Prohibition of what is ASCERTAINED beyond any reasonable doubt to be dangerous is understandable. But when public policy makers prohibit things or behaviours the effect of which is either still debated, or unquantifiable (from microwave/electromagnetic radiation to global warming, from pesticides to the health effects of smoking), that only demonstrates that the ignorance of the policy makers can only produce spasmodic hysteria instead of the rational research to ascertain reality.

CHILDREN'S ANTI-TOBACCO "EDUCATION" IS JUST ONE MANIFESTATION OF SOCIAL DECAY Added December 11, 1999 - THE DELIBERATE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA - Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt has put together the most formidable and practical compilation of documentation describing the well-planned "deliberate dumbing down" of American children by their education system. Anyone who has had any lingering hope that what the educators have been doing is a result of error, accident, or stupidity will be shocked by the way American social engineers have systematically gone about destroying the intellect of millions of American children for the purpose of leading the American people into a socialist world government controlled by behavioral and social scientists.

This mammoth book is the size of a large city phone book: 462 pages of documentation, 205 pages of appendices, and a 48-page Index. See See FORCES' bookcase.

THE DIRTY MANEUVRES OF THE ANTI-TOBACCO CARTEL ARE COMING TO THE SURFACE Added December 10, 1999 - LAWYERS BACK N.C. JUDGE ON ANTI-SMOKING GROUP'S 'HIT' LIST - Those who talk so much about law and authority are usually the ones who have the greatest contempt of both when it does not serve their purposes. This is certainly the case of the anti-tobacco cartel and one of its worst and most adamant representatives, the Americans for Nonsmokers Rights Foundation.

"Lawyers in North Carolina leapt to the defense yesterday of U.S. District Judge William Osteen, who was targeted by an anti-smoking group in California that used tax dollars to compile an ''enemies list'' that included the judge."

" Newspapers in California reported this week that the Americans for Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, a nonprofit group, has received more than $1.2 million since 1995 in proceeds from a state tax of 25 cents a pack on cigarettes. The group is reported to have used the money to compile an ''enemies list'' that aimed to expose front groups that the tobacco industry uses to fight tobacco-control programs. "

"The list included Osteen, a judge since 1991 for the Middle District of North Carolina who issued a ruling last year that overturned a federal report on second-hand tobacco smoke. "

" The money comes through Proposition 99, which was enacted by California voters in 1988 to pay for advertising campaigns to help persuade children and others not to smoke. "

We don't think that there is much to add. Just throw them in jail where they belong...

"THE STATE IS THE PARENT OF THE CHILD, AND THE PARENTS ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM" Added December 10, 1999 - We post this expired press release by the President of the Oregon Judicial Watch mainly to illustrate where too much of America is going with the belief of the state being the dispenser of all values and freedom, as opposed to the guardian and protector of them. Let this excerpt say it all:

' We have watched legislation in the last ten years increasingly allow the state to restrict the rights and freedom of citizens in Oregon, and we have archives about the meetings in l986 called "Oregon Agenda for the l990"s Children and Families" wherein a consensus of state employees and elected officials set the stage, Governor Goldschmidt and John Kitzhaber and Vera Katz and Beverly Stein and Barbara Roberts many others who are now appointed in positions of authority in Oregon government.

At these meetings it was decided that Oregon would lead the way with a socialist agenda that culminated in Oregon Shines, Benchmarks Goals 2000 programs that affect every part of every life for Oregonians. Kitzhaber said "the state is the parent of the child, and the parents are part of the problem" in meeting the state goals, and the state is going to take the children and force parents into contracts, so that federal funds can be used to provide services that the parents cannot afford "in the best interest of the child" '.

These are not the words of some sensationalistic nut. They are also the no longer implicit words of the anti-tobacco cartel and its mandatory anti-tobacco "education" programs, where children are taught to nag and disrespect smoking parents, undermining the very essence of the family. The Socialist state has always encouraged the families to surrender their children to it. And the failure of Socialism everywhere has not discouraged the American Neo-Socialists who are trying to turn the US into the political revenge of the USSR.

VERY WELCOME NEWS Added December 8, 1999 - WHEN SCIENTISTS GO BAD - A new species of detective is emerging to pursue and expose cheats who cut corners in their research or commit outright fraud.

This is really welcome news for smokers. If this group wants to keep busy, we can address them to the anti-smoking cartel "studies" on tobacco-related disease, ETS, and all the other fraudulent permutations of junk science that are the backbone of the "evidence" against tobacco and its users.

