<p>In the health care political realm, John Edwards, a candidate for president, upped the ante by proclaiming that under his plan for universal coverage every American would be <strong>required</strong> to visit the doctor. No exceptions.</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom shibboleths are falling by the wayside as reality demolishes the myths concocted by anti-tobacco. From lung disease, tax policies designed to reduce smoking and secondhand smoke abatement, the news of today slaps silly the lying face of anti-tobacco. Norman Kjono explains.</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">The Toronto Film Festival, still apparently shaken to the core by actor Sean Penn’s obscene and deeply subversive act of lighting up a smoke at the event last year, has decided to kick off this year’s festival with some public bowing and scraping. Grant money is clearly at stake.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Pity today’s schoolchildren. The past certainly had its problems, but many, many adults have fond memories of teachers who were trusted and deserved trust, school policies that retained some respect for individual students and their parents. Today, in some schools, a child who takes an aspirin for a headache is treated like a criminal. Never mind tolerance for the "smoke pit" in the schoolyard that was a rite of passage for so many of us …</span></p>
<p>The UK is set to join the growing list of countries that afix manadatory graphic depictions of cancer patients and other "gross out" images on cigarette packs, with the pretext that this will lead people to quit smoking and thus save lives. In reality, of course, this is just a way to try to stigmatize the users of the product. Still, there are those who still bother to ask whether such tactics are at all effective.</p>
<p>A recent article from a hospitality industry portal shows us what sorts of headaches the industry really faces when unwelcome regulations are dumped onto their plates. In the case of smoking bans, pub and bar owners, who have always had to deal with the possibility of violent or uncivil behaviour, are now facing new challenges and new expenses.</p>
<p>A drunk driving case prompts a judge to call for sports franchises to sever their relationship with alcohol companies. Question for the judge: Who elected you the nation’s social arbiter?</p>
<p>…and to confirm that smoking is a bad choice, here another whooper from Science Daily, also known as Junk Science Daily. Another veritable pack of lies from computer data crunching, complete with authoritative coating!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana;">We are pleased to see that our British friends are planning to get in the faces of the antismoking Nazis this September 9<sup>th</sup> in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana;">Edinburgh</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Verdana;">This short but interesting post by Mark Wernimont in his blog reminds us of the futility of voting, nowadays. First of all, you end up choosing one of the opposing idiots/crooks who say the same thing turned inside out. Second, you are wasting your time. Here is why.<o:p></o:p></span></p>