Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #802
April 24, 2015 - Issue #802"Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy." - Paracelsus |
Everything that kills you from A - Z. EVERY possible lifestyle choice is simultaneously good and bad for you, it has been confirmed. After it was claimed that being overweight can help prevent dementia, doctors confirmed that eating vegetables, exercise and even smoking similarly exist in a quantum state of being both right and wrong. Doctor Mary Fisher said: Being fat is good for the mind but bad for the organs. I guess you can't have one without the other, so I would recommend eating chips and I would also not recommend eating chips. Doing running makes you more toned, but you might have a heart attack. So again, that one's up to you. AND Much more!
Fear Of Flakka: Anti-Drug Hysteria Validates Itself. By Jacob Sullum. If you have been paying attention to recent news reports about "the dangerous new drug sweeping Florida," you know at least two things about flakka: It gives you "superhuman strength," and you should nevertheless avoid it because it will turn you into a raving lunatic running naked through the streets, chased by invisible enemies, until you drop dead of hyperthermia or a heart attack. I Tried to Get Healthy and Keep Smoking Cigarettes. After trying for so long to quit, only to disappointingly flip between stopping and guiltily falling off the wagon, I've found a "healthy" medium, a half-happy place where I can smoke casually. I joined a gym, changed my diet, and started exercising five times a week. Being underweight increases dementia risk, while obesity reduces it, study finds. Past research has associated obesity with increased risk of dementia. But a new study - deemed the largest ever to assess the link between body mass index and dementia risk - suggests obesity could actually be a protective factor against the condition, while people who are underweight may be at increased risk. Being underweight was linked to a 34% increased dementia risk, while being severely obese reduced dementia risk by 29%. Johns Hopkins Univ. Faces $1 Billion Lawsuit Over STD Study. Nearly 800 former research subjects infected with sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala are seeking justice–but Hopkins says it is not to blame. Guatemalan research subjects in the 1940s and '50s poked and prodded as human guinea pigs of the U.S. government and infected with syphilis and other STDs without their knowledge. The suit says tests were carried out on women, orphans and soldiers. Some details are too graphic to report. The suit also names the Rockefeller Foundation and New York pharmaceutical company Bristol Meyers Squibb in the lawsuit. Vitamin-cancer scare not based on science. As directed by this press release, we contacted the media office for the University of Colorado Cancer Center to get a copy of the "meta-analysis" by Dr. Tim Byers allegedly showing that "a number of vitamin supplements" increased cancer risk. But there was no study. Are bees getting addicted to nicotine? "Their study does imply that foraging bees are unlikely to avoid seed-treated crops in the field, and supports previous reports of honeybees and bumblebees bringing back nectar and pollen from treated fields," they wrote. "If the preference for treated food does apply in the field, these findings suggest that we could be underestimating the exposure risk to bees from treated crops." Cig Taxes Will COST States Over $5 Billion This Year. Tobacco companies and anti-smoking groups alike say that high cigarette taxes will cost governments billions of dollars this year as smugglers step in to meet consumer demand. A study conducted by the Tax Foundation in February compares data from 2006 and 2013, and "finds that smuggling rates generally rise in states after they adopt large cigarette tax increases." Austin TX votes to ban BBQ Restaurants. Council member Pio Renteria asked council to amend city code and regulate the amount of smoke that comes from food trucks and restaurants within 100 feet of residential areas. He is suggesting that businesses either buy expensive smoke scrubbers or use gas-operated pits with wood chips. |
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Thursday, April 16, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #801
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April 17, 2015 - Issue #801 "Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired." - Robert Kennedy |
The First Church of Cannabis was approved after Indiana's religious freedom law was passed. The church's founder Bill Levin said he filed paperwork in direct response to Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike Pence last Thursday. Secretary of State Connie Lawson approved the church as a religious corporation with the stated intent "to start a church based on love and understanding with compassion for all." Cannibis is listed as the church's sacrament in its doctrine, Levin said, and he will set up a church hierarchy. "If someone is smoking in our church, God bless them," Levin said. "This is a church to show a proper way of life, a loving way to live life. We are called 'cannataerians.'"
