Thursday, April 25, 2013
|
The Property Rights Newsletter April 26, 2013 - Issue #710 "I have decided to stick with love.Hate is too great a burden to bear." - Martin Luther King, Jr. |
Glantz - Hating smokers doesn't help anyone. By Deborah Hill Cone. But why did this erudite tweedy man make me, a non-smoker, want to drive straight to the nearest dairy and buy a pack of fags with a picture of rotting teeth on it? It could be just that I am bloody- minded and contrary. But there is something else as well. Smoking is bad. But going around trying to make people - even non-smokers who don't smoke and may never smoke - angry and hateful strikes me as being a really unhelpful thing to do. Not to mention banning screenings of Casablanca. We should question the intentions of any group that insists on disdain towards other people as a membership requirement.
Smoking keeps its cool. By Luben Raytchev. Smokers get a bad rap nowadays. With smoking-approved public areas reduced to the fringes, and with the ever-increasing stigmatization of smoking, smokers seem to be retreating further and further into the corners of society. Generally speaking, smoking - if only by the illusion of what the law designates as cigarette-friendly territory - appears to have become a clandestine activity. And smokers, especially among their non-smoking friends, might sometimes feel a bit like pariahs. On the one hand, smoking leads to social condemnation, but on the other to a feeling of rebellion and cool. Perhaps, the more public health initiatives berate smoking, the more symbolic it becomes. Smoking, it seems, is destined to retain its cool. Why legalize pot and ban tobacco? They want to fine and even arrest people for smoking tobacco but it appears you can smoke marijuana anywhere even though the smell makes some people sick. Have your say at The Forum. NY: Raise smoking age to 21? First he wanted to hide cigarette cartons in bins or closets behind store counters. Now, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to raise the age to legally buy cigarettes to 21 from 18. The proposal, announced Monday by city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley and city council Speaker Christine Quinn, is the latest in a string of attacks on Americans' vices, from salt to soda. OK: Oklahoma House approves state property smoking ban. The bill now goes to the governor for her signature. Republican Rep. Pat Ownbey says the bill would be more durable than the current executive order, which can be changed by a governor at any time. He said Tuesday he wasn't sure what the penalty would be if someone defied the ban. Canada: Richards Report - Getting Tough On Criminals Who Profit From Youth Smoking. By Doug Watt. The smoking issue is a touchy one. I feel that the more regulation we have in place, the more we will see contraband product in the marketplace. Smoking is a lifestyle choice and many people still partake. Incredible as it may sound, the science to back up many of the stereotypical health issues of smoking (such as the slogans that are printed on the packaging) has not been conclusively proven. Ireland - Dentists want a role in tobacco control. Dentists have called on the HSE to give them a key role in the State's tobacco control strategy, similar to the practice in Sweden. The Irish Dentists' Association (IDA) said its members were "ideally placed" to advise patients on smoking's risks. Lebanon protest. Caught on tape: Woman defiantly smokes on Lebanese airline. When the woman refused to stop smoking, the flight attendant said she was going to call the captain. "Go call him. Go call everyone and come here," said the defiant woman as she continued to smoke. Scotland - Commonwealth Games. The anti-smoking charity ASH Scotland is launching a campaign for an outright ban on smoking at the Games. "The event must not be hijacked by public health campaigners who are determined to impose their views on everyone else." World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. |
 |
Thursday, April 18, 2013
|
The Property Rights Newsletter April 19, 2013 - Issue #709 "Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department."- David Packard |
Fight over cigarettes gets colorful. The war over cigarettes has a new battleground-- colored packaging. Anti-smoking groups say using colors like gold and silver to show the difference between cigarette packages is deceiving. But, smokers say it would be deceiving to take those colors away. Fox 25's Kisha Henry shows us the argument. "How is a smoker going to know if he is getting the product he wants to buy?" counters David Kuneman, the director of research for the Citizens' Freedom Alliance. He says removing colored packaging would be a case of "unequal protection." Aside from the health debate, he says there's a taste difference. "People have a right to know when they're buying a product, how it's going to taste before they pay for it," says Kuneman. He compares the argument to light beer or light food. "Consumers of all of those products are still allowed to go into a store and read a lable that says light or regular, so that they know what they're buying. Those products taste different, too. So, why can't that be true of cigarettes?" he asks.
