The end of "a Minor Local Celebrity"

Went across the bay to Superior to stop in my favorite bar for a beer in my usual large mug. Looked around -- no ashtrays. I remembered some mention of the laws in Wisconsin eventually following Minnesota in banning smoking in most public places. And after a Google search I find that's what happened on July 5. Anyplace where people might work, any public place, smoking is banned. So as a smoker, I'm a 3rd class citizen.

I originally took on the "Life and Times of a Minor Local Celebrity" subtitle because I'd been singing so much karaoke people actually -recognized- me, people who were otherwise strangers to me. But karaoke happens in bars, and I"m not welcome in bars anymore. I actually continued to go to bars in Wisconsin, even though I live in Minnesota, because I was allowed to be myself there. Now I'm no longer worthy, apparently. Now I'm an evil sinner to be shunned.

I've read a disproportionate fraction of smokers are older people, lower income people, and people of color. I qualify as the first two. Ironically, if the government passed any law attacking those groups as such, they'd get burned at the stake. "But they're smokers! Everybody hates smokers!"

So I guess that's okay then. Enjoy your beer. I'll be going now. Glad drinking your beer without a cigarette makes you happy. It makes me unhappy. Too bad, huh?

No, please keep the preaching to yourself. I'm old, I earned this. You don't want me there, then I"m not there.

New subtitle: "Life and Times of a New Media Celebrity." New Media I can do from my own home, where I can be myself. Never was a very public guy, anyway.

Your Best Friend WOULD Tell You

Maybe you're wondering about the black graphic where the turkey normally has been.


I'm a blogger (you've probably noticed) and a Podcaster (ditto), and I have friends in New Zealand.  That's why I read with some dismay the Electronic Frontier Foundation article on New Zealand's planned enforcement of their poorly-written copyright law.  The DMCA was Dumb when it was introduced here in the US, and it's Dumber there.  Here the legislators mangled their rules; in New Zealand, they apparently simply glossed over the parts that were done wrong here.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, they say.  Ignorance in writing laws is inexcuseable.  To the legislators of New Zealand, here's one more American voice, very much a Kiwiphile, but I have to say, "Et tu, Brute?"

For more info, here's a link to the Creative Freedom Internet Blackout Page.