster.

LEGENDARY Nessie hunter Robert Rines is giving up his search for the monster after 37 years.

After almost four decades of fruitless expeditions, he admitted: “Unfortunately, I’m running out of age.”

World War II veteran Robert has devoted almost half his life to scouring Loch Ness.

He started in 1971. The following year, he watched a 25ft-long hump with the texture of elephant skin gliding through the water.

Despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.

I believe in God, I am a Christian. I know there are wack jobs that call themselves Christians and I have no excuse for them and it doesn’t change the way I believe or how I feel and my convictions. But dude, you morons (no offense) who believe in global warming have this guy on your side. Someone who thinks that the Loch Ness Monster—THE LOCH NESS MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!—was killed by global warming. It’s time to abandon ship. 

That’s going to give me nightmares…

From what I understand, his ears are so big that things naturally gravitate towards them. Unfortunately, his finger got a little too close…

Could parts of Chattanooga, East Ridge and other cities on the Tenn-Georgia border become, in fact, parts of Georgia? The Georgia legislature has passed bills on both their house and senate to take back Tennessee land that they claim is theirs. All the way back in 1818, a Georgia surveyor laid out the borders on the north side of the state of Georgia. From then until today, this has been known as the border between Tennessee and Georgia. What the Georgia government now claims is that the survey made in 1818 came up a mile short of what it should have been, and they now want that land (which they never had) back.

But what’s really going on is Georgia, specifically Atlanta, is having increasing water supply problems, and the state of Georgia wants to tap into the Tennessee River to supply their most populous city with an abundance of water. So because GA feels is if they were wronged 200 years ago, by their own surveyor, they can just go and take what isn’t theirs. People who live in that proposed 50-square mile land grab would go from being Tennesseans to Georgians, against their will. They will go from paying no income tax to paying Georgia’s income tax. They will go from contributing their tax money to the schools of Tennessee to the inner-city schools of Atlanta. They will go from having Tennessee drivers licenses to GA drivers license, all because the state of Georgia wants to take something they’ve never owned and steal Tennessee’s water. People who work as government officials in these border cities (such as Lookout Mountain, Tenn.) will go from being Tennessee state employees to Georgia state employees.

Hopefully this travesty will be stopped.

John Frickin’ McCain. Are you serious, Florida??? Last night’s primary in Florida is probably the strongest momentum setter you will see in the race to become the Republican nominee for President. It stole Rudy Giuliani of his shot to become President and left Mitt Romney with a horrible taste in his mouth.

Last night’s win for McCain will most likely mean that he will be nominated as the GOP candidate, and that is absolutely horrendous to me. To the point that I don’t think I can go out this November and pull the lever for him. I just don’t think I can do it. John Mother Frickin McCain!!! What is happening to the Republican party?

Fox News just reported that Fred is dropping out of the race to become the Republican nominee for President of the United States. It’s a very sad day. In fact, it might be the first time I will have cried in 6 years. I’m now torn between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. A very sad day. *sniff*

Well, most of the time… Today, the Federal Reserve cut two key interest rates by 3/4 of a point to help stave off a recession in the United States. There’s a time and a place to cut interest rates, or raise them, but to prevent a recession isn’t one of them. Recessions happen because there’s an imbalance in an economy. It happened in the Great Depression, it happened in the 70’s, we had a small recession at the end of the 90’s and into the 00’s, and we need one now (that’s right, I said need).

The current recession is being brought on by bad lending. Lending companies were going crazy over the housing boom and low interest rates. They were virtually throwing money at people to buy houses. They wanted to cash in appropriately, and made grand deals where consumers would have what are called Adjustable Rate Mortgages, or ARM’s, and would have dramatically low interest rates, for say the first 3-5 years of their mortgage, then their interest rates would catch back up to whatever the standard interest rate of the day would be. So say you bought a house 5 years ago at a 3.0% ARM, and it expired in 5 years and todays interest rates are higher than they were then, your payments would shoot up from $800 a month to $1600 a month. Obviously, that’s quite a dramatic increase in your house payment.

People aren’t able to afford it. They’re trying to sell left and right, driving the cost of homes down. They’re foreclosing and lenders aren’t able to dump the properties because the market is so poor, and now the lenders, with ideas of beach mansions and third world servants serving frozen margaritas, are going bankrupt and are having to be bailed out by larger financial institutions or they’re selling off their entire book just to have a house for them to go home to.

