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March 10, 2006 |
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Ethics March
10 -
Tobacco tax program audited -
The
California legislature ordered a full-scale audit of state
agency formerly headed by anti-tobacco activist Rob Reiner.
The First 5 California Children and
Families Commission was set up and is one of the recipients
of tax dollars collected from the sale of tobacco products
under a voter approved initiative sponsored by Rob Reiner in
1998.
At issue are expensive television
advertisements and public relations efforts financed by the
commission that tout Reiner's latest voter initiative to
provide access to preschool for every child in California.
Simply stated the commission that Reiner ran, until he
resigned due to the eruption of this scandal, paid out
public dollars to finance the propaganda campaign to pass
yet another Reiner initiative. Spending state money on
politicking is strictly forbidden. Reiner and his
henchmen are claiming they did nothing wrong. We've
heard that dodge before.
ShakedownMarch 10 -
Revising the settlement -
Even
smokers' eyes glaze over when the subject turns to the
twists and turns of the so-called Tobacco Settlement.
The deal between 46 state attorneys general and Big Tobacco
in 1998 has shuffled billions of dollars from cigarette
manufacturers (actually their customers) to the states,
supposedly to reimburse them for sick smokers' health care
costs.
The tobacco settlement
(Master Settlement Agreement) is of dubious legality but
what catches Michael Siegel's attention is the tobacco
industry's intention to short its payment to the states by a
billion dollars. Perfectly allowable under the terms
of the agreement but, as Siegel explains, may be just
another excuse to entwine Big Tobacco with greedy state
governments. Siegel, a tobacco control
advocate, takes a dim view of the coupling of states with
the tobacco industry as do we. This article explains
what is going on and also provides an understandable
explanation of the arcana shrouding the settlement. |
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Pro Choice Smokers
Newsletter
March 10 -
Latest
Edition Out Now - Forget about disintegrating
skyscrapers and suicide bombers. The real terrorism is
the epidemic of obesity says one high government
official.....One brave big city politician is asking a
question that most don't dare pose: "Don't we have
better things to do than worry about smoking?".....Concerns
over private property may derail Utah law to outlaw
smoking.....Prohibition in South Carolina appears unlikely.
Catch these and news about
lifestyle issues from coast to coast and throughout the
world in this week's edition.
Junk ScienceMarch
10 -
For the old folks -
As
the baby boomers enter the golden years the hustlers who
make big bucks stirring up hysteria are beginning to branch
out from the "for the children" racket. This study
warns that the elderly are at risk from airborne particles.
The researchers' findings, of course, are advocating more
research so that "control strategies" can be targeted
efficiently." What this means is more public money for
researchers faced with the task of convincing society that
the elderly, despite ever-rising longevity, need expensive
protection from declining air pollution. Secondhand
smoke will form a large part of such "studies."
March 10 -
Beware the coffee culture -
A
new study from Canada breaks new ground by introducing an
impressive amount of clichés in yet one more attempt to
discourage the gullible from enjoying themselves. A
particular "slow" gene may make coffee drinkers susceptible
to heart disease. Muddying the picture, however, is
the fact that "coffee
addicts are more likely to smoke and indulge in other
unhealthy behaviours." More research in diverse
localities must be done. The "researchers" just may
get the government money they need since they have been
clever enough to insert tobacco in a study about caffeine. | |
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March 8, 2006 |
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Prohibition
March 8 -
Clinic protests smoking ban -
In
an unexpected twist an Ohio medical clinic has asked a judge to
exempt it from an upcoming smoking ban. Pleading that it
receives most of its funding from bingo fundraisers, heavily
patronized by smokers, the clinic is the 10 business to ask that it
not be subject to the smoking ban.
March 8 -
Divide and conquer -
New
Jersey recently enacted a smoking ban to protect all workers from
the deadly effects of secondhand smoke. The huge casinos in
Atlantic City are, of course, exempted. Unlike casinos in New
York and Washington State, however, the Jersey casinos are not
Indian enterprises that operate as sovereign nations. A
coalition of bars and restaurants are suing over the obvious double
standard. If the casino loop hole is closed then expect the
rich casino owners to finally recognize that they are in the same
boat and mom and pop business people.
