Over the line

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. It's a moral crusade as much as it is a public-health issue. But these opponents of Crawford go too far to make their point:

On March 1, posters went up in bars across the city featuring Crawford's face on the body of a Nazi leader, whom Peter Tsuleff, ILBA District 4 chair, identified as Dr. Josef Mengele, commonly known as the “Auschwitz Angel of Death.” Crawford is a doctor, an oncologist. A voice balloon coming from his mouth says “Smokers do not vote.” At the bottom, the poster says “Register here to vote; we need your vote. Ask your bartender for a voter's registration form.”

A second poster shows a picture of Crawford, with a mustache drawn on his face, next to a picture of Saddam Hussein. It also instructs people to ask their bartender for a voter's registration form.

Enough with calling people Nazis when you disagree with them. It adds nothing to the debate. OK, Hitler was a dictator, Saddam was a dictator, Crawford is a dictator; I get it. But implying, even in a loosely metaphorical rant, that an oncologist is somehow comparable to the monsters who killed millions of people goes right up to the line of silliness and then jumps over. I've talked to Crawford a few times, and he is, in most respects, pretty libertarian. He doesn't want to control what you eat or whether you drink; he's not even sure about the war on drugs. "I only care about what you do when if affects others," he's said more than once. Given his profession and the effects of smoking he has seen, it's not surprising where he draws the line on this issue.

Oh, and the genacide of my rights? You just know somebody in a bar came up with that one.