SC - Bryant smoking bill snuffed out. State Sen. Kevin Bryant's effort to give employers the right to refuse to hire and even to fire smokers was snuffed out Wednesday. "People shouldn't be punished because they smoke," said Sen. Kent Williams, a Democrat from Marion. "To say that I am not going to hire you because you are a smoker really concerns me." Democratic Sen. Glenn Reese of Lake Bowen accused Bryant of pursuing "Gestapo tactics" against smokers. "I don't think you can fire them for smoking on the back porch at home," Reese said. NC - Anti Money: By Pam Parker. Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids received $8 million grant. Where are the reporters of old who investigated stories like this? RWJF is JOHNSON & JOHNSON'S "foundation" who CREATED AND FUNDED the front group "Tobacco Free Kids". RWJF can't legally lobby for smoking bans and increased taxes so they give these "grants" to TFK to do it. Ever wonder WHY they want smoking cessation "treatments" paid for by insurance and Medicaid? Because Johnson & Johnson owns nearly every over-the-counter nicotine REPLACEMENT PRODUCT there is! This is a clear case of the "tail wagging the dog." By Sheila Martin. Pharma created the "second hand smoke myth," bribed the public health community and academia, and the money started pouring in. Grant spongers in public health, in our universities, our once respected non profits, and our government, have to eat. They eat grants. The pro ban, individual freedom killing dog, has a long pharmaceutical tail and a ravenous appetite to expand their power and get more money. And our tax paid employees certainly don't care where money comes from. ALL money is good money to them, it seems. We will never be able to pay them what they think they are worth! And the more laws they push, the bigger they get. Like a blood filled tick on the pro ban dog. Only this tick NEVER gets enough, and it NEVER falls off! How Working Kills Smokers: By Susan Rosenthal. Governments are addicted to tobacco revenue. Instead of spending their tobacco revenues on smoking-prevention programs, states are using the money to balance their budgets. No matter how loudly they shout about the dangers of smoking, governments are addicted to tobacco revenue. And they need people to keep smoking because states have borrowed from future tobacco revenues to meet growing budget deficits. Sterling found that air pollution is the primary cause of lung cancer in the United States. Lung cancer rates are higher in cities than in the countryside, and higher in larger cities than in smaller ones. The risk of getting lung cancer increases for people who migrate from areas with lower cancer rates to areas with higher cancer rates. Africa: Free Market Foundation attacks "apartheid-style" liquor, tobacco laws. "When I read this Gauteng Liquor Bill, I think: has Verwoerd's ghost somehow occupied the minds of Gauteng legislators? This is Verwoerd and Vorster and Strijdom reincarnated," Free Market Foundation executive director Leon Louw said in Johannesburg this week. He said measures such as better public education on life choices would be more effective in curbing the consumption of liquor and tobacco. 
World: Quick and Easy - Search The Property Rights Newsletter System. Each article page in the Newsletter system is filed in two places; the physical location, and the topic. Using the site search page makes it very easy to find anything you want quickly.
World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. |
|
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
|
The Property Rights Newsletter April 12, 2013 - Issue #708 "Measures of sterilization should, in my opinion, be verydefinitely confined to persons who are mentally defective." - Bertrand Russell |
NZ "Sterilise smokers" comment outrage. A suggestion by a Palmerston North city councillor that Maori women be sterilised to stop them smoking in front of their children has outraged councillors and Maori health advocates. He said if the aim was to stop adults role-modelling smoking behaviour, and given 41 per cent of Maori women smoked, perhaps they should be sterilised. Maori Party co-leader and Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said the comments were "absolutely appalling", and the media had a responsibility to report them.
Federal Tax Alert - Obama Tobacco-Tax for Pre-Kindergarten Draws Opposition. Even before President Barack Obama officially proposed a federal cigarette tax increase to fund preschool programs, tobacco companies and sellers lined up against it while anti-smoking groups praised the plan. "The idea of increasing taxes on low- to middle-income Americans at this time is ludicrous," said Bryan Hatchell, a spokesman for Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) "As middle-income Americans struggle to make ends meet in a very slow economic recovery period, this is not the time to hit them with higher taxes."
