The Locker Room isn’t the only place you can find instant JLF
perspective on breaking news and policy issues. John Hood is a
contributor to The Corner, the popular blog of National Review
Online.  This week he commented on the president’s speech at Ft.
Bragg and on a smoking ban that has taken effect in Georgia. Under
that debacle of a policy, smoking is banned in nearly all restaurants
and publicly accessible workplaces. Hood wrote, in part: “The law’s
paternalistic supporters assert that smoking bans in jurisdictions such
as New York City and Massachusetts have not injured local dining and
hospitality industries. The assertion is both absurd and beside the
point. It’s absurd because if there is, as they say, pent-up demand
among nonsmokers to go out to eat at smoke-free establishments, thus
offsetting the potential loss of revenue from smokers now resigned to
eat at home, there is an ample financial incentive for nonsmoking
establishments to crop up without the law. Do lawmakers really know
better than restaurateurs how to maximize their profits?”