Wednesday, November 27, 2013
November 29, 2013 - Issue #737"Even though you're growing up, you should never stop having fun." - Nina Dobrev |
The War on Fun: Missouri State wants to ban nerf guns. Toy nerf guns - the weapon of choice for students participating in Missouri State University's semi-annual "Humans vs. Zombies" live-action game - may be the latest casualty of irrational anti-gun hysteria at American universities. Almost 500 students played the most recent iteration of the game last month. The nerf guns used in the event are even inspected ahead of time to make sure that none resemble real guns.
CA: San Rafael Bans Smoking in Condos and Apartments That Share Walls. George Koodray, New Jersey state coordinator for Citizens Freedom Alliance and the Smoker's Club, called San Rafael's rule and ones like it "mischievous." Years ago, he said, when restrictions on smoking were first introduced, "the spirit of the legislation was supposedly to protect people who did not want to be exposed to smoke." Today, he said, the motivating spirit had changed: People disapprove of the habit, and wish to restrict it whether or not it affects them directly. Bans like San Rafael's, he believes, are far removed from being a sincere effort to bring about a health benefit.
MO: Springfield Libertarian Party member and City Council member Doug Burlison becomes smoking Nazi and pushes outdoor smoking ban. OK: Listen to Pat Campbell's interview with Theodore King, 1170 KTAQ - Tulsa's Talk Radio. Electronic cigarettes, regulations and bans. PA: Punxsutawney ban failed. Mayor James Wehrle has vetoed a measure to ban outdoor smoking in public places saying he believes outdoor smoking is a civil liberty, and saying his own "research" suggests the cancer risk for exposure to secondhand smoke outdoors is a "red herring." TN: Another Smoker Killed. Musician Jerald Waynes Mills dead after bar shooting. Police said bar owner Chris Ferrell, 44, said he shot Mills in self defense. A group of Ferrell's friends were at the bar when Mills began smoking a cigarette in a nonsmoking area, prompting an argument between him and Ferrell. 
European Tobacco Products Directive: From a science and public health policy perspective this proposal has some merits. Flavourings are crucial for the consumer experience. Most public health people and suppliers and distributors would support a ban on sales to under 18s. But it also has difficulties. It makes no sense to limit nicotine density or content, since consumers choose the products that suit them and use them in a way to get their preferred level of nicotine. It makes no sense that adverts for e-cigarettes are controlled in the same way as for tobacco cigarettes: from a public health perspective these safer products needs to be made well known.
EU and Big Pharma: By Dick Puddlecote. Whichever part of this ill-considered, pharma-designed, evidence-light, propaganda-heavy, illiberal and incoherent TPD nonsense you object to, do get writing, sharing, retweeting and generally making a fuss to make EU politicians notice more than they already do. 
Australia ADCA closes: Alcohol and drugs body loses funding. The council has operated since 1966, providing research and advocacy relating to the health, economic and social harm caused by alcohol and other drugs. A statement on the ADCA website on Tuesday said Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash made the decision to stop its funding, effective immediately. A spokeswoman for Senator Nash said the previous Labor government had left behind a projected net debt of $200 billion "and a coalition government has had to review the funding of a number of organisations".
Last week - Australia ASH closes:
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Thursday, November 21, 2013
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November 22, 2013 - Issue #736 "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." - John Fitzgerald Kennedy |
EPA Bans Most Wood-Burning Stoves: Wood-burning stoves offer warmth and enhance off-grid living options during cold weather months, but the tried-and-true heating devices now are under attack by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has banned the production and sale of the types of stoves used by about 80 percent of those with such stoves. The regulations limit the amount of "airborne fine-particle matter" to 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The current EPA regulations allow for 15 micrograms in the same amount of air space. Most of the wood stoves currently nestled inside cabins and homes from coast-to-coast don't meet the new environmental standard. The EPA launched a "Burn Wise" website to help convince the public that the new regulations were needed. Trading in an old stove for a newer stove isn't allowed.
