Whenever I refer to smoking bans in bars and restaurants, I write “smoking bans in public (i.e., private) establishments.” I am less optimistic than you about people’s ability to distinguish privately owned from publicly owned. A lot of people I know probably want everything to be run and owned by the State.

Lastly, Ann Arbor sure as hell doesn’t have any of those bars that have voluntarily banned smoking! I wish one around here would. I’d go out to bars more if I wouldn’t inhale or smell like smoke afterwards. (It might not kill you, but I am skeptical of the anti-establishment claim that it’s harmless.) This is one piece of legislation (coercion) whose immediate effect would make me, personally, very happy, but which I oppose because my sense of morals supersedes my personal comfort.