ASSEMBLY LINE STUDIES - The University of California produces anti-smoker studies as fast as Henry Ford produced Model T's. With millions of dollars stolen from California's smokers, the University has the resources, manpower and financial motivation to overwhelm the populace with studies that blame smoking for every evil under the sun.

That's the bad news. The good news is that many of the university's important studies, along with studies cranked out by other arms of the anti-tobacco cartel, have been proven to be fraudulent. Like the boy who cried wolf, the anti-tobacco operatives have anethesized the public with their endless and increasingly ludicrous claims. On a basic level, every thinking American is coming to the realization that they are witnessing a con job of epic proportion.

In the meanwhile, The Voice Of The Cartel, The San Francisco Chronicle fulfills its function by reporting in all seriousness the latest piece of garbage spilling from the University. Of a grand total of 53 bartenders who participated in the latest study, a slight majority reported a minor improvement in a few aspects of their health. Of greater importance than what was, in effect, a self-assessment of personal health, two-thirds of the bartenders surveyed strongly oppose the smoking ban.

What is truly outrageous is the politicization of an issue about which the government has no legitimate concern. Bars are not public places. They are private property in which the public may enter if it chooses. Bartenders are not serfs who are tied to their jobs. If smoking is an irritant they may seek employment elsewhere. The University's latest "study" is being released now to influence polititians considering legislation likely to be brought up in the New Year to overturn the widely flouted and wildly unpopular law banning smoking in bars.

SOUR GRAPES - ``It's actually amazing how complete their victory was,'' University of California at San Francisco cardiology professor Stanton Glantz said. ``They didn't give in on anything. I think this is going to go down as one of the great scam jobs in history.''

Considering the source, that is high praise indeed. Stanton Glantz, con artist extrordinaire, is in a snit over the tobacco industry sell out. His mouth piece, The San Francisco Chronicle - Voice Of The Cartel, is also indignant. Although the chagrin of these rabid anti-smokers is heartening, it's important to realize that the Glantz gang of the anti-tobacco cartel will expend its considerable energy lobbying to alter the settlement into a format more conducive to their inordinate greed.

For those who take their journalism seriously, it may come as a shock that The San Francisco Chronicle is the major Metropolitan daily of the San Francisco Bay Area and does pass itself off as a newspaper.

THE THIEVES ARE WORRIED - "...out-of-state Internet cigarette sellers routinely do not charge California taxes, robbing the state of untold tax revenues." Well, what do the tax-hikers expect? The criminals who worked so hard to pass the latest California tobacco tax are in a dither at the prospect of people circumventing the process that hands so much of their cash cash into the theiving paws of the anti-tobacco cartel. History repeats itself in California where the state can look forward to out-of-control smuggling and tax dodging. It couldn't happen to a more deserving state.

WHEN DOES THE LYNCHING BEGIN? - Two years ago the country was aghast as the city of Friendship Heights contemplated banning smoking on its public sidewalks. How far the nation has fallen since that fascist proposal failed can be seen by the docile acceptance of similar bans spreading like a cancer throughout the country. The latest proposal comes from the city of San Ramon where a prissy prude on the city council wants to ban smoking from city parks because he doesn't want children to see the adults who pay for the parks smoke.

TOBACCO AGREEMENT ILLEGAL? - In the lurid legal orgy about tobacco, here is the latest.

IT IS STILL A SMOKER'S WORLD - This is an interesting list of what many countries do about smoking. It could be useful to the smokers who go somewhere for a holiday, for they can avoid/boycott the anti-smoking countries. But this article is more useful than that. It shows how anti-smoking laws are disregarded in most countries -- as they should be.

The lies and falsifications about the dangers of secondhand smoke have gone a long way, but they still clash with a huge amount of commonsense, and respect for personal freedom. Will the 21st century be a smoke-"free" century? We doubt it, and certainly not if we can help it, for smoke-free means "choice-free", and choice-free means: "liberty-free."

MIND CONTROL IN THE NAME OF HEALTH - How do we fight drugs? With a balanced family? With real education in schools? No, that takes too long, and requires education for the teachers! It's better to use yet another shortcut: mind control! Here is another example of exploitation of a hysteria that has become an obsession, and an indication of how sorely the war on drugs and smoking is being lost every day more. Children of course are the excuse. An unscrupulous company has decided to use the "War on Drugs" theme to market a product that controls the mind of your child though subliminal suggestion while watching television! ... "Thou shall not do drugs... Thou shall not smoke..." says the message 850 times per hour!

