Thursday, March 26, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #798
March 27, 2015 - Issue #798"Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do." - Bill Willingham |
Government to dictate how much time you can spend in the shower! Obama's EPA Nazi Plans To Crack Down on How Long You Shower. The Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to crack down on shower sneaks. So, the agency has issued a grant to the University of Tulsa to develop a shower water usage monitor by Aug. 14. Perhaps the yet-to-be-developed gizmo could shut off water after a specified time; never mind if you're still soapy. You're wasting. Freedom-loving Americans might be excused from thinking all these years that personal hygiene habits were, well, personal. And from having lived all of their lives so far without keeping a waterproof timer on the tile to clock precise shower times.
Backyard burger and wiener roasts targeted by EPA. The Environmental Protection Agency has its eyes on pollution from backyard barbecues. "We expect to limit the overall air pollution PM [particulate matter] emissions from barbecuing and to alleviate some of the acute health hazards that a barbecue pit master can experience from inhalation. AND Charged with keeping America's air, water and soil clean, the EPA has been increasingly looking at homeowners, especially their use of pollution emitting tools like lawn mowers.
Feds to Create 'Diet Choker' That Monitors Eating Habits. Smart necklace 'can be set to buzz or send alerts if any undesirable behavior occurs.' WearSens, created by engineers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), is a necklace that can automatically detect when a person is eating or smoking, and can send alerts to a smart phone telling the user to stop. The researchers envision the device not only for dieting, but also for quitting smoking, or reminding people with medical conditions to take their pills.
World Health Organization calls for ban on e-cigarettes. Dr Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for governments across the world to ban e-cigarettes. Dr Chan also told Arab nations to step up measures in the fight against the use of tobacco, which she said was a major killer in the region.
16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates. The Conference is a call for a collective resolution to fight tobacco by working together and integrating tobacco control into two broad agendas for achievement of our common health and development goals. Tobacco's Two Minutes of Hate. If, thirty years ago, you had told a smoker partaking in his habit while enjoying an after-dinner drink in his favorite restaurant that - in the not too distant future - he would only be allowed to smoke while freezing outside the restaurant with passersby using their coats to cover their scornful faces in an attempt to avoid his exhaled toxins, do you think he'd have believed you? AND UK: Smoking should be banned at home says 68% of the nation. The federal government is paying hipsters to quit smoking. Feds spend millions to split hipsters, cigs. Program uses parties, instead of billboards, in hopes of success. The movement, including sponsored parties, anti-tobacco art and research to assess it all, has cost the National Institutes of Health $5 million since 2011. The idea is, find the most influential hipsters, put them in a cessation program with financial rewards, and release them into the scene to test the effectiveness of using peer pressure and other methods to make the anti-smoking movement cool. 
What causes teenagers to smoke weed? Answered by Michael J. McFadden, Author, "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" & "TobakkoNacht - The Antismoking Endgame."
CA, Sonoma. People ban discussion because Mayor Tom Rouse said, "I don't like Vapers." He is looking at what has worked in other communities and how enforcement would be handled. WI, State lawmaker wants to ban e-cigs, but American Lung Association not on board. E-cigarettes have grown in popularity. And now state Rep. Debra Kolste, (D-Janesville) wants the devices banned in restaurants and bars, just like cigarettes. "We think for the time being we should keep our hands off," said Dona Wininsky, the director of public policy and communications at American Lung Association of Wisconsin. "It is a good law, well intended, let's just leave it alone." |
 Learn what an Electronic Cigarette is. |
Thursday, March 19, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #797
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March 20, 2015 - Issue #797 "Of course, the liar often imagines that he does no harm as long as his lies go undetected." - Sam Harris |
Could the world be smoke-free by 2040? Leading experts have called for a 'turbocharged' global campaign to make the world tobacco free by 2040. The sale of tobacco should be phased out within the next 25 years. "The time has come for the world to acknowledge the unacceptability of the damage being done by the tobacco industry and work towards a world essentially free from the legal and illegal sale of tobacco products."
New research reveals 27 new deadly hazards from e-cigarettes. By Carl V Phillips. Following on the headline-producing success of recent scaremongering research on e-cigarettes, a flurry of new studies have been produced. A spokesman for the U.S. Fooling and Dramatizing Agency remarked, "we thought it was great when someone figured out that if you cook e-cigarette liquid up to welding temperatures that it produced lots of formaldehyde. So we thought, hey, we have billions of dollars to support that kind of research, so what else can we fund?" The answer was, indeed, impressive.
James Enstrom Wins. By Christopher Snowdon. Dr. Enstrom not only blew the whistle on junk science driving recent proposed California diesel emissions restrictions, he discovered the state's lead "scientist" had purchased his degree from a fictitious "Thornhill University" and that many members of the state's Scientific Review Panel had overstayed term limits by decades. While the fake scientist received only a short suspension after Dr. Enstrom discovered his fraud, UCLA not only fired Dr. Enstrom, it also looted his research account of tens of thousands of dollars and failed to pay him any salary for more than a year.
