Pennsylvania Federal Court Judge Rejects Union Fund Class Action Against Philip Morris U.S.A. - NEW YORK, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- "In a ruling that should have widespread implications for tobacco litigation, United States District Court Judge John P. Fullam yesterday dismissed in its entirety, with prejudice, a class action brought by seven union welfare funds in Pennsylvania. The funds were seeking reimbursement for costs attributable to the alleged smoking related illnesses of their members." Used to be looted and abused, it is refreshing to see that some areas of justice are still uncontaminated by the antismoking cancer. May these judges set a shining example for the entire nation, and restore our confidence in due process.

Thank You, Mr. Etlins! - A jury of 11 nonsmokers (did you know that in tobacco cases jurors cannot be smokers? - Justice American style) found Craig Thomas Etlins guilty of disrupting business for smoking in a bar. The sentence will be appealed. Fed up with California's fascism, Mr. Etlins was making a statement by lighting up three cigarettes at the same time, and let them smolder. A deep thank you for your courage and determination, Mr. Etlins. May many be inspired by your example, and fight for the dignity and respect of the most persecuted citizens of this last half century! Article by Geoff Bouchler, Los Angeles Times.

Pack It In - "The correct disposition of the McCain bill is the one that Steve Forbes prescribed for the tax code: Kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it, and start over. Disputes between private parties cannot be resolved in secret negotiations involving attorneys general seeking to replenish their Medicaid coffers, contingency-fee lawyers padding their wallets at public expense, and health groups intent upon imposing their lifestyle choices on the rest of us. It is our courts, not our legislatures, in which the resolution of private disputes should take place. At the very least, the McCain bill should be stamped `Warning: This Legislation Is Dangerous to Your Liberty.' " - By Robert Leavy from the CATO Institute

Politicians' Gold RushMore on greedy anti-tobacco politics in Washington, D.C. "Everyone here claims that what they really care about is 'teen smoking.' And maybe there are five or six people left who really believe that. But for most politicians, this is about the mob psychology of a gold rush. The point is to avoid being trampled while grabbing a share."

Joe Camel Foes Doing The Real Brainwashing - "I distinctly remember a fellow trying to convince me a couple of years ago at the height of Joycelyn Elders' trying to bring down old Joe that Joe Camel was essentially phallic. Yes, that's right, phallic. This fellow was convinced that Joe Camel was an example of subliminal machismo and that the evil corporate enemy had purposely made Joe Camel an example of youthful sexual urgency." A Joe Camel retrospective by Joe Soucheray of the Pioneer Press.

Union's Tobacco Lawsuit Dismissed - Some 40 tobacco lawsuits from all over the United States will be up for grabs in the wake of a Florida decision dismissing claims made by several labor union health care funds. Motions to dismiss are already pending in 18 of these cases. This may not stop employers and healthcare providers from becoming lifestyle police hounding and punishing people for their private habits, but it could avert some nasty legal precedents.

Canada's Anti-Tobacco Senator Pushing Hard For Smokers' Looting - Q: Why does the government need to ban tobacco sponsorships, then tax smokers so that groups that used to be sponsored by tobacco can now b e sponsored by government? A:To obtain more control while looting people, of course. Like every good fascist should do.

Police Officer Speaks Out Against Prohibition - A courageous police constable in Vancouver, B.C. risks his career to speak out about prohibition, "history's most expensive failed social experiment." Const. Gil Puder delivered his paper entitled "Recovering Our Honor: Why Policing Must Reject the 'War on Drugs'," at a Vancouver conference earlier this week despite objections from the Vancouver police department.

Alcohol Moves Forward On Hit List - Here it comes . . . the new-style prohibitionists have their next big-money target in sight: "In 'Big Booze,' the public health mob has more and richer targets even than tobacco; think of the penance taxes to be had from Seagram, Anheuser-Busch, Gallo, Coors, Brown-Forman. The politicians will all drink to that."

Public Sees Tax Greed Behind Smokescreen - You can fool some of the people some of the time, but people simply aren't buying the politicians' cynical and hypocritical save-the-children argument when it comes to federal tobacco legislation. According to a newly-released NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, most people think the legislative proposal is about TAX GREED. (Note the archive photo of a cigar-chomping Clinton. Maybe he should quit in order to become a "better role model" if he's serious about tobacco legislation as a once-in-a-generation golden opportunity to save the nation's youth. Just a thought.)

Warning: Zealotry May Be Hazardous - In this article from The Washington Post, Fred Barbash describes the dangers represented by the antismoking mob with great skill. However, remarks like "I am grateful that the [antismoking] movement has made it impossible for me to smoke in my office and in restaurants", and "Smoking is a terrible thing. Smoking stinks" simply show the puritanical/protestant guilt-ridden "mea culpa" mentality at the base of the many social persecutions in USA and Canada. You cannot rely on prohibition to make you quit, Fred. You rely on the inner strength that you obviously don't have.
To many of us, smoking is enjoyable and gratifying. An awareness of the possible consequences of smoking (and, unfortunately, a good deal of misinformation) has been drummed into our ears ad nauseum. Yet many smokers are willing to take the risks. So, thanks for the good arguments against the mobs, Fred -- but BUZZ OFF WITH YOUR MORALIZATION, even if you are a smoker. It's tiresome to read editorialists who feel that they must APOLOGIZE before making important arguments about the threat to liberty or due process that anti-tobacco represents. One cannot convincingly stand up for basic principles by being "politically correct" and standing in the middle to kiss both cheeks ... because, since there is a crack in between them, what does that make you?

