California dreaming November 24 [19:35 GMT] - Somalia: Islamist cops nab 22 in raid on smokers - We congratulate Somalia for having joined the health revolution promoted by the World Health Organization, and for reaching a veritable "health consciousness". "Islamic religious police on Tuesday arrested 22 people for smoking in the Somali port of Kismayo, where they will be flogged if found guilty of violating a new tobacco ban, officials said", reports Garoweonline. As FORCES is dedicated to the fight against inaccurate reporting on smoking, we are bound to expose this one too: "The anti-smoking raids are the latest indication that Somalia's powerful Islamist movement, which is now girding for war with the weak government, is intent on imposing a fundamentalist version of Koranic law in its territory." Not true. What Koranic law?... All you have to do to is go to the modern western cities of Calabasas and Belmont, California. Just listen to the home-grown fundamentalism of antismoking activists and health "authorities" there and you won't have to move from home.
November 24 [19:35 GMT] - An Unwelcome Discovery - The pandemic of scientific fraud continues to expand, like that of smoking prohibition. Yet another scientist falsifies data, this time on obesity and menopause. The long story inside explains it all in great detail. We only add a few considerations. Like the times we are going through, science and scientists become more and more corrupt, and slaves of personal and political agendas. Although investigations multiply, those who get caught are a small percentage of those who do not, if history and experience is a guide. What is the real size of the problem? We do not know exactly, but it is surely huge. Corrupt science increasingly tells people what they want to hear, or what fits the "zietgeist" instead of simply what is, from the scientific perspective. And when the products of this "science" square with powerful political agendas, health authorities and their political goons just run with them, affecting the lives of billions all over the world. Incredibly, the greatest frauds and distortions get protected by universities and health bureaucracies. Those who denounce them are first at serious risk of having their lives ruined and then, if they "survive", they get ignored and outcast -- as it has been the case for "dissidents" in the active and passive smoke frauds (and soon food and alcohol). This is the institutional corruption we have been talking about for years, of which antitobacco is the pinnacle, but which is now rooted in almost every institutional aspect of the health and environment movements. These people can no longer be trusted.
November 24 [19:35 GMT] - Biased science in tobacco control: a re-evaluation of a 1997 study on secondhand smoke and heart disease - Reminding us indirectly of what we call the redefinition of science according to "public health" (causality is established by weak statistical associations guessed about using memory questionnaires and without the need for the Scientific Method), Siegel revisits this "milestone" 1997 "study" and discovers that it is full of biases and that the "scientists" excluded two studies that would have shown a negative association (benefit) from exposure. "...In other words, what the paper is explaining is that these two studies were excluded specifically because they failed to find a significant increase in heart disease risk associated with secondhand smoke exposure!" Where is the surprise? The Environmental Protection Agency conned the world with its trash meta-analysis just a few years earlier (same technique, just worse) - and that travesty was even recognized by a federal court. The reality, of course, is that all the ETS studies are trash because they do not meet the fundamental criteria of epidemiology in the first place. But do we have to be realistic, don't we? If it takes the passive smoke fraud to pressure smokers into quitting a habit for which not one person can be scientifically demonstrated to have died, you've gotta do what you've gotta do - take the word of "public health"!
WHO: it takes a face!
