Smoked Out

So it looks like the District is on its way to passing the smoking ban that has been hotly debated over the past few months. Of course, everyone has an opinion on the matter. Those who know me are well aware that I am rarely one to pass down a smoke with my cocktails (because what's better than some nice bourbon on the rocks than some nice bourbon on the rocks with a Parliament Light? Come on, you know I'm right...), yet I'm hesitant to weigh in too vocally on the matter. To be honest, I don't feel like there are that many strong arguments opposing the ban and my liberal guilt prevents me from truly siding with any of the weaker ones. Cigarette smoke is bad and people shouldn't have to inhale it if they don't want to. The proposed ban rubs me the wrong way not because I have some fancy policy-oriented argument against it, but because I'm pissed that I will have nowhere left to light up inside. The only good argument I can come up with here is a logistical one. If the ban passes, smokers will just go outside for their fixes. This means that the door to every bar in DC will be visible blocks away due to enormous mushroom clouds of smoke that folks will have to walk through in order to go inside. It reminds me of my Oberlin days (I'm allowed to refer to college as my "Oberlin days" because I am approaching 30 and therefore almost really old) where kids would smoke on the ramp of good old Mudd Library and administrators would walk by elaborately fake coughing and muttering about reckless youth under their breaths. Like the hellions on Mudd Library ramp, many people will probably blow their cigarette smoke directly in the faces of the kvetching non-smokers just because they're feeling marginalized and maligned. Would this be an improvement?