Straightening up Eaters
March 8 -
Ostrich denial -
As
calls to impose a "fat tax" and require warning labels on soft
drinks erupt the beverage industry channels the deep wisdom of the
Big Tobacco and buries its head in the sand, hoping the mean people
will go away. Such was Big Tobacco's tactic during the early
days of the anti-smoking movement when decisive action could have
crushed tobacco control before it unleashed its poison upon America.
Confronted with proposals "in favor
of a soda tax, such as the one on tobacco" because "studies
involving the links of soda and obesity are at the same stage as
studies on tobacco and health problems several years ago," a flack
working for the American Beverage Association squawks that linking
soda consumption with smoking cigarettes is "absolutely ridiculous."
Hardly ridiculous since the
demonization of soda is based upon the same sort of "research" that
demonized cigarettes. Big Soda, like Big Tobacco, is an
enormously rich industry that is run by cowards who continue to
believe that if they only give in a little their persecutors will be
sated. The greed of the conmen and shakedown artists can never
be satisfied as the beverage industry will find as it goes down the
exact same path as Big Tobacco. |
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Anti-tobacco Hate
March 8 -
The fangs are bared - Those
who have followed the anti-tobacco movement as long as we
have at FORCES usually reach a point when contemplating the
filth and ugliness generated by the "anti" ideology becomes
almost unbearable. How long can one paddle through a
sewer or tour a reeking slaughter house before becoming ill?
We marvel and are appalled that so many revel in behavior
that normal people would find cruel and sadistic.
Michael Siegel has a strong
stomach and we congratulate him for having the fortitude to
keep the focus on each outrage that anti-tobacco spews
forth. It's a nasty job but its vital that someone do
it.
Action on Smoking and Health
is on a roll and feels, unfortunately with justification,
that it is no longer bound by any restraints of decency.
In a press release ASH is claiming that smoking parents are
steps away from
losing custody of their children.
ASH says that "parental smoking kills 6,200 kids each year."
Siegel disagrees and asks that the hate group back up its
claims. Proof, of course, will not be forthcoming, as
Siegel himself knows since the death toll is from sudden
infant death syndrome, a tragedy that strikes many parents
irregardless of smoking status. ASH's cynicism and
cruelty astounds Siegel.
Children done in by smoking
parents is not ASH's only concern as Siegel notes in his
commentary regarding the hate organization's foray into
local state politics. According to ASH
punishing smokers
is the tactic needed to bring these recalcitrant citizens
into line by raising taxes, taking children away, and
preventing smokers from seeking employment. Even
better for the affluent elites who run ASH, the target of
this hate is likely to be the poor.
Siegel finally delves into a
morally sickening press release issued by ASH that
celebrates the escalating
oppression of smokers.
While ASH's hate ejaculation may be premature, as Siegel
points out, it's troubling that a tax-exempt organization
spouts such hatred towards fellow Americans. One
wonders whether the ASH's
Board
of Trustees and Sponsorsare
in support of its odious goals. | |
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March 6, 2006 |
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Ethics
March 6 -
Big daddy of corruption -
The
incredible saga of how a competent Hollywood director set up
a multi-million California state program and established
himself as its director is devastatingly related by San
Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders. Rob
Reiner's profitable career move is disturbing on several
levels, the most disturbing being that it provides the
blueprint for all sorts of do-gooders to follow so they too
can appropriate public funds to pursue personal goals.
Reiner's run of luck may be
running out as scandal erupts about him and his program.
Allies in the California legislature have been giving him
and his latest tax-funded scheme the cold shoulder while he
has had to resign his position. Californians may
finally awaken to the danger of well-oiled ideologues buying
social programs by targeting minorities to pay for it all.
