To preface the upcoming rant, let me explain that I smoked cigarettes from somewhere around 20 years old off and on until I was 43 years, 5 months and 7 days…on August 16, 1999, I officially became a self-righteous x smoker.  I hate to be around smokers, I hate the smell, I hate that they may be causing me ill health with second hand smoke, It totally pisses me off to see a mother/father or both smoking in a car with a small child – windows up or down…I don’t even like an obvious smoker to walk past me in the grocery store or the mall because I don’t like the smell.  With that being said:

What happened to free choice.  What happened to me deciding:  I will not eat in a restaurant if there are smokers, I will not be in an enclosed area with a smoker or I will not be in an unenclosed area with a smoker…this is my right and for heavens sake, I certainly don’t want to ride in a taxi cab with a smoking cabbie and I really don’t want to ride in a stinky taxi cab even if he/she doesn’t smoke…but isn’t this my choice?

Now the Iowa legislature has passed a law effective July 1 that cab drivers cannot smoke in their cabs.  Now, I agree that a cab company who provides the actual vehicle to their drivers have the right to tell a cabbie that he cannot smoke in the cab….and it is then, the cabbies choice whether he 1) wants to not smoke in the cab or lose his/her job; 2) work for a cab company that allows smoking; just as the passenger should have the right to request a non-smoking cab the same as I request a non-smoking motel room.  But who in the hell has the right to tell an owner/operator cab driver that he can’t smoke in his own office/the car.  Who has the right to tell a company/bar/restaurant/cab that they must be smoke free.  Isn’t this my right as a non smoker to make the choice and not the government’s decision to make it illegal…This information on the same night that I find out from Katie Couric that that thousands of government employees who have credit cards are using this card to pay for over the top meals, bar bills, lingere and electronics on my dime.  These idiots that we elect are making laws about what we can and cannot do while they have free rein and can do as they please…I’ll bet if there were a lot of cab drivers who were also legislators, there would be no smoking ban on taxi cabs…..restaurant owners/legislators would restaurateurs be allowed to run their restaurants as they choose…as far as I know and please correct me if I’m wrong; the only thing guaranteed in the constitution is the separation of church and state…does it say anywhere that government has the right to control our lives, our private lives, what I choose to do in my bedroom…are we someday going to be governed about how many squares of toilet tissue we use a day?