The Post-Gazette Editorial Board: Kissing the Feet of Big Ayatollah?

An extremely astute and helpful reader has pointed me towards the Atlantic Monthly's fantastic brief history of smoking bans.

You have to take a look. Please do.

Then go back to this editorial in the Post-Gazette, in which the editors charge that people opposed to a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants need to stop "kissing the feet" of Big Tobacco.

So let me get this straight. If you support a position, it's only because you are "kissing the feet" of wealthy and powerful people who share that position. It is impossible to come to your own conclusions. You are only a pawn. Well, OK. I assume that the Post-Gazette editorial board is subject to the same limitations. As such, it is interesting to view a list of wealthy and powerful people who have shared the editors' anti-tobacco passion.

So please, Post-Gazette:

Stop kissing the feet of Big Russian Czars Who Skewer People's Noses with Their Own Pipes

Stop kissing the feet of Big Sultans Who Execute Up to Eighteen People a Day for Smoking

Stop kissing the feet of Big Iranian Ayatollahs

And my own personal favorite: Please, please, please stop kissing the feet of Big Adolf Hitler.

Wait a minute. What's that you say? Tired of arguments calling people the "new Hitler" or smearing opponents by comparing them to Nazis? To be honest, I am, too.

So I hereby offer my heartfelt apology for insinuating that the Post-Gazette's editors only support the smoking ban because they are kissing the feet of Big Hitler.

Hmm... I wonder if there is any chance the editors will publicly apologize for implying that scores of Pennsylvania legislators oppose the ban only because they worship at the altar of Big Tobacco? And, oh, I don't know... maybe try to consider a few reasonable objections to their position and perhaps try to counter them in a calm, coherent way?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No. Of course not. They are writing for One of America's Great Newspapers. They don't have the time.