This group would have to work overtime and then some! May we recommend that prisons of adequate crowd capacity are built first?

US: THE FUTILE CRACKDOWN Added December 8, 1999 - "Governments, decreeing zero tolerance of drugs, have 400,000 drug offenders in this country in jail. Mothers Against Drunk Driving persuades legislators to raise the drinking age and now wants to restrict advertising of alcohol. The Justice Department concocts a convoluted theory about how tobacco vendors deplete federal coffers and sends them a bill for $20 billion a year.

What you are witnessing is the New Prohibition. It is the Volstead Act all over again, in different guises. It aims to enforce clean living by edict. And it is almost certain to fail, as greatly as the last Prohibition failed in the 1920s."

MADISON FELLED BY TOBACCO? - (Added December 7, 1999) - "After years of hyperbolic promises of 'reinventing government,' the Clinton administration appears ready to make good on its pledge.

At the recent Senate tobacco hearing, various senators came forward to defend the attempt to circumvent Congress in dealing with tobacco issues. It appears that some members in "the world's most deliberative body" now prefer less when it comes to tobacco. Unable to move tobacco legislation in the face congressional opposition, these members called for a type of constitutional end-run. With the cooperation of the courts, it was hoped that sweeping changes could be without congressional involvement.

The ultimate casualty, however, may be Madisonian democracy and a constitution that demands consent rather than convenience in handling political controversy."

ANTI-SMOKING ESTABLISHMENT SEEMS TO BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING MORE THAN JUST VIRTUAL DEATHS - (Added December 7, 1999) - MEDICAL ERRORS A MAJOR KILLER - The same anti-smoking medical establishment that almost claims "infallibility" when it comes to tobacco-related statistical deaths (if they admit the need for any "correction" it is always in the direction of pushing the fraudulent numbers up) and that calls the tobacco industry "merchants of death" seems to be capable of generating more than virtual deaths.

' In a blistering report released Monday, a prestigious medical group said America's entire health care system needs "dramatic changes" to cut the enormous number of deaths and injuries from medical errors.

The group said hospitals should report mistakes to the federal government - not keep them secret as they often do now. "For too long medical errors in hospitals and elsewhere have been buried and it is long overdue that they need to be reported to public agencies," said Dr. Sid Wolfe of Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group. Experts say between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die from mistakes every year in hospitals alone. That makes hospital errors the eighth leading cause of death - actually ahead of traffic accidents, breast cancer and AIDS. '

Medical errors are listed as the number 8 killer, but that's at the lower figure of 44,000. If the real number is 98,000, it would be number 5. The article refers only to hospital errors, so if we add in deaths due to mistakes at doctors offices' and clinics, the number would be much larger. This is an astounding fact - doctors may be the number 5 killer in the United States. Wanna talk about health risks? And these numbers refer to the fatal cases only -- presumably there are lots of medical error cases where the victims are alive, but certainly not well.

God knows how many of those "mistakes" are logged as tobacco-related deaths! Who is going to make these people pay? Who is going to wipe the medical establishment from category of acceptable people -- as happened to smokers and to an industry selling a legal product? Where are legal actions to recover the "cost to society?" Where are the headlines from major newspapers or some CBS special "exposè" complete with suggestive titles and stupid music in the background?

Those are, of course, rhetorical questions, as fairness and justice are administered by those in power, and sold to those who are close to that power.

SOME PRESS ADMITS WHAT ANTI-TOBACCO IS ALL ABOUT - (Added December 7, 1999) - STATES FORGETTING ANTI-SMOKE CRUSADE - In this article we observe how some of the media may finally see the light on where the money of the settlement goes.

The anti-tobacco cartel is disappointed that some states are using the money looted from smokers and the tobacco industry for purposes other than its campaign of hate, frauds and suppression of rights and truth on smoking.

The fact is that when it comes to money and the opportunity to grab it, it is already quite difficult to find honour among straight people - never mind thieves.

WHEN THEFT IS EASY (AND STATE SANCTIONED), THIEVES COME OUT OF THE WOODS - (Added December 6, 1999) - TOBACCO'S BIG LOSS SETS A BAD PRECEDENT - ' The public cheered when government took on Big Tobacco and won a year ago this week. But it's time for the cheering to stop, because that victory has made some in government greedy to form another wolf pack and seek more red meat.

Milwaukee a case in point. Indeed, Milwaukee's city attorney in October described a possible lawsuit against lead-paint manufacturers as "problematic." Among the difficulties were proving which manufacturer's paint caused which victim's harm, and proving that victims were harmed by paint rather than by some other source of lead encountered in everyday life.

