Are You Conservative, Yet Attracted by the Idea of Class War?

Your opportunity may have arrived! North Carolina passed an indoor smoking ban in May with the following exceptions:

The new law permits cigar bars and private clubs to continue operating. However, Bliss said it would not be possible to change his business to fit under either of these categories.

A cigar bar is defined to make more than 25 percent of its profits from cigars, which Bliss does not serve. A private club is defined as a country club or organization linked with a nonprofit organization which does not provide food or lodging to a person who is not a member or member’s guest.

“This bill has basically protected the playground of the rich and elite,” he said, noting his confusion about why an amendment would be passed for a cigar bar but not a hookah bar. “They are allowing the exact same types of businesses to operate.”

The NC legislature is trying to pass an exception for hookah bars in the state — all twenty of them. The problem, in the words of one newsman:

Apparently, state legislators don't spend much time in hookah bars.

Nor in smoky roadside crank-the-Hank-and-crack-the-Jack honky-tonks, but that's sort of the point, isn't it?

(h/t Jacob Grier)