The thing to remember about freedom is that it is not given, it is taken

So what's the deal at Scotts, anyway? Why do they hate people like Rammage?

The no-smoking mandate is part of a broader effort at Scotts to control health-care costs. The company also opened a $5 million fitness and medical facility for employees.

Of course, there are some reasonable voices asking for a middle ground.

Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, disagrees with the new Scotts policy. His New Jersey not-for-profit organization is focused on expanding human rights in the workplace. "What you do in your own home on your own time is none of your boss' business," Maltby said. People who smoke do incur higher medical costs, Maltby said, but employers can protect themselves in other ways, such as charging smokers more to participate in company-sponsored medical plans. An increasing number of companies are doing that. In central Ohio, Cardinal Health, Children's Hospital, Gannett, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Longaberger Company are among those charging higher health-insurance premiums to smokers. Chase, one of the region's largest employers with 13,700 workers, also charges smokers higher rates for supplemental life and long-term disability insurance. To avoid the higher charges, an employee must not have smoked any cigarettes, cigars or pipes in the 12 months prior to Jan. 1 or must complete an approved stop-smoking class, spokesman Jeff Lyttle said. The extra charge applies even if the employee doesn't smoke but a dependent covered under the employee's health insurance does.

This seems much more reasonable. In fact, why not extend it to other substances as well? How would this not work with opium or cocaine?

This issue has been growing since Weyco hit the news a few months ago, which has created "a wellness program that will allow spouses who don't smoke to earn discounts on their health insurance rates."

...that discount is $80 a month, so in essence, those who smoke, or refuse to take a blood test to prove they don't, will pay almost $1,000 more a year for coverage. Weyco Council David Houston: "There are discounts for other healthy behaviors, including going to the gym for example."

"The Gym" would be a good name for a cigar bar, wouldn't it?

Others on the topic: Unrepentant Individual (Nail On The Head award, and we love them to begin with), Christopher Hannegan, Life Under the Big Top, and a bunch I didn't find interesting.

UPDATE Rammage has informed me that he no longer smokes, and I therefore will be returning his Cranium game to him the next time I see him.

UPDATE #2 Check out the comment written by MichaelW at QandO's discussion of this topic. Is he crazy? Big Tobacco can't push this info better than Michael W? I've never been involved in second-hand-smoke research, but I find it hard to believe that it's anything but unhealthy to inhale that crap. QandO's article is on something a bit more intrusive, and while I still disagree with the knee-jerk smoker's rights comments seen there, I agree with author McQ's take: how long will it be before the claim is extended to those who live in the household?
I can see a "for the children" right on the horizon.