Just when you think the federal government has overreached
all it can … Ah, you know the rest.
One
of the latest edicts involves public housing projects, where the feds propose
that indoor smoking be prohibited. The first push began in 2009, and 600+
agencies accounting for 200,000+ households have signed on. The feds cite
secondhand smoke, reducing the risk of fires and lowering maintenance costs.
(From the looks of most projects, maintenance costs go straight into the
pockets of political cronies.)
The New York Times cautiously sent a reporter out and
(imagine this!) found a smoker at Walt Whitman Houses in the Fort Greene
section of Brooklyn.
Said
Gary Smith, 47, cigarette in hand: “What
I do in my apartment should be my problem, long as I pay my rent.”
He
also brought up the question of whether a smoking ban could be enforced.
Well,
maybe it will come to that. Some PC types currently whimpering on college
campuses are rendering themselves largely unemployable, so perhaps they can
find jobs with the Federal Smoke Police. They can sniff around like Smokey Bear
(ignoring crack pipes and marijuana, of course).
Julian
Castro, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, told The Times that “we
believe it’s important that we have an environment that’s healthy in public
housing.”
That’s
why he gets the big bucks and is a rising star in Democratic politics … because
he’s moving on something that causes 0.001% of a problem.
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