Sunday, September 30, 2012
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The Property Rights Newsletter September 28, 2012 - Issue #680 "A lie can travel half way around the worldwhile the truth is putting on its shoes." - Mark Twain | |
Is Big Brother Becoming Big Nanny? 1994 Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg, PBS. Is smoking so dangerous that our government should strictly limit it? How far should the government go in telling people what risks they can take? Joining us to sort through the consensus and the conflict are Peter Huber of the Manhattan Institute; Walter Berns, professor of government at Georgetown University; Richard Daynard, professor of law at Northeastern University; and John Banzhaf, professor of law at George Washington University. MR. BANZHAF: Innocent third parties, right.
Smoking, drinking, being overweight doesn't affect men's sperm. Guys who smoke, drink, use drugs and are overweight might be facing a lot of health problems, but according to new research, their bad habits don't affect their numbers of swimming sperm. These findings contradict much of the advice given to men trying to be fathers. So although it probably wouldn't hurt men to drop a few bad habits, those vices might not be standing in the way of having kids. No yolk: Eating the whole egg as dangerous as smoking? Just as you were ready to tuck into a nice three-egg omelet again, comforted by the reassuring news that eggs are not so bad for you, here comes a study warning that for those over 40, the number of egg yolks consumed per week accelerates the thickening of arteries almost as severely as does cigarette smoking. Zoning Against Charity: Last month, 13-year-old hot-dog vendor Nathan Duszynski saw his sidewalk enterprise shut down by a city zoning official - ten minutes after he set up shop. The Holland, Michigan, resident hoped to use his profits to help provide for his disabled parents. Government regulation can stifle both commerce and social entrepreneurship, as Independent Institute Senior Fellow Benjamin Powell explains in his latest op-ed. Russia: Russia has now officially banned all imports of genetically modified corn, citing concerns from a recent study by French researchers showing rats grew massive cancer tumors when fed a lifetime of Monsanto's genetically modified corn. The Russian ban is the latest blow to Monsanto, a company desperately clinging to the myth that its genetically modified crops are "no different" than traditional crops and therefore long-term safety testing is completely unnecessary. Monsanto has assaulted the French study, claiming it did not use enough rats and that the duration of the study was too short - an absurd claim, given that Monsanto's own studies on animals are only 90 days in duration, while the French study looked at the effects of rats eating GM corn (and drinking trace levels of Roundup herbicide) for two years. World: Dr. William Campbell Douglass II has published a new book entitled "The Health Benefits of Tobacco." In this book he documents the surprising therapeutic effects of Moderate Smoking and Second Hand Smoke. Among other things, rather than causing cancer, Moderate Smoking actually helps to prevent certain types of cancer such as Prostate Cancer and reduces your risk of various cancers; improves your heart health; relieves the symptoms of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease; etc... World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. | |
 Read - Lighten Up with James Leavey | |
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
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The Property Rights Newsletter September 21, 2012 - Issue #679 "The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold."- Aristotle | |
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THE DEATH OF THE VENDING MACHINE INDUSTRY 
All around the world vending machines are disappearing...
The too often used war cry of "For the good of the children" was used to get cigarette vending machines out of bars, where children are not allowed to be by law anyway. Well intentioned people heard the cry and jumped on the bandwagon, without realizing that banning something from children in places they don't go is absurd. This invasion of property rights only hurts the business owner, their staff, and customers, the vending machine manufacturers, repairmen, salesmen, all of which are old enough to choose to buy and use a legal product, or not. Michael McFadden wrote, While it is true that the industry has expanded its offerings in the area of junk food over the last 10 years (We've seen some of the result of that expansion in the expansion of waistlines over the last 10 years.) it has not been enough, and the industry is one that is in trouble. Why is that a bad thing? It is a bad thing, both in terms of the economics and the jobs involved in that industry, and also in the general quality of life and convenience for Americans who might wish to purchase either cigarettes or other products from such machines as part of their daily life. FDA - Tobacco Products: Guidance, Regulations & Compliance - Draft Guidance for Industry: Compliance with Regulations Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco To Protect Children and Adolescents. 
 (Click on the images to open the full size copy.) Please note that they have never had a problem with under age kids in the bar buying cigarettes. In fact, everyone wanting cigarettes had to have a bartender hit the button (hidden out of reach behind and under the bar) in order for the machine to work - AFTER they put money into the machine. There was no way that anyone could purchase cigarettes without being noticed. The system was TOTALLY safe. It won't stop here. The Health Nannies don't stop after one win, they use that win to go on to other industries. They already have. Soda vending machines are being taken out of schools, city halls, and soon whole countries. More Articles about Vending Machines from The Property Rights Newsletter. 
Big Cigars: Offer Way for Smokers to Save. Fewer Americans are smoking cigarettes, but a growing number are turning to cigarettelike cigars that can sell for as little as seven cents apiece or to making cigarettes from inexpensive loose tobacco labeled for pipe use. The increased popularity of loose pipe tobacco, which is often marketed now for dual use, and of the cigarettelike large cigars seems to be directly related to a 2009 increase in the federal tobacco excise tax, which made pipe tobacco far less expensive than roll-your-own tobacco, and large cigars less heavily taxed than small cigars and cigarettes. The difference in taxes for the two types of loose tobacco is $21.95 per pound, which led manufacturers to relabel roll-your-own tobacco as pipe tobacco, while marketing it for roll-your-own use.