Still, Milwaukee's city council persisted. It decided to follow the approach used against tobacco companies by seeking out a private law firm to represent it on a contingency-fee basis. Thus, the lawsuit will cost Milwaukee virtually nothing and could provide many millions of dollars if it succeeds.

What's in it for the private law firm, which may not be paid if the suit fails? '

This is yet another interesting article we recommend for reading. One important thing, however, must be highlighted.

The "public" did not cheer when looters and liars won on the tobacco industry last year. Those who cheered were the uninformed, the hysterical, the hateful, and all those who got instigated by those corrupt media that sold themselves ethically and intellectually to outright frauds and put up an anti-tobacco show. Those media, in other words, that have proven to be so socially irresponsible as to promote hysteria instead of attempting to tone it down. Whether their name is CBS, BBC, or CNN for example, those media have been - and are - accessories to the implementation of scientific/statistical frauds, as it is clear that their zeal about anti-tobacco greatly exceeds their duty to report. In these times of "creative lawsuits" perhaps some intelligent lawyer could find a way to give the anti-tobacco cartel and its media minions an overdose of their own poisonous medicine.

UNPROVEN THEORY, ENOUGH SAID - (added December 5) - A recent story from The San Francisco Chronicle regarding yet another junk study created by the anti-tobacco cartel is noteworthy in that the reporter stepped ever so slightly out of the anti-smoking media rut and called a spade a spade by rightly labeling the basic contention of the study an "unproven theory". The story is also noteworthy for reporting the actual motive anti-tobacco researchers have for cranking out their endless supply of endlessly debunked studies: It's the money, stupid. Noting that many studies don't support the "unproven theory", a key researcher states that more studies are needed.

The unproven theory, discussed in the story, is that women are more vulnerable to "cancer-causing substances in tobacco smoke". The theory is unproven and, despite the billions of dollars flushed down the anti-tobacco toilet, likely to remain unproven since there are no substances in tobacco smoke that have ever been proved to cause cancer. The search for this Holy Grail has enriched thousands of anti-tobacco stooges and goons for over three decades and will continue until the thugs are prosecuted for fraud.

The researchers from the University of California - San Francisco, home to Stanton Glantz, the granddaddy of statistical manipulation, attempt to cover all bases by dragging in the discredited notion that secondhand smoke also is harder on women than men. As there is no evidence that tobacco smoke contains "cancer-causing substances", it is a double absurdity to lie to the public that secondhand smoke causes cancer.

SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR'S RACE - (added December 5) - As in most political events these days, tobacco can be inserted into San Francisco's run-off election next week for Mayor and District Attorney. Although none of the four candidates involved have uttered a word about tobacco or smoking, three of them are of interest to smokers.

The good news is that mayoral candidate Tom Ammiano is a cigarette smoker and that the incumbent, Willie Brown, is rumored to smoke cigars (illegally) with his cronies in North Beach bars. No matter who wins, the highest office in the city will be occupied by a smoker.

Willie Brown's record regarding smoking is not bad. During his years running the legislature in Sacramento, he supported the right of business owners to set their own smoking policies. He strongly opposed the unpopular 1995 law that bans smoking in restaurants and bars and appears willing to wink at the almost universal non-compliance of the smoking ban in bars.

Tom Ammiano, currently President of the S.F. Board of Supervisors, supported suing the tobacco industry and has voted to deny first amendment rights to billboard companies and stores to advertise cigarettes and tobacco products. Ammiano, and his fellow county supervisors, seem inclined to ignore the widespread smoking going on in San Francisco bars.

The anti-tobacco cartel truly dislikes Willie Brown. Operatives attempted to smear him four years ago when he first ran for mayor. Proving once again that the public truly doesn't care about tobacco, Mayor Brown overwhelmingly won that election. This year the cartel had pretty much been silent about its desire to boot Willie Brown out of office except for initiating a hit piece in a weekly throwaway rag. Mayor Brown must always be credited with cutting off state funding to anti-tobacco goon Stanton Glantz. For that smokers should always be grateful.

The contest for District Attorney is more clear-cut as far as the smoking issue is concerned. Incumbent Terence Hallinan, while on the county board of supervisors, booted smokers out into the cold by voting to ban smoking in restaurants, coffee shops and work places. Whenever presented with an anti-tobacco piece of legislation, the so-called progressive liberal politician voted for repression. Smokers should never forget that Hallinan holds them in contempt. His opponent, a highly regarded veteran of the S.F. District Attorney's Office, Bill Fazio has never held a position where his opinion on tobacco smoking was relevant.