Then, cashing in on the legend of addiction, he goes on: "There are currently 1.3 billion addicted smokers across the globe of which five million die every year," paying lip service to the Indian paper with the more-than-800,000-die-evey-year sound bite. Smokers are not addicted, but the WHO certainly is -- to power and epidemiological frauds. To close (as if indirectly answering our predictions about tobacco de-legalization in a few years), "...the expert said that a blanket ban on manufacturing tobacco products worldwide is not the solution". Expert in what (other than in misleading statements) we do not know - but this is the only thing he said right. The solution to the colossal problem is quite simple, fast and painless: stop the lying on the junk science, cut the taxes, undo your partnership with the pharmaceutical multinationals, and leave smokers alone. Take care of AIDS and malaria instead: those are real diseases! Useless (junk) science November 24 [19:35 GMT] - ...Wanna live to 100? Make sure that mom gave birth to you before she was 25! - Stop the presses and read this revolutionary discovery: "A team at the University of Chicago found that people born to women younger than 25 were about twice as likely to live for a century or longer than people born to older mothers... The study of 198 centenarians born in the United States from 1890-1893 found that first-born children were more likely to live to 100 than later-born siblings." Scientific reasons? None. Oops, we forgot once again that we run behind the times: today causality is established by statistical association. Just hear what antismoking propaganda says, and we are sure you'll agree with that. At any rate, who cares about this, since we cannot rewind time and force mom to give birth to us again? At least antismoking junk science is produced to market smoking cessation trash, but this?... In the meantime, the CDC teaches us how to deliver our bodies to the undertaker in perfect health conditions: the recommendations include, of course, "avoiding tobacco use" and the holy word "prevention" through "the use of early detection practices" such as, for example, regular bombardments with roentgen rays (better known as X-rays) which we all know they are totally harmless and rather protect health. What both the U of C and the CDC fail to do, however, is to explain why so many of the super-old never "avoided tobacco use", but rather cherished it throughout their lives. The mysteries of modern "science" are truly bottomless. Freedom November 24 [19:35 GMT] - Recently, the world has lost two great people: Milton Friedman (US) and Lord Harris of High Cross (UK). To them, in sorrow, we dedicate the following few words, remembering them once again. Milton Friedman:
Lord Harris of High Cross:
November 22 [11:50 GMT] - Choose your persecution - Germany (so far) has been fairly benign towards smokers (although that may change soon) and, in western Europe, it is one of the last "bastions" of public smoking. The antis call that "backwardness" while we call it keeping from getting forward with fraud and dictatorship. But we have to be realistic: today every country needs a health persecution, and Germany cannot be an exception now that its presidency of the EU is near. How can a country neglect to show "concern" with some laptop computer epidemic and still be called an advanced nation? So, the first effect of the Istanbul conference where all the crooks of public health have recently met, is taking place only four days later. "Slimming European waistlines will be a priority of the German EU presidency with a focus on obesity in the lower income population, Germany's deputy health chief said on Friday", Reuters reports. As per cliché, the crystal ball fraudulent statistical forecasts are pulled out for effect: "Amid World Health Organisation (WHO) forecasts that one in five adults in Europe and Central Asia could be obese by 2010, Berlin said the problem will be prominent on its health agenda when it takes over the rotating EU presidency in January." We can imagine a conversation along these lines in Istanbul between the WHO crooks and Germany's deputy health chief. German deputy: "We need more time to persecute smokers. There are still too many who remember the Fuhrer". WHO crooks: "Listen, you're gonna be president of the EU soon. What do you wanna do, show that you go after no one, so that everybody else looks bad? We're gonna call our boys at the International Monetary Fund to take care of you guys, you know? Our Pharma partners are getting very nervous with you Krauts." German deputy: "I tell you that they're gonna call us Nazis". WHO crooks: "OK, pick something else, then. What about the fraud on obesity? Fatsos can't hide, they're easy to spot." German deputy: "Now, that's an idea! We'll distract the smokers by teaching them to hate the fat -- they'll fall for it. While they are busy fighting the butterballs, we'll create the infrastructure to screw them." WHO crooks: "You've got a deal, pal. Big Pharma is happy, so we are happy". The product is this Reuters communiqué. You thought that smokers had it bad? You ain't seen nothing yet. "Lardballs," Germany is coming for you! Passive smoke, passive genocides November 22 [11:50 GMT] - AIDS still unchecked in African children - ...And talking about World Health Organization crooks, here is another example of their achievements. "The children of Africa are still not getting AIDS prevention or treatment drugs, experts are realizing, even though the drugs have become affordable and available across the continent." This long and moving article by the Herald Tribune describes the AIDS disaster in Cameroon and other areas of the African continent. Now add to that the malaria epidemic. These two epidemics deserve that definition, as they are not statistical works of fantasy, they have known causes and vehicles of infections, and today they can be corrected. But, disgracefully, they rank far below smoking and obesity in the priorities of the WHO - at least when it comes to employment of resources, money, and tangible actions other than lip service. In the name of health, and using junk science, the WHO is responsible for the passive genocide of five million people a year due to malaria alone by largely maintaining the ban on DDT. And by misplacing its priorities and allocating its resources on trash anti-smoking and anti-obesity, AIDS is allowed to go out of control in Africa. But Africa is the "disposable continent" anyway, the African nations do not contribute hefty fees to the WHO, nor do they yield the healthy profits of smoking cessation and dietary pills to the pharmaceutical partners of the WHO, thus people can die by the millions. And here comes the utter moral inversion of our times: instead of being arrested and tried for passive genocide by international tribunals, these criminal bureaucrats hold the reins of power with all governments, dictating internal policies and spreading statistical frauds and hatred -- while being cited as authorities and honoured in the process. Shame on us all.
