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Friday, September 30, 2011

The Property Rights Newsletter
September 30, 2011 - Issue #631
"Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison." - William Shakespeare
Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! Against Overlordship. By Daniel B. Klein, The Independent Review. For social democrats, the state is to the community what the landlord is to the apartment complex or the owner is to his hotel. The notion that all social affairs within the polity are enveloped within a contract with the state, which owns some kind of encompassing substructure upon which all else within the polity depends, is the unspoken premise of social democracy and progressivism.
From The Mailbag
Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! GA: Proposed Macon Smoking Ban Puts Jobs, Businesses at Risk. Loss of jobs and personal rights under an ever growing Big Brother nanny state are what some members of Macon’s City Council are promoting with their continuing push to make Macon smoke-free.
ID: Proposed Boise Smoking Ban Goes Too Far. Prohibitionists say there is no safe level of secondhand smoke and they point to alleged effects it has on workers and patrons of businesses that permit smoking on the premises. "There is a safe level of secondhand smoke and it was established by OSHA – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor. OSHA has set safe levels of secondhand smoke that are as much as 25,000 times higher than levels of secondhand smoke found in restaurants and bars that permit smoking," he said. So, Spann asks, if secondhand smoke is not an issue and business owners have the right to declare the smoking policy of their own businesses, why should legislated smoking bans exist? "People are misinformed. For years they have been inundated with erroneous data and false statistics which are unsupported by true science," he suggested.
MA: Bridgewater State University Police will not enforce a new, campus-wide smoking ban, according to Chief David Tillinghast. Although the rule was made with the health of BSU students and faculty in mind, recent studies have suggested that the relationship between smoking and heart failure isn't as direct as it may appear to be. A medical study reported the Journal of Community Health shows that six US states that have recently enforced public smoking bans show no change in the heart attack rate.
MO: IPCPR Joins Missouri Tobacconists Against Proposed Cigarette Tax Increase - Again. The group is supporting local small businesses and tobacconists against the proposed 2012 ballot initiative that would more than quintuple Missouri’s state cigarette tax by raising it 80 cents per pack.
Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! USA: Appeals court upholds tobacco ruling. A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld a preliminary injunction won by Seneca Nation of Indians that blocks enforcement of a federal law requiring the tribe's tobacco businesses to prepay state excise taxes. The PACT Act, signed into law in March 2010, imposes strict restrictions on the “delivery sale” of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.
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# posted by Samantha : 4:44 PM

Friday, September 23, 2011

The Property Rights Newsletter
September 23, 2011 - Issue #630
"The anti smoking fascists thought they could de-normalize smoking, they've failed. Smoking is still a perfectly normal pleasure for many (and so it should be). All the anti smokers and the gullible people that follow them have achieved is the normalization of bigotry and intolerance." - Phil Williams
Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! Court Case Asks if "Big Brother" Is Spelled GPS: The precedent is novel. More precisely, the precedent is a novel. In a series of rulings on the use of satellites and cellphones to track criminal suspects, judges around the country have been citing George Orwell’s “1984” to sound an alarm. They say the Fourth Amendment’s promise of protection from government invasion of privacy is in danger of being replaced by the futuristic surveillance state Orwell described. The Supreme Court is about to do just that. In November, it will hear arguments in United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259, the most important Fourth Amendment case in a decade. The justices will address a question that has divided the lower courts: Do the police need a warrant to attach a GPS device to a suspect’s car and track its movements for weeks at a time?
From The Mailbag
KY: Judge strikes down "Big Brother" smoking ban in Bullitt County. Regulation 10-01 is VOID AND UNLAWFUL and the Bullitt County Board of Health is permanently enjoined from implementing or enforcing Regulation 10-01.
MO: The 115 St. Louis Bars Where You Can Smoke This Weekend. Smoking ban? What smoking ban? We recently got an up-to-date list of bars that have received exemptions from the city's nine-month-old smoking ban from gadfly Bill Hannegan, who advocates for the freedom to light up.
Letter by Anti-Tobacco Organizations to Congress is Wrong. “Contrary to the claims of these organizations, H.R. 1639, also known as The Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2011, does not exempt cigarettes or any of the other machine-made tobacco products listed in their letter to Congress. Apparently, no one from these organizations actually read the bill or knows what’s in it - and that’s absurd because it is only two double-spaced pages long - or they deliberately falsified their claims,” said Bill Spann, chief executive officer of the IPCPR.
Clearing the Air calls Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's bluff: If RWJF's mission is to help people, then provide grants to those harmed by RWJF policy. RWJF funds smoking ban lobbyists because parent company J & J manufactures alternative nicotine products such as Nicoderm. RWJF funds anti-obesity lobbyists because parent company J & J manufactures alternative sugar and surgical gastric bypass products such as Splenda and the Realize gastric band.
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# posted by Samantha : 2:42 PM