SMOKING ALLOWED AT BAR - (added November 26) - 'Owners of a smoker-friendly Santa Cruz bar believe they have found a loophole around the state's law against lighting up at pubs -- and to prosecutors' frustration, at least one local judge has agreed.'

'By calling their One Double Oh Seven pub a ``club and smoking parlor'' and keeping a humidor amply stocked with cigars, owners Mark and Beverly Swanson say they are exempt from California's no-smoking-in-bars law that took effect Jan. 1, 1998. The law allows smoking in ``tobacco shops and private smokers lounges.'' '

'Prosecutors were stunned but say they have not given up. Barred from appealing the decision by the constitutional double-jeopardy clause, the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office has instead filed a civil lawsuit against the bar alleging unfair business practices.'

"Unfair business practice," huh? How do we call putting bars out of business basing the law on fraudulent science? And how do we call respecting the right of a business owner to allow smoking in his property? Those are question that the liberty-hating, fraud-loving anti-tobacco cartel does not even care to consider.

But smoking is still a right and it always will be -- in the face of all fascists.

A VICTORY FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND AGAINST PROPAGANDA: BAN ON OUTDOOR TOBACCO ADS ILLEGAL - (added November 23) - We are pleased to report that "local bans on outdoor advertising of tobacco products violate federal law", the federal appeals court for nine Western states ruled Friday.

In a 3-0 ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a 1997 ordinance in Tacoma, Wash., violated a 1969 federal law that prohibits local governments from applying any ``requirement or prohibition based on smoking and health'' to cigarette advertising.

A HEALTHY, SAFE - AND MONITORED WORLD: NOT JUST THE DREAM OF THE ANTI-TOBACCO CARTEL
(Added December 5, 1999) - The ACLU Privacy Action Network reports:

Is the secret National Security Agency, working with its counterpart agencies in England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, eavesdropping on private communications from around the world? Credible reports suggest that a global electronic surveillance system -- known by the code name of "ECHELON" -- is indeed capturing satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications worldwide.

Over the past few months, the U.S. House of Representatives has been investigating ECHELON and related activities. As part of these investigations, the House Select Committee on Intelligence requested documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) regarding its operating standards for intelligence systems like ECHELON that may intercept communications of Americans. In a surprising move, NSA officials invoked attorney-client privilege and refused to disclose the documents. This action drew the ire of several members of Congress, including the committee's chairman, Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL).

Many observers, from the ACLU to conservative Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), are calling Congress to conduct further inquiries into the workings of this global surveillance system. You can read more about ECHELON and send a letter to Congress supporting further investigations into its activities at our action alert:

http://www.aclu.org/action/echelon106.html

In addition, the ACLU has launched a special website detailing the possible threats of ECHELON and other research on the program. The website can be found at:

http://www.echelonwatch.org

- STAND UP TO THE NAZIS, MAKE THEM SMELL YOUR BREATH (Added December 5, 1999) - "A major problem with the smoking issue is that smokers have been cowed into believing they're doing something wrong. I say balderdash. Cigarette smoking has always been an acceptable part of American life... America's nearly 50 million smokers should not timidly comply with one attack after another."

Far too often smokers apologize for enjoying the inocuous pleasure of smoking tobacco and tolerate the nonsense propagated by anti-tobacco special interests. Smokers don't want to make waves or rock the boat. Innate good manners and general geniality have brought smokers to the point where actual violence and imprisonment are just around the corner.

This article by Walter Williams not only enumerates some of the most outrageous injustices foisted upon smokers, but, very refreshingly, presents a call to smokers to stop groveling and stand up for their rights as American citizens.

Splendid article by the national post says it all: criminals like (and hire) other criminals. What else to expect from an anti-tobacco government? - (Added December 3, 1999) - BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE INSIDER - Many have spoken against anti-tobacco gangster Jeffrey Wigand, recently hired by other anti-tobacco gangster, no less than Alan Rock, Health Minister of Canada. Do you think we are ranting? Not at all. Look at the facts.

Here is the section dedicated to the pathetic Insider movie saga. We have just added the article of the National Post. But don't forget to read the rest. Wingand is a true scum, apparently complete with criminal record, including physical abuse. And he fits perfectly with the Canadian scum that has hired him, as well as the Disney one that, using to perfection the Liberal scale of values, has made a hero out of a petty criminal.

