Second-Hand Smoke Kills? Name Three Victims
"Do you know Congress reported that the deficit for this year is going to hit a record high $443 billion? Now, that pile of red ink is going to be dumped on top of a record $7.5 trillion national debt. And that is a debt that's built on backstabbing, political lies, and Enron-style accounting. You know, 10 years ago, my friends and I ran for Congress to change the way Washington worked. And for a few years, we were the barbarians at the gates of an imperial Congress and we threatened to change that culture forever. But you know what, friends? The sad truth is that Washington won. Washington always wins. And those same barbarians turned into the palace guards, drunk with power and indistinguishable from those people they hoped to replace. And you know what? In the process, the party of Reagan became the party of big government, as it became harder to tell any difference between Capitol Hill Republicans and Capitol Hill Democrats. Why? Because, in the end, most seem more interested in keeping power there than in saving America." -- Joe Scarborough
# John Ross - Feeling Like the Scum of the Earth, or No Catchy Title for This Column - a tear-jerker. [ross]
I killed my dog today.
Molly was the best dog I've ever had, a very handsome mixed breed that looked like she was half Australian Shepherd, and half something else. Like all good dogs, she thought her owner was the most wonderful person in the world who could do no wrong.
# Al Lorentz at LewRockwell.com - Why We Cannot Win - a seasoned Non-Commissioned Officer stationed in Iraq explains why the United States will not win the current guerrila war without a big change of tactics. [claire]
The idea behind fighting a guerilla army is not to destroy its every man (an impossibility since he hides himself by day amongst the populace). Rather the idea in guerilla warfare is to erode or destroy his base of support.So long as there is support for the guerilla, for every one you kill two more rise up to take his place. More importantly, when your tools for killing him are precision guided munitions, raids and other acts that create casualties among the innocent populace, you raise the support for the guerillas and undermine the support for yourself. (A 500-pound precision bomb has a casualty-producing radius of 400 meters minimum; do the math.)
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It is all the more ironic that this un-Constitutional mission is being performed by citizen soldiers such as myself who swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, the same oath that the commander in chief himself has sworn.
# Mike Wasdin at Strike the Root - Friends Don't Let Friends Vote! - folks often say that if you don't vote, you can't complain. Mr. Wasdine makes it clear that this is bass-ackwards. If you do vote, you can't complain. [root]
Whenever I am in hot debate with the neurologically challenged, I have found this to be a good example: If I were having lunch with you, and in the middle of lunch I were to stand up and announce to everyone in the restaurant that you were buying everyone's lunch, I am sure you would take issue with that. What about if I agreed to put it up for a vote, would that make it fair? If you agree to accept the result, then you are therefore legitimizing it, and agreeing to the outcome.
On the other hand, if you were to say it is not up for a vote, I am not buying; I don't care what everyone else thinks, well then you would have every right to complain if I tried to coerce you into paying. By not agreeing to participate in the vote, you have not legitimized it, and therefore have every right to complain, and should. The sheep cannot seem to grasp this concept.
# John Ross - The Medical Community, Atkins, and Denial, or It's All About Money - Mr. Ross has taken his doctor's advice to lose some weight, but ignored that advice completely by choosing the Atkins diet as the method to do it. [ross]
For millions of years (a million years is about 50,000 generations) man's diet consisted of animals he could kill and plants he could find. Obesity and coronary artery disease basically did not exist. In 1828, American per capita sugar consumption had risen to 12 pounds a year, but coronary disease still did not exist. By the early 1900s, the level was around 100 pounds a year, consumption of refined flour was way up, and coronary disease was starting to appear. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup consumption is now over 150 pounds a year, along with lots of refined flour in breads and pastas. These figures come from the USDA.
We were healthy on a high fat, high protein, low carb diet for more than 50,000 generations, then in six generations we go to a diet loaded with carbohydrates, we encounter an epidemic of obesity and heart disease, and our doctors tell us to... reduce our fat consumption.
# Slashdot - Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik Answers - boy, it sure is refreshing to see a politician who gives real answers to real questions. [smith2004]
What's your view on the Patriot act? What, if any, parts do you think need to be changed, and why?
The whole thing needs to be repealed.
The PATRIOT Act removes the "governor" from the engine -- it lifts needed restrictions on the use of government power. It makes law enforcement and the bureaucracy unaccountable for their actions.
In my view, the bounds set by the Constitution are entirely compatible with the powers that law enforcement legitimately needs. Letting government run outside those bounds doesn't enhance our security -- it just compromises our liberty.
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If you or I want to unseat or kill a thug like Saddam Hussein, we're morally free to do so. He's a tyrant and a murderer. We'd only be acting on behalf of his victims.
Once we bring other people unwillingly into the equation, it gets more complex. We don't have a right to kill the innocent. We don't have a right to pick our neighbors' pockets to finance the project. We don't have a right to conscript their children into our army, as some in Congress are now advocating.
# Dave Hitt at The Hittman Chronicle - Name Three - Mr. Hitt asks a number of anti-smoking "authorities" to name three people who have died from second-hand smoke. He emailed the American Heart Association, Joe Cherner, Stanton Glanz, TobaccoFree.org, the Tompkins County Health Department, the American Lung Association, Jeffery Wigand, and James Repace. Mr. Wiggand gave him one unverifiable name. Mr Repace game him three names, one of which was unverifiable, one of which couldn't convince a jury, and one of which was an obvious fraud. The others either couldn't name anyone or didn't send a response. My conclusion: second-hand smoke is a first class fraud. [smith2004]
Our conversations are the final step in a project of mine. I've been asking the same question (name three people) to a variety of organizations and individuals. You were the only one who supplied three names, and your choices are quite revealing. One of them is unverifiable. Another, despite the fact that juries love ailing individuals and hate tobacco companies, was unable to convince a jury that his illness had anything to do with SHS. And the first one you cited was an outright fraud - she had pancreatic cancer which spread to her lungs, and she tried to cash in by blaming tobacco.
So thanks, James, for proving what I've known all along. You and your ilk are making a very good living by telling lies about SHS and vilifying smokers. The bans you promote put thousands of small business men and women out of work, all to protect someone from a non-existent danger. And worst of all, you've provided nannies and busybodies of every ilk with a blueprint on how to use Big Brother and Lawyers to interfere with every aspect of everyone's life.
There are all kinds of evils in the world, but the very worst comes from those who sacrifice freedom and facts "for our own good," and for their own profit.
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There are so many anti-smoker orginziations out there contacting them all could be a full time job. But this project wasn't meant to be all inclusive, just to provide a good sample of the blatent dishonesty nicotine nannies rely on.
Of course, this dishonesty isn't limited to nicotine nannies - nannies of all stripes love to spew made up numbers. The next time you hear a one, try this very simple technique: look them in the eye and say "Name three."
# Carolyn Lochhead at The San Francisco Chronicle - Speeches ignore impending U.S. debt disaster - when the baby boomers start retiring, during the administration of whomever is elected in November, the U.S. government will have a budget shortfall of between 40 and 72 trillion dollars. Yes, trillion. My take: our "leaders" aren't going to be willing to do what is necessary, shut down social security and medicare, and they know they can't raise taxes enough to pay for this, so their "solution" will be to print money, which will cause massive inflation. Methinks it's time to invest in hard currencies (gold, silver, platinum, guns, ammo) and land. [claire]