Against frauds and totalitarianism by committee November 22 [11:50 GMT] - A joint C.A.G.E. (Citizens Against Government Encroachment)), Citizens for Civil Liberties and FORCES statement to the CBC Ombudsman - Last Monday we reported about the extreme bias of a CBC documentary and page concerning the global warming issue, and the arrogant statements of the documentary, not at all dissimilar to those made about smoking. Scientists who disagree with the environmentalist disinformation propaganda are openly accused of being corrupted by Big Industry -- once again, the same tactics as the antitobacco scum. As the worrisome trend of negating dialogue and insulting any opposition is becoming the standard of any "debate" about the related issues of health and environment, the totalitarian nature of these movements and their media mouthpieces becomes more and more evident. Seriously concerned with the sinister precedent on smoking, our three organizations have decided to issue and publish a joint statement to the CBC Ombudsman, who has acknowledged receipt. We will keep you posted. November 22 [11:50 GMT] - Ultimate Stupidity on Global Warming - We start a series of links to articles by Ed Contosky with this piece on global warming and the hysteria-by-design that it has generated. The "openness" to dialogue and debate on the part of crusaders for the de-industrialization of our planet and civilization is about on par with that of the "health advocates" - same attitude, similar junk science, lots of screeching hysteria and intolerance. Lifestyles and environment are not only closely related, but are also the object of a fanatical faith which endangers our civilization and culture from the foundations. Why? Because of its nihilistic nature: these people may know what they don't want, but they are unable to propose alternatives. Think about it: after we've achieved a smoke-free, fat-free, alcohol-free, car-free, industry-free society with everyone under surveillance 24/7, what's left? And do you really want to live 100 years in it? The crisis of institutions November 22 [11:50 GMT] - Charity institutions, a crisis of trust. It's about time! - 'Americans’ charitable spirit peaks during the holiday season, but this year the urge to give is battling a strong contrarian tide – a crisis of trust born from public disenchantment with a philanthropic system that many consider disorganized, under-regulated and tainted by scandal. A poll by Harris Interactive released this summer found only one in 10 Americans strongly believes charities are "honest and ethical" in their use of donated funds. And nearly one in three believes nonprofits have "pretty seriously gotten off in the wrong direction," it found.' No kidding. Look at what gangs like the assorted Lung Associations and Cancer Societies have done about smoking. Promoted false information. Promoted junk science. Instigated social intolerance if not hatred. Interfered with the political and democratic process everywhere to promote smoking bans. They have financed activists and advocated social segregation. They have promoted social and cultural engineering -- and much, much more! All that while the bosses get paycheques of up to (and over) half a million dollars a year, plus perks! The public is quite right not to trust them and not to give. The best proposition for this Christmas and New Year? Give them nothing - that's all they deserve. If you feel the need to give, then give it to those small charities where you can see and verify where your money goes. Alternatively, give it to FORCES -- we have been working, unpaid, for the last eleven years to bring you the truth and to expose the frauds. And we'll still work unpaid even after your donation - for all the money goes to our campaign against institutional public health frauds and disinformation.
November 22
[11:50 GMT]
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November 22 [11:50 GMT] - Indian Incrementalism… A template for political and economic recapture of the State of Washington - "...When driven by a myopic view of public policy that serves special-interest campaign donors, simple-minded public officials require simplistic solutions. Publicly bragging about the marvellous benefits of new taxes and bans requires that the collateral damage to small businesses, consumers and all taxpayers be studiously ignored." -- Article by Elaine Willman, Research Coordinator, Washington STAAR Alliance (Standing To Affirm American Rights). Introduction by Norman Kjono.