SC Warning: Smoking May Cost You A Job. Now, some companies want to get rid of smokers in the workplace. But it's against the law in South Carolina, as well as in 28 other states that ban discrimination against tobacco-users. "It is not government's role to tell a business owner how they operate their business and how they spend their money," said Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson. That protection for smoker could soon be repealed if Bryant's measure is passed. The lawmaker believes companies should be able to hire or fire workers that use tobacco products off-the-clock. MA Warning: Arlington, Town Holds Off on New Tobacco Regulations Vote. The Board of Health will take up the regulations again next month. In addition to the proposed age change, (18 up to 21) which would apply to all tobacco products, the regulations would prohibit the sale of tobacco and nicotine-delivery products in all retail locations that have a pharmacy or drug store, cap the number of tobacco sales permits at the current number (and reduce that number through attrition over time) and ban the sale of "blunt wraps" outright, among other items, such as single cigars under $2.50. IN: Tobacco Free Indiana concerned about possible funding cuts. The group wants lawmakers to reconsider a budget proposal that slashes funding for prevention programs by almost 40 percent. Tobacco Free Indiana said if the cuts go through, it’ll lose $3 million in funding. OK: Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CAASA) reports the Oklahoma Bill to Tax E-Cigarettes and More - has been defeated. USA: The Skinny on Anti-Obesity Soda Laws. By Michael L. Marlow. Imposing per-ounce levies or limiting serving sizes is a futile pursuit. I have two big gripes with such paternalistic public-health initiatives: The proposals aren't grounded in data or compelling economic models, and soda taxes might catalyze a dismal chain reaction, with escalating government intrusions on personal freedom. Intentional or Unintentional: By Frank Davis. There was nothing unintentional about it at all. "Smokers will be exiled to the outdoors." We might also look at the particular words she chose to use. She used the word "exile". In Webster's dictionary, "exile" is defined as "the state or a period of forced absence from one's country or home." Exile was often used in antiquity as a form of punishment which removed people from society, very often permanently, without actually killing them. She could have used any number of other words, but she chose a word with a very precise meaning. Australia: The Australian Law of Growing Tobacco Plants. It really is incredible and my heart bleeds for our Australian cousins. UK World's largest cigar auction. Many of the world's wealthiest smokers will flock to Britain's capital on Monday 10 June 2013 for vintage, rare and mature cigars and cigar-related lots at C.Gars Ltd's 8th Vintage Cigar Auction at Boisdale Canary Wharf. World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. |
 |
Thursday, April 04, 2013
|
The Property Rights Newsletter April 5, 2013 - Issue #707 "If you're going to be crazy,you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up." - Hunter S. Thompson |
Smokers Have Mental Disorders, Eh? By Frank Davis. I wonder how they decide what constitutes a 'mental disorder'? Given that they say that 70% of smokers want to give up smoking, perhaps anyone who doesn't want to give up smoking is deemed to be insane, and in need of 'treatment'. Oh, and if you smoke grass or drink alcohol, that's more evidence of 'mental disorder'. Stephen Spiro: that's another name to add to the list of antismoking nutter doctors that need to be kicked out of the medical profession. At the moment, they can cheerfully demonise and ostracise hundreds of millions of people all over the world, and keep their fat salaries and their big houses and their high status jobs. Because there's no come-back. There's nothing to restrain them from calling (as they have done) for smokers to be more or less expelled from society. They're completely unaccountable.
NJ Bergen County: South Bergen towns moving toward smoke free parks. Smokers' rights advocates, however, feel that smoking bans can be imposing on privacy rights, and believe that anti-smoker activists are using children as a "propaganda tool." "The reason for banning smoking outdoors in a park doesn't have to do with health, it has to do with what the anti-smoking movement in the last 10 years has been calling 'denormalization,' the effort to make smokers and smoking seem abnormal and deviant," said Michael J. McFadden, Northeast Regional Director of Citizens Freedom Alliance and The Smokers Club.
Samoa Air charges passengers by their weight. Amid a growing debate about how to price airline tickets for so-called passengers of size, an airline that's become the world's first airline to charge passengers by weight is defending its decision, saying it's the system of the future. "People have always travelled on the basis of their seat but as many airline operators, know airlines don't run on seats - they run on weight," he said. "We have worked out a figure per kilo. This is the fairest way of you travelling with your family or yourself. You can put your baggage on, there are no separate fees because of excess baggage - a kilo is a kilo is a kilo."
Australia: Glenelg won't enforce beach smoking ban. SMOKERS will be able to light up on the Cape Bridgewater foreshore after Glenelg Shire voted down a motion to enforce a smoking ban on patrolled beaches. The decision breaks ranks with other south-west councils, including Warrnambool and Moyne which have given council officers power to slap on-the-spot fines for anyone caught with a lit cigarette between the flags. At Glenelg's monthly council meeting last week members also voted to hold off on spending cash on no-smoking signs at the popular Cape Bridgewater Beach.
UK Flapjacks Ban: Canvey Island school bans triangle shaped flapjacks. (Shaped like a slice of pizza.) A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive said: "We often come across half-baked decisions taken in the name of health and safety, but this one takes the biscuit. "The real issue isn't what shape the flapjacks are, but the fact that pupils are throwing them at each other - and that's a matter of discipline, and has got nothing to do with health and safety as we know it.
World: Smokers Blogs. Watch instant postings to your favorite blogs. |
 Tell your town, city, county, state, or country that you are sick of this. You fell for it, but don't need to continue to fall for it. For the sake of the children, protect the freedom to use your own good sense where any and all legal products are concerned and keep the world free from overpaid petty tyrants. What kind of world do you want to leave your children? Read more! |