Retraction Watch. The American Heart Association's journal Circulation has issued an expression of concern for a paper about the molecular underpinnings of arrhythmias that was co-authored by a biomedical engineer who committed fraud on a massive scale. According to an investigation by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), former Vanderbilt engineer Igor Dzhura faked nearly 70 images and drastically over-estimated the number of experiments he conducted. He was banned from receiving federal funding for three years. The fraud has resulted in six retracted papers, which have been cited more than 500 times. HI Ethics Board sets sights on Tobacco-Free Coalition. At issue are two bills Kanuha sponsored that the coalition strongly advocated. Hawaii County code requires lobbyists to register within five days of becoming a lobbyist, defined as any individual engaged for pay or other consideration who spends more than five hours in any month or $275 in any six-month period for the purpose of "attempting to influence legislative or administrative action by communicating or urging others to communicate with public officials." DC Property Rights Update: If You Can Sue Your Neighbors Over Cigarettes, You Can Sue Them Over Anything. By Benjamin Freed. Olson says the feud between the Coppingers and Gray suggests a tipping point in cases involving homeowners' rights. In other words, judges tended to dismiss lawsuits filed over cooking smells, dog barks, a few minutes of loud music, or the tantrums of noisy children. New Orleans Smoking Ban Facing Amendments. This smoking ban has become particularly important for the cigar industry because the annual IPCPR Convention & Trade Show will come to New Orleans this July. The trade show has already been granted the necessary waivers needed so that smoking will be allowed in the convention center and private events. Amendments to the smoking ban are nothing new. AND Harrah's wants city to reconsider smoking ban for casino. Harrah's wants a chance to go back to the negotiating table to talk about what it calls new, balanced solutions, possibly smoking areas with its own ventilation system as other states have. UK Plain Packaging. Pack it in. No more branded cigarettes. FIRST they came for the TV commercials. Then they came for the posters. And then, on March 11th, the House of Commons voted to strip cigarette packets of anything that might appeal to consumers. Powdered alcohol approved, will hit shelves soon. Individual states have the right to control what is sold within their borders and some of them - including Colorado - are already working on legislation to prevent its sale there. Watch the video. |
For The Good Of The Children! St. Louis High School Bans Student for Dyeing Her Hair "Unnatural" Auburn. Not an unnatural, distracting red, but a very average shade of auburn. West County High School has rationalized its decision to ban young Savannah Keesee by stating she had violated the school's dress code by altering her natural hair color. Keesee and her mother, Sheri, say that is ridiculous.
The Good Of The Children! CAUTION: Your child's talking Barbie doll may be eavesdropping on all your private conversations. Mattel's talking Hello Barbie doll raises concern over children's privacy. Mattel's new "Hello Barbie," which was unveiled last month, is a smart doll that has a microphone and Wi-Fi connectivity so it can host two-way conversations with children. The doll takes children's words and sends them over the Internet to a cloud where voice-recognition software listens to compose the perfect response for the doll to reply with. Not only does the process seem creepy, but it might be illegal and it's raising privacy concerns among parents. |
Thursday, March 12, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #796
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March 13, 2015 - Issue #796 "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King, Jr. |
Homan Square Update: Largest Human Rights Group in the World Calls for Investigation into Chicago's Police "Black Site." Amnesty International USA has called on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in a formal letter, to open an independent investigation into alleged human rights violations that have taken place at the facility.
