Greasing the Slope

Smoking ban opponent Carol Schwartz proposed a tongue-in-cheek alcohol prohibition bill (promptly withdrawn), explaining that ""I never thought I could ban drinking just because I didn't like it, but now I know I can. The impending smoking ban has empowered me."

The Washington Post, in a dreary response, clucks that it's all fun and games till someone loses a lung, managing in a single sentence to reinforce the new, degraded meaning of "public health" (everyone's a member of the public; so all health issues are "public health" issues!) and repeat the infantilizing suggestion that workers "have no choice but to breathe secondhand smoke."