June 2007

<p>Urbane Denmark sheds a bit of its civility as parliament imposes prohibition on the country later this summer.&nbsp; The ban just stops short of duplicating the hard ban that hits Britain next week.</p>

<p>As the date for prohibition in Britain draws nigh the cascade of hypocrites calling for civility grows more lugubrious.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Gaming establishments are taking it especially hard, and so are spots where smoking bans are enforced and people go mainly for drinks and mingling.</p>

<p>Is the tradition of the British pub headed for extinction? If recent predictions about the effect of smoking bans on pubs prove to be true, it’s hard not to reach the conclusion that the government is bent on calling &quot;time&quot; on this time-honored part of the UK lifestyle.</p>

<p>While it is well known that we do not subscribe to any of the superstitions about smoking, we always said that <a href="https://www.forces.org/evidence/papers/paper3/forces_international_0506.htm">there is no doubt that the way to make a cigarette safer is to increase its level of nicotine contents</a>.</p>

<p><strong> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></strong><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">It is absolutely natural that a hospital coerces the will of a patient, isn&rsquo;t it?&nbsp; It is also absolutely natural that, after paying your fee either privately or through Medicare, you are denied the service you paid for because your behaviour is contrary to the will and the superstitions of the people you have paid.&nbsp; </span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><strong> <span lang="EN-GB"> </span></strong></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Yes, it is true: the famous Dutch coffee shops will be liberty-free starting July 2008, when the Netherlands complies with the WHO dictatorship and proceeds as if the passive smoke were a real danger for non smokers. </span></p>

<p><strong> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">The current round of societal paranoia about eating and obesity was bound to generate a counter-reaction among the savvy and hip. Witness the recent nude debut of hefty pop-punk singer Beth Ditto on the cover of a British pop magazine &ldquo;w</span><span lang="EN" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">earing nothing but a lipstick tattoo on her tush&hellip;</span></p>

<p><strong> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">It&rsquo;s long past time, but finally the hospitality industry is waking up to the fact that it needs to address the whole bogus ETS issue if it&rsquo;s ever going to successfully fight smoking bans. </span></p>

<p><strong> <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span></strong><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">What is the definition of paradox? The <a style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/paradox">On Line dictionary</a> reports four possible descriptions, but it seems to us that one is missing. The missing definition is, perhaps, the must current of them all: <em>&ldquo;An observation that goes against what has been <strong>portrayed</strong> by &lsquo;public health&rsquo; as a scientific reality that, however, was never scientifically proven&rdquo;.</em></span></p>