|
 June
25 - Hidden
Dangers Lurk In The Playground -
"The majority of public playgrounds in the United States pose hidden
dangers that result in injuries to tens of thousands of children each year, two
consumer watchdog groups said Thursday. Playgrounds can be wonderful
places for children to have fun and face new challenges, but far too many
playgrounds contain dangers that can injure and even kill," said Rachel
Weintraub, staff attorney for U.S. PIRG and co-author of the report."
Just who the hell are these "watchdogs"
who travel the country, looking for any item that could possible, just maybe
injure even one person? No one elected them but they seem to have more
power than any local official. The playgrounds of a generation ago have
almost disappeared under the onslaughts of "watchdog" groups and their
cohorts, the trial lawyers. Because of potential liability, municipalities
have over the years neutered the playgrounds, eliminating popular attractions
and reducing them to little more than big infant playpens. Now even those
playgrounds must be downgraded again to satisfy the nannies who erroneously
believe that they can reduce the number of injuries to zero.
Children do need to be protected but the number
of them injured, even in the bad old days of robust playground equipment, pales
in comparison to the number who are injured or even killed at home. Big
Health and the lawyers have convinced the country that accidents are completely
preventable, that living must carry absolutely no risk and that a all powerful
and benevolent state must have complete control.
June
25 - Federal
Regulation Of Video Games Proposed -
"A California congressman
is fighting to make it tougher for kids to get their hands on video games
dripping with blood, guts and violent crimes. Rep.
Joe Baca is afraid the industry's self-imposed games ratings system isn't
working and wants to make it a federal offense to sell or rent graphically
violent games to minors."
Just what we need! Another law to protect
"the children". Joe Baca should just cut to the chase and write
a law that turns over every child under 18 to be raised by the government.
For the Baca's of the world, parents are apparently irrelevant and certainly not
to be trusted with guarding the best interests of their children. That he
is appalled by some of the video game fare is reason alone to ban the games to
all kids. For such a scheme to work, of course, a governing authority
would have to be set up to judge the content of the videos. Before long
the primary focus would be to curb any theme that was politically correct to the
elite. Baca's censorship plan is a very bad idea and should be put out of
its misery.
June
25 - A
New Cigarette Pack Hits The Market -
In what is being considered the greatest innovation since the flip-top box, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJRT) has introduced a flask-shaped cigarette pack dubbed the Evo Flask in the United States. The pack, made of recyclable plastic, is water-resistant and crushproof and has a slim, curved design that the company
says fits comfortably inside pant or shirt pockets. The pack is being used for a line extension of the Winston brand—the Winston Evo Flask, with Evo standing for “evolved.” The packs hit shelves this month in limited distribution nationwide.
“The introduction of the Evo Flask packaging marks the first dramatic redesign of the cigarette box in more than 30 years by a major U.S. cigarette manufacturer,” says Edmund C. “Ned” Leary, Reynolds Tobacco’s senior vice president of marketing. “The Flask packaging gives meaningful performance benefits to adult smokers. As many adult smokers have told us in focus group testing, the introduction of Winston Evo Flask packaging means the end of smashed cigarettes.”
| Cigarette pack
innovations |
|
1913 -- Camel’s packaging used a new technique called the “cup” package. Paper and foil were wrapped around the cigarettes to create a soft, pliable pack that protected the cigarettes. (Previously boxes and tins were the containers of choice.) The cup became the industry standard. RJR introduces Reyno in a slide box and Red Kamel in a hinge-top box.
1933 -- Camel became the first cigarette to be sold in a one-piece 10-pack carton. This soon became the industry standard and continues today.
1955 -- Marlboro flip-top box was introduced. (RJR’s Winston would not appear in a box until 1957.)
1970s -- Philip Morris developed/used the Humiflex pack, an injection-molded, plastic flip-top box. It was more commonly referred to as “the sport pack.”