This kind of commercial scam is common place: we are used to see it on late hours on television when we stumble onto the "infomercials." When do we expect an endorsement by the American Cancer Society in exchange for a share of the revenues? What is really disgusting is the suggestion that using mind control is OK -- as long as the purpose is made to appear to be "noble" enough. What is sad is the outrageously false statement that the "worst [drug of all] is smoking." For those who still wonder why we are fighting, we hope that this is sufficient explanation.

MESSAGE OF STEVEN HANDMAN, PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN SMOKERS ALLIANCE - Message of Steven Handman, president of American Smokers Alliance, to other Smokers' Rights Groups.

NATIONAL TOXICOLOGY PROGRAM'S BOARD OF SCIENTIFIC COUNSELORS: SPLENDID EXAMPLE OF CORRUPTED SCIENCE - The article we report here is a typical example of politically corrupted science, the one we are fighting so hard against. There is no evidence against secondhand smoke. Of all studies ever performed on this politically exploited subject, only a minor one has shown any statistical significance with disease. Yet, this bunch of corrupted scientists and bureaucrats, all on state payroll recommends that secondhand smoke be considered a carcinogen, together with alcohol (opening the doors to more alcohol persecution). The interesting part is that there is even an admission about the lack of evidence, but that does not matter, anyway. In fact, evidence does not matter anymore, period. The politically predetermined outcome of these "scientific" meetings resembles more and more the Inquisition, where trials were just a political showcase for the ignorant peasants to justify a sentence determined in advance. More and more, North America is becoming a sinister reminder that the Middle Ages are not over.

GUN CASES USE TOBACCO KNOW-HOW:THE LEACHES JUMP ONTO A NEW HOST - Thinking to be almost done with the extortion on tobacco, the antis are now moving towards the elimination of another right of the American people: their guns. The same technique of tobacco will be used. Will the Americans be indifferent to this new attack on freedom? Probably. Will they take in great numbers to the streets and say: "my liberties, or civil war?" Absolutely not. They won't go far beyond some scary barking, a few demonstrations, and a few lawsuits.

Once again, the obtuse blindness of the targets of persecution shows up. How? Here is an example. Recently, the NRA, in the person of actor Charlton Heston, has SUPPORTED PROPOSITION 10 IN CALIFORNIA! This Proposition, now law, taxes the smokers an additional 50 cents to finance the anti-tobacco cartel! Why? "Because smoking is no good for you, of course...!"

Are these people seeing the common denominator between guns and tobacco? Probably. Will they find the courage to be politically incorrect, and consolidate with the other persecuted, such as tobacco industry and smokers? DEFINITLY NOT. Why? Because they think they are big, and powerful, and at any rate strong & proud enough to handle it themselves. "My God, we certainly don't need to make our image worse by mingling with an industry in disrepute!"

So, one at the time, all industries that can be looted will be. All liberties that can be suppressed will be. And the obtuse CEOs of the various industries and the immature consumers of their products will keep fighting alone.

And lose.

SMOKESCREEN: THE IFS AND BUTS OF THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT - The iniquities of the Deal of Shame are described in this article that highlights the great cheat of it all: it is all taxes. Once again, Big Brother and his executors, the lawyers, have managed to fool the entire nation, and the fools (smoking or not) who believed the lies of anti-tobacco.

THAT $10 BILLION FEE - ... And if some fools still doubt that antitobacco is to "protect" health, children and adults, they really deserve that name.

MARLBORO MAN LOSING SHOWDOWN OVER RIGHTS - Thomas A. Bowden beautifully describes the tragedy of the death of individualism in America in this sad article. Overwhelmed by the hysterical wave of lies and propaganda, the tobacco industry may well disappear from America. But the considerations here are not just about the sad fate of the tobacco industry. The real tragedy is the victory of lies over truth, of deceit over honesty, of corruption over integrity. In short, evil prevails over good. With the institutionalization of these perverted values, thriving on the ignorance of the public, the eventual self-destruction of one of the greatest countries on Earth is ensured, for the Health Nazis have many other industries in the targeting system of their looting machine.

After defeating their enemies on all fronts of this planet, Americans are losing to the enemy within. We only hope that the Free World can see that the anti-smoking cancer really stands for the destruction of Individualism and Democracy, and learn the signs before it's too late.

SHAKEDOWN AGREEMENT - It was a foregone conclusion that the tobacco industry would cave before the weight of state and federal government and agree to shake down the nation's smokers. The industry took the pragmatic course and in the short term it can expect some relief from the maniacal persecution that should never happen to an American industry. In the long term the situation has actually changed for the worse. The precedent has been set that justice in this country can be purchased by political operatives of any stripe that garner the support of the supine media. The criminals responsible for this agreement will certainly not be satisfied. They will branch out to attack other industries and each victory will finance their true aim which is to render the American public into docile and dutiful children of the state.