Cigarettes while pregnant are OK: I do not think these results suggest that women should start smoking when they get pregnant. I do think it indicates that it is very poor practice to try to get smoking mothers to stop smoking when they get pregnant. About me - I have a Ph.D. in experimental psychology and have worked in both research and teaching. I am a health nut and do not endorse smoking or care to be around people smoking. I was shocked by these results. My bias if any is certainly against these results. However I think it is horrible to withhold information form people and intentionally give them bad advice to advance a political agenda.
Doomer Depression: Enviro-Psychologists Confirm Climate Alarmists Are Making Themselves Mentally Sick. It's only normal that people who surround themselves with incurable pessimists also eventually become pessimistic themselves, and eventually get depressed or mentally ill. This is what's happening within the climate movement in Germany, enviro-psychologists say. Alarmism as a mental disorder. 
CA: Berkeley's next smoking ban may hit home. Berkeley, where residents take pride in exercising their personal freedoms and resisting government intrusion, is the site these days of a much different kind of movement - one to ban cigarette smoking from single-family homes. Sharon Miller, 63, a retired secretary and lifelong Berkeley resident, said home is the one place she feels comfortable smoking.
NY: Bloomberg's Health Regime. By Robert Best. Its a brisk winter day as you wait in line for the soup that the city has allotted for you to eat. It is made 100% healthy as deemed by the powers to be. Never mind they sit behind closed doors enjoying prime rib and lobster. USA: Alert! Petition for Obama's proposed cigarette tax increase. 
Australia ASH closes: The Board of Directors of Action on Smoking and Health Australia (ASH) advise that ASH will be officially ceasing its operations from 31st December 2013. ASH was established in 1994 in an era when its joint funders (today, Cancer Council Australia and the National Heart Foundation of Australia) had relatively few staff deployed directly in tobacco control. For many years, this has no longer been the case with both organisations giving high priority to the many aspects of tobacco control.
Canada: Alberta unveils sweeping new tobacco restrictions. Albertans could soon be banned from smoking in cars carrying children, stopped from using water pipes in public, and will lose access to flavoured tobacco products under new restrictions proposed. Scotland: Tobacco plain packaging. Public Health Minister reaffirms commitment to implement in 2014/15. Despite challenges by the tobacco industry, the Scottish Government will press ahead with plans to introduce plain packaging, Minister for Public Health Michael Matheson has confirmed. UK: First Scotland in 2005, now... UK, Children as young as 12 given nicotine patches at school to help them quit smoking. The children - between the ages of 12 and 17 - are then offered vouchers which can be used to 'buy' nicotine replacement products such as lozenges and patches at pharmacies. The legal age to buy cigarettes is 18. AND - 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... UK: The case against plain packaging for cigarettes. By Patricia Nurse. Politicians should remember that smokers not only enjoy smoking, they vote too and they will not vote for anyone who sets out to attack them more than they are being attacked already. They just want to be left alone. UK: Plain packaging for politicians - how else can we save our children? By Brian Monteith. Big Politics can pull you into drinking dens, honey traps, fisticuffs and front-page exposes - you can lose all self control, become impotent, have halitosis and your clothes will smell awful - your family can split and your health can suffer. Politicians make us poorer; they run up state deficits and force us into personal debt - while they enjoy their scandalous expenses and world-wide junkets. |
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Thursday, November 14, 2013
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November 15, 2013 - Issue #735 "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be." - Robert Browning |
Richard Overton: America's Oldest Veteran Drinks Whiskey And Smokes Cigars Every Day. At the age of 107 he doesn't seem to be slowing down.
Dorothy Howe: 'Whisky and 15 cigarettes a day is the secret of my good health' says Dorothy as she celebrates her 100th birthday. MORE: Happy Birthday articles from The Property Rights Newsletter. 