2002 -- Winston introduces Evo Flask in an injection-molded plastic pack. |
June
25 - Vaccinating
Temptation Away -
"Researchers believe they can create a vaccine which could prevent
teenagers taking up smoking. The vaccine, reports New Scientist magazine,
would work by blocking the pleasurable effect of nicotine on the brain. Two
pharmaceutical companies, Florida-based Nabi, and the UK's Xenova, are racing to
produce a vaccine. And both say it is possible that children could be
vaccinated one day to prevent them picking up the habit in the first
place."
Move over snake-oil
salesmen. The pharmaceuticals are muscling in on your territories.
Although the number of parents that would assuage their hysteria over smoking by
vaccinating their children is surely miniscule, the BBC, as always, is in full
suck up mode to the pharmaceuticals. In all seriousness the story posits
the ridiculous theory that injecting people to inhibit normal chemical reactions
will be some panacea for the so-called problem of underage smoking. As
unbelievable as the slack-jawed credulousness of the BBC is the quote by a
British anti-tobacco operative who is cool to the idea of vaccinating people to
keep them from smoking:
Clive Bates, from Action on
Smoking and Health said, "Things such as vaccines all carry risks. We need
to walk before we can run, and help those people who are addicted to tobacco and
trying to give up. Obviously, pharmaceutical companies are trying to find
the biggest possible market for their product."
As a full time shill for Big Drugs, it's a safe
bet that Bates would change his tune if the vaccine manufacturer offered ASH a
cut. Bates reluctance to endorse the vaccine is due to it being offered by
the wrong drug company.
June
24 - The Health and Human Services committee, California Senate, will hear
Assemblyman Koretz' bill to raise the purchase age for tobacco from 18 to
21. The committee meets this Wednesday at 1:30pm in room 4203 at the State
Capital. People are urged to attend and inform the legislators what they
think of this bill. For more information call, (916) 445-5965.
Editorial
- Bakersfield Californian
June
24 - Selective
Amnesia -
"On March 8th, 1998 the London Times and Electronic Telegraph (which is the Internet arm of the Daily
Telegraph, also in London) ran a story detailing a study on the health effects of ETS that had been done by
the WHO. What is notable about the study (besides the organization conducting it) is that it is to date the
largest study on ETS, drawing on data from seven European countries. What's also notable is that it
examined exposure to ETS in both the home and the workplace (all previous ETS studies have examined ETS
exposure only among nonsmoking spouses in the home). And what were the conclusions? That ETS does not pose
ANY lung cancer risk to nonsmokers, and even more surprising may actually offer some protective effect
(tobacco smoke has long been known to be a deterrent to the spread of airborne diseases). Furthermore,
childhood exposure to ETS was not shown to increase lung cancer risk
either."
Because the WHO's own research contradicted its anti-tobacco and
anti-smoker agenda, the organization attempted to bury the study. That
deception failed because the results were reported by the London Times
and Electronic Telegraph. After lamely trying to say that the
results of the study indeed backed up the contention that secondhand smoke
is a hazard, the WHO then refused to discuss the report and will not answer
questions about it. Unaccountable though it is, the WHO cannot wish
its study away. It's latest effort to perpetuate the secondhand smoke
fraud by rehashing the Environmental Protection Agency's report -- a report
that has been vacated by a federal judge -- does not change the facts.
There is no proof that secondhand smoke poses any health hazards.
In addition to its excellent explanation of the WHO study that exonerates
secondhand smoke, Pipe Friendly provides easy-to-understand
information on the EPA's own failed attempts to finger secondhand smoke as a
health hazard.
June
24 - Consider The Source Of Funding
- Ted Turner stunned the country in 1997 when, in response to the perennial
argument over the United States dues payment to the United Nations, he
pledged one billion dollars from his own fortuned for the
organization. The donation was to be broken up in 10 annual payments
of $100-million.