Non-Smoker Exposure to Secondhand Cannabis Smoke II: Effect of Room Ventilation on the Physiological, Subjective, and Behavioral/Cognitive Effects. Conclusions. Room ventilation has a pronounced effect on exposure to secondhand cannabis smoke. Under extreme, unventilated conditions, secondhand cannabis smoke exposure can produce detectable levels of THC in blood and urine, minor physiological and subjective drug effects, and minor impairment on a task requiring psychomotor ability and working memory. 
The state should butt out of our bad habits. By Christopher Snowdon. The smoking ban is the pinnacle of authoritarian puritanism. This draconian piece of legislation managed to combine bureaucratic overreach, class warfare, junk science and the tyranny of the majority to create an act of cultural vandalism that has closed thousands of pubs, clubs and bingo halls. For the 'public health' lobby, it is the jewel in the crown because it enshrines their vendetta against smokers in law and stamps the new puritanism into the very heart of daily life. It was a triumph for incessant shrieking and co-ordinated propaganda. Private property was somehow redefined as public property.
Watch the video: Truth About Vaping - "Why They Hate Us" Revealing the real motivation behind the California Department of Public Health's attack campaign on vaping called Still Blowing Smoke. Watch NSW Australia attack on e cigarettes. Has more than a few outright lies. The Heart Foundation is calling for increased regulation of e-cigarettes in NSW to protect children, to keep smoke-free spaces smoke free, and to prevent the re-normalisation of smoking. UK: Nanny Bans Running. Nanny has banned kids from running in the playground... You can no more "establish a safer way" for kids to play, than you can herd cats! I take it rugby is not played at this school then? MA Group's lawsuits aim to boost public health. And these lawyers are working on several fronts, not just tobacco. The center's purpose, says its founder, law professor Richard A. Daynard, "is to bring litigation that will begin to address public health problems that can't be effectively addressed other ways." He is not aware of any other group taking this approach. In its first suit in early March, the center accused Star Markets and Stop & Shop of allowing children to buy lottery tickets. Future cases might focus on tanning salons and food marketers. Cybersecurity: A CIA Funded Company Reportedly Scanning Chats but Facebook Rejects Claim. Apparently, "Recorded Future is an American-Swedish start-up backed by both Google Ventures and American intelligence agencies." The European Commission recently told that there were serious privacy issues concerning users' data and those looking for privacy should leave Facebook. Rising Cigarette Taxes Helps Finance Terrorism. Actions have consequences. I think that is probably the wisdom to take from this latest research on the impact of cigarette sin taxes on the war on terror. Apparently, the rising taxes have forced many smokers to purchase their cancer sticks from the black market... which is helping to fund the very terrorists we are fighting. So here's a suggestion... cut taxes and take back some of that terrorist revenue. |
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Thursday, April 09, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #800
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April 10, 2015 - Issue #800 "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." -Albert Einstein |
Discovered: the stupidest thing the tobacco control industry has ever said. By Carl V Phillips. I am not talking about the worst claim or the most harmful - those would obviously be anti-THR lies, though I am not sure how you would pick one to put at the top of the list. I am not talking about other major lies that have distorted public policy and contributed to the Orwell-ization of our society, like the claims that smoking costs the government money or that moderate exposure to environmental tobacco smoke causes a measurable risk of disease. I do not even mean bald-faced statements whose falsehood is obvious to anyone who gives the a moment’s thought, like their claims that tobacco use has no benefits. No, I am talking about one of those moments when someone says something so stupid that you open your mouth to reply but are are overwhelmed and have no idea where to start, and so are frozen like an open-mouthed statue by the sheer enormity of the stupid.
Government Out of Control. Chris Snowdon has been looking back at the origins of the Tobacco Display ban. Well, we must look at what has happened. In my local co-op, the tobacco display is covered by two sliding doors in a fetching colour of darkish green. The word "TOBACCO" is etched onto one door in large, black capital letters. On the other door is the message: "If you need help, ask a member of staff". Will those doors deter a 'child or young person under 18' from asking for cigs? If they do not, then what is the point of them, since the whole point of the display ban, as has been said again and again, is to deter young people. But the question that I asked, 'Will those doors deter a 'child or young person under 18' from asking for cigs?', is a daft question. Such youths already have the sense NOT to try to buy cigs in shops - unless they already are aware the the shopkeeper in question will sell cigs to them. Spanish Congress Approves Draconian Laws Essentially Sending Spain Back to the Dark Ages. Three laws widely criticized by the opposition and human rights groups were approved in Spanish Congress. The Penal Code, the new Anti-Terror Law and the Law on Citizen Safety. The three new texts challenge freedom of expression in the streets and on the Internet. Under the new Citizen Safety Law or Ley Mordaza (Gag Law) as human rights defenders have renamed it, public protests, freedoms of speech and the press and documenting police abuses will become crimes. Together with the Citizen Safety Act, the new Penal Code will also criminalize online activism and organizing. Essentially, Spanish citizens should throw their computers out the windows, smash their hard drives to bits and never log on to the internet ever again. Forget about public organizing and any press freedoms that previously existed will be sharply curtailed once the new trifecta of insanely repressive laws goes into effect this coming July. Michael Bloomberg 'considering running for mayor of London.' The American billionaire businessman, three-time New York mayor and philanthropist, is considering running as Tory candidate for London mayor in 2016, it has been claimed. However, Mr Bloomberg's former deputy mayor, Howard Wolfson, poured cold water on the prospect of a Bloomberg run for (London's) City Hall. |
 Cybersecurity: Digital Shadow Exposes What Facebook Really Knows About You. How much can people discover about you over social media? It began as a mere marketing stunt, but Digital Shadow remains a very useful (and potentially scary) application. Ubisoft's Watch Dogs is a sci-fi game that works on a smart premise: that our lives can be laid out to a hacker and used against us. Our family, our friends, our interests, our personalities: they build up a digital trail, leaving us exposed. It sounds like an Asimov or Bradbury concept, but the accompanying Digital Shadow, used to advertise the game, shows us that this dystopia isn't too far removed from today. By allowing it access to Facebook, Digital Shadow gets to know you. But how accurate is it really? I let it loose on my profile to find out... AND Law Proposed To Force Employees To Friend Their Boss On Facebook. It holds that employers could require workers to "friend" them on social media, and that firing for a refusal to add them would be seen as just grounds for termination. Some employers could be granted even more access to their employees' accounts, by requiring them to turn over their passwords so that employers could read their private emails. Cybersecurity: Behavioral Detection Software: How Police Are Listening to You. Behavioral recognition systems (BRS) are one of the first law-enforcement applications of AI. BRS is an AI-based software which analyzes camera footage without human input. Increasingly, American and foreign law enforcement agencies are using BRS software that can analyze CCTV camera footage to detect various behaviors. There are benign applications for such technology. Police could use BRS to automatically detect all fights captured on camera within a city. Most software which analyzes video footage is “stupid.” That said, the software is only capable of detecting specific pre-programmed behaviors. BRS takes surveillance software to a new level: it can be trained to detect new types of behavior and learns through statistical analysis. Cybersecurity: Turns Out Feds Actually Tracked Most International Calls For Nearly A Decade Before 9/11 - Didn't Stop The Attack. It was revealed that the DEA had its own database of phone call metadata of nearly all calls from inside the US to foreign countries. Brad Heath at USA Today came out with a report yesterday that goes into much more detail on the program, showing that it dates back to at least 1992 - meaning that the feds almost certainly had the calls that Feinstein and Mueller pretended the government didn't have prior to 9/11. So don't believe the intelligence community and its apologists when they wrongly insist that such a mass surveillance program is necessary. Cybersecurity: Don't See Evil: Google's Boycott