"Will bars and restaurants have their required "No Smoking" signs posted and ashtrays removed? Will smokers be defiant or even confrontational? Will local health departments be deluged with complaints?

Michigan need look no farther than Ohio, which began its ban three years ago, for answers. "

The article goes into a couple of different responses to the law.  Some benign, while others demonstrate the harsh reality of what the law portends here:

"Our revenues have dropped like a rock -- we're down $10,000 a month," said Fred Krieger, owner of Krieger's Pub in Toledo. "And the majority of that is from the smoking ban."

HUH..  Who could have seen something like that happening?  You mean limiting the activities like smoking in an environment that caters to people who drink.. and smoke hurts the ability of that environment to do business?  

Well played smoking Nazis, Well played indeed..

I must admit the cleverness exhibited by those who would eventually control the minutia of your daily actions has been rather successful wouldn't you agree?  In fact as I write this, there are others in the broad media environment penning the success of lobbying efforts to reduce salt in food products that might have once tasted good.

Ahh..  for the good ol days...  A time when people had a somewhat different approach in the way they interacted with others..  A time when people essentially MINDED THEIR OWN BUSINESS.

Really..  The same article also gave us this great quote (OMG! By a tea partier)of defiance:

"Bill Delaney got his first violation on May 4. Since then, he has been issued another 54 tickets at Delaney's Lounge in Toledo.

The 68-year-old, non-smoking, non-drinking Tea Party member hasn't paid a dime and proudly defies the ban, placing big glass ashtrays across the bar and on every table, and even putting a sign in his front window: "This is a smoking establishment."

His bartenders smoke, his waitresses puff away. His customers light up while playing video games.

"I figure I'm up to $7,000 to $10,000 in fines," he said. "We know what it takes to run a business. What are they going to do next, tell me to stop selling Bud Light?"

For the nonsmokers who complain, Delaney has a simple message: "Don't come to my bar. Or take me to court. Giving up is not in my vocabulary."

Good for you Bill.. And I hope you hang in there.

Sadly, I know of some places likely to suffer here in Michigan.  

One of them is owned by My Aunt and Uncle in Quanicassee, Michigan.  A marginally profitable operation at best now, and a likely candidate for empty building status very shortly.  So much for the ECONOMIC HEALTH of a few more good Michiganders.  My aunt simply wonders what she will do..

Is it worth fighting the system like Bill is in Ohio?  One wonders..

In the mean time.. as the mom and pop saloons, pubs and other small operations die on the vine that is Michigan public policy, consider these following members of the legislature as opposed to free association, real property ownership, and contrary to the tenets of true liberty unless they have the type of epiphany that brings about a repeal this oppressive government intervention in the manner in which private business operates.

 Angerer (D)       Ball (R)       Barnett (D)       Bauer (D)       Bledsoe (D)       Brown, L. (D)
Brown, T. (D)     Byrnes (D)     Byrum (D)     Calley (R)     Constan (D)     Corriveau (D)
Coulouris (D)     Crawford (R)     Dean (D)     DeShazor (R)     Dillon (D)     Donigan (D)
Durhal (D)     Ebli (D)     Geiss (D)     Gonzales (D)     Green (R)     Gregory (D)
Griffin (D)     Haase (D)     Haines (R)     Hammel (D)     Hansen (R)     Jackson (D)
Johnson (D)     Jones, Robert (D)     Kandrevas (D)     Kennedy (D)     Knollenberg (R)     Kowall (R)
LeBlanc (D)     Leland (D)     Lemmons (D)     Lindberg (D)     Lipton (D)     Liss (D)
Lori (R)     Marleau (R)     McDowell (D)     Meadows (D)     Melton (D)     Meltzer (R)
Miller (D)     Moss (R)     Nathan (D)     Nerat (D)     Opsommer (R)     Polidori (D)
Proos (R)     Roberts (D)     Rocca (R)     Schuitmaker (R)     Scott, P. (R)     Scripps (D)
Segal (D)     Sheltrown (D)     Slavens (D)     Slezak (D)     Smith (D)     Spade (D)
Stanley (D)     Switalski (D)     Tlaib (D)     Tyler (R)     Valentine (D)     Walsh (R)
Warren (D)     Womack (D) Young (D)                

 Anderson (D)       Basham (D)       Birkholz (R)       Brater (D)       Cassis (R)       Cherry (D)
Clark-Coleman (D)     Clarke (D)     George (R)     Gleason (D)     Hunter (D)     Jacobs (D)
Jelinek (R)     Kahn (R)     McManus (R)     Nofs (R)     Olshove (D)     Pappageorge (R)
Patterson (R)     Prusi (D)     Scott (D)     Switalski (D)     Thomas (D)     Whitmer (D)

Welcome to the new world order...