Speaking at a dinner held in New York by the United Nations
Association-USA to honor him for his contribution to the international
community, Turner said of his billion dollar gift:
"This is not going to go for administration. This is only going to
go for programs, programs like refugees, cleaning up land mines,
peacekeeping, UNICEF for the children, for diseases, and we're going to have
a committee that will work with a committee of the U.N. The money can only
go to U.N. causes."
Although the U.N. is forbidden to accept donations from individuals or
organizations that are not member countries, Turner's lavish gift could not
be turned down and rules were bent to accommodate it, especially to finance
anti-tobacco activities. Something called "Fund for International
Partnerships" was set up to use Turner's money. In 1998, for
instance, money was shuffled to WHO and UNICEF to promote long-term
strategies to ensure "tobacco-free" children and youth.
Turner has a problem with smoking. His landmark company, CNN, was
one of the first to refuse to hire smokers and appears that he prefers
funding anti-smoking propaganda rather than cleaning up land mines,
eradicating disease and supporting refugees. His anti-tobacco ideology
is a perfect fit for the WHO. Beat of all, the 10 annual installments
of $100 million in Time-Warner stocks will probably save his heirs $100
million in estate taxes.
June
24 - Confronted with disgruntled business owners who are losing money hand
over fist because of an unpopular smoking ban, the Edmonton, Alberta council
responds....with a promise to take a survey of Canadian smoking bans! The
smoking customers are voting with their feet. Bars and restaurants are
going broke. No one, other than paid anti-tobacco operatives, even asked
for the smoking ban. No survey will stop the drain.
See INSIDE
(click What's New)
June
24 - Big
Momma -
New Yorkers can expect a call from the health department asking all
sorts of personal questions. They will be asked whether they drink
alcohol, take drugs, have a doctor, whether they have been sick recently or
suffer from mental illness. And of course they will be asked whether
they smoke.
The nosy survey is the bright idea of the Health Commissioner, Thomas
Frieden who recently announced that smoking would be his top priority.
He says that the survey will allow the health department to track health
conditions throughout the city. The survey supposedly will be
confidential.
Big city health departments throughout the country are becoming the
largest spenders of city money and employ ever larger percentages of the
city workers. They have become fiefdoms within the cities and are
grabbing power at an alarming rate. Not long ago the scheme of a
public health department phoning residents to ask probing questions that are
none of its business would have resulted in the immediate dismissal of the
director. School children used to be taught that the Soviet Union was
the form of government that controls every aspect of its subjects
lives. The Soviet Union is dead but health commissioners such as
Frieden are working overtime to resurrect it in the United States.
June
24 - Your
Body Belongs To The State -
"If you're interested in improving America, you can do so by taking
care of your own body. People ought to work out every day, one way or
another."
So says President Bush, kicking off a new initiative to promote healthier
living. Adhering to the U.S. Constitution would improve America much
more and spare us from the spectacle of our president acting as our
parent. We don't elect presidents to hector us into approved
behavior. No one wants to be in bad health, everyone knows how to stay
fit. Give it a rest and stick to the important things.
President John F. Kennedy began the physical fitness exhortation routine
citing a "crisis" of physically unfit kids. Since then the
country has certainly become more slothful even as the demands to behave
have become more shrill. It can be argued that the overall health of
the country would have been better of government had kept its nose out of
people's private business.
June
24 - Cigarette
Tax Voted Down -
"A calculated move by Gov. John Engler and key Republican lawmakers to push
through a 50-cent tobacco tax hike by offering to fund the 2004 school aid
budget with some of the proceeds, failed to win House approval early this
morning. The cigarette tax increase itself never made it to a vote.
"Democrats refused to buy into the plan, arguing that it was
inappropriate to push through a cigarette tax, which unfairly targets the poor
and middle classes, by offering money for schools in exchange. They called it a
cheap trick on the part of Republicans."
