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I go back and forth when it comes to smoking, but I've never been against bans. Either way, when I do smoke, I don't really mind going outside, even when it's goddamn cold and when I don't smoke, I don't really think about it, and that's nice.
From an ideological standpoint, it seems to me that the well measured regulation of private business is one of the cornerstones of an effective capitalist system. What "well measured" means depends on whose doing the measuring.
It is difficult to refute a personal belief that business owners should be given absolute control when it comes to choosing to allow their patrons to smoke indoor; such a thing is not so far from a belief in Jesus in the sense that ideological stances don't need to be anchored by reason (though they often are to a limited extent).
It is also difficult to argue against the fact that there seems to be overwhelming public support for these bans, and also that there is nowhere any sort of guaranteed right to smoke. To the smoker who complains of tyranny of the majority, I would like to point to Darfur while I take a break from playing a dirge for them on the worlds smallest violin. Even without taking such wholesale slaughter into consideration, yep, it sucks to be you. You are so oppressed. If only society was more accepting of your no doubt well reasoned personal choice to spend a lot of money to make the people who love you watch you slowly kill yourself. If I had any pity left from the little I allotted your family and friends I would give it to you, but I don't. Just my luck I will have smoked just enough in my younger days so that I won't be spared that idiotic fate.
Unfortunately, reality tends to trump ideology. I think that the anti ban crowd is put in the unfortunate position of defending an expensive, disgusting and toxic habit on purely ideological grounds, which is rarely a winning proposition.
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