From Clearing the Air blog November 20 [14:30 GMT] - Environmentalists: 'There is no debate.' As if we did not know that already - 'If you look in the scientific literature, there is no debate'. ''When I called Mr. Hoggan yesterday and asked, among other things, whether he thought David Suzuki is qualified to comment on climate issues, Mr. Hoggan said, "I'm not interested in doing an interview with you. Thanks very much for your call." ' There you go. "Public health" and its brother, the environmental issue, are too holy to be up for debate. Their advocates are not interested in discussing the "science" which they claim demonstrates that the world is (more or less) coming to an end, all thanks to climate change and laptop computer epidemics. You just have to listen to their paternalistic holy words, gape in alarm and bewilderment and join them in their holy cause - pronto. With me or against me. Surely only evil people sold out to the interests of Big Industry can disagree with the sanctity of their mission, or the "misguided" (ripe for "help" and "education"). Then there is the distortion factor. Let us take this example from a CBC documentary and page, where the reader is already influenced by the background pictures suggesting the cause of global warming: the sun is behind the clouds - but the smokestacks are what you see. Then the slander begins: "They believe the case for global warming has not been proven. They are a group of scientists with rich and powerful allies". Remember: this is a major Canadian media outlet that is funded by taxpayers -- supposedly neutral - that slaps its bias right in your face. And the bias is: only corrupt scientists can argue with environmentalists. Doesn't it remind you of the distortions mass media push on you about smoking? What are the distortions? The same as those on tobacco. The fact about tobacco is that lung cancer is more common in smokers. The fact about global warming is that the poles are melting. The undemonstrated causality about smokers is that smoking causes the cancer. The undemonstrated causality about global warming is that human activity causes it. There are nearly 40 confounding factors for lung cancer. On global warming there is at least one enormous one: it's called the Sun, which is undergoing extreme activity that affects nearly every planet of the solar system. Click here for more details.
Editorial
  Cynical
manipulations, hard-headedness, ignorance or plain stupidity? Probably a little
bit of everything, for this is a multifactorial disease! In the meantime, vast amounts of
money are thrown down the toilet, valuable time and resources are wasted, liberty and
income are lost, hopes are raised and then destroyed - time after time. This is
because, in the public perception, smokers and the hospitality industry are
asking non smokers to endanger their health by allowing smokers to carry on with
their "vice", and this is not acceptable even in the name of constitutions
or personal/property rights - nor should it be if it were true. As long
as ETS stays a health issue and it is not repeatedly demonstrated to be a
fraud and an institutional problem in several courts of law, bans will stay
and multiply exponentially until total prohibition is reached - which is exactly
what antitobacco wants. Unless there is a dramatic change, therefore, Big Health
and Big Pharma can count on victory: with enemies like that, who needs friends?From Michael Siegel's blog November 18 [16:00 GMT] - Passive smoke in parking garage is intolerable and harmful to health, car fumes are just fine - As Siegel already says all there is to be said about this episode of hysteria, we'll just add some peripheral considerations. There is more to the smoking/health issue than just health, economy and institutional corruption. It is also a cultural war. Times always change - but the secret of lasting cultures and civilizations has always been to allow the past to coexist with the present. That - let's say it right away - does not imply that smoking belongs to the past; in fact, the past has been antismoking in many instances. The war is between two diametrically opposed perceptions of society and even of existence - perceptions that don't even have anything to do with political colours or religious beliefs. And they transcend by far the narrowness of the smoking issue. There are those who believe that majorities should squash the minorities that they don't "like" because the way of life of those in the majority is the only right one, and therefore the minorities (and their children too) must be educated to majority values and beliefs so that everyone conforms. They also expect that an individual should change his inner self, behaviour and needs to obey to the will of the collective - unconditionally, for the collective is always right. They measure quality of life in quantity of years, they delegate everything to "experts", authority is all, their will and needs come first, and facts that don't suit their goals must be ignored, or censored altogether as dangerous knowledge. Socially they act in packs, their inner security depends on the homogeneity and on the submission of others, and externalities drive the individual. Thus dissent is a threat that must be eliminated. There are others who refute hostility and intolerance, allow dissent and debates, believe in diversity, and measure life with the metre of enjoyment and depth, not with that of statistical life expectation. The function of the collective is to allow different individuals to live together in their different ways and to accommodate the needs of all as individuals. Authority is less important, and inner security is not a function of the submission of others to one will and way. Well, the second kind is always an endangered species because of its very nature. As principles of peaceful coexistence are always admirable, strict adhesion to them in times of war guarantees only extinction. Sometimes it is necessary to become like "them" and use their ways - although temporarily - to ensure that our ways survive and keep civilization going. Is this case of Des Moines considering a ban in a parking garage irrelevant to these considerations? Think again. Hatred November 18 [16:00 GMT] - Health advocates in Bangor pushing legislation to ban smoking in cars with children - More mileage out of the trash report of the Surgeon General in Bangor. Aside from the sharp differences we have with Dr. Siegel about the risk that passive smoke represents for children or adults, Siegel correctly explains the difference between a threat of severe harm (such as not buckling up a child in a car) and minor risk such as exposing the child to passive smoke in that car. And even by remotely assuming that passive smoke might constitute a small risk, all it takes is to roll down the window one inch and the smoke gets sucked out - something that smokers do anyway, whether there are children on board or not. But, of course, the purpose of Shenkin, Gratwick and the rest of the antismoking scum has nothing to do with the protection of children from non existing dangers. It is one more, little step in the punishment of those they hate so much. It is also interesting to observe how antismokers are "shocked" by the findings of trash science studies and reports. Have you ever noticed that the "shock" of what they wanted to find in the first place is a recurrent theme in the antismoking junk science propaganda? Perhaps the shock of being born and then functioning in a free society was too much for them bear, and they stay afflicted by it throughout their lives. The problem? Others pay for their affliction.
