An employer in California has given his employees the ultimatum to quit smoking in 15 months or be fired. He has began refusing to hire smokers and extended the ban to employees with family members who smoke. His employees are subject to blood testing to ensure compliance with his rules.

Good for him.

That’s right. I’m outspoken on the rights of smokers, but even more adament about protecting individual and property rights. If this man doesn’t want smokers working for him, he should not be forced to hire them. If one doesn’t like his policies, don’t work for him.

No one has a right to work for this guy.

I can’t really blame him. We now live in a culture that believes it is someone else’s responsibility to pay for healthcare. If I am to be put in a position where I have to provide for your health care, I want some control over what you do about your health and how well you take care of yourself.

Whatever his motivation, it’s his property, his business, and his decision.

Of course, this is how it should be when it comes to bans on smoking in restaurants, bars, and other privately owned businesses. The owner should decide, not the government. It is intellectually dishonest to believe that, then turn around and say a employer shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions like this about whom he hires.

I stopped by del.icio.us to find out why Firefox 3 doesn’t have a extension available, and found out there is a new one. It doesn’t show up in Add-ons dialogue, but you can download it here.

We have a guy who’s black (and white) running for president and apparently we need some UN schmuck to come investigate.

The special rapporteur on “contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,” Doudou Diène of Senegal, will arrive in America Monday for a two-week tour…He will also hobnob with “non-governmental organizations, community members, representatives of political parties, academics, and other organizations and individuals working in the field of racism and discrimination.”

That means he’s going to talk to Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and a bunch of blame-America-first liberals who’ve spent their life in the closed-loop of academia. No need to draw this one out. At the end he’s going to say “yup, racism is effecting the U.S. elections.” That means when Obama loses the election in November, it won’t be because he’s an incompetent, grossly unqualified marxist, who has spent his short life rubbing up against America-hating, angry extremists, it’ll be because of racism.

Source

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I think I like this idea. I have kids, and when they were that age I didn’t take them to nice restaurants out of respect for the other patrons who likely choose nicer restaurants at least in part for the atmosphere. Noisy, messy kids don’t make for a nice atmosphere.

I hope this catches on.

SILVERTON, Ore. — The management for a popular restaurant in Silverton, Ore., announced Thursday that young children would no longer be allowed into the establishment.

The manager at the Red Thai restaurant on Oak Street said children under the age of 6 aren’t welcome in the eatery.

The Red Thai manager, Craig Gereau, said children disrupt people who are trying to enjoy a quiet dinner.

He said most of his customers like the new rule, but he’s had to turn some people away.

“We’ve had to turn a few young parents away. They’re a little bit appalled, a little bit annoyed, but we have to do what we have to do. We can’t stay in business to please everybody,” Gereau said.

Gereau said he’s not discriminating against anyone; he just wants to run a restaurant that caters to adults, and said there are plenty of family restaurants in Silverton for children.

I got tired of the old theme. Mainly because I jacked a few things up with the inner workings of php and Wordpress, so I decided just to use a theme created by someone else, modify it to my liking, and go from there.

That’s what it looked like before I got my hands on it. I don’t much care for the color scheme, but I think Mu could only have done a better job with the mechanics.

By the way, here is what my old theme looked like:

If you see anything that doesn’t look right, leave comments. And thanks MRignS for pointing out some flaws in the old one. That was the impetus for the change.

Update:

There. A few tweeks to the style sheet and things look halfway decent. To me anyway. If you see something that sticks out like a turd in a punchbowl, let me know. If you like it, let me know about that too.

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Visit ipsd.eu for more pomp and circumstance.

Random thought: I kind of wish the presidential race were the other way around. Instead of the party deciding for a year which candidate they’ll throw into the ring through the canibalistic method of primaries and what not, and then that candidate running for president against the other party’s candidate, I wonder if I don’t have a better idea.

Step 1. Presidential candidates declare they are seeking the presidency, and declare which party they will affiliate with.

Step 2. The nation holds a national election to decide which party will represent them. A vote for a party registers one as a member of that party and they will not be able to vote for candidates from another party that election cycle.

Step 3. The winning party begins a process much like that of the primaries and conventions. Electors from each state are chosen by that party’s voters to represent a candidate “at the convention.” The candidate with the most electors from across the nation wins the presidency.

One thing I think a system like this would promote is actual strength of 3rd and 4th parties.

It would also likely result in disaster and chaos. The people who wrote the Constitution were much smarter than I, and much more sober that I was when this idea began bouncing around my skull.

This isn’t perfect, but its somewhat useful and interesting. It doesn’t take an exhorbitant amount of time to take, it just asks you about maybe 10 issues. Multiple choice questions, that don’t always have an ideal choice.

Quiz