Smoke and Freedom

Is it the right of local, state, and federal governments to dictate what someone can do with his or her property? Of course the answer that most of us come to is no. Many of us, my self included, believe that the government should have no say in what we do with our personal property. If I want to put a new couch in my apartment, should I have to get a permit to do so? of course not. If this is the case than why do we allow our government to ban smoking in businesses that are privately owned and operated.
My home town recently banned indoor smoking and this has caused a great deal of controversy among local business owners. One such instance is our local bowling alley; for the longest time smoking was allowed in the bowling alley and in the connected bar. This has long since become a thing of the past. I understand banning smoking in public buildings, for those belong to the government and they should be able to do as they please with their own property, but to ban smoking in private businesses without the consent of the owner seems to go against the fundamental beliefs of our country in that by this precedent the government has been allowed to tell someone what to do with their private property.
The citizens of our country have taken convenience over freedom. It's not easy enough to express your discontent with a businesses practices by, I don't know, not spending your money there, but we opted out to change the law in favor of giving up some of our freedoms. Instead of changing the laws it would be less short sighted to force a business to change their practices out of economic necessity instead of political necessity.
Freedoms are not lost overnight, but it is rather a slow and gradual process. Bans on smoking are just one rung on the ladder. If the government can ban smoking in private businesses because it is unhealthy, what is to say they can't tell you how many times a week you can eat cheese burgers in private homes. The choice should be given to the individual, but isn't that a current trend in society, to take responsibility out of the hands of the individual and give it to the state. I for one do not want disconnected lifetime politicians making hypocritical decisions about my everyday life, those choices are mine and yours to make.

PFA