Friday, April 22, 2011
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The Property Rights Newsletter April 22, 2011 - Issue #610 "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito." - Dalai Lama XIV | ||
Chicago school bans homemade lunches, the latest in national food fight. The students can either eat the cafeteria food--or go hungry. "I can accept if they want to ban soda, but to tell me I can't send a lunch with my child. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????" For parents whose kids do not qualify for free or reduced price school lunches, the $2.25 daily cafeteria price can also tally more than a homemade lunch. Soon, cafeteria offerings across the country will all be healthier, whether students like it or not. Last year's Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, championed by First Lady Michelle Obama, calls for higher nutritional standards to serve the 32 million kids who eat lunch every day at school (most of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches through a federal government program). For the first time, the USDA will set calorie limits for school lunches, and will recommend they contain more vegetables and whole grains, and less salt, USA Today reports. French fries should be replaced by vegetables and fruit, the guidelines say.
Third Hand Smoke: More dangerous than smoking! Dr. Rehan, a National Institutes of Health-funded investigator who has been researching the effects of smoking on lung development for more than a decade, said this is the first study to show the exposure to the constituents of thirdhand smoke is as damaging and, in some cases, more damaging than secondhand smoke or firsthand smoke. "The dangers of thirdhand smoke span the globe because smoking is more prevalent in many other countries than it is in the United States," he said. "While further study is needed, the alarming data clearly highlight the potential risks and long-term consequences of thirdhand smoke exposure." FDA Headbangs With Condoms, Not Cigs. If young people have casual sex, they’re rock stars, as long as they use condoms. If they casually smoke cigarettes, they’re borderline criminals. According to the FDA, that is. The graphics (ON THE CONDOMS) will include images of Kiss rock stars Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, while cigarette pack's scare ads cover 50% of the outside pack and consumers can't see even the name of the product in the display. The FDA’s inconsistent and excessive regulation of these adult products hurts free enterprise and represents an inappropriate extension of government in our daily lives.
CA: Pasadena may snuff out condo smokers. "I am not a smoker and don't like the second-hand smoke, but it is a legal substance," Pasadena City Councilman Steve Haderlein said. GA: Smoking Ban Moves Forward in Macon. Changes to the current chapter of ordinances will prohibit smoking in most public places. President Pro Tem James E. Timley says regardless of the ordinance’s contents, he's upset with the way it was developed behind closed doors. HI: Tea Party movement protests slew of tax proposals. Participants were upset about the legislature's plan to raise alcohol and tobacco taxes, strip certain general excise tax exemptions and perhaps the most controversial measure, a bill to tax those earning pensions. MN: Meet Bob Davis & Sue Jeffers. Simply Right. Friday, 5/20/11 7pm at Tobies in Hinckley, before the legislative session ends in MN. SC: Greenville. One Upstate City Looks To Improve Smoking Ban. She says the first reading of the changes will be April 25th at the earliest and it if it passes two readings, it will go into effect July 1st. SC: Spartanburg Council pressing ban on smoking at eateries, bars and at events. Ordinance would outlaw lighting up at many city venues. City Council will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. April 28 in council chambers at the County Administration Building, 366 N. Church St. Australia: Potential home smoking ban fuels fire. With the potential ban, smokers will be unable to light up in their own homes as well as anywhere public. UK: Richmond College to re-think smoking ban after antisocal behaviour claims. Residents living around the Twickenham college called on David Ansell to revoke his smoking ban inside college grounds after claiming they suffered antisocial behaviour on a daily basis from students smoking in the streets. Mr Rowles said: “I’ve been jostled and intimidated by groups of students as I tried to leave or enter my home. "A neighbour showed me her garden recently and I couldn’t believe it – you’d need a pitchfork to clean it up." Problems outside the college escalated in January when an 18-year-old student was chased by a gang of six youths and stabbed in a front garden in Court Way. Two teenagers, a 16 and a 17-year-old, were arrested and bailed in connection with the stabbing. | ||
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Friday, April 15, 2011
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The Property Rights Newsletter April 15, 2011 - Issue #609 "In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher." - The Dalai Lama | |
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The World Health Organization has warned health professionals working in tobacco control not to become too closely involved with drug companies that produce smoking cessation products.