March 6 -
Double standard -
The
self-castration of Big Tobacco limits any scientific
pronouncement that runs counter to the orthodoxy imposed by
anti-tobacco. Philip Morris now incessantly advises
its customers to quit smoking, citing all the junk science
as an inducement. That's unfortunate because who knows
better than Big Tobacco the effects, if any, of smoking on
an individual's health?
Anti-tobacco, however, still
operates as though Big Tobacco hadn't joined with them to
eliminate smoking. It seems to be a case of not having
a focus unless it can be directed upon a politically
unpopular corporation. With a monopoly on research the
tobacco control industry is in the process of going hog
wild. Of late anti-tobacco organizations are making
health claims about smoking that are outrageously deceptive
and hysterical.
Michael Siegel, who has, we
believe, a naive faith in the integrity of the tobacco
control movement, recognizes and is disturbed by the double
standard applied to Big Tobacco as opposed to that applied
to the anti-smokers. Scientific junk is scientific
junk, no matter the source.
Rule of the Elite
March 6 -
Some more equal than others -
While
Washington DC may become "smokefree" only the little people
will be affected. On Capitol Hill Congress has made it
clear that laws forbidding the peons from lawfully enjoying
a legal product do not apply to the august personages who
conduct the nation's business.
As things stand the DC city
council passed a law that forbids restaurants, bars and
nightclubs from catering to their smoking customers.
Property rights have been extinguished in the nation's
Capital. Congress can put a stop to the prohibition
but has not indicated it will do so even though the many of
the most powerful congress members smoke. While nearby
Virginia will love DC's anti-smoking law it is a shame that
the city has been taken over by anti-tobacco and made off
limits to a huge number of Americans. |
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Straightening up Eaters
March 6 -
Cigarettes of obesity -
As
the war on fat lumbers onward the shakedown artists and their
compadres in junk science are honing in on individual components of
the food industry, seeking the weakest links. Two sets of
researchers have found that soft drinks aren't merely associated
with obesity but actually cause it. Two scientific journals
this week will publish these conclusions after a week of coverage by
the mainstream news media.
As noted in this story from the
Deseret News, the researchers have learned their anti-tobacco
lessons well. Much of what they say echoes the dogma that
proved so successful against smoking and the tobacco industry.
Explicitly likening soft drink consumption to smoking opens the door
to heavy government regulation as well as providing the foundation
to shake down the rich soft drink industry by law suits.
The corporations targeted for
shakedown have unfortunately decided to conduct themselves as did
the tobacco industry. Instead of focusing on the predatory
motives of the anti-fat special interests they indignantly repudiate
any linkage between their product line and Big Tobacco's, seemingly
obvious to the fact that anti-fat's "evidence" against Big Soda is
just as damning as the "evidence" against Big Tobacco. That
the evidence in both cases is fraudulently concocted escapes the
soft drink industry's notice. Big Soda can learn from Big
Tobacco and could win by doing exactly the opposite of what the
cigarette manufacturers did.
Business
March 6 -
Studies you will not see -
Oklahoma
and Indianapolis have new restaurant smoking bans, sort of. As
Michael Siegel, well-known tobacco control advocate, notes these
smoking bans come with loop holes. His take on these
exemptions are worth noting since they expose the dubious nature of
smoking ban activism. Our take, however, is that a perfect
opportunity exists to prove, or disprove, one of anti-tobacco's
claims.
Banning smoking, so say the
anti-smokers, is good for business. The fears of business
people who don't wish to drive their smoking customers away are
unfounded since without smoking patronage will increase. These
two smoking bans offer the chance for anti-tobacco to back up their
claims with facts.
In Indianapolis restaurants will be
free to allow smoking so long as they limit the clientele to adults
while in Oklahoma restaurants will be allowed to permit smoking in
separately ventilated rooms. We have here two test tubes for
researchers to study situations where choice is being offered.
How many restaurateurs in Indianapolis will decide smokers are more
profitable than children? How many in Oklahoma will pay to
alter their establishment to keep the smokers as customers?
Rest assured, if the results don't coincide with anti-tobacco's
theories we won't hear boo about it. | |
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