World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. | |
 Now on Facebook - Citizens Freedom Alliance | |
Thursday, September 13, 2012
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The Property Rights Newsletter September 14, 2012 - Issue #678 "A lie has speed, but truth has endurance."- Edgar J. Mohn | |
UK Could Be A "No Smoking Nation" By 2032. Campaigners want to make cigarettes more expensive and too socially unacceptable for most people to continue smoking. Michael J. McFadden responds, Interesting. Perhaps the same strategy could be used to eliminate private vehicle driving and encourage people toward healthy walking, bicycling, mass transit or to simply live closer to their jobs and schools! Simply set up a "level playing field" for gasoline and cigarette taxation (basically quadrupling the price of a liter of gas) and right away you'd see significant reductions in children being murdered by cars on the roads! Paint all cars mud brown to reduce their attraction to children, and cover 50% of their bodies with gory 3-D images of bloody dismembered bodies. Schools could give kids T-Shirts emblazoned with "My Mommy Loves Me! She Doesn't Drive!" if the child can bring in a certified "Car-Free" license from the Mom (or Dad of course!) and they could teach the children to object to being stuffed into the family Death Machine. 2032? Hey, with the right kind of campaign we can virtually eliminate the private car a LOT faster than that!
IN: Indiana residents who kick the habit could win cash. Contest winners will be drawn at random and will be tested to make sure they are tobacco-free before they can claim a prize. SC: Freedom Alert in Greenville County! If you live in Greenville County and want to preserve this freedom, you must write your Councilmember now and oppose a ban, before these lobby groups set the councilperson's minds for a ban. USA: A Smoker Speaks Up. By Linda McFarland. No matter where you fall within the smoking dispute, the following is true. When any persons or group's rights are bypassed or denied, for any reason, it sets a precedent. Somewhere, at sometime, for some reason, you could be next. If you do not understand this concept, perhaps you will understand it the way Sue Jeffers phrased it: "The Freedom to Breathe Act is a bad law based on bad science and secondhand - smoke will never be as dangerous as second hand - freedom." World: Events. In order to best serve the needs of the international tobacco industry and its suppliers, Quartz Business Media, organisers of the "World Tobacco" events and Konradin Selection (Mainz, Germany), publishers of "Tobacco Journal International" are excited to announce a new partnership giving focussed, cohesive access to the world's tobacco markets and a truly integrated platform for the international tobacco community. Conferences in Asia, Turkey, Europe and the Middle East are on the calendar. World: TICAP - The International Coalition Against Prohibition. Against government prohibition and junk science based policies. World: The Brussels Declaration on Scientific Integrity. Concerned scientists and ordinary citizens now have the opportunity to join others in making their voice heard. World: Tobacco Control Tactics. Created by global activists to expose the corruption between global Tobacco Control Advocates, Governments, NGO's, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the World Health Organisation. World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. | |
 Watch - Bob James What Can We Do Now (Save The British Pub) | |
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
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The Property Rights Newsletter September 7, 2012 - Issue #677 "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company."- Lily Tomlin | |
Cell Phone Surveillance. In the first public accounting of its kind, cellphone carriers reported that they responded to a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations. Chris Calabrese, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U., said he was concerned not only about officials gathering phone data on people with no real connection to crimes but also about the agencies then keeping those records indefinitely in internal databases."The standards really are all over the place," Mr. Calabrese said. "Nobody is saying don't use these tools. What we're saying is do it with consistent standards and in a way that recognizes that these are tools that really can impact people's privacy."
CA: Santa Monica Council switches on smoking ban. A 4-2 vote, with only Councilmembers Terry O'Day and Bob Holbrook in favor of the ban, reversed a July 10 decision that would have prohibited smoking for all new apartment tenants and condominium owners in Santa Monica. ID: Sign. Idaho State University students start a petition to stop a smoking ban on campus. "Smoking tobacco has been criminalized by many but continues to be a LEGAL substance in the US." IL: 43 Indianapolis Bar owners rally against smoking ban. The ban was implemented in part to benefit bar owners' safety, but workers maintained their right to decide for themselves. Bar owners wore shirts reading "Butt out of our Business" to emphasize the point. KY: CASAA's Letter to University of Kentucky, and Attorney General Jack Conway, Regarding Ellen Hahn. By Carl V. Phillips and Elaine Keller. In pursuit of a personal activist agenda, Hahn abused the good name of the University to tortiously intimidate a merchant into breaching a legal contract, while pretending to be a concerned expert offering honest advice. Moreover, this incident is merely the most obvious in a series of violations of University rules and the public trust that she has committed in the name of the University, including research misconduct and popular dissemination of junk science. KY: Watch the video Fancy Farm 2012. For your liberty loving friends... The Smoking Van. MA: Doctor Refuses Patient Because of Weight. A woman is outraged after a doctor refused to treat her because of her weight. The doctor feels obese patients have no place in her office. Dr. Helen Carter says she doesn't treat patients over 200 pounds. MA: Should attorney be on Governor's Council? By Mike Franco. A candidate running for Governor's Council who laid out his philosophy on the courts and role of the 8-member Executive Board of the Council. The Board's most prominent responsibility is to up-or-down vote judicial nominees recommended by the Governor. OK: Smokers beware: University tobacco ban begins, could cost violators up to $50 fine. It applies to the entire campus - which is probably quite a bit bigger than you think - and all buildings and lands owned or leased by the university, including vehicles. World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. | |
 Watch - Tomorrow Belongs to Me A Memorable Scene from the movie Cabaret (1972) "Do you still think you can control them?" | |
