Participate in this FORCES educational initiative! Clean indoor air is NOT a smoking ban! - Are you competent in air conditioning and circulation? Are you for clean air without smoking bans? Help us to educate the people, and click on the link for more information on how to participate in this new FORCES initiative. Thank you to those who already came on board this initiative.

Fight for freedom

December 15 [04:30 GMT] - Standing up for himself - Prohibition has not yet gone into effect in England but one pub owner there has announced his intention of ignoring the ban.  His reasons are many but his summation speaks volumes about the immorality of imposing smoking bans on private property:

This is my pub, I pay the bills, not Tony Blair or the Government, so I will be ignoring the ban and if they want to take me to court, they can.

Restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and all the rest are not public places.  Tobacco is a legal product that adults may lawfully consume.  The pub owner hasn't forgotten these facts but too many of the ruling elite have.

Population Control

December 15 [04:30 GMT] - Infant Nation - Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine appears to be a cultural observer rather than one who examines the nuts and bolts of how special interest concoct scary "evidence" to frighten politicians and the public into curbing individual freedom "for our own good."  He is right on the money with this short piece on how we are turning into a nation of babies who suck their thumbs while their betters make decisions for them.  From America's Nanny Mayor banning trans-fat in New York City to the heartland banning truckers from smoking in their own cabs, Gillespie hits all of the latest diminution of what's left of our liberties.  On one point, however, he is completely wrong.  Smoking bans do not prompt people to quit smoking or cut down, as the data from Washington State and Ireland make clear.  His observation, however, that New York City used to pride itself as being the toughest city in the world but that now it is merely the most annoying is sadly entirely accurate.

Junk Science

December 15 [04:30 GMT] - Norwegian spammers - From Norway comes yet another hysterical "study" from a team of bozos who concluded last year that smoking one cigarette is significantly dangerous.  That piece of junk went over so well that they've recycled the numbers and come up with a new earthshaking contribution to human knowledge.  Our correspondent from Denmark barely breaks a sweat as he bludgeons the numbskulls' latest conclusions.

Smoking bans are good for business, didn't you know?...

December 15 [04:30 GMT] - Smoking ban slashes profits - If banning smoking is so great for business why, wherever a ban is imposed, do the businesses affected lose money?  Scotland bans smoking so businesses suffer.  This story focuses on bingo parlors with proprietors complaining about lost profits.  Maybe something could be done if they joined with restaurants, pubs and all other businesses negatively affected by the ban and tacked the issue head on with science.  There is no evidence that secondhand smoke is harmful.  That's it.  Complaints about lost liberties and lost money are meaningless when health is concerned.  Deal with the fraud or continue to lose in court and in the legislature.

Prohibition

December 13 [04:30 GMT] - Germany rejects ban - The ruling coalition reversed itself yesterday by halting the nationwide ban it announced earlier this month.  The course reversal results from the realization that smoking is the provenance of the 16 federal states that make up Germany.  A nationwide smoking ban imposed by Berlin would be unlikely to withstand a constitutional challenge.

Needless to say anti-smoking operatives are crying foul and are urging the government to proceed with its illegal ban come hell or high water.  Some are angry that the national ban wasn't draconian enough in that it provided plenty of exemptions.  Smokers, as usual, are pawns in a political power play fuelled by pharmaceutical money and power politics.  At present the situation is fluid but it is encouraging that listed in this news account is the undeniable fact that many Germans are extremely uncomfortable with anti-tobacco fanaticism, an ideology that first found voice in Nazi Germany.  Having gone done that disastrous road not so long ago, it is to be hoped that decency will trump the shrill demands of a movement that has no place in free societies.

Hysteria

December 13 [04:30 GMT] - How breaking wind grounded a jet - The country snickered over the recent news that a jet made an emergency landing after a woman passed gas on a flight from Washington DC to Dallas.  It wasn't that odor that ignited the panic button but the poor woman's attempt to obscure the smell by lighting a match.  Bomb sniffing dogs found the offending matches on her seat.  The woman was released without charge but had the cabin air been thoroughly examined the airline might have faced charges since air quality took a nose dive when smoking was banned from the friendly skies.  Norman Kjono examines the real threat to our mental and physical health.

The Honour Committee

Olavo de Carvalho. Click here to reach his web site.

Renouncing my global citizenship - The most heinous tactic of the self-appointed global masters is to exploit guilt. As in our post-Christian age most people became unable to grasp and confess their real sins, they are immersed in an atmosphere of imaginary guilt. They feel guilty of almost everything, so they are exceedingly vulnerable to any undue charging and prone to accept any offer for cheap acquittal.

Sometimes they try to get rid of such a depressive state of mind by proclaiming that there is no guilt whatsoever, that every moral law is just a social construct, so every moral demand is an unjustified oppression. But, after having proclaimed themselves free from moral duties, they feel guilty exactly the same as before.

