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Down in Topeka, Kan., they’re working on a bill that would ban smoking in enclosed public places. It sounds like fun, guys, and we wish we could be there to watch. Send us a DVD when you’re finished.

Up here in Des Moines, we settled the issue a year ago. It’s all taken care of. Case closed.

Except there are a few Iowans who don’t see it that way. To members of the Iowa Bar Owners Coalition, for example, it’s not so much a law as a rough draft of a vague concept, and their case is scheduled for trial in June.

It appears that the 2009 Iowa Legislature isn’t inclined to reopen the debate, not with so much economic business to handle. The lawmakers also might be hoping that the passage of time will make the problem go away, but they’re facing an interest group that’s willing to light up on a sidewalk in a blizzard rather than give up the habit. Smokers may not have overly long lifespans on their side, but they’re tenacious.

At the least, we should make sure we all agree on what we’re trying to accomplish.

It seems reasonable that you should be able to avoid toxic fumes as you enjoy your community – shopping, dining, watching a show. It also seems reasonable that if you want to go to a bar to smoke and drink, you can. This is still billed as the land of the free, and real freedom means you’re free to use poor judgment.

We’ve always had different hangouts for different groups of people. Bars with nice landscaping, lots of windows and BMWs in the parking lot draw a different crowd than windowless establishments built of concrete blocks, with broken beer bottles in the parking lot.

In some bars, you look around and notice a whimsical collection of antiques and street signs on the walls. In others, you look around and notice that some of the women aren’t wearing any clothes.

Surely we can have both smoking and nonsmoking bars.

Nonsmokers who work in public places complain about secondhand smoke, which is understandable. But you really should consider the working conditions before you take a job. This is one reason many people prefer to sit at a desk at an insurance company rather than stand in the bucket of a cherry picker, splicing together high-voltage electrical transmission lines in the rain.

Also, it would be great if everybody stopped smoking. Smoking is like signing up for a service that comes by and blows carcinogens into your house.

But a government that’s hooked on gambling money really shouldn’t be lecturing anybody.

Government’s job is not so much to protect the individual from himself, but to make sure the individual doesn’t do things that are hazardous to someone else.

Overexposure to ultraviolet rays contributes to the development of skin cancer, but we’re not going to shut down tanning salons and put a tent over the beach at Big Creek.

Traffic accidents kill 35,000 Americans per year, but we’re not going to manufacture cars with a top speed of 20 miles per hour.

Banning trans fats would make more sense if sinister fellows hung around alleyways, forcing passers-by to ingest partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

For that matter, why do we allow bars in the first place? Most of those drinkers drive home on public roads, you know.

It’s a dangerous but fragile world, and it would be nice if we could focus on threats that could wipe out smokers and nonsmokers alike. If you come up with a foolproof way to prevent asteroid impacts, hey, you can smoke wherever you want.