The housing bubble is significant because a person’s home is probably the most important investment they will ever make in their lives. People who spent their life savings buying a house are now broke with no equity and no way to sell the house that they now can’t afford. So the Federal government, over the past year or so, has been systematically cutting key interest rates to try and reduce the burden that homeowners and lending companies are currently paying in order to help stave a recession. Here’s the reason why this is bad…

Analogy Time:
I remember being at my parents house a few years back and observing something that astonished me. My nephew (who we’ll refer to as Pedro, to protect anonymity) was young, about 2 at the time, and was trying to go up the stairs to the second floor. My parent’s stairs are very steep and they’re wood, so it isn’t safe for a toddler to be climbing them alone. But his cousins, or whoever, were up there and he wanted to play with them. My in-law, one of the child’s parents, told Pedro not to go up the stairs. Pedro ignored my in law and continued to try and go up the stairs. So my in law stood up, picked Pedro up and set him back, farther away from the stairs, and told him to not go up the stairs. Pedro turned right back around and started heading up the stairs. My in law stood up, picked Pedro up and moved him back so that he was farther away from the stairs. Pedro turned around, crawled to the stairs, and proceeded to climb the stairs. And yet again, my in law stood up, picked Pedro up and set him back away from the stairs. Over and over and over… This whole process was absolutely astonishing to me as no discipline was laid down for Pedro’s actions, and nothing was done to really prevent his desire or will to climb up those stairs. In the end, my in law put a child fence thing at the opening of the stairs so Pedro couldn’t go up. He cleverly moved the fence and started to climb up anyway.

This is exactly what the Fed is doing with these interest rates. They are delaying the inevitability of our economy sliding into a recession and not allowing the economy to correct itself. When you’re gushing blood, small bandages here and there won’t heal your wound, they’ll just slow the bleeding until they become so saturated that they ultimately serve no purpose. The Fed’s constant cutting of interest rates is like that. The only way to stop the bleeding in this case is to let the housing market crash, learn from the mistakes and move on. This recession won’t cripple our economy in and of itself; however, there are other factors that make our economic outlook frightening. This recession will hurt people who made bad choices with their money when they thought they could get one over and buy a house at a ridiculous interest rate. And these lenders will be hurt and be put out of business because they made bad loans. They deserve the repercussions.

There’s no avoiding this. There’s only a delay. What the democrats and some republicans are proposing is an economic bailout/stimulus plan for these people. It will Shift the burden from those who made the mistakes to the rest of the American tax payer, thus hurting our economy exponentially more. This year will see the United States in a recession and inflation will probably be at an all time high. The good news—yes people, there is good news—is that when that happens, and a sell-off in the housing market is at its peak, it will be a prime time for our economy to rebound; it will be a prime time to buy the house you’ve always wanted; it will send your property and home value skyrocketing, and that market will then again correct itself.

People are going to lose their homes and have to live in small efficiency apartments. People are going to lose their jobs because lenders and large financial institutions are going to have pretty significant layoffs. But a capitalistic economy is a symbiotic economy. When one facet of our economy does well, every facet of our economy will benefit. It goes around and around and around. When one facet of the economy blunders (the housing market, the internet bubble of the 90’s, etc), every facet of the economy suffers. But in America, it always rebounds. We have to allow it to happen, even though it hurts a lot of people. As a loving people, we hate to see others hurting, but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. This recession will ultimately make America stronger if it’s allowed to happen.

Fred Thompson supporters will appreciate this.  Don’t eat crap.

Not really related to the previous post concerning the governments ban of incandescent light bulbs, but to follow up on the hoax that is Global Warming comes this story from a place you might not expect to have snow: Baghdad.

After weathering nearly five years of war, Baghdad residents thought they’d pretty much seen it all. But Friday morning, as muezzins were calling the faithful to prayer, the people here awoke to something certifiably new.

For the first time in memory, snow fell across Baghdad.

Although the white flakes quickly dissolved into gray puddles, they brought an emotion rarely expressed in this desert capital snarled by army checkpoints, divided by concrete walls and ravaged by sectarian killings—delight.

“For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad,” said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, a 63-year-old retiree from the New Baghdad area.

“When I was young, I heard from my father that such rain had fallen in the early ‘40s on the outskirts of northern Baghdad,” Abdul-Hussein said, referring to snow as a type of rain. “But snow falling in Baghdad in such a magnificent scene was beyond my imagination.”

Morning temperatures uncharacteristically hovered around freezing, and the Baghdad airport was closed because of poor visibility. Snow is common in the mountainous Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, but residents of the capital and surrounding areas could remember just hail.

