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The Property Rights Newsletter July 16, 2010 - Issue #576 "No matter where you go, there you are." - B. Banzai | |||
Won't Somebody Please Think Of The Children? By Tim Andrews. We now live in a country that is based upon risk-minimisation to the extreme. It is now viewed as legitimate for our government to do everything to minimise any potential negative effects on our lives, even if we enter them of our free volition (just think of the war on obesity, on smoking, on alcohol and so on). The nanny state rules supreme, and it is only natural that such a protective mindset is applied to the youngest of our society - to an even greater degree in fact. Yet I ask – at what cost?
At more and more companies, smokers need not apply. By Chris Reinolds Kozelle, CNN. Gary Nolan, a spokesman for Citizens Freedom Alliance: The Smoker's Club, is annoyed by the ban but supports private businesses' right to hire anyone they want. "If you go in for heart surgery, do you really care if your surgeon smokes?" Nolan said. Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University professor of public health, said the policy is an invasion of privacy and keeps qualified medical professionals away. Tobacco Harm Reduction: Chris Snowdon recently posted an excellent analysis of a recent New England Journal of Medicine article that calls for bans on smoking in non-single-family homes. This has all sorts of interesting implications including class-based discrimination (I would bet that most of the wealthy activists who are calling for these restrictions own detached houses and so would be immune from such restrictions they want to impose on others), ongoing nonsense about the effects of ETS, and various other matters. WI: Bartenders and tavern owners adjust to smoking ban. If your bartender is a little more surly than usual, please try to understand. USA: ATF: Federal government tax revenue on alcohol, tobacco and firearms were up 41% to $20.6 billion in 2009. USA: Big Tobacco won’t have to pay $280 billion. Canada: Smoking Stats Generate Fireworks! In Ontario, there are more smokers today than there were 40 years ago. Netherlands: Dutch bars defy two-year-old smoking ban. "It is mostly small bars with no staff (apart from the owner) that do not respect the law," Wiel Maessen, secretary of the Save the Small Cafe Owners anti-ban group, told AFP. Scotland: Response to Tobacco Display Ban Consultation. The regulations are designed to block the visibility of tobacco to anyone not making a purchase – to a degree that Belinda Cunnison describes as ‘fanatical ‘International evidence does not show drops in smoking in any country that has implemented a display ban. UK: Click here to rate the repeal of the Smoking Ban and add your comments in support of repeal on the Deputy Prime Minister's new Your Freedom site. UK: Watch: We Love Cigarettes. A love of nicotine unites all peoples across the globe, regardless of colour, wealth or creed. Where religion and politics have failed tobacco has succeeded, but at what cost? Includes James Leavey, United Kingdom Regional Director, Citizens Freedom Alliance: The Smoker's Club. UK: Save the Pub comment from overseas. By Robert Deitz, II. Second Hand Smoke: Epidemiologists warn that falsified claims of secondhand smoke being a hazard makes a mockery of their science. | |||
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