About ten years ago, I emailed some of our Austrian Economist colleagues a story about a Florida government office banning smoking by all of its employees, including in their own homes. One of the colleagues (who shall remain nameless) wrote back that he saw no problem with this based on Libertarian principles. I responded that the "problem" was not the Libertarian principle. The problem was that when government imposes such rules on its own employees, it will eventually enact those rules as a law for the rest of the population under the notion that "Hey, our employees have to do it, now you have to also."

Well folks, here it is: Belmont (in, of course, the "progressive" state of California) has become the first city to ban all smoking except in single-family detached houses. No smoking in your car, no smoking if you live in a multi-family housing unit, etc.