Simon Cowell: I'll Have a 'Smoking Room' When the Baby Arrives. X Factor mentor Simon Cowell declared that he was quitting smoking, but in his own words: "I lied."
Bradley Wiggins: The cycling superman lit up a cigarette outside a restaurant as he relaxed with a glass of wine while on holiday. Wiggo has been tipped to become a knight like team-mate Sir Chris Hoy. They have both won seven Olympic medals, which is more than any other British athlete. More evidence: E-cigs may help in quitting tobacco. Etter led the study at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The results were published in Addictive Behaviors. E-cigarettes don't need to be 100 percent safe, he said, they only need to be significantly safer than tobacco cigarettes because they are primarily used by cigarette smokers. Of the three studies that have investigated e-cig users, none of the daily vapers were non-smokers. The new study adds to the evidence that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit or cut down, he said. Peanut Butter and the litigious age: Not everyone's a Fruit and Nutcase: We now live in a litigious age where all risk must be eliminated and "where there's blame, there's a claim," says Richard Littlejohn. Many schools have already banned nut products from lunchboxes. But this is the first time parents have been told what their kids can eat for breakfast before they go to school. 
Invasion: 7,500 drones in U.S. airspace within 5 years, FAA warns. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said his agency would set up six sites across the country to test drone operators, but cautioned that there could be delays for those looking to obtain certificates to operate unmanned aircraft once the regulatory guidelines are in place. He said ensuring safety in increasingly congested skies was his agency's top priority. The impending boom has raised concerns among privacy advocates about how and where drones might be used to collect data. The FAA is requiring future test sites to develop privacy plans and make them available to the public. The policy also requires test site operators to disclose how data will be obtained and used.
You Are a Rogue Device: A New Apparatus Capable of Spying on You Has Been Installed Throughout Downtown Seattle. Very Few Citizens Know What It Is, and Officials Don't Want to Talk About It. The question is: How well can this mesh network see you? 
NO-LIMITS SURVEILLANCE: Cell Phone "Tattoos" and Microchipping to Replace Passwords? Motorola recently announced that forthcoming phones could use electronic tattoos or pills to identify users. While the technology is certainly intriguing, this raises a plethora of privacy concerns, particularly for dissenting voices which have found themselves on the government's "naughty list." will this technology be used to suppress dissent and intimidate, ala the Nineteen Eighty-Four phrase: "Big Brother is Watching"?
Tragic End: To Father's Attempt To Teach Son A Lesson. When James Comstock refused to purchase his 19-year-old son cigarettes, the teenager drive off in his father's truck. Attempting to teach his rebellious son a lesson, Comstock phoned the police to report his vehicle stolen. This lesson ended with the police fatally shooting the his son, Tyler, on the Iowa State University campus. |
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Thursday, November 07, 2013
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November 8, 2013 - Issue #734 "A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic." - Dresden James |
The real goal of anti-smoking zealots: drive tobacco underground. By Theodore J. King. The great outdoors is the new frontier of the nanny state, as far as smoking is concerned. The habit is being banned nowadays in public parks, beaches, and university campuses. Supporters of these restrictions claim that they're in the name of public health, but it is really about control, and maybe about money too, a possibility we'll explore. Ronald Bayer, professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, made some startling admissions on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) NewsHour last July 8th: I noticed when my students of public health talked about illicit drugs like heroin or cocaine or marijuana, they adopted a libertarian point of view - emphasizing how the government has no business intruding on people's choices and all those negative consequences. But when I raised the issue of tobacco, they all became in a way, authoritarian. 'We have to limit smoking, we have to limit where people smoke, we have to protect people from themselves, we have to protect their children.'
