Smoke Finder Pursuivant USA Style

Via the Moose (who has undergone a resurrection) we see that nanny Bloomberg is up to his old tricks.

The city is recruiting foot soldiers for a stealth war against smoking cigarettes in your apartment, planning documents obtained by The Post reveal.

Community groups are being asked to convince tenants and property managers to turn their private buildings into butt-free abodes — the latest front in the Health Department and Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-smoking crusade, according to a recently released “request for proposal” document.

Anti-smoking crusade is an understatement. This is a gross invasion of property rights and personal privacy. If landlords want to impose a smoking ban in their properties, well, that’s up to them. The arrangement between them and their tenants is a contractual one and nothing to do with the state –  certainly it is nothing to do with Bloomberg, no matter how much he might think it is. If on the other hand, landlords are relaxed about tenants smoking in their property, that, too, is their business and theirs alone.

This little story underpins why the state must always be kept on a very tight leash. Once these charlatans start to get a feel for power, they abuse it. Always they will abuse it –  not “if” but “when” –  always “when”.

Released by the Health Department’s nonprofit arm, Partnership for a Healthier New York City, the document solicits “neighborhood contractors” to “support and advance” its agenda in four separate areas of concern: tobacco, alcohol, exercise and diet.

That sends a shudder through the system, that does. None of these areas are any of the state’s business and never were. What we eat, drink or smoke and how much or how little we exercise is a private matter. These people are evil –  pure venomous evil. And don’t think it won’t creep across the Atlantic as you can be sure that some insidious little prodnose is wetting himself over this one and just waiting for an opportunity. Just you wait and see.