The Rich Get Richer - The criminal looting of society perpetrated by the antismoking leeches and their lawyers is described in this article form the Free Press in Washington (Robert A. Rankin). You have to read this!

ANTISMOKING CANCER EXPANDS TO SOUTH AFRICA? Freedom Clouded by Smoke - Championed by North American countries, the anti-tobacco cancer expands to South Africa - but there is much resistance to the suppression of freedom. Apartheid is still too fresh in the minds of South Africans. Anthony Norton writes on the dangers of controlling commercial freedom of expression. "If government is permitted to erode freedom of expression under the guise of safeguarding the public's interest, it will not be long before they will turn their attention to artistic expression and other forms of expression which could be said to be 'dangerous' to public morals."

Attack of the Berkeley Smoke Police - It is easy to predict the next moves of the fascists. One has to follow the logical steps of a mentality that does not know when to stop. It is foolish to think that fascism stops at our doorstep, that "they wouldn't dare to cross the line". That is just an excuse to justify our inaction. Once again as predicted, the nazis are knocking at the door of citizens, as William Rusher explains in this article about Mr. Brooks Alexander of Berkeley, California, who finally found the guts to slam the door in the face of oppression and intimidation. We may just add that in our view, Mr. Brooks Alexander has been WAY too accommodating already.

Mr. Commonsense Marches on Washington - The outrageous McCain tobacco bill is bringing an army of unlikely allies together in an effort to defeat one of the most dangerous and confiscatory initiatives undertaken by the United States government against its citizens and its business community. The American Civil Liberties Union, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Tax Reform, the restaurant industry, the retail and food distribution industry, the alcohol industry, and many of the nation's smokers are beginning to speak out - loudly, and often for very different reasons - about a proposal that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's executive vice-president has said will create "the largest transfer of wealth ever."

Anti-Tobacco Is Killing Due Process and the Separation of Powers - In this analysis of the disgrace that is "tobacco politics, Maryland style," Robert A. Levy, writing in the Washington Times, points to the serious threat that anti-tobacco has become to due process, constitutionality, and liberty. We can only restate what we have said so many times before, and make a special appeal to new readers who may be ignorant of the sordid details of anti-tobacco politics: This IS NOT ABOUT HEALTH. It is ABOUT MONEY and about CREATING A NEW PARADIGM FOR THE CONCENTRATION OF POWER. Citizens, act to stop the crazed bandwagon before it rolls up to your door. "In effect, Mr. Curran and his minions in the legislature are instructing the judiciary how a court case already under way should be resolved - an unprecedented erosion of the separation of powers doctrine and an unconscionable abridgment of due process."

"Government... Seeks to Enrich Itself at the Expenses of Tobacco Consumers" - Jerry Heaster of The Kansas City Star slams the truth home to those who think that the anti-tobacco feeding frenzy will make for responsible public policy: "This crusade isn't about saving children from tobacco enslavement. Nor is it about recouping tax money spent by government on health care for tobacco users. It's about greed, and greedy politicians will never be mistaken for angels." "Government not only seeks to enrich itself at the expense of tobacco consumers, but also sees its war against tobacco as an opportunity to expand police-state powers."

Soviet-Style Redefinition of "Normality" Is a Canadian Government Priority - Attention, Canadians: Celebrate the "normal"! And let's lead a Cultural Revolution to "denormalize" that which should not be "normal"! Canadian taxpayers may pay for demonization...oops!... "denormalization" advertising as the federal health ministry considers ways to spend about $50 million in anti-tobacco measures. One idea: ads depicting fictitious scenes of plotting, conniving, evil tobacco executives. Garfield Mahood, splendid representative of a putrid antismoking racket that must be fought and prosecuted to extinction, says: "We're calling on the Health Department to take on big tobacco in a massive media campaign". "The advertising should be part of a larger campaign to denormalize smoking within a society," says one proponent of the made-in-the-U.S.A. ads. It is difficult to believe that anyone acting in good faith could call this education. Is this the first of many "denormalization" campaigns? (Didn't they used to call it "re-education"?)

As much as it may be tempting for decent citizens to take the "high road" and ignore this scum, we cannot ignore the endorsing of intolerance by the government as a means to condition the population to comply with its dogma. It is therefore necessary to fight fire with fire.

Dismissed! U.S. Federal Judge Refuses to Overturn Common Law Rules for Anti-tobacco Suit - Labor union health care funders went to court in Florida to try to get money from the tobacco industry, but a federal judge has pushed them firmly out the door. "The fact that the tobacco industry has recently become very unpopular ... is insufficient ground for this court to overturn well-established common law rules," U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp wrote in his ruling. The judge noted that "[t]he tobacco industry has, as of late, become the whipping boy of American political discourse." Now 40 similar suits from all over the U.S. could be in trouble. (Karen Testa/AP)

Sullum "Vividly Demonstrates" Failures of Antismoking Crusade - "Sullum is not a polemicist, and he is not encouraging anyone who reads his book to rush out for a pack of Camels. He wants Americans to make health decisions on their own and for themselves, and he wants an end to smoking hysteria, which, as he vividly demonstrates, has come and gone at different times in history without any lasting result."