Well, well. This is a breath of fresh air. And it looks like the WHO picked a suitable audience for this message. The warning came last month at a meeting on smoking prevention in Madrid that was hosted by the National Committee to Prevent Smoking, which represents most Spanish anti-tobacco organisations, and which was sponsored by Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and McNeil—all of which make treatments to help smoking cessation.
It is good that the WHO is at least acknowledging this conflict of interest. Can we now expect the likes of ASH, the Roy Castle Lung Foundation and John Banbanbanzhaf—who are so quick to dismiss anything which has the slightest whiff of tobacco industry funding—to turn their back on pharmaceutical industry funding?
That was a rhetorical question, by the way.
READ MORE ARTICLES about the World Health Organization: - The social engineering agenda of the World Health Organization should be exposed... - The World Health Organization is one of the more overtly Nanny Statist, alarmist groups in the public health debate. Yet because the group is part of the UN... - The World Health Organization (WHO), already campaigning against obesity and smoking, launched a probe on Wednesday into alcohol, which is estimated to kill 1.8 million people each year... - The Ten Biggest Lies about Smoke & Smoking... (And 353 more pages, with many articles on each one.) READ MORE ARTICLES about Big Pharmaceutical: - Big Pharmaceutical: Ethics Violations... - Is James Repace a stooge for big Tobacco? Don't be absurd Repace is not a stooge for Big Tobacco... but he has been funded by RWJF making him a stooge of big pharmaceutical. - Drug Company Plans. Mumbai: Drug companies smell a long-term opportunity in the several anti-tobacco initiatives getting enforced in the country. And that in turn is fuelling their plans for the tobacco cessation segment, involving therapies to get smokers to kick the habit. - Chantix / Champix update... Top Ten Legal Drugs Linked to Violence. (And 664 more pages, with many articles on each one.) Antis: What to expect. So do something about it. Highly paid people quit when they are not being paid. Cut off ALL funding to the Antis at your local and state level. Do not donate money to groups that fund Antis. Make Big Pharm support them alone so when the Antis realize there is money to be made off Big Pharm in court, it'll be too late, and they will eat their own masters. Big Pharmaceutical: A long time ago people either smoked or they didn't. It was no big deal because it wasn't an issue. The people of earth got along fine knowing they had freedom of choice without even knowing they had it. Then some really smart guys in white coats that work for Big Pharmaceutical got together and said, "Hey, we are always getting slammed when one of our drugs takes a dirt nap." "Wouldn't it be great if everyone in the world had to buy their nicotine from us?!" "Think of the money we could make... wow!" Unfortunately there wasn't anyone around with two working brain cells to slap them on the knuckles and tell them to go home and thank God they are free citizens. So it came to pass that Big Pharmaceutical paid groups, now known as "Antis" to make smoking politically incorrect. Antis are very rich people today. (But this backfired on Big Pharmaceutical when they created this monster because as the tobacco money is running out, the Antis are going after other things, like your waistline.) | |
Watch the video:
"Life Sucks, Then You Rot In A Box"
with your counselor and friend, Brother Dave Crowley
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Friday, April 08, 2011
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The Property Rights Newsletter April 8, 2011 - Issue #608 "No matter where you go, there you are." - B. Banzai | ||
Nudgers vs. Nannies. The new split divides those who believe the fat, feckless masses should be nudged toward better behavior and those who believe the fat, feckless masses should be nannied toward better behavior. Prime Minister David Cameron leads the nudgers. He has established a Behavioural Insight Team (BIT) to furnish him with ideas for how to nudge the “illogical” masses (its word) toward the lifestyle approved by Cameron’s government: nonsmoking, alcohol-free, slim, no fun. Public health officials and their cheerleaders in the media lead the nannies. They believe nudging isn’t enough and that, in the words of Catherine Bennett of The Observer, there will be “a surge in obesity and mass poisoning” by booze and junk food unless the government adopts rules forcing people to become more health-conscious.
