The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter

Issue # 54: 02/11/00 Brought to you by:

The Smoker's Club, Inc.

Please send your news items to: info@smokersclub.com
Read this newsletter on a web page. http://www.smokersclub.com/newsltr.htm

In this issue:
1. It's Vendors' Turn To Try To Get Money Back
2. New Bedford, MA: Smoking Ban:
3. View Voting Records (and more)
4. The Culture of Tobacco in 17th- and 18th-century Europe
5. Hollywood Glamour
6. Duke Homestead and Tobacco Museum
7. Tobacco Farmers Facing Quota Cut
8. We Are Everyday People
9. From The Mailbag
1. It's Vendors' Turn To Try To Get Money Back: By Warren Richey, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor. Vending-machine owners sue FDA for business lost after new tobacco regulations. Now, five years later, Cassorla and some 525 other vending-business owners are fighting back. They have filed a series of lawsuits in federal claims court in Washington, arguing that the FDA action amounts to a violation of the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against the government taking private property without paying the owner just compensation.
2. New Bedford, MA: Smoking Ban: Massachusetts Citizens For Freedom. Laura Lanagan gets about a call a day from would-be diners who want to know if they can still smoke at Cathay Temple. The answer is yes, for now. Board of Health members are still seeking public input on whether they should draw up regulations regarding smoking in the town's restaurants.
3. View Voting Records (and more): voter.com View side by side comparisons, track current race news and learn more about the candidates that will be making the decisions that affect your life.
4. The Culture of Tobacco in 17th- and 18th-century Europe: Center for the Humanities. Tobacco has long been a subject of fascination and concern, for a variety of reasons. The New York Public Library possesses significant collections relating to the history of tobacco, containing materials that cross many different cultures and areas of research; these collections serve scholars from many fields, including literature, history, art history, the history of the book, and the sciences. Drawing upon these rich resources, Dry Drunk provides historical context for the uses and abuses of tobacco, showing, among other things, that it has been the focus of endless, if ever-shifting controversy since the moment of its introduction into Europe from the New World.
5. Hollywood Glamour: By Mike Kohary. The Art of Smoking in Cinema. Smoking? Of course! Politically incorrect? So what? Who could forget Bogart lighting up Bacall in "To Have or Have Not", or Kate Hepburn's sassy attitude in "Bringing Up Baby"? Smoking devices of all types have always had a major role in the movies. A cigarette is a fantastic prop, providing dynamic motion and texture. It gives an actor or actress reason to move purposfully, and when well filmed, the smoke is turned into a phantom on the screen, moving with grace and flair. No politics here; this is about art.
6. Duke Homestead and Tobacco Museum: By Mark C. McCarthy. The museum gives visitors a glimpse into the history of the family whose name became synonymous with the tobacco industry in America. Our online tour will give the viewer the opportunity to see the ancestral home of the Duke family and learn about the tobacco manufacturing that built its financial empire.
7. Tobacco Farmers Facing Quota Cut: LANCASTER, Ky. (AP) Kentucky's tobacco farmers are trying to figure out how to cope with the increasing pressures facing their business, including a 45.3 percent cut in the quota. The reduction in the amount each farmer is allowed to sell under the federal price support program was announced last week by the Agriculture Department. It will cost Kentucky growers at least $264 million in tobacco sales.
8. We Are Everyday People:
*** False Data Alleged In Cancer Study: Infobeat. A South African study of a last-ditch treatment that had given hope to some women with advanced breast cancer contained falsified data, U.S. cancer officials said Friday. The announcement came after U.S. officials received word from a university in Johannesburg that the study's author acknowledged he had made a "foolish" mistake. At issue is an aggressive treatment usually reserved for the most advanced breast cancer: ultrahigh doses of chemotherapy followed by a bone marrow transplant. Thousands of women have demanded the procedure, believing it is their last best hope even though there has been no scientific proof of its effectiveness.

*** Neo-Nazis Shock Europe: About.com The world shuddered last week as six members of Austria's far-right Freedom Party were sworn in as ministers of a new coalition government. Have Nazi sympathizers returned to power in Hitler's homeland?

*** Al Gore Emotion Simulator: hecklers.com Put a little pizzazz into America's notoriously unlively Vice President, courtesy of Hecklers.com. Simply click on a selection of buttons to simulate the emotions of Al Gore. Requires Flash.

*** Treat Guns Like Cars: By J.D. Tuccille. So let's turn the tables on the smug gun-banners. Maybe we should concede that guns are like cars. But the mistake isn't in failing to license guns, it's in letting control freaks pack our wallets with IDs and permits after convincing us that every necessity and pleasure in life is a privilege to be exercised at the whim of the Department of Something or Other. We don't need more licenses; we need to tear up the ones we have.

*** Antimicrobial Resistance: A Growing Threat to Public Health: National Center for Infectious Diseases. Each year, nearly 2 million patients in the United States get an infection as a result of receiving health care in a hospital. These hospital-acquired infections are often difficult to treat because the bacteria and other microorganisms that cause them frequently are resistant to antimicrobial drugs

9. From The Mailbag:

Subject: Smokers Rights
I am a smoker and have been for 24 years. This letter is about the new smoking by-laws. I cannot see how a government so hell bent on making money could possibly decide on such ridiculous idea's. This By-law is going to run business's and it customers out of town and if they add the casino and bingo halls well there goes our economy. all for what to please a few. Well last time I checked the government wasn't taking any taxes off cigarettes. Why cause they want the money yet they don't want people to smoke in public that's pretty two-faced. People are losing their jobs and business's in our supposed up and growing community are going bankrupt. Is this how we want people to see our city ? I think it is time we stopped this nonsense there are worse habits then smoking and if you want to get technical there is NO scientific evidence that smoking has any or even some effect on non-smokers. I have had cancer and it sure as heck wasn't from smoking. I asked! In fact statistic's show that there are only 37% of Canadians who smoke yet they take up 62% of the money coming into business's. Whats that say, it says that we spend more money then non-smokers and if that means our economy is better and our business's stay afloat then who is this City Council to determine what is and what isn't good for us. Last I check this was a FREE Country and I want my right to be able to freely choose what I want to do. NOT have my decisions given to me by some non-smoking city council member who's up for re-election.
Darren C. Parro
Smokers Fighting Discrimination: Canada
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"All we ask is to be treated fairly."

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave hated and scorned.
When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
Mark Twain. Freedom By Faith

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