The Right To Smoke: A Christian View - July 13 - "If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? (1 Cor., 14:8) - ...This struggle is between the advocates of authority and the advocates of freedom. On the one side, there are the British Medical Association, representing the doctors, and the small pressure group, Action on Smoking and Health, representing itself. ... On the other side is an as yet loose coalition of committed smokers and libertarians, " says Sean Gabb. How true. David and Goliath. The fight for truth and liberty has always been an uphill one - and that is the very reason why those without spine and guts line themselves up with the powerful liars and oppressors. 

"This, then, is what can be said about smoking. It is not an addiction destructive of will and reason. It may or may not even have certain short-term therapeutic merits. In so far as it is otherwise an unnatural act, it is no worse than coal mining. On Christian grounds, there is nothing to be said against it. It is an indifferent activity. On the matter of legislative control, those Christian advocates who are not merely putting a religious gloss on their secular views are guilty of a fundamental misconception - that it is the duty of government to make people good." True again. A government that presumes to know what good is, and imposes it on the citizens with laws and lies is, itself, absolute evil -- and as such, it has to be fought without compromise. To that end, it is imperative that smokers, and other categories of the oppressed, stop believing the lies they hear; that they stop being afraid of "authorities" who oppress them with their own money; that they organise politically and financially to destroy -- not just contain -- what public health has turned into, before it destroys freedom and self-determination, in the same way it has already and irreparably compromised the integrity of science.

QUESTIONING OBSCENE LAWYER FEES - Added July 12 - “We think, from a preliminary evaluation of the public records in the area, that a small number of lawyers worked together to try to monopolize the market for representing states in the lawsuits against tobacco,” said Jim Wootton, president of the Institute for Legal Reform. “We further think that they designed the settlement agreement so their fees would avoid the normal scrutiny of the government. That’s pretty clear on the face of it. The question is whether or not they did anything that was either illegal or unethical in the process.” 

“If we allow these trial lawyers to collect this massive windfall, the damage to our economy could be incalculable,” Donohue said. “They have made no secret of the fact that those billions of dollars are earmarked for new causes of action, with numerous businesses and industries on their ‘hit’ list. The threat is real and no industry is immune.” 

No question that the insider deals concocted by trial lawyers and their partners in the state houses are unethical.  It's a good bet that many of the outrageous shenanigans foisted upon the public are also illegal.  There is no question that what goes on in the United States courts would not be tolerated anywhere else.

The Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to challenge Congress to do something about the massive shakedowns happening in this country.  They have a tough road ahead since the Democrats are owned lock, stock and barrel by the trial lawyers while the Republicans are clueless on how to make political over the public's growing disgust with legal thievery.

WASTED TIME AND ENERGY IN THE TOBACCO WARS - Added July 12 -  Consider. Any state that wants to ban cigarettes can do so. The states don't because taxes on cigarettes fill their treasuries. So while states let sales of cigarettes stay legal, they harass the people who use and make them. 

Anti-tobacco politicians in states like California, Massachusetts and Utah fulminate like Cotton Mather against smoking and smokers but never want to back up their righteous indignation with banning the sale of the evil weed from their states.  In a rare case of having their cake and eating it too, the poseurs polish their halos while counting on the filthy lucre of the tobacco trade to balance their budgets.

This excellent opinion piece by Froma Harrop exposes the Kabuki ritual that passes for public policy.  Especially delicious are her comments about David Kessler, the former Czar at the Food and Drug Administration, whose quest to drive the tobacco industry out of business took a physical toll and played havoc with his personal life.

SMOKIN' IN L.A. - Added July 12 - This hilarious article from The Los Angeles Times requires very few comments.  Read it and laugh.  Remember the over-the-top foolishness whenever Californians demand to be taken seriously.

SMOKE COPS ON THE PROWL

California is in big trouble.  Young people surviving 12 years of the state's public schools are fortunate if they can read.  Power is unreliable and becoming very expensive.  The power crisis is responsible for the evaporation of the hefty state surplus.  Rules and regulations are driving out business and the state is on the verge of descending into Third World status but without the charm many Third World nations enjoy.

The keystone kops routine the two smoke cops perform for laughs is a poor substitute of what the citizens of Los Angeles expect from their taxes.

