Our town

We have always been taught there are two sides to every question. In the are of public policy, they are usually in the form of "enact the tax" or "don't enact the tax" or "undertake the project" or "don't undertake the project." It is legitimate to take either position, with an obligation back up one's claim with the best available evidence.

I happen to disagree with Dr. John Crawford's coming near-total public smoking ban, because it uses wildly exaggerated claims about secondhand smoke to control people's behavior in places where the government has no business controlling their behavior.

An unusual funeral in Fort Wayne:

Misty would have been 10 years old. The chow mix died last week of renal failure, leaving Rosa Davis of Fort Wayne without her beloved companion. Her veterinarian, Dr. William C. Kerley of Anthony Animal Clinic, suspects that tainted dog food, one of 95 brands included in a nationwide recall March 16, contributed to her death.

On Tuesday night, friends and family of Davis gathered to remember the pet that meant so much to her.

Wonder if any of these will show up in Fort Wayne:

Despite the smoking ban - because of it, actually - Philadelphia now has "smoke-easies," a play on "speakeasies" that came to us with the Prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition was enacted in 1920, repealed in 1933 and largely ignored in between. I'm surprised at how many Americans meekly obey smoking bans.

This is about Philadelphians who don't.

Kevin Leininger points out a definitions problem with the city's new anti-smoking ordinance:

Romantic candlelight dinners could be a thing of the past. Wood-burning or gas fireplaces, too, along with any kind of food cooked over charcoal or an open flame.

City Council may not have intended to outlaw cherries jubilee and smoked ribs, but they have. That would be my argument, at least, if I was earning $200 an hour to challenge government's latest effort to protect us from ourselves.

I wasn't going to post on this, but it was being batted about on Pat White's show yesterday, so I thought I ought to comment. A letter to the editor takes me to task on illegal immigration (or, as the president has taken to calling it, "migration"):

They're going to plan us to death, aren't they?

Fort Wayne residents need to keep their driving expenses in check and local government should think about mass public transportation when considering development.

Hey, here's an idea. Let's seek bids on construction of the City-County Building. A stupid idea, you say, since the place was built years ago? Well, it's no stupider than this:

Getting land appraised after the sale

When you think about public art, do you prefer the statue of Mad Anthony Wayne on a horse at Freimann Square or the Helmholz sculpture at the Performing Arts Center? Or perhaps you'd like something in between those two extremes -- the mastodons, for example, sort of representational, sort of not, a lot of whimsy. Your thoughts are requested: