Travels with DK

We are going to take a little trip today to a small town just outside of San Francisco. For those of you that have been to SF you know that there is an abundance of liberalism in the city and the surrounding area. One little village (apparently with more than one idiot) has decided to change that. They must think that they live in that bastion of conservatism of Orange County. Or maybe they think they rule like the military in Myanmar.

Our little visit will be to Belmont, Ca. It is mainly a bedroom community of around 25,000 people about halfway down the SF Peninsula in San Mateo County. According to the city's official web page, Belmont is "known for its wooded hills, views of the San Francisco Bay and stretches of open space, Belmont is a quiet residential community in the midst of the culturally (my emphasis) and technologically rich Bay Area.

If you look through their web site it appears to be a normal caring community with an average amount of restrictions, but the City Council has recently decided that they want to get the city some press. They have decided, now get this, to ban smoking inside private residences. Thats right, if you rent or lease an apartment within the confines of the city limits of Belmont, you will not be able to smoke in your own residence if the City Council passes the edict. While this will apply to new rentals or leases, if a current lease expires and is renewed it will also go into effect and the resident will have 14 months to quit smoking.

Ever since 9/11 every federal, state and local government agency seems to think that they need to severly reduce, restrict or eliminate the rights of the citizens of this country. I'm not going to go into the list of rights we all have lost but I think this one is right up there with the most offensive and ludicrous. Once they get this one in, will they restrict the type of liquid refreshment Belmont residents can enjoy?

Maybe they will pass an ordinance requiring residents to purchase only Weight Watchers frozen meals so they can attempt to dictate how much each resident should weigh. If they alternate months they could probaby hold a weigh in for 2100 people each month. If they don't reach their target weight within 2 or 3 scheduled weight checks they could evict them and escort them to the limits of the city.

If you would like to provide a comment to the Belmont City Council you can email them at CityCouncil@belmont.gov