For The Good Of The Children! Life, Liberty, and the Sociopaths that Rule Us. Buried in yet another bill congress undoubtedly didn't read, is a new authority given to the IRS in a farm bill. It states that the IRS can now confiscate refunds from the children of people who owe the government money. For The Good Of The Children! UK, Smoker Adoptions. Anti-Smoking Groups' Demonization of Electronic Cigarettes is Leading to Devastating Consequences. By Michael Siegel. "A couple has been stopped from adopting a child after the would-be father was seen smoking an e-cigarette. This story really turns my stomach. Moreover, it is just heartbreaking. How misguided this policy is. How devastating the consequences. Due to the anti-smoking groups' dissemination of false and misleading information about the hypothetical consquences of vaping, actual harm is being done to many people. Chewing Tobacco Could Be Banned In California Ballparks. Two California lawmakers are teaming up to take on a classic trapping of American baseball: chewing tobacco. If Thurmond's bill passes, that would mean no more chaw for fans, coaches or players at the state's five major league stadiums, as well as smaller ballparks. AZ, Pima County does about face, scraping nicotine fees. Supervisors Sharon Bronson, Richard Elías and Ally Miller all reversed their votes on the policy when the matter came back before the board. DC, ONE man can not smoke in his home. Just ONE man! "We were floored," Judge bans man from smoking inside his own home. Under Washington D.C.'s new law, anyone can smoke marijuana inside their home. Well, almost anyone. A temporary decision by a Superior Court judge means one man in the district can't smoke anything in his home, including pot and cigarettes. IA, Marion council split on nicotine ban in parks, delays vote. Council member Paul Draper won majority support to table the vote to provide time to bring together a contingent of council members and Marion Park Board members along with the police chief to see if they could settle on some middle ground short of a ban. Pazour said a ban is unenforceable. WA, Supreme Court won't hear Yakama Nation treaty tobacco case. "Instead of honoring this Court’s treaty interpretation requirements, and directing the district court to adhere to this Court’s treaty analysis precedent requiring factual determination of the Indians’ understanding of their treaty protections, the Ninth Circuit rejected treaty precedent and improperly embraced non-treaty case law in this treaty centric case," the petition stated. Canada, Ottawa Council on Smoking or Health. RE: Bill 130. Third-hand smoke travels in elevators, hallways and at the patient's bedside on hospital uniforms. Third-hand smoke contains highly toxic chemicals that build up over time and get trapped in hair, skin and fabrics. It is highly dangerous for hospitalized patients and hospital staff to inhale third-hand smoke. The World, Plain Pack Push. If tobacco gets plain packets will junk food be next? Company logos, attractive images, descriptive statements, package colours and keywords all promote purchases. Plain wrappers discourage buying, especially along with other measures such as bans on advertising, smoke-free policies, taxes and health warnings. |
 Smokers Against Discrimination |
Friday, March 06, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #795
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March 6, 2015 - Issue #795 "Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters." Albert Einstein |
 Retraction Watch: Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process. Scientists retract paper because they're "not satisfied with the quality of some of the data." The paper, "Cigarette Smoke-induced Oxidative/Nitrosative Stress Impairs VEGF- and Fluid Shear Stress-Mediated Signaling in Endothelial Cells," came from the lab of Irfan Rahman, a lung disease expert at the University of Rochester. Glantz complains about research ethics. By Carl V. Phillips. Yes, the man whose superpower is an inhuman ability to willfully misinterpret study results and lie to the public based on that (and who is completely immune to the effects of evidence, logical argument, authors telling him he is interpreting their studies wrong, etc.) is complaining about research ethics. In particular, he is complaining about the recent Shiffman et al. paper which demonstrated that the prospect of interesting flavors did basically nothing to entice teenage non-users toward wanting to use e-cigarettes. Nicotine: Health benefits of nicotine rise as laws clamp down. The Michael J. Fox foundation, dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD), is sponsoring the first human clinical trials testing nicotine as a possible treatment for PD. A connection was first uncovered back in 1966. At the time Dr. Harold Kahn was heading up the Dorn Study of Smoking and Mortality Among U.S. Veterans: Report on Eight and One-Half Years of Observation. Snus: "Inside Snusing": Guests Snubie and CNashX talk about Swedish Reduced Harm Products. AND Heartland Daily Podcast. Dr. Brad Rodu: Tobacco Harm Reduction. Hathaway and Rodu talk about how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) corrupt the scientific process in academia, by refusing to fund studies which do not conform to the federal government’s stated vision of a "tobacco-free world." Electronic Cigarettes: 'Vape' bans have little to do with public health. "Protecting workers is simply the polite fiction by which nonsmokers have imposed their will on an increasingly unpopular minority." If simulated smoking must be banned in bars just to send a healthy message, then my God, think of all the actual drinking going on! If the worst that health officials can say about e-cigarettes is that they don't like the way they look, then they ought to learn the public virtue of minding their own business. Obama Unveils National ObamaLaw Plan. President Barack Obama today introduced his plan for a progressive takeover of state and local policing. "We have a great opportunity... to really transform how we think about community law enforcement relations," he said Monday. "We need to seize that opportunity... this is something that I'm going to stay very focused on in the months to come," Obama said, as he touted a new interim report from his Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Obama also instructed his media allies to help federalize policing, and to sideline the critics of centralized policing rules. "I expect our friends in the media to really focus on what's in this report and pay attention to it," he instructed. Tokko: The Thought Police. Special Higher Police (Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu), often shortened to Tokko was a police force established in 1911 in Japan, specifically to investigate and control political groups and ideologies deemed to be a threat to public order. The Tokko had arrested 59,013 people, of whom 5000 had been brought to trial; about half of those received prison sentences. Prisoners were forced to write accounts of how they had become involved with "dangerous ideologies," rewriting these essays until their interrogators were happy with the work. These works then were used to prove their criminal involvement. AND Do We Really Want "Thought Police?" Orwell projected a future society in which individual freedoms would be forfeited to full control by the state. UK: So, the smoking ban is popular? The article suggests that many of the remaining pub owners do indeed recognise that banning their core custom wasn't a smart move. Smoking and drinking go together for a lot of people and the Healthies who don't smoke… also don't drink. So that idea that the pubs would fill with people who hate smoking was a non-starter from the outset. |
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