Hurray for the Michigan Democrats. Finally members of the political
party that says it on the side of the "little people" are backup up
that claim. Cigarette taxes are among the most regressive and hit the
poor very hard. Those who can afford the high taxes can afford to buy
them from the internet and avoid all state taxes. Those left to
pay the state tax are those who buy their smokes one pack at a time,
generally the poor. It's long overdue for the Democrats to rediscover
their roots.
As for the Michigan Republicans, embarking on the cigarette tax-hike
craze, it's time to remember that they are not members of the tax and spend
party.
June
24 - Door
Opened For Customers To Sue For Antitrust Violations -
"A
federal appeals court in New York ruled that consumers can sue their local
Baby Bell telephone companies for antitrust violations, potentially exposing
the much-criticized phone companies to a slew of lawsuits."
"The new case involves a class-action
suit brought against Bell Atlantic on behalf of local telephone customers
whose phone companies were Bell Atlantic competitors. The plaintiffs had
alleged that Bell Atlantic didn’t give competitors equal access to its
network as required under telecommunications law, and as a result they
received inferior service."
Although it may seem a stretch, this ruling
could open up challenges to the tobacco settlement. The settlement
required all participating states to enact legislation which forces
cigarette makers who did not sign the agreement to charge the high prices
that the big tobacco companies must charge to pay for the settlement.
Both consumers and the small cigarette companies are subject to an agreement
that they did not sign. Many legal experts have said that the tobacco
settlement violates the country's antitrust laws. There is no federal
law applying to the tobacco settlement on the lines of the
telecommunications law which shields Big Tobacco from antitrust
litigation. So far cases challenging the settlement on antitrust
grounds have been rebuffed by the courts, but the ruling against the local
Bell telephone companies give hope to those looking for a method to overturn
all or part of the tobacco settlement.
June
21 - Smoking While Driving. Not An Issue -
The next time some brain-dead politician proposes a law banning drivers from
smoking to eliminate accidents, refer him to the California Highway
Patrol. According to the CHP, as reported in the Los Angeles Times, 06/18/02,
"For the first time, the CHP documented the types of distractions that resulted in collisions in 2001."
- Animals 76
- Cell phones 913
- Children 328
- Eating 259
- Electronics 81
- Personal grooming 28
- Radio or CD 769
- Reading 168
- Smoking 115
- Other 5227
Further, "A vast majority of the 1,037,277 accidents in California were because of speeding, drinking or dangerous lane changes."
So of all the accidents, distracted by smoking accounts for .0001%
(one-ten-thousandth of a percent).
(Click on image to view previous winners)
June
21 - And the winner is....Stephen Ehardt!
Michigan legislator and pretzel logician.
 Like
too many states, Michigan seeks to solve its fiscal woes by jumping on
the bash-smokers bandwagon. Raising the cigarette tax may be the
last resort, instead of cutting spending, for a scoundrel politician but
since many of the state's Republicans, who control both houses, took the
pledge not to raise taxes, a bit of ethics and logic shuffling must take
place before it can be put over on the voters. Taking the cue from
a society where a spade must never be called a spade, Rep. Ehardt
discovers he can have his cake and eat it too:
"I don't think the cigarette tax is a tax increase. It's a
smoking cessation plan."
Instead of solving the budget deficit, Rep. Ehart endorses a
state-imposed social engineering scheme that, by his own words, will
result not only in a revenue increase of zero, but an elimination of the
current cigarette tax revenue. Is he serious, or is he, God
forbid, less than sincere?
For following a herd of lemmings off the budgetary cliff and
for perverting the language more than the usual political mauling of
meaning, Stephen Ehardt is a hopeless Jackass Of The Week.