LUCAS COUNTY SMOKING BAN HALTED - Added July 12 -"It’s a bigger issue than smoking. I don’t believe the government should tell us what to do without voting on it.  The government shouldn’t make up my mind for me."

"We don’t live in Russia.  Screw the government because they don’t run my life."

Glen Sterling said he doubted the ban was even enforceable because most people would ignore it. And if someone tried to enforce it, he said: "There will be violence."

With the exception of the slam against Russia, a country that in many ways has more freedom than many parts of the United States, these comments pretty well sum up what is wrong with the takeover of public health policy by the anti-tobacco enterprise.  In Ohio's Lucas County a draconian California-type ban has been put on hold pending action - or non-action - by the state's supreme court.

The so-called civic leaders of Lucas county rolled over when the Board of Health, an un-elected gaggle of 1960's refugees, lied through their teeth about secondhand smoke and imposed the ban despite widespread abhorrence with the government taking over private property for absolutely no good reason.  For now Toledo and Lucas County remain free but should the Supreme Court refuse to take the case or, worse, rule in favor of the nomenklatura controlling the Board of Health the third quote above may become prophetic.

BOCA RATON LURCHES INTO TERMINAL STUPIDITY - Added July 12 - In Spanish the town's name is Rat's Mouth and its leaders have taken that busy rodent to heart as they contemplate banning smoking from the great outdoors.  The ban is the brainchild of the mayor who is apoplectic over of the youth-corrupting sight of adults taking a drag off a cigarette.   Several other City Hall types see nothing wrong with telling their constituents to go to hell including one genius who likes the idea of the ban because he once ate his mother's cigarette and got sick.

Whether this insanity passes or not, one thing is certain.  The ban will be ignored just as the bans in San Francisco playgrounds are honored more in the breach than in compliance.  Outdoor smoking bans join the growing list of stupid laws that make law abiding citizens criminals and lead to widespread contempt of all laws, the stupid politicians who pass them and the society that refuses to throw the bums out of office.

BIG BROTHER IN THE HOUSE - Added July 12 -In a study in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics, researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Harvard affiliate, tried to change the habits of 291 low-income parents or caregivers in Boston and Providence over three years. The team installed nicotine monitors in the homes of the study's subjects as a way to measure the level of smoke in the air. 

Next, the researchers used a technique known as motivational interviewing, in which the goal was to avoid overt persuasion but instead provide information that might make people change their behavior.

What sounds like a plot for a futurist novel about a planet full of sheep disguised as human beings, anti-tobacco proposes one of the most bizarre scenarios ever deviced by a group of parasites known for bizarre behavior.  Poor Harvard!  Before anti-tobacco is finished even that one-time great university's reputation will be flushed down the toilet.

Lead author Karen Emmons says her experiment proves that children's exposure to secondhand smoke can be reduced.  The next step for social fascists of Emmons stripe is to ELIMINATE completely children's exposure to secondhand smoke by eliminating the parents.

HIGH-PROFILE FIBS FEED PUBLIC CYNICISM  - Added July 10 - "A fresh batch of high-profile liars have been caught with their integrity down, some confessing, some just languishing in an advanced state of embarrassment. The reasons they fib are often complex, say social scientists who monitor such things. And yes, it does matter. People do care. It all adds up — or comes down — to more fodder to feed an increasingly cynical society." ...  ' It all adds up. "We have become desensitized to the enormous significance of lying," says Michael Josephson of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey, Calif. "The effects are all destructive, generally lowering the level of trust in anything we read or hear." The cumulative effect is to give everyone permission to lie, Josephson says, because the powerful do. For only the second time in 50 years, ethics and morality near the top of the list of what the public regards as the most important problems facing the country, says pollster George Gallup Jr. "I think the public is alarmed. More than three-quarters (78%) say our moral values are somewhat or very weak." Public lying is sapping the nation's strength, says Gerald Celente of Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. "There is a moral and spiritual vacuum reflected in all aspects of society. Lying and cheating is permissible." ' 

We know that very, very well. All it takes, is a look at the lies about tobacco: institutionalized, globalized, and heavily financed, they feed an international industry based on conning and deceit to promote a financial and political agenda. This article examines the social cancer of public lies very well, and it puts its finger on the very core of today's public health misguided attitude: "...And some lies can be justified if they serve the higher good, says John Carlson of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life." 

