Bent Corner

Starting next February, a new Maryland law will eliminate indoor smoking in most public places, including bars and restaurants, as well as in private social clubs and fraternal organizations.

I don’t think the law says anything about the immediate doorways to public places.

The chain restaurant Ruby Tuesday has banned smoking at their restaurant for a few years now. Before smokers would sit in the bar area and blow their smoke at each other. They didn’t bother me. Now because they cannot sit at their table and smoke, they go outside and stand at the doorway and smoke. That means that I have to walk through their smoke just to get into the restaurant. It makes me think twice before going there to have a broiled talupa fish sandwich. They are very good, but I don’t know if they are worth having if I have to walk through a gantlet of disgusting cigarette smoke both entering and leaving the restaurant.

With Maryland’s new law, it looks like I will be faced with this same problem not only at Rudy Tuesday, but at every other restaurant too.

I’m not against smoking. I’m just against doorway smoking.

I’m also against smokers that roll down their car window and throw the butt out the window. Just who do they think is going to pick that butt up? Why don’t they just use the ashtray in their vehicle? I assume it’s because they don’t want anything as nasty and disgusting as a cigarette butt in their vehicle. I cannot say that I blame them for feeling this way. It’s the same reason I don’t want cigarette butts all over the ground. They are nasty looking and disgusting.

I will be totally honest and admit that I used to smoke. In fact, I smoked a lot. I quit about eight years ago. It wasn’t the first time I tried to quit, but I hope it turns out to be the last. Nicotine is truly a powerful and addictive drug. The cigarette companies actually make it more addictive that it is naturally. With that said, I have a hard time understanding why people that smoke just cannot quit like I did. If someone as pathetically weak willed as myself can sever the addiction to nicotine, I have to believe anybody can.

(photo by Justin Shearer )

My elected representative Roscoe Bartlett has found something else to waste his time on. Evidently he believes that the already existing penalties for cockfighting and dogfighting are somehow not tough enough. Once again he is introducing a law that does nothing to benefit the people of his district. Unless he somehow believes that we are a bunch of blood thirsty cockfighting and dogfighting aficionados. That only tougher federal laws will reign in our desire to witness cock on cock or dog on dog combat.

He recently got a federal law passed that forbids home owner associations from banning the display of the American flag. Something that is already against the law here in Maryland.

Years ago he got a law passed that banned the sale of adult magazines on military bases. Both state-side and overseas. Because of Roscoe Bartlett, 20 year old kids in the military stationed in South Korea cannot buy the same nudie magazines sold in any 7-11 or Sheetz. This from a man that refused to serve in the military.

It’s not like we have a problem with cockfighting or dogfighting here in western Maryland. I’ve never heard of either activities taking place anywhere near here. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an advocate of animal cruelty. I don’t have much patience for people that abuse animals. I just don’t see a big cockfighting or dogfighting problem here in western Maryland.

I would prefer it if Roscoe Bartlett concentrated on issues that actually pertained to the people he is representing.

Link

• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied. I’m so shocked. Last week he said he was not closely involved in the firing of U.S. attorneys. Email messages released last night show that he approved the firings.
• There is going to be a third TV series. I’ll be honest. I didn’t even know there was a second.
• A Wal-Mart in nearby West Virginia had a health scare. Evidently someone plugged up a toilet at Wal-Mart causing an “an overflow of sewage”. That’s not what caused the health scare. This was West Virgina after all. It’s going to take more than the scent of raw sewage to rile people up. The problem was that the Wal-Mart associates (employees) tried to clean up the mess with some kind of bleach and chlorine mixture that resulted in noxious fumes. The store had to be evacuated and 7 people taken to the hospital.
• State lawmakers from the hillbilly western part of Maryland are angry over the fact that delegates from other parts of the state are constantly trying to ban bear hunting. They have come up with a stupid way of dealing with it. They call it the Maryland Share the Bear Law. They want to capture bears in western Maryland and release them in other parts of the state. More populated parts of the state.
• Speaking of bears, if saving a baby polar bear that has been abandoned by it’s mother is wrong, I don’t want to be right. Animal activists want to kill the bear. Have they seen the cute pictures of it chewing on a soccer ball?

This is a letter to the editor that was published today in the local newspaper, The Herald-Mail.   I'm fairly certain that it's technically considered plagiarism when you republish something from a newspaper on the Internet. My only defense to this example of reckless plagiarism of my local newspaper is that I actually wrote this.  

To the editor:

I was disappointed to see The Herald-Mail chose to endorse Rep. Roscoe Bartlett for another term as the Maryland 6th District's congressional representative. We deserve better. 

Instead of endorsing Bartlett because of the car he drives or because he believes we should all just get used to high gasoline prices, look at his congressional record. He has done little in the last 14 years to benefit the people he is supposed to represent.

For example, Bartlett recently authored a bill that was passed into law that prohibits private homeowner associations from enforcing rules that ban displaying the American flag. Though on the surface this bill seems good and even patriotic, it does not actually benefit the people of the 6th District, or anyone in Maryland.

Our flag-flying rights were already well protected under existing Maryland state law when Bartlett authored his federal bill. I contacted Bartlett's office soon after his bill was signed into law. I asked specifically how this new law actually benefited the citizens of the 6th District. I have yet to receive an answer to my question.

Bartlett avoided serving in the military during a time of war by claiming he wanted to pursue a life in the ministry - a pursuit he abandoned when our country no longer needed him in the military.

Democratic challenger Andrew Duck, who your newspaper failed to endorse, honorably served more than 20 years in the military.

His military career included combat tours in Iraq and Bosnia. I believe that Duck represents what we Marylanders do when it comes to the defense of our great nation.

It was George Washington who gave our state the nickname "The Old Line State" because of the steadfast way Maryland troops conducted themselves.

It was because Maryland troops could always be counted on to hold the line. It was not because we lined up to become members of the clergy instead of going into military service in wartime.

Bartlett voted to authorize President Bush to use military force in Iraq. If Bartlett is once again re-elected, he may again be called upon to make a similar vote. I would rather have someone representing us who has experience with such things. Someone who knows exactly what it means to send American armed forces into harm's way.

Andrew Duck has that experience. Who better to represent us during this time of war than an actual warrior?