June
20 - The
new IARC "study": another compendium of junk science - The International
Agency for Research on Cancer has just issued a brand new "study"
that proves, with "no doubt", that passive smoking "causes"
lung cancer. The study, of course, was commissioned by the World
Health Organisation which, when it comes to tobacco, is the best
possible promotion centre for pharmaceutically-produced smoking cessation
"therapies", as it is on the payroll (oops -- sorry –
"official partner") of the Pharmaceutical Industry to
the tune of nearly 75% of its income. Immediately, the British
antismoking Bulls**t Corporation (BBC) was off and running to, once again,
divulge disinformation in the name of "public health,"
reporting just the voice of one side, and ignoring any opposition, as
if it does not exist. In fact, the public must be conditioned to believe
that there is a consensus - and no scientific dissent at all.
What is this study in reality? Nothing really new. Unlike the
preceding IARC study on passive smoke, which was an original
study and found absolutely no link between passive smoking and lung
cancer, in order to support the passive smoke fraud, IARC
had to turn to the old, well established junk science practice of
meta-analysis. In it, all kinds of frauds can be safely hidden, and
statistical manipulations can be performed galore. In short, this is
the same type of study that, in 1998, earned the EPA
a negative US Federal Court decision on the fraudulent methodologies -
and some of the people who were on the panel of the EPA's fraudulent
study are now on the panel of this new piece of deceit, that
deliberately tends to confuse active smoking risks with passive smoking
ones, basically stating that they are the same, though to a lower degree. No
thresholds are considered - and that is the very foundation of risk
assessment junkscience.
So, when you
cannot prove that passive smoke causes cancer, just use meta-analysis; it
takes time to debunk this kind of fraud, while the political effects have
taken
their course. Once the fraud is exposed, simply make a new
"meta-analysis" study, and carry on. Who is going
to sue the IARC anyway, now that the tobacco industry has been reduced
to silence by the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998? Such an international
lawsuit costs big denaro. And, realistically, who is
going to sue the WHO and the pharmaceutical giants it represents? Easy
answer: no one. So, the fraud now carries on without any significant
opposition, and those who belong behind bars are working hard to put smokers
behind bars instead.
 Fifty
pre-existing studies have been selected for this meta-analysis. Fifty out of
well over 100,
and have been labeled as the most "significant" (those with the
highest risk elevation while ignoring those reporting no risks). But we know that
even those 50 studies do not show any significant increase in risk, and the
honest person may think that by combining 50 studies that do not prove a
significant risk, you end up with something bigger that still does not show
a significant risk. WRONG – that’s where the magic of dishonest
risk assessment comes in. The methodology is intentionally
complicated, so that tricks are hard to spot quickly, and without actually
sifting the data with a fine net, which takes time. To have an idea of how
this corruption works, read this
masterpiece of junk science debunking (click here). Once you are through
reading, sprinkle the IARC "study" with very authoritative
oncologists (the more authoritative the better -- and the closer the
ties they have with Big Pharma), stir well, activate the antismoking media
droids and – voilà! – you have new "proof" that
passive smoking causes cancer – "no doubt". Now
antismoking activists can wave more scientific toilet paper under the nose
of politicians, who think it is real parchment.
Just like the EPA Report of 1993, this IARC "study" has proven nothing.
A 20% relative risk increase for a disease that has
more than 40 known possible causes (lung cancer alone)
has absolutely no meaning, other than showing once again the profoundly rooted corruption
(that now has even reached the UN cancer agency) of international "public
health," a
moppet of the pharmaceutical industry, that does not have to submit to
any ethical, political, or scientific independent scrutiny, for none is
in existence. You can either choose to believe them and to submit to
this health fascism (and even quit with the
help of Big Pharma), or to keep on smoking. We choose the latter, we do
so in public places and with the clear conscience that we harm no one; if
for nothing else, we must do it to honour the (late) real science.
