FORCES - ESSAYS AND ARTICLES

DECEMBER 8, 2000

Big win by big tobacco receives scant coverage - A brief notice from Reuters appeared the last day of November. Perhaps the anti-tobacco press was too busy covering the election crisis to report thoroughly this anti anti-tobacco story. A New York appeals court rejected class action certification for a group of smokers claiming they were harmed by smoking. The court's unanimous decision means that the smokers' claims must be considered individually. In light of the absurd $145-billion award presented to class action participants by a Florida court, the New York ruling bodes well for a return to justice from the fixed verdicts garnering the headlines. Shares for Philip Morris were up 7/8 at $39-5/16 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange, a new 52-week high.

OCTOBER 25, 2000

Antismoking ethics: Christmas comes early for tobacco trial lawyers - According to the Associated Press, an $82.5 million fee awarded to lawyers representing South Carolina against tobacco companies was "fair and reasonable," said two panelists who set the amount. But a third member of the Tobacco Fee Arbitration Panel, which ruled on the fees following a $2.6 billion settlement, said the award was "grossly excessive." Under a $206 billion settlement between 46 states and the tobacco industry over health care costs, South Carolina will receive $2.3 billion over 25 years as well as $357 million in subsidies to tobacco growers. Panel chairman John Calhoun Wells and member Harry Huge praised the eight law firms involved in the 1997 case, saying they had been "torchbearers for not just the South Carolina tobacco farmers but the tobacco farmers in all the states." But dissenting panelist Charles Renfrew, a former U.S. district judge appointed by the tobacco industry, said he was "baffled by the size of the award" and called it "a windfall to South Carolina outside counsel." In "States' Share Blame for Tobacco Lawyer's Greed," Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies Robert A. Levy shows how members of the private bar were hired as government subcontractors with their remuneration tied to the magnitude of their conquest in the tobacco lawsuits. He explains that there is no possible basis for the astronomical fees that are being paid out.

OCTOBER 25, 2000

The intelligence of antismoking bigotry - According to a radio item by Melanie Morgan of SF KSFO radio on 10/25, the California state employees' pension program (CALPERS) is divesting its portfolio of all tobacco company stocks, which is estimated to produce a loss of $30 million dollars to the plan's beneficiaries. This move was supported by former Speaker of the California Assembly, and current SF Mayor Willie Brown, once the biggest recipient in California of campaign donations by tobacco companies. He had also been responsible for the (now-defunct) exclusion of tobacco products from product liability lawsuits, on the grounds that everybody knew tobacco was "risky" to use. His explanation? "Times have changed"!

The intelligence of antismoking bigots requires no further demostration.

APRIL 5, 2000

KALIFORNIA: OWNERS GET AROUND BAN IN SMOKING PARLOR - Although it is quite clear that there is no need for any "protection" against secondhand smoke, surely our readers will appreciate the following AP report:

' Mark and Beverly Swanson are relying on a smokescreen to comply with California's law against lighting up in bars. Under a settlement with prosecutors, the owners of the One Double-Oh Seven Club and Smoking Parlor have agreed to erect a wood and glass partition protecting the bar area from smoke-friendly zone where patrons play pool, ping-pong and darts. The couple said the $30,000 remodeling project will eventually include a state-of-the-art ventilation system.

"I believe we are the first legal bar and smoking parlor in the People's Republic of Neo-Prohibitionist California," said Beverly Swanson. '

MARCH 14, 2000

PHILIP MORRIS: PLAYING THE DIRTY GAME OF ANTITOBACCO - On page 1 of the March 10 issue of the Wall St Journal we read: "GOP lawmakers spurn Philip Morris overtures for antismoking regulations, suspecting a publicity stunt aimed at harming smaller competitors. Lobbyists predict Philip Morris will push for a ban on Internet tobacco sales, which they say would most hurt R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and others." With any morality long gone, the putrid methods of the antitobacco cartel are now adopted by PM to harm its competitors. What can we expect from a corporation that has sold out to scientific frauds, and hatred against those very customers that allow it to survive?

Like a defeated Hitler who killed German civilians when Berlin was surrounded, PM wants to help the antitobacco cartel to destroy the competition, in the hollow hope that it will be the only king of a kingdom without territory.

JANUARY 18, 2000

ASSOCIATED PRESS DOES NOT INVESTIGATE THE TRUTH BEHIND CARTEL OPERATIVES' CLAIMS - An Associated Press story on New Hampshire's proposal on banning smoking in restaurants included patently false claims about secondhand smoke that would embarrass even the most ardent anti-smoking activist. In testifying for the ban, the former president of the New Hampshire Public Health >Association claimed "second-hand smoke kills 78,500 people a year," and "people who wait tables full time boost their chances of getting lung cancer by 50 percent." The AP apparently did not investigate the truth behind these claims and reported no rebuttal to the arguments. ("Proposal would ban smoking at N.H. restaurants," Associated Press, 1/12/00, No link available). When it comes to lies about tobacco, anything goes for the press.

JANUARY 16, 2000

CALIFORNIA: GEORGE RUNNER AGAINST THE CARTEL'S OPPRESSION - California Assemblyman George Runner (R) of the 36th District is taking concerns about ANRF's tax-funded enemies list to the CA Assembly Legislature Assembly Budget Committee of which he is Vice-Chair. He has also promised to support Prop 28.

Californians who want to thank him can do so by mail or fax.

George Runner, Assembly Member
Assembly California Legislature, 36th District
709 West Lancaster Blvd.
Lancaster, CA 93534
FAX: (661)723-6307

JANUARY 7, 2000

VACCINES: THE ULTIMATE BEHAVIOURAL CONTROL - KSFO radio informed its listeners today that antrismoking cartel scientists are working on a vaccine to block the "addiction" of nicotine. This information came on the heels of reading the 21 vaccine shots a child must have [with proof from doctor] in order to be permitted to go to school.

It does not take a genius to see that mandatory vaccinations against tobacco (and other choices) are just around the corner. The use of these vaccines is not just unnecessary, but extremely dangerous because no one knows the lonmg-range effects. Those parents who will refuse to have their children vaccinated will effectively prevent them from going to school. Dissent and choice is to be "vaccinated against", and no one cares about what happens to chirdren in the future as a result of these vaccines. Note that nicotine is also in many vegetables that are eaten daily. Nazi Germany is here in the form of health control -- and nobody is fighting it. For more on this subject, see BEHAVIOURAL VACCINES: GATEWAY TO HELL

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