To feel guilty is disgusting enough, but to feel guilty in a guilt-free universe is unbearable. Then the globalist establishment provides them new explanations: you are guilty of perforating the ozone layer, you are guilty of the global warming, you are guilty of animals dying in the rain forests, you are guilty of killing thousands of passive smokers around. These explanations, being grounded not in the idea of personal responsibility but in the presumed statistical effect of millions of anonymous unintended acts, have the advantage to rationalize the unexplained guilt feelings while at the same time protecting people from a confrontation with the reality of their sinful souls.

Under the guidance of globalist gurus, the moral life of the masses became a childish play between imaginary sins and counterfeit absolutions. Fake salvation, of course, is not free. The price for it is real sacrifice. You have to jog ten miles a day, you have to renounce a new car, you have to stop smoking, and so on. Once performed these pious acts you are again a good-standing citizen of the New Global Order, even entitled to some kind of physical immortality as soon as the scientists find the means to provide it. If you obey the commandments of an Ersatz religion, you win an Ersatz soul. These guys from WHO are so generous.

After considering carefully the stakes, I choose to abdicate my global citizenship. I remain a Christian and a smoker and I refuse absolutely to jog. When I suspect I committed some sin, I confess it to Our Lord Jesus Christ and then I sleep in peace without caring the least for the ozone layer. People who believe themselves to be passive smokers are gently invited to avoid my company. I rather believe Santa Claus than the effects of passive smoking. Even of active smoking. You know, I am an impressionable guy. The other day my beloved aunt Paula died. She worked to the last day and she smoked cigarettes to the last minute. The doctors said cigarettes killed her. The poor lady was only 91 years old.

I hope cigarettes will kill me in due time.

-- Olavo de Carvalho

Straightening up Eaters

December 12 [04:00 GMT] - Four big, fat myths - Those who live in North America and even western Europe can see with their own eyes that people are beefier now than a decade ago.  While the truly obese are still rare in the United States and almost non-existent in Europe, it cannot be denied that a trend has developed.  It also cannot be ignored that this trend has been exploited by the bloated gangs of "health" racketeers who are far more dangerous to the public than a spare tire around the waist.  In the forefront of state intrusion is the United Kingdom, which wants to impose a degree of interference into family life that would be unthinkable a few years ago.  Initially costing several hundred million dollars, a database dubbed "Children's Index" will chart the progress of each child from birth to adulthood.  Social workers will flag events, conditions or situations and launch an official inquiry if a child receives two flags or more.  John Luik and Patrick Basham are appalled, not only by a government scheme to undertake the rearing of the nation's children but also the false justification for doing so.  They examine four myths manufactured by public health officials in concert with assorted academics and special-interest lobbyists and shed a bright light on the the so-called epidemic of obesity.

Property rights vs. health

December 12 [04:00 GMT] - Legal attacks on smoking bans usually fail - Stanton Glantz, the current mouthpiece of the anti tobacco movement, confirms the obvious when he says that - sure - there will be the usual fray of lawsuits in Toledo, but to no avail as usual. And he should know, as he has been at this for well over ten years; and nothing delights him and his comrades more than seeing yet another lawsuit based solely on "rights" or Constitution managing to keep a smoking ban in place.

Glantz also predicts that within six months all the Toledo public will become good little citizens and conform to the new law. Unfortunately he may be right once again. So far, most smokers seem to be that kind of spineless citizen who is only too eager to be told how bad he is, and ready to swallow any lie sent down the media to reinforce his sense of worthlessness. Powerlessness is a comfortable feeling after all, as it implies no responsibility — and that attitude, even more unfortunately, seems to have spread to a great deal of Americans on other issues as well.

Back to smokers, gutlessness was the standard — until very recently, that is. We had an unprecedented reaction from all corners of the World in the form of pro-active initiatives, also substantiated with the opening of their wallets to support this organization. Thanks to all. This turn of events began when we posted our position paper stating that as Environmental Tobacco Smoke has been legally classified as a "health issue" (although fraudulently) all rights are automatically bypassed. We really don't know whether these new pro-active actions and the publication of our paper are a coincidence or a consequence, nor do we agree that “public health” should have the power to supersede rights and constitutions unless a clear, present and scientifically demonstrable danger demands it.

Be that as it may, those who choose to hire an attorney on the sole basis of the rights argument are guaranteed to loose — but they still pay the attorney! One would reckon that, after ten years of legal precedents, they would think twice and do some homework before tossing twenty grand or more down the toilet for each case lost. That is why Glantz and his ilk gloat so much — and that is why the passive smoke fraud must be a integral part of each and every lawsuit alongside rights and constitutional issues. As long as the people believe that smokers ask them to jeopardize their health to tolerate the smoking “vice”, no one should be surprised when the answer is “no”. Would you blame them if the passive smoke hazards were true?