June
20 -
Airline
stewardess: sinusitis? It's passive smoke! Award: 5.5 million
DOLLARS – Once again from Florida, the US antismoking extortion
centre, we
hear of yet another criminal triumph of junk science. Stewardess works for 14
years in airplanes, before the right to smoke is suffocated in 1990. Then she
develops sinusitis. What’s the cause? Why, passive smoke, of course. A
lawsuit is launched against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown
& Williamson Tobacco Corp. and Lorillard, cigarette makers. Of course it is
impossible to know if, in 14 years, all the passengers on the airplanes
smoked only those four brands (there are hundreds), but who cares,
one has to extort money from those who are at hand. But here comes the
interesting part. The woman sues for "only" a million dollars, penny
ante stuff today. One after the other, doctors testify that sinusitis has very
many causes, and that it is impossible to establish that this one has
been "caused" by smoking. In fact there is no scientific proof that
sinusitis is caused by passive smoke – period. But the woman’s lawyers
tell the jury not to believe the doctors. After all, these docs dared to
state something in
favour of the tobacco industry, so the lawyers were able to insinuate that the
medics might be corrupt.
After just 90 minutes in the council chamber, the jury issues the verdict: 5.5
million dollars for the damage "caused" to the woman. The tobacco
lawyers leave the room in disgust, while the woman, in tears, hugs the criminals
who just made her rich. Will there be an appeal in this disgusting case that
spits in the face of science and justice? The tobacco industry has not yet
decided.
Regardless of what happens, this case demonstrates once again (if
any more demonstration is needed) that science and truth have no meaning in the
courtrooms. The criminal antismoking propaganda in the Unites States has
downgraded these trials to the level of the horrible Holy Inquisition trials,
where the witch was supposed to demonstrate her innocence by floating in water
with a mill stone hanging from her neck. The courtrooms have been transformed
into a juridical farce turned to ratify a fanatical economic
and political agenda that has been determined a priori. Science, which is
essential to help clarify matters in such cases, has no place. Once upon a time
witch-hunters were using the Bible; today they use junk science. And yet there are those who
believe that we are no longer in the Middle Ages.
June
20 - Happy
Birthday To An Old, Old Smoker -
Best wishes to John Ingram McMorran, who turned 113 yesterday.
Surrounded by descendents, McMorran was born in 1889, worked in a bomb
factory during World War I (he was too old for the draft) and retired as a
postman when he was 84. Although he quit smoking at age 97, its
clear that more than 80 years of smoking was not bad for his health.
McMorran is one of the many
extremely old people who smoked throughout their lives. They are the
living repudiation to anti-tobacco's lie that smoking leads to an early
death. If smoking is so deadly, smokers should never be among the
ranks of the oldest people on earth. The oldest recorded person, a
French woman named Jeanne Calment, died at 122, after more than a century of
smoking.
For more information, check out WORLD'S
OLDEST -- ALL SMOKERS.
June
20 - Tax
Hikes Send Smokers To The Net -
"This year, according to one study, sales of tobacco on the Internet
will break $1 billion nationally. That figure is forecast to increase
fivefold by 2005. About 3 percent of smokers now buy online, mostly
from shops operated by American Indians on reservations. By 2005, online
sales are forecast to hit 14 percent, according to the study by Forrester
Research, a Massachusetts research firm that analyzes technology's effect on
business."
$1-billion isn't chump change
and it must be noted that this money is not spent on local businesses.
Raising cigarette taxes is ultimately a losing proposition for the
states. Contrary to anti-smoker propaganda, smokers are not stupid and
will not pay the outrageous prices operating in many states. An added
benefit to buying from the web is that is that those sales do not finance
the anti-tobacco cartel which takes a cut from many states' cigarette taxes.
Samantha Phillipe, president of the Smoker's
Club, an association of smokers with a Web site that links to an
Indian-run smoke shop, said state governments are unfairly balancing their
budgets on the backs of smokers. She likens smokers buying cigarettes
on the Internet to the American colonists throwing tea into Boston Harbor in
1773 to protest a British tax on the commodity.
 (Click
on the bar to enter the section)
June
20 - Fat
flier will have to pay for two seats! Southwest Airlines announced
it will strictly enforce obese passengers for two seats. It appears
that slimmer customers have complained. The friendly skies are no
longer friendly to smokers or people who have a weight problem, what's
next perfume or deodorant?
