Spit on Laws That Spit on You

Tyrannical anti-smoking hysterics in Illinois are raving that “hillbillies” are flouting the smoke-free law. Columnist Phil Luciano of the Peoria Journal-Star finds it “hard to fathom that nary a corner pub in Chicago carries a wisp of tobacco smoke,” as Anti claims, and having numerous correspondents in Chicago, we at FORCES can confirm that plain defiance is alive and well there just as it is in every major city where bans exist.

Luciano knows that, in his own bailiwick south of Chicago, venues are common indeed “where you can light up and no one says a peep.” He testifies that the Chicago Tribune (Link) (stored link) overstates the drama of the situation. “Downstate” smokers, rather than ostentatiously “mocking” or “craftily skirting” the law, simply ignore it, making empty beer cans do service in place of tell-tale ashtrays, while expressing the same matter-of-fact contempt for nannies and hysterics they have always felt.

Some Chicagoans, we’re told, reveal a long-established elitism in this context, calling “downstaters” defiant “hillbillies.” Mister Luciano sardonically retorts: “[M]ay all the great thinkers up north – and the Chicago Tribune – realize that sometimes, just sometimes, we hillbillies have the brains and guts to stand up to asinine public policies.”