News - Page 298 of 299 - Forces International

Death of property rights

Readers of this site will have notice that for the past few years we have waxed pessimistic on the value of invoking property rights as an argument against smoking bans.  While we certainly revere property rights as an essential component of just societies we recognize that we no longer live in a just society, an observation that is neither original nor confined to those who have deplored the pathology of anti-tobacco.  Two years ago we released our position on <a target="_blank" href="../../../evidence/papers/paper2/forces_international_1105.htm">property rights and health</a>.  In brief we assert that in any conflict between property rights and health, health will always prevail.  Arguing against smoking bans based on the sanctity of private property is a futile exercise because health trumps all other values.

By webmaster, 17 years ago

Who cares about tuberculosis?

The fact that "public health" has its priorities skewed is as given as its thirst for power and control.  Its  real and ONLY mandate — control and possibly eliminate contagious disease – is now secondary to playing God with the lifestyle of citizens.  This article by Reason Magazine is our recommended reading for this week.
<blockquote>
'…But at least in dealing with potentially deadly microorganisms that move from person to person, the rationale for government action is to prevent people from harming each other. By contrast, much of what passes for "public health" today is aimed at preventing people from harming themselves” – when they actually do that and when “public health” does not make up those risks with junk science and false information, we should add. “Activists and politicians use the language of public health to legitimize government efforts to discourage a wide range of risky habits, including smoking, drinking, overeating, underexercising, gambling, driving a car without a seat belt, and riding a motorcycle without a helmet. Unlike typhoid fever and tuberculosis, the risks associated with these activities are not imposed on people; they are voluntarily assumed.'
<a href="http://www.reason.com/news/show/120576.html">Link to original article</a>
<a href="http://www.data-yard.net/10b3/sullum_reason_tb.pdf">Link to stored article</a>
</blockquote>

By webmaster, 17 years ago

Afraid of the paper tiger

“Defiant MPs at the House of Commons are planning to ignore the national smoking ban being imposed on the rest of the country next month. From July 1, anyone lighting up in pubs, clubs, restaurants and offices in England faces a £50 fine. And authorities have decided to extend the ban to Westminster – which has traditionally been exempt from many laws because of its status as a palace – to avoid charges of ‘hypocrisy’. But politicians are plotting to continue smoking in their own offices, which they usually share with just an assistant. … One veteran MP, who does not wish to be named, said: ‘I don’t see why I can’t continue to smoke in the privacy of my own office?“

By webmaster, 17 years ago

How far will they go?

Belmont California is a suburb south of San Francisco.  To the glee of its mayor and a few of its city councilmembers the town has attracted international attention as the first to propose banning smoking in private homes.  That the attention has been overwhelmingly negative outside of California adds icing to the prohibitionists’ cake.  We’re soooo progressive, they coo to themselves and soooo brave.

By webmaster, 17 years ago

Contradiction trips up global warming hysterics

"Thick Arctic ice may be the reason for a precipitous drop in this spring’s two-month gray whale count at Point Piedras Blancas."

By webmaster, 17 years ago

Microwaves to blame for obesity

<o:p><!–webbot bot="PurpleText" PREVIEW="http://www.data-yard.net/10b3/uk_microwaves_fat.pdf" –></o:p> For a long time establishing “causality” no longer requires science but just junk epidemiology.  However, let no one stop “progress” and further simplify the process. The pretence of a junk study is no longer needed: all it takes is the “expert” opinion of junk scientists, and the junk media (such as BBC has become) will rush to report the latest and greatest nonsense.  A few more opinions like these, and it will become a “scientific consensus” — thus hard scientific evidence at the basis of some new prohibition.  Yes, today it’s that simple!  But what are we talking about?… The reason why we are (statistically) fat: the invention of the microwave oven!! Read the rest of the article and have fun – but also get the dark, deep and retrograde message of  these “public health” representatives.

By webmaster, 17 years ago

Revolt in style? You can’t do that?!!

Let’s just say at the outset that we really don’t want to spoil the party.  We hope and trust that everyone who attends the FOREST UK’s smoking ban protest event “Revolt In Style: A Freedom Dinner” at London’s Savoy Hotel at the end of June will have a wonderful time, and that the event will stimulate all in attendance to think about how to actively fight Britain’s smoking ban — and, indeed, the whole repressive suite of government controls that are seeping into so many aspects of daily life in the UK.

By webmaster, 17 years ago

Smoker as Nigger

The title is incendiary but the use of society’s most despicable slur is not gratuitous.  Nor does the subject matter have anything to do with race, although racism, along with human kind’s long list of other destructive pathologies, is central to this article.
 Donald Homa is a cognitive psychologist in the Department of Psychology at ASU.  We are glad to publish the article he has sent. “I became involved in this issue – the dangers of secondhand smoke – some years ago, and have had extended articles printed in a number of newspapers, but no one here would publish a recent article of mine, which I’ve included as an attachment”, he writes to us – and we are certainly not surprised the mainstream media hopes it remains hidden.  Dr. Homa exposes the passive smoke for what it is: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forces.org/evidence/psaip.htm">a fraud institutions should be ashamed of</a>, driven by vitriolic hatred to “denigrate and vulgarize the smoker.  Arizona has seen television spots in which the smoker is urinated on by a dog, and an unsuspecting young lady drinks the phlegm of a smoker”.   Political terror and intimidation control the press these days on the issue of smoking and health in general.  Even the slightest indication of the truth – that the health authorities are divulging false information to instigate hatred – is enough to censor any information right out . The media must "help" the people believe that passive smoke kills, so people can have licence to hate.  Hatred, so anti-tobacco thinks, will eventually drive smoking out of society.
That is the ultimate mistake, however.  It is true that antitobacco is out of control; it is true that there is hatred without limitation.  But it is also true that, around the world, a rapidly growing number of smokers is getting ready to lower themselves to the level of their enemies, and to get down to the dirty job of making them understand that they will be those who are urinated on – and forced to swallow the phlegm of their own hatred.  Because even the “niggers”, one day, will decide that they have had enough.

By webmaster, 17 years ago

Hundreds of pubs to flout smoking ban

“Landlords at up to 200 pubs are planning a ‘day of defiance’ when the legislation comes into force next month, allowing customers to light up on July 1. The number involved is expected to grow and some publicans have vowed to continue to break the law beyond July 1 if customers want them to."  Tabloid sensationalism or real action?

By webmaster, 17 years ago

A concentrate of virtue

Germany’s most well-known heavy smoker, former Chancellor (1974-1982) Helmut Schmidt recently announced that he’s been a cigarette smoker for 70 years now. His equally chain-smoking wife took up the habit even longer ago.  In TV interviews, the 88-year-old Schmidt is never seen without his menthol ciggies. "I smoke everywhere, except in a church", especially in the presence of American TV journalists.  The inventor of the G8 summits also claims to have special permission by the fire department to light up in non-smoking areas of the Hamburg Thalia Theatre.

By webmaster, 17 years ago