Why is smoking back in fashion? Love is an impossibly stylish biannual fashion magazine, edited and styled by the rather fabulous Katie Grand, who also styled/ran the Louis Vuitton catwalk Kate-smoke show. Her mag is shudderingly chic. Weighty. Every model, every advert featuring a model, has a face that could launch a thousand ships; but a well-flung copy of Love could sink half the same fleet. Honestly, it's heavy. And, in this unusual issue of Love, there are more than a dozen shots of models smoking. Mostly smoking rather well. Old-style. Sexy. (Wisps of blue-blue smoke escape, like half-remembered perfume-ghosts. The thin white dukes of paper jut from lips, from long fingers, promising intention. Much is intensely sexy.
Air travel was safer with smokers. It's interesting, back in the '80s, THE MECHANICS HAD AN EASY Way to check for cracks. They would go over the plane and look for the nicotine stain. The nicotine would be drawn up. Where theres a nicotine stain there was a crack. Now, no smoking on planes, so it's difficult to see the hairline cracks in the fuselage.
The Smog of Reprisal. James Enstrom, a UCLA epidemiologist, was denied reappointment last year to his position as a research professor in the School of Public Health. Dr. Enstrom, who had worked at the university for 34 years, got into trouble, according to the campus newspaper’s report in August, because his research findings on ”fine particulate pollution” ran against conventional wisdom and “stirred up far more attention than scientific research usually receives.”
Property Rights: SC lawmakers stop bill barring smoking around kids in cars. panel members said the proposal reached too far into people's private lives and is difficult to enforce. Republican Rep. Anne Thayer said parents who smoke in their cars also smoke at home, and the bill won't help children there.
HI: Hawaii Faces Fight Over Tobacco Tax Increase Proposal. "When sales plummet, salespeople are let go and, eventually, businesses fail," McCalla said. "These are not times when we can sacrifice jobs, income and taxes instead of doing whatever we can to create new jobs, stimulate revenues and support small businesses."
ID: Cigarette tax hearing refused. Several minority party members in the Statehouse want to increase the cigarette tax by $1.25 to provide more funding for Medicaid and public schools. IL: House OKs bill to allow smoking in casinos. The proposal passed 62-52 and now goes to the Senate. "Since the imposition of our statewide smoking ban, to date our state has lost revenues in excess of $800 million," said bill sponsor Daniel Burke, D-Chicago. "We’re telling people ... go ahead, earn the money in Illinois, then get in your car and go to Wisconsin to gamble." IN: Smoking Ban Will Only Hurt Lagging State Economy. A statewide smoking ban with key exemptions has passed the Indiana House and now awaits action in the Senate. LA: Tobacco Tax Increase Proposal, HB63. It adds 70 cents to a pack of cigarettes. But more importantly, it raises cigars from 8% to 12% and 20% to 30% respectively, smoking tobacco from 33% to 49.5%, and smokeless from 20% to 30%. We must all be active, if we are going to defeat this. NE: Nebraska Tobacco Tax Increase Proposal Harmful. A 225 percent increase in Nebraska excise taxes on certain tobacco products would be harmful to businesses throughout the state, according to the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association. OR: Oregon Considers Controversial Tobacco Tax Increases. A flurry of tobacco tax bills with conflicting objectives is under consideration by Oregon state legislators who should say no to any new taxes. McCalla urged Oregon voters to contact their state legislators asking them to vote against any tobacco tax increases or any legislation that would extend taxability of tobacco products beyond the state level. Australia: Philip Morris to urge smokers urged to fight bans, taxes. "Bans on outdoor smoking, increased taxes, cigarettes not on display and now plain packaging for cigarettes what's next? It's time to tell the Government that you have had enough," the card says. It also directs aggrieved smokers to the campaign website where it claims: "Australia is already one of the most over-governed 'nanny state' countries in the Western world. | ||
Introducing the new Forest website | ||
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