Bingo! And >> WHO << is to establish what is the "higher good," Mr. Carlson? Certainly not to people who are the victims of those lies -- the small people, that is -- those who have NO POWER, and no say. It follows that the "right to lie for the higher good" is reserved to those who have political and financial clout - such as, in the case of smoking, the World Health Organization, for example - which can get away with FALSE information, and even be supported by most of the media to do so. As long as we believe that public lies for the "higher good" are justifiable, we will always have a society that is rotten at its very core, and an epidemic of corruption abouth which we love to whine, but are unwilling to eradicate. Although it would be naive to expect a totally "clean" system, as power and corruption have always been one the consequence of the other, today we have passed all safety limits -- and THAT is the problem. A ray of hope comes from the last sentence of the article: '... But it will get harder to fudge, Farley says. This is the era of the Internet. "We live in a much more scrutinized society. We are relentless voyeurs into the lives of people. It is getting harder to hide these things." ' That's why FORCES is here, proud to be hated by all antismokers for bringing the truth to kids and adults.

A KILLER LURKING IN THE ROOM - Added July 10 -  

A LIAR LURKING IN OUR LIVING ROOMS

ABC News has started a new round of false information about smoking and passive smoke. This media servant of political correctness and of the pharmaceutically-funded agenda of disinformation is consciously lying to Americans and to the world about smoking -- and it does not even mention any opposition to the health nazi's party line. This is the kind of garbage information this commercial network sells to the public to cater to the pharmaceutical advertising budgets and to political correctnes. There is no plainer way to put it: ABC is not to be believed. Here is the list of ABC lies on passive smoking alone. We are neglecting the rest of ABC's disinformation packet for reasons of space.

Here is the reply of ABC to FORCES's documentation:

Hello, 

Thank you for contacting us. 

We appreciate your comments and your feedback to improve the quality of our services. We will forward your e-mail to the appropriate department for review. 

Regards, 
Julie 
ABCNews.com 
http://abcnews.go.com/ 

A standard letter is the reply to FORCES's pointing of the most colossal fraud of the century. ABC may as well write as follows: "Thank you for letting us know that you have realised we are part of the Fraud of the Century. We believe that consciously giving false information to the public for its own good is right, and moral. We will continue to lie to the public for as long as we are able."

BAYOU SHAKEDOWN - Added July 10 - In Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" the White Queen tells Alice that she begins her day by believing at least one impossible thing.  Lately anti-tobacco is asking the public to start its day the same way.

In early June the National Cancer Institute released data that claimed to show that lung cancer rates and deaths are declining throughout the United States.  NCI, of course, attributed this to a 20 year decline in smoking rates.  Picking up that ball, anti-tobacco interests in California spun the figures in an obvious attempt to grab more public dollars for anti-tobacco education efforts.  Anti-tobacco noted that although lung cancer rates were declining everywhere and smoking rates were also declining everywhere, in California both declines were greater than in the nation as a whole because of the efficacy of the anti-tobacco campaigns.

A few weeks later anti-tobacco interests in Wisconsin issued a study that claimed lung cancer rates are rising in the state at a higher rate than the rise in the rest of the United States.  The Wisconsin anti-tobacco crowd didn't bother explaining how lung cancer rates are rising in Wisconsin despite a 20-year decline in smoking rates, nor did it note the discrepancy between the NCI's report showing declining rates everywhere with Wisconsin's message of rising national lung cancer rates.

Now from Louisiana comes a new conflicted message regarding cancer and smoking.  Anti-tobacco repeats the NCI's claim that cancer rates are declining throughout the country but sadly notes that in Louisiana cancer rates are not falling.  Anti-tobacco's Louisiana division spins these circumstances by asserting that smoking plays a large part in why the cancer death rates are not falling.  Louisiana's grant junkies don't explain why cancer rates are steady despite the 20-year-smoking rate decline but do indulge themselves in some corporation bashing and racial rabble rousing in an attempt to explain why black men, who smoke more than white men, have less cancer.