Thank you, lousy antismoking bastards -- and the time will come when we'll pay you back with the same currency. The time will come when having been an antismoker will be no different than being a Nazi pig - because that's exactly what you are, and you deserve the same treatment. And if you think that this is utter contempt you are right. It is also a promise. How low have we all fallen in the name of public health! Big Pharma November 18 [16:00 GMT] - Drug company pulls funding after conference criticism - One of the biggest problems of today's public health as a whole is its almost complete dependence on Big Pharma for funding of all kind. Antismoking activists are fond of pointing out even the slightest connection with Big Tobacco, but they themselves are heavily dependent on Big Pharma, which heavily influences even the highest health authorities in the world (such as the WHO). For all intents and purposes, Big Pharma runs the public health show at the planetary level. The article we are connected is yet another denunciation of the shameful micromanagement of the industry on the issues, politics and even arguments concerning medical practice. No wonder we have smoking bans - and you ain't seen nothing yet! The passive smoke public fraud November 18 [16:00 GMT] - James E. Enstrom in his own words - Although calling (multifactorial) epidemiology a "major scientific tool" (when it is nothing more than guesswork statistics) is stretching the definition of science like an elastic band, nevertheless Enstrom must defend what he is good at. As our readers know, James Enstrom has been the victim of incredibly vicious actions by the antismoking gangs for having shown that epidemiology is unable to demonstrate the existence of a risk for passive smoke. This is contrary to the fraudulent antismoking propaganda, which needs the passive smoke scare to justify the instigation of hatred and prohibition all over the world. Not only have people like Enstrom been outcast, but the interpretation of data gathered with junk science questionnaires in the first place has been "forced" to have a significance that does not have to satisfy the political agenda of health authorities: "...numerous weak and inconsistent associations involving passive smoking have been declared to be causal relationships by select committees, such as, the committee that prepared the June 27, 2006 Surgeon General’s Report on passive smoking." What "authorities" like that deserve is not respect and obedience, but public demonstrations, lawsuits and, eventually, punishment. November 18 [7:15 GMT] - Jeffrey Singer: It's a secondhand smoke screen - "Some public policy activists engage in "advocacy science," manipulating data to create the appearance of a scientific basis for the policies they advocate. Their allies in the scientific community attempt to make the findings of their research fit a predetermined conclusion. Many public-policy debates have become immersed in advocacy science. Whether it's global warming, endangered species or silicone breast implants, either side of the debate has its own cadre of advocacy scientists to bolster its arguments. This makes it difficult for the discerning citizen to separate truth from half-truth. And when a particular viewpoint is politically correct, journalists tend to be less skeptical of the scientific claims supporting it." - From the Arizona Daily Star. |
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Participate
in this FORCES educational initiative!
suit
their dirty, fraud-based pharmaceutical agenda. We invite
manufacturers, experts and representatives of high-quality ventilation
systems all over the world to send us easy-to-understand descriptions and
specifications of their products, tests, studies and whatever other
information that is useful to expose this umpteenth and irresponsible
public health fraud concerning the misrepresentation of ventilation
systems. We will be glad to start a new section of our website where this
information is stored for consultation, thus for the education of the
public and businesses operators on how to create a healthy alternative
to smoking bans. You can send the pertinent information to
November 24
[19:35 GMT]
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"What most people really object to when
they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to
their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of
what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many
criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom
itself.
Lord
Harris of High Cross, economist and freedom-fighter
We
are glad to introduce our readers the website and the blog of Edmund
Contoski,