June
20 - Licking
Their Chops -
"A tax on harmful foods is on its way. Packaged food manufacturers
are running scared. Lawmakers are threatening action. Lawyers are poised to
compel another giant transfer of wealth from your pockets to theirs.
Litigation to recover money spent by Medicaid programs to treat obesity- related
illness will go forth. Attorneys will get their share, some of which will go
back into the campaigns of politicians (mostly Democrats) who orchestrate the
crackdown. Sound familiar?
Food manufacturers are fighting the trend, but all it will take is several
years of demonizing the corporate citizens who feed this country. The way will
be cleared for Americans to accept and even demand that Big Food be made to pay
for its sins."
Like watching a train wreck in slow motion, observers know what is going to
happen and are helpless to stop the carnage. The food industry is under
the gun, much quicker than anyone would have believed. The stakes are
enormous and a predatory legal profession that has grown obscenely rich off
tobacco litigation is drooling over the prospect of shaking down Big
Foods. Although the vast majority of the people say they are alarmed at
the increasingly high-stakes law suits and agree that the tort industry needs
massive reform, few politicians have the guts to take on the well-financed and
powerful legal cartel.
The junk science is in place, the demonization process has begun, the sharks
are circling. The countdown to shakedown is under way.
June
20 - Inviting
The Nannies To Dinner -
"The popular fast-food restaurant practice of "supersizing"
-- increasing portion size for just a few cents more -- tacks on significantly
more calories to meals and contributes to the U.S. epidemic of obesity, consumer
groups reported Tuesday. The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity,
a coalition of more than 200 health organizations, discussed the dangers of
supersized meals at a news briefing, adding that the supersizing practices also
has spread to convenience stores and movie theaters.
Supersizing "encourages overeating and (is) contributing to
skyrocketing rates of obesity in adults and kids," said Margo Wootan,
director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest."
These are great times for the control freak. So much misbehaving.
So many "epidemics" to halt. Such sinister phenomena, "supersizing"
being the latest, to vanquish. The Nanny Brigade to the rescue! One
shudders to contemplate a future without a National Alliance for Nutrition and
Activity.
Head Nanny Melanie Polk is particularly troubled by the purveyors of fast
food who add French fries and a large soft drink to a sandwich, dubbing it a
"value meal". "Bundling" leads to increased caloric
intake since often the basic sandwich, with a small order of fries and a small
drink, costs more than the value meal.
"It costs more to get less," said Melanie Polk, director of
nutrition education at the American Institute for Cancer Research. "That's
wrong. That's backwards, and it's bad for our health."
For "our" health, Polk has a simple rule: "Always ask
for the smallest size (they) have ... It will be more than ample." We
should also always refuse the supersize meal but if that is all that is
available, share it.
After whipping the country into shape and making the supersize a thing of the
past, Nurse Polk and her ilk will then take us all in hand and toilet train us
properly.
June
20 - Smoking
Ban Costs Restaurants Big Time - "Some Haverhill restaurant
owners are complaining about a city ban on smoking. NewsCenter 5's Kelley
Tuthill said that they claim the smoking ban is driving customers away and they
say they're ready to fight to get it overturned. Restaurant owners said
that they've lived with these new regulations for three months with devastating
consequences. They plan to speak out Tuesday night at a meeting at City
Hall."
Although there has been a recent spate of liberty infecting Massachusetts
with several cities and towns overturning or refusing to pass smoking bans,
there are still plenty of localities where prohibition holds sway. This
report from Haverhill is typical. Ban smoking and bars, along with
restaurants will suffer. The politicians can either listen to the business
people, and tax payers, or to the anti-tobacco operatives who couldn't run a lemonade
stand.
We link to FORCES Maine where a growing list of financial disasters is
compiled.
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