Junk science: frauds will be frauds

December 12 [04:00 GMT] - The cost of institutionalized junk science - Once in a while it's good to get off the smoking topic, especially since the multifactorial epidemiological trash science is something seen almost universally - and fruitcake California is always the forerunner. Read the article we link to here, and please notice the precision: 1,132 "premature deaths" - exactly. 1,086 hospitalizations - exactly. From those "exact" computer output figures, obtained by inputting wild guess attributions, stem 183,000 lost work days and $9.1 billion dollars in annual costs -- the fraud of the "costs" of smoking all over again. Like everything else, when a formula works, why not repeating it over and over? Notice the terminology: "construction-related health effects" ("smoking-related" health effects, remember?). Scientific demonstration? Sure thing: it is the statement itself from this group by the oh-so-politically-correct name of "Union of Concerned Scientists" that is the scientific demonstration! Can't you read?... "scientists" is written here - and they are concerned!

Wait, the predictable blue print proceeds exactly as in the smoking script, rhetoric included (substitute "smoking" when you read): "Construction pollution is taking a heavy toll on the health of all Californians." Now try this for effect: "Construction equipment being used to build our hospitals shouldn't be responsible for filling them up." ...Wow, don't you feel your soul unravelling already?... That's not all. Who are the bad guys who are opposing the very expensive refitting of perfectly working excavators? Bravo - you guessed it: the construction industry, of course - those lurid capitalists who don't hesitate to kill thousands of "innocent people" to fill their wallets (while they are employing hundreds of thousands, but that is not to be said)! So, what is the solution? Regulation, of course, which makes it mandatory to refit the excavators in the name of public health! "Reducing diesel engine pollution is one of the most cost-effective strategies for cleaning up the air, with benefits outweighing the costs by a factor of ten-to-one. But equipment owners need a push to start investing in clean, affordable technology available today to reduce costly construction pollution." The same old dishonesty all over again: imaginary, indemonstrable and at any rate exaggerated health costs are used to make real costs look good. As in the case of smoking, imagination is equated with reality.

If refitting was truly cost-effective, the construction industry would have replaced the engines already. But, of course, the UCS folks certainly know better than industry operators, who are not gifted with their superior intelligence and global vision, and thus need a "push". And what will the push be? You can safely bet: the "free choice" of mandatory refitting coupled with financial state incentives coming from the pockets of Californians - to achieve benefits that will only be verifiable in 30 years (if ever) -- when those who caused the damage are safely retired, and at any rate absolutely not accountable.

Censorship

December 12 [04:00 GMT] - Curb your tongue, or else - Last month an astonishing order was issued from Washington, DC to a major corporation.  The tone of the epistle was at first collegial but several paragraphs later it had descended into the realm of gangsters "persuading" a business that won't pay into a protection racket to wise up.  The authors, two United States senators, are applying their considerable muscle to the question of whether unorthodox opinions will be tolerated when the subject is anthropogenic global warming.  The bottom line from the senators to ExxonMobil is a resounding No.

In light of the adverse impacts still resulting from your corporations activities, we must request that ExxonMobil end any further financial assistance or other support to groups or individuals whose public advocacy has contributed to the small, but unfortunately effective, climate change denial myth.

This order is surrounded by so many paragraphs of hot air that the senators' letter itself could be cited as a contributory factor to global warming.  It certainly can be cited as a brutal intrusion into scientific inquiry since the thrust is that ExxonMobil must cease funding the work of serious scientists who have not embraced the so-called consensus that human activity is causing the globe to warm.  The commands don't stop there.  The corporation must also publicly state that it is human activity that is warming the earth and repudiate its inquiries into alternate theories of climate change.  Finally, ExxonMobil must fund the interest groups that are promoting anthropogenic global warming as a solid, non-deniable fact.  The grand inquisitors did not demand self-immolation but among the polite phrases lurked the veiled threat that senators, as representatives of the government, can bring troublesome corporations to heel.  Lest there be any doubt about that the example of the emasculated tobacco industry is delicately brought up as a club to induce compliance.

Nowhere in the letter do the senators even hint that ExxonMobil, by funding scientists and organizations, is doing anything illegal or unethical.  The best the senators could do is claim that by not wholeheartedly joining the chorus of special interest groups, activists and ideologues who have pronounced global warming as the fault of mankind, ExxonMobil is somehow damaging the reputation of the United States.  The corporate officers are unpatriotic!  Welcome back Joe McCarthy!  This letter is chilling evidence that diversity of opinion is no longer to be tolerated in this country.  Any faddish notion that garners publicity and comforts the ruling elite is de facto the gospel truth, which must be accepted by all.  Those who question the dogma must be silenced.  Those who refuse to be silenced must be punished.