That damn George W Bush and his Global Warming causing wars!!! Another sign that, in one of the hottest regions on this planet, Global Warming is a no-show.

By the way, what ever happened to the scientist predicted record hurricane seasons for the past two years? Not a single hurricane has hit land since hurricane Katrina. We really put a lot of wasted stock in these scientists, if you ask me. 

Cherish now, the days where you go to the store, browse for 100 watt light bulbs, shake them for quality, and screw them into your favorite table lamp. The United States Congress and the United States Senate heartily passed H.R. 6: The Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007 and the president subsequently signed the bill into law banning the use of incandescent light bulbs. In the guise of global warming, our government has taken away your right to buy a light bulb, mandating you to use florescent light bulbs by the year 2014.

Some may say that the banning of incandescent light bulbs is good for our environment so it should be welcomed and applauded. It is my interpretation, however, that global warming is a religion, and the scripture according to scientists is being thrust upon us in an oppressive manner.

What Congress, the Senate and the President fail to understand, obviously, is Capitalism. Long gone are the days where consumers decide what’s best for themselves. Now the government takes the advise of an unproven theory/religion (global warming), and FORCE you to comply. Just like the banning of smoking in restaurants, the banning of the use of trans-fats in food (I miss my delicious Oreo Cookies), etc., the government is circumventing the free-market system in favor of a nanny state. Slowly but surely, the government will reach it’s hands in more and more places and take away your rights to choose until there’s nothing left of this nation but a state like the U.S.S.R. or Red China (both being communist states, FYI). All for an absolutely unproven and highly refuted theory.

How have we let our government have so much control over our lives? Literally every freedom you now know is in serious jeopardy as more and more of these bans are being passed, rather than letting the public decide what is best for us.

H.R. 6 undoubtedly had support from well meaning though absent minded politicians. However, more than not, this bill had support and was passed by elected officials who wish to take away your rights to choose and control your lives in order to stay in power and eventually control more power. Govtrack.us has a list of the members of congress and senators who voted for this abhorrent piece of legislation, so if you feel as I do, that the government should keep its fat nose out of my house and out of my light bulb sockets, find out who voted for this and tell them how angry you are. They have banned the common light bulb people! Thomas Edison invented it, and our government has banned it in the name of global warming. Truly disgusting. 

IMAO has a long list of Daily Fred Thompson Facts but this one takes the cake!

Fred Thompson was initially confused by conservatives’ opposition to “the Fairness Doctrine” since that’s the name of one of his guns.

Classic!

When will our government learn that they can’t force citizenry into living a certain way? A war is being waged on people who smoke in the cloak of raising taxes for education, oh and to force help smokers quit! The cloak in which the Tennessee state government is wearing is absolutely contrary to itself. If the state wants to encourage people to quit smoking by taxing the hell out of them, and they succeed, how do they expect to raise money for children? What will they go after next to raise those dollars for kids? Why is it the smokers obligation, instead of the general public, to raise additional dollars for kids? Free and equal? Seriously? Not in Tennessee.

But children’s welfare isn’t the only thing that will be hurt by smoking bans and higher taxes. Small businesses will also be hurt, and like New York, you will see small businesses go out of business due to lack of clientele. There was an editorial in The City Paper, a free Nashville newspaper, which personifies the plight small businesses have with smoking bans and absolutely exemplifies how I feel about the issue.

Raising a stink:

It would be great if you could do a list of the restaurants and/or bards in Nashville that allow smoking indoors. Forget the patios, because it’s getting too cold.

I’d thought about giving up smoking, but since it’s no longer my choice, I’ll just keep on smoking and not bother giving the restaurants my business. I’d rather (as I have done) give up the restaurant and bar scene if I can’t enjoy a smoke with my drinks/meal.

By the way, anyway we can outlaw perfume? I’m allergic to it!

Karen Kirkpatrick

Where will we draw the line? One person spends a certain amount on personal entertainment each year, including going out to eat and going out for drinks. Probably in the thousands of dollars a year range. How is this going to impact an already diving economy?

If you personally have an issue with being in an environment that allows people to smoke, write the restaurant a letter, call the manager and tell them that they will no longer receive your patronage until they take the steps to ban smoking, as a private establishment. It’s called capitalism, people, and it works! The problem with the government taking control of the issue is that it takes the right away from the business owner, and you, and the economic ramifications will be untold, until the government steps in again to help out those who were affected, by taxing some sort of other “vice”. It’s a never ending cycle and a never ending problem, until we get people in our government who will allow us to live our lives the way we want to live it.