US SUPREME COURT ON FDA: THINGS ARE LOOKING GOOD FOR LIBERTY -- AND BAD FOR THE ANTI-TOBACCO CARTEL (Added December 3, 1999) - JUSTICES WARY OF FDA REGULATING NICOTINE and SMOKED OUT - "The Supreme Court was highly skeptical yesterday of the Food and Drug Administration's claim that it can regulate cigarettes, suggesting a major setback for the Clinton administration's efforts to restrain the tobacco industry."

"During one of the most vigorous oral arguments at the court in months, the justices suggested by their questions that they were almost certain to invalidate the FDA's watershed effort to regulate the nicotine in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco as a drug."

While relieved to hear those words, let's light no cigars yet, folks.

But let us keep them moist just in case we get a great Christmas gift!

THE GREAT DISTORTION (Added December 2, 1999) - THE SMOKING EPIDEMIC: DEATH AND SICKNESS AMONG AUSTRALIAN SMOKERS - This paper actually belongs to The Evidence - Tobacco-Attributed Deaths, and it has been posted in that section of our site as well. The paper, however, covers more than the statistical frauds about the so-called "tobacco-related" deaths.

This authoritative paper concerns also the Great Anti-Smoking Scientific Fraud in general. Year after year, fraud after fraud, the anti-tobacco cartel has managed to construct such a complex and intertwined building of misinformation that ranges from "creative interpretation" to outright fraud, it is now virtually impossible to demolish it without huge analysis that the masses have neither the time nor the qualifications to understand.

This is the colossal problem facing those who are dedicated to the exposure of the anti-tobacco frauds. How is it possible to demonstrate to the layperson decades of systematic scientific deceit and sloppy, biased work? Politicians and lay people are intimidated by the massive amount of information created by the anti-tobacco cartel and most of them accept it on the basis of "faith," and as confirmation of the popular and undefined "smoking is no good for you" folklore.

Nevertheless, starting with the 1964 Surgeon General Report, we have nothing but speculations (the wildest the better) that have been insufficiently challenged and, at first, have been ignored by mass-media. That is turn has given the cartel plenty of time to consolidate those lies, and let them become the "proof" upon which more and more lies and speculations were (and are continuously) built.

It may well be that smoking is responsible for some disease. But when faced with such massive amounts of deception by the very establishment that cannot actually prove just ONE of the claims in any orthodox scientific way except with the use of speculative epidemiology, it is difficult to detect the shreds of truth that may lay in the enmeshed fabric of lies.

AS WE SAID, SMOKERS ARE GETTING SMARTER (Added December 2, 1999) - FEWER NOW TRYING TO STOP SMOKING - Finally, everywhere in the world smokers are paying less and less attention to the anti-tobacco cartel's propaganda of slogans and scientific frauds and go about their smoking business. This is a great concern for the anti-smoking marionettes and their pharmaceutical moppeteers.

" Dr Luke Clancy, chairman of the anti-smoking group ASH, said 17 per cent of smokers were trying to give up; two years ago the figure was 23 per cent."

"He was presenting the results of an independent survey of 1,400 adults carried out on behalf of the nicotine substitute manufacturer, Nicorette."

HA, HA, HA!! -- Independent survey paid by the pharmaceuticals! We are in stitches! Has Nicorette paid for this article too? What is the percentage that directly or indirectly goes into the pockets of ASH? Come on, ASH, this is the question: Do you get any money, directly or indirectly, from the pharmaceutical industry? Yes/no please. And if yes, how much? FORCES gets nothing from the tobacco industry: we are "clean," and truly independent. The WHO gets paid by the pharmaceuticals, and that's declared. At least, we know that what the WHO says is what the Drugs Lords say. What about you?

Even though it is amply demonstrated that quit-smoking patches have about the effect of a band aid on quitting smoking, the pharmaceutical industry, while financing the cartel and pumping out junk science on "tobacco-related diseases," presents the latest antismoking gimmick: Nicorette Microtabs! A nicotine "substitute," it is a tiny tablet which is placed under the tongue and allowed to dissolve for 20 to 30 minutes. Of course, these dishonest people keep defrauding the public by implying that smoking is about nicotine, while it is not.

So smokers, instead of feeling guilty and trying to quit, just keep quitting to listen to the anti-tobacco cartel and to the multinationals behind it. Just keep puffing and enjoy life. You know, you will even out-live the anti-tobacco cartel!