Campaign Against War Photography and Alternative Media. By being the first dot-com to really get the search engine right, Google unlocked the nascent power of the internet, greatly liberating the individual. It is easy to take for granted and forget how revolutionary the advent of "Just Google it" was for the life of the mind. Suddenly, specific, useful knowledge could be had on most any topic in seconds with just a quick flurry of fingers on a keyboard. Cybersecurity: Automakers Say You Don't Really Own Your Car. They say no one should be allowed to even look at the code without the manufacturer's permission because letting the public learn how cars work could help malicious hackers, "third-party software developers" (the horror!), and competitors. The parade of horribles makes it clear that it is an extraordinary stretch to apply the DMCA to the code that runs vehicles. |
Thursday, April 02, 2015
The Property Rights Newsletter Issue #799
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April 3, 2015 - Issue #799 "I don't have a drinking problem 'Cept when I can't get a drink." - Tom Waits |
Call time on soft approach to Big Alcohol. In the decade that has passed since the FCTC earthquake shook the international health law landscape, the global public health community has increasingly turned its attention to another industry: Big Alcohol. So far the WHO has stopped short of using its authority to create a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control (FCAC). The unwillingness of the WHO to grasp the framework nettle has annoyed many a medical expert. The World Medical Association, the American Public Health Association and the American Society of Addiction Medicine have issued policy statements calling for an international convention to control alcohol and many leading medical journals such as The Lancet have published supportive editorials. The underlying reason for these calls relates to the fact alcohol is beginning to rival tobacco in the deadly harvest that it reaps. Aside from the fact that criminalising consumption or sale of alcohol or tobacco does not work, competent adults have the right to take risks with their own health.
Cybersecurity: Hacking group may be NSA in disguise. The so-called Equation Group, a set of hackers responsible for at least 500 malware infections in 42 countries, is considered one of history’s most effective cyber espionage rings. Now, the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab is pointing to new signs that the group is actually made up of NSA personnel.
Soda. From super-sizes to e-cigarettes, health puritans are hurting us. Are the obesity cops helping? Yet obesity figures for the rest of America have ... grown ... worse. So it goes when the people who know what's good for us try to save us from ourselves. The only toxic substance in the e-cig vapor is water. Accidental drownings kill two kids per day. Health professionals adhere to the axiom "First, do no harm." Left unmolested by the deadly hand of their government, American nicotine users will likely eradicate most tobacco cancers by voluntarily switching to the safer alternative. Health nags should consider their activist failure in the War on Obesity and try more of doing nothing when it comes to fighting e-cigarettes.
Study makes push to handle energy drinks like tobacco products. The authors of the study pointed to negative health effects highly caffeinated drinks can have on children 12 to 17 years old. The study, which will appear the April issue of "Nutrition Reviews," states energy drinks can cause social, emotional and behavioral issues in kids and lead to about 1,500 hospital visits each year. The authors want energy drinks to be moved away from other beverages in stores and put behind the counter, side-by-side with cigarettes. They also say they should not be sold to anyone under 18. AND Parents Must Sign Permission Slip Before Kids Can Eat Oreos. 
"Smoker’s Paradox" in Patients Treated for Severe Injuries: Lower Risk of Mortality after Trauma Observed in Current Smokers. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study that analyzed cases included in the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) research dataset. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses were used to determine whether smoking alters the risk of mortality and complications in patients who smoke. Conclusions: Patients who smoke appear to have a much lower risk of in-hospital mortality than non-smokers. Further investigation into biological mechanisms responsible for this effect should be carried out in order to potentially develop therapeutic applications.
Biodegradable Cigarette Filters Don't Litter: You Plant Trees! Enter the biodegradable cigarette filters that has seeds embedded in it. The filters are made from a biodegradable pulp that doesn’t contain any chemicals or toxic substances, which nourishes and protects the seeds from heat and nicotine. So you could say that keeps them well nurtured until they grow into trees.
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