Russia: Dispelling the Smoke Screen. By Alexei Pankin. The statement that "smoking is harmful to your health" is only a theory, not a medical fact. Take, for example, the finding that a nonsmoker would have to be exposed to the smoke from 1,170 cigarettes over a 10-hour period in an average 30-square-meter room to receive the "minimal risk" dosage of methyl chloride. In the same room, it would require 222,000 cigarettes to produce the "minimal risk" of benzopyrene. Smokers and nonsmokers have an almost equal chance of contracting cancer, and those who quit smoking have a slightly higher incidence than those who continue.
ASH-in the dustbin! The WHO have just announced exactly what everyone has said for years - "Air pollution is a leading cause of cancer." Can't fault the WHO on this one folks! They created the behemoth known as ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) via the RCP of course to do all their dirty work, do all their bidding and generally destroy the social fabric of this once great country - and now they have just as easily destroyed their credibility as they have obviously outlived their usefulness. Going Beyond The New Directive: By Dick Puddlecote. A couple of weeks ago, this is what a government spokesman said of e-cigs following the very sensible rejection by the EU of medical licensing... NY: Read - DeWitt Clinton Express - Serving the Neighborhoods of New York City and the Rest of America! Is Department of Consumer Affiars Jonathan Mintz Aiding and Abetting a Consumer Fraud? The truth behind the tradition of lying, and more. OK: Mary Snyder, an attorney at Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City, discusses smoking bans in the workplace. Ban e-cigs along with lighted tobacco products. RI: Jerry Daniels: I won't abide by 'unenforceable' PHA smoking ban. "This is my act of civil disobedience," said Daniels. "I will smoke in my apartment and I will smoke outside." Daniels said he is just waiting "to be violated" by someone from the PHA before he proceeds with a lawsuit against the organization. Already he has been approached twice by security and asked to stop smoking, said Daniels, but he refused and was then left alone. VA Rite-Aid slaying: Argument over smoking preceded Rite Aid shooting. Quintin Washington shot and killed another man in a drugstore parking lot on West Broad Street after Washington started yelling at the victim for smoking in front of Washington's 6-year-old son. USA: Will the FDA impose new restrictions on electronic cigarettes? While the FDA is one of the most influential bodies in the world the European market for tobacco cigarettes and electronic cigarettes is still significant. If the speculation in the US press is correct then we could see European regulators and US regulators at loggerheads which could lead to an unlevel playing field in the US and in Europe. USA: E-Cigarettes: The Vapor This Time? A Live Webcast Panel. Expert researchers will present the state of the science on electronic cigarettes. Discussant: Stanton Glantz, PhD, University of California San Francisco 
EU: Vacuum Cleaner Ban. Now Europe wants to make it harder to clean your carpets with new rules BANNING powerful vacuum cleaners. The new measures will be extended to other appliances, including water pumps, water heaters and tumble dryers.
France: Candle Ban. After recent health-driven moves to tax or restrict the use of energy drinks, artificial sweeteners and electronic cigarettes, French health authorities have now set their sights on cracking down on scented candles and incense, because their aroma could be masking toxic fumes. UK: Smokers have the right to be heard. Simon Clark is asking for our ideas. I am not a smoker, I'm a vaper. I'm a smoker at heart. But if ever we are disempowered as smokers have been, we will need the same rights. Smokers have a right to be heard. UK: The vaping bans - life with the smokers. Millions of people smoke despite years of persecution. And I consider myself a smoker. I haven't actually smoked a cigarette for over two years, but I think like a smoker and the smoking ban turned me into a recluse like so many other people my age. I remain an angry smoker. Obesity: 6 Graphs That Show Why The "War" on Fat Was a Huge Mistake. As people have reduced their intake of animal fat and cholesterol, many serious diseases have gone up. We are now in the midst of worldwide pandemics of obesity, metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes. Funny: Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. By Carl V Phillips. As if getting rich off of taxes imposed on poor smokers was not enough for CTFK... A friend sent me a screenshot of a Google search of "Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids" which reveals an interesting twist on that organization's fund raising strategies: the headline content for their website appears to be an ad for "generic V i a g r a". Campaign for Impotence-Free Kids? |
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