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Property Rights Newsletter

September 16, 2011 - Issue #629

"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity." - Harlan Ellison

Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! Hay and the EPA: EPA declares hay a pollutant in effort to drive small, mid-sized family cattle ranchers out of business. "Now that EPA has declared hay a pollutant, every farmer and rancher that stores hay, or that leaves a broken hay bale in the field, is potentially violating EPA rules and subject to an EPA enforcement action," responded Callicrate. "How far are we going to let this agency go before we stand up and do something about it?" "EPA is turning a blind eye toward the mega-feedlots that are a real risk for pollution and, instead, is antagonizing small to mid-sized family operations in an effort to help their packer-partners capture the entire live cattle supply chain away from family farm and ranch operations."
Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! Electronic cigarettes on airplanes: The U.S. Department of Transportation wants to make it clear that the ban on smoking on commercial planes includes electronic cigarettes. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Wednesday that the agency is proposing a new law that explicitly bans the smoking of electronic cigarettes on all domestic and international commercial flights in the U.S. The current law bans the smoking of tobacco on planes but does not single out the use of electronic cigarettes. Under the federal rule-making process, the public has until Nov. 14 to submit comments on the proposed ban at the Federal Docket Management System. Federal officials said they could not estimate how long it will take to review the comments and prepare a final rule for adoption.
From The Mailbag
AL: A $13.3 million federally funded anti-smoking campaign led by a Birmingham public relations firm aimed at making Alabama a smoke-free state will result in a loss of businesses, jobs, tax revenues and citizen rights. "The bottom line is Alabama citizens want choice and, most importantly jobs, not Big Brother," McCalla said.
FL: The City of Orlando is considering a resolution to urge the city’s citizens to refrain from smoking outdoors on public properties. “The Florida Clean Indoor Air Act, as amended, already legislates against our rights to enjoy tobacco products indoors and against the rights of property owners to determine the smoking policies of their own establishments. Orlando citizens and visitors shouldn’t have to be concerned about whether or not to light up outdoors because of some city resolution,” Borysiewicz added.
GA: DeKalb kills proposed smoking ban. Four of the commissioners present agreed with owners of DeKalb’s eight adult clubs and 20 other nightclubs, that the ban would hurt business. "I don’t want us going down a slippery slope where we end up telling people what they can do in their own home," said Larry Johnson, the commission’s presiding officer. "You start in the business realm and we could have some unintended consequences."
SC: Pendleton Considers Smoking Ban Inside Homes If Public Is Served. Pendleton Town Council reworded a smoking ban proposal. The new version defines a private office and makes it clear that smoking would not be allowed in private homes if public business was done there. The council may vote next month for the first time.
Africa: Poor data detract from big health goals. AFTER years of prioritising diseases of poverty such as HIV and malaria, the United Nations (UN) has finally realised that "noncommunicable diseases" such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease are now the biggest health problem facing developing countries. Those trying to influence the summit want measurable targets. The World Health Organisation (WHO) wants the UN to agree to a target of 25% fewer preventable deaths by 2025 and detailed targets covering everything from salt consumption to breast-cancer screening.
UK: Forest at the party conferences events, 9/27, 10/3, 10/4.
World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. The Pro-Choice Smoking Doctor, Tea and Cigarettes: Pat Nurse, Freedom to Choose: Scotland, Freedom to Choose: England, Banging on about the Smoking Ban: Frank Davis, Rest of the Story: Michael Siegel, Tobacco Truth: Brad Rodu, Velvet Glove Iron Fist: Christopher Snowdon, and more!
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# posted by Samantha : 12:45 PM

Friday, September 02, 2011

The Property Rights Newsletter

September 2, 2011 - Issue #628

"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin." - Mark Twain

Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! Smokers Blogs: Read what other smokers have to say. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs, and use the big list to find a blog near you.

The Smoker's Club International Forum: Have your say about current issues, post articles you like, and find other smokers in your area.

From The Mailbag
GA: Vote on Expanded Smoking Ban Delayed in Georgia’s DeKalb County. "It should be up to the business owner to determine his enterprise’s smoking policy. It’s just not right for politics and government to interfere with private ownership and the inherent rights of business owners," McCalla added.
IN: Governor Challenged on Smoking Ban View. "If a smoking ban in gaming establishments could negatively impact an industry which generates huge tax revenues for the state, it should be obvious that it could also hurt many other businesses as well. Furthermore, veterans, members of fraternal clubs as well as those Indiana constituents in nursing homes and other assisted living facilities should be allowed the same freedom of choice that other Hoosiers enjoy," he said.
MI: Bar, restaurant owners angry over smoking ban plan to exclude lawmakers. Bar and restaurant owners upset about Michigan's workplace smoking ban have a ban of their own in the works. Protect Private Property Rights in Michigan said Tuesday that about 500 bars statewide plan to ban state lawmakers from their premises. It would start Sept. 1. Excluding the lawmakers is a way for critics to draw attention to what they say are the harmful effects of the smoking ban.
Property Rights for all include Smokers Rights! USA ALERT: Bill Could Raise Tobacco Taxes. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has introduced S. 1403 in the U.S. Senate, a bill to reauthorize and fund the Individuals with Disabilities Act. The tax on Pipe Tobacco alone would go from $2.8311 Per Pound to $49.55 Per Pound. The same product packaged as RYO Tobacco would go from $24.78 Per Pound to $49.55 Per Pound
Sweden: Council touts work at home smoking ban. Landskrona municipality in southern Sweden is mulling introducing a ban on staff smoking during working hours, even if they are working from home. The initiative, which will not apply to politicians in the municipality, has been criticised by the health and safety officer, according to the local Helsingborgs Dagblad daily. "Moralistic and ridiculous," said Högni Hansson.

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# posted by Samantha : 4:49 PM

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