"If we had all the money in the world and we could fix this, we would somehow ban cigarette smoking and screen everyone for the cancers that are easily detected — such as breast, cervical, prostate, colorectal and skin cancers," says one operative.  "We could significantly reduce it through a preventative health program"

Both researchers also wonder if the money from the state’s share of the tobacco case settlement will end up paying for either better health screening or education.

In short, these studies are a garbage heap of conflicting results on multitudes of points but, in the end, are clear as day on the most important point to anti-tobacco: Give us more money.

1984 REDUX - Added July 9 - The Tampa, Florida, city council is backpedaling furiously over a decision made in May to install high-tech surveillance cameras throughout the city as a crime fighting measure.  The cameras are designed to scan faces and match them against a massive database.

After a massive negative reaction, the council members now claim they didn't know what they were voting for back in May.  Some are demanding that the contract with the camera providers be terminated.

The cameras are uncomfortably reminiscent of the telescreens that were ubiquitous in George Orwell's "1984".  Placed throughout public spaces as well as in each citizen's home, the cameras kept the citizenry in line.  What was chilling and somewhat preposterous in a work of fiction is all too possible with the creed of "anything for safety" that is running rampant in the United States.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. "

Benjamin Franklin
--Historical Review of Pennsylvania. 

BLOWING SMOKE ABOUT CENSORSHIP - Added July 9 - Freedom of speech OR antismoking: "The 1st Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech means we have to put up with all sorts of messages from people whose views we find vile, offensive, sickening and even dangerous. Nazis, communists, pornographers, World Wrestling Federation stars and Bill O'Reilly are all free to speak. But when it comes to another despised minority, the tobacco industry, the state of Massachusetts has pursued a simple policy: Shut up." ... "But the real point is to suppress communication because the government thinks it might have the wrong effects." ... "Ads that make smoking seem nauseating and destructive are allowed. Ads that make it seem attractive and cool are not. Only in the commercial realm would anyone even try to defend this approach, which amounts to gagging those with one point of view." ... "Of course children are already bombarded with highly visible enticements for other products, many of which they are not old enough to use--beer, cars, R-rated movies, mortgage loans and the like. If Massachusetts wants to shield kids from all of these appeals, it had better start digging a lot of caves to house its juvenile population." ... "The state's approach was so egregious that all nine justices found it unconstitutional."

ANTI-SMOKING POLICY REMINISCENT OF '3RD REICH' - Added July 9 - The latest episode of abuse of power by the antismoking bigots has been already commented by FORCES (see below). Now, more free voices raise against it. '...But the policy is drawing fire from constitutional analysts before even taking effect. Bob Levy, senior fellow for constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. policy think-tank, called the policy "absolutely preposterous." Levy also suggested it may be in violation of the 14th Amendment, which states that before someone can be found guilty of a crime, they must receive a fair trial, based on legitimate evidence, and with a jury. "This, I think, crosses the line without any evidence at all that there's an illegal activity going on," Levy said. "If they're caught smoking, then they should be properly disciplined. But to suggest that they should be disciplined because they have an odor in their clothes is unbelievable." ' Quite believable, actually. When it comes to antismoking and contempt of truth and freedom, the sky is the limit.

CHILDREN WHO SMELL OF SMOKE FACE SUSPENSION - Added July 9 - "A school in Massachusetts is threatening to suspend children who smell like cigarettes.Jane Modoono, headteacher at Hopkinton High School, says normal punishments like fines and lectures about health are proving ineffective. Now children caught holding a cigarette or smelling of smoke could face a five-day suspension. ''We want to send a strong message that students cannot smoke,'' Ms Modoono said.Two staff members must confirm the child smells of smoke. And Ms Modoono said it was easy to tell if someone had been smoking or had simply been standing near a smoker." Among the many negative side effects created by the antismoking problem, one of the most annoying is that it has given the opportunity to petulant, powerless and insignificant people like Ms. Modoono to come out of the social closet to which they rightfully belonged, and to download their frustrations on defenceless children, who are not in the position to send to the the real strong message to the bigots busy bodies: "Stay out of my life." As the career of Carry Nation's, devoted anti-alcohol crusader, ended while she was rolling down the stairs thanks to a punch by a bordello maitresse, it is time to deliver that kind of strong message to the crooks and the crusaders who want to run our lives with our money; bigotry and corruption, in fact, understand little else.

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