Reason Friday Funnies smoking.

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EPA at it again

I think that it is time to abolish the EPA, The EPA Has had a long history with playing fast and loose with science to suit their agenda.

Scientific findings at odds with the Obama Administration’s views on carbon dioxide and climate change are being suppressed as a result of political pressure, officials at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) charge.

“This suppression of valid science for political reasons is beyond belief,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. “EPA’s conduct is even more outlandish because it flies in the face of the president’s widely-touted claim that ‘the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over.’”

The agency has never made the study public or included it in official reference materials, according to CEI. As part of a recently concluded EPA public comment period on a proposed rule, CEI submitted a set four EPA emails, dated March 12-17, 2009, as evidence that the suppressed study included a critique of the agency’s global warming position.

CEI has asked EPA to make the study public and to allow public comments on it. CEI has also asked that EPA to prevent any reprisals against the study’s author who has been employed with the agency for 35 years.

Here is the actual study.
Many of us know about the fraud they committed when they published the 1992 report that started the smoking ban frenzy.

EPA has a long history of scientific malpractice. Both the General Accounting Office and the Congressional Research Service have been severely critical of EPA’s policies and procedures on a variety of issues. EPA has violated its own risk assessment guidelines and debased scientific standards regarding secondhand smoke. It was found guilty of violating six federal statutes for using harassment and intimidation to try to compel employee support for its policy on secondhand smoke.

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists say they have been pressured by superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey released Wednesday by an advocacy group.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said more than half of the nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar attributed some of the discontent to the “passion” scientists have toward their work. He said EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, as a longtime career scientist at the EPA himself, “weighs heavily the science given to him by the staff in making policy decisions.”

Should we continue to spend billions of dollars on an agency that does not do legitimate scientific work but distorts science to suit their agenda?

Velvet Glove, Iron Fist

Michael J. Mcfadden does a very good review of Christopher Snowdon’s book Velvet Glove, Iron Fist.

While not as strongly focused on Antismokers’ psychological language tricks and dubious scientific deceptions underlying smoking bans as my own Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains, Chris Snowdon does not neglect these areas

and on the contrary has done an excellent job of showing how they form an integral part of the history. His approach embodies a strong neutrality that will win him friends and enemies on both sides of the issue, but I believe that overall, that neutrality only serves to underscore the damning facts that will eventually bring judgment against what historian Jeremy Richards has called “America’s Second Great Prohibition Experiment.”

Part of the reason that I bring upChristopher Snowdon and his book is he did an interview with David Goerlitz the former Winston man who exposed the fact that the cigarette companies did in fact target kids with their advertising. Like Dr Michael Siegel he is dissillusuoned with tobacco control and can no longer remain silent about the zellotry and corruption of the tobacco control movement. Here is an exerpt from an email he sent to Ryan.

Four or five months ago, I decided to sever ties with the anti-tobacco movement and made the decision to “come out”, but had to have my ducks in a row. I am ready to expose with what ever Army I have to back me up the inner workings, the politics. the corruption, and

moronic bans, legislation and FDA bill that is nothing short of of being racist, protectionist,cynical, hypocritical, and misguided.

Just to remind you, this has been a long time coming and I know I’m ready to take My fight and Your fight to the streets. If you are serious about bringing this issue to a head, I’m your man. Whatever you heard about me when I was the keynote speaker in Madison in Nov. of 2008, I only talked about my experiences and never came off as a zealot. I just wanted yo to know that. Check me out, and if I can help, give a call and I’ll answer any and all questions you need answered.

My Youtube interviews with Chris Snowdon came out a couple of weeks ago as well as the scathing accusations of one of our biggest hoaxes ever perpotrated on the public.

David B. Goerlitz,
Former Winston Man
http://www.formerwinstonman.org

Exclusive interview with long-standing anti-smoking spokesman David Goerlitz. Read about it at Spiked and listen to the whole extraordinary interview here.

Not gangster! it’s called socialism.

Shock! Not all Smoke Free groups censor their site

This was posted on my about page.

“You posted to the mogasp blog but your post was incomplete. For me to consider it please complete and resubmit, but I make no promises in advance about approval. Thanks. Martin Pion.

Since he decided not to post my response I will post it here.

Here is an excellent rebuttal of the Klien study.

When it comes to the harm done to charitable gambling that has been proven time and time again.
http://kuneman.smokersclub.com/PDF/MNsmokingbanstudy.pdf
The bottom line is that the only studies that show no economic harm were those done by tobacco control. The one done by Kline did not show anything economic. Just raw employment data. Not whether it was full time or part time or whether their tips went up or down just how many people were employed. It ignores the fact that this study was done In Minnesota and over three hundred bars went out of business as a result of the ban. Just in the Mall of America there were fifteen bars and they all went out of business as a result of the ban.

As far as your post on my website.

“You posted to the mogasp blog but your post was incomplete. For me to consider it please complete and resubmit, but I make no promises in advance about approval. Thanks. Martin Pion.”

I do not censor my site, I also will let you know that I am a member of Ban the ban Wisconsin. I and we are willing to allow dissenting opinions and are willing to defend our position until hell freezes over. We do not have to censure our site. We present the facts and let the public decide. Hannegan presents the facts. You might not like the facts but they are there for everyone to see. The facts are that you people can not prove one single death caused by second hand smoke. All you have is very weak statistics based on lifestyle surveys. Now how many ex smokers claim to be never smokers just because groups like yours made them out to be the pariah of society? Also since when did the government get to make a minority second class citizens and tax them as such? Can you show any justification to force smokers to pay for non-smokers health care through the S-CHIP? There is no way that you can justify that theft through taxation. You can censure my post and that is fine. I am use to that from tobacco control. I will say that your censorship will speak a thousand words and I will pass it on to every group that believes in the freedom of choice!!

Edited the 16th with name change after response! mogasp not only published the post he responded here

mogasp ,

Thank you for responding and publishing my response. No I didn’t distort your intent. You did not make your intent clear. I do not know why the rest of my original post did not show up. When you posted to my site I immediately went to your site and rectified the situation. It sat waiting for moderation until after I posted this one. I am pleasantly surprised as most anti-smoking sites are heavily censored such as.
http://smokefreewisconsin.blogspot.com/
i
Even in your own back yard.
http://www.smokefreestl.org/

If you look there are hardly any responses to their blog entries and in the rare event they do allow a decenting opinon they cut the dialog off after their response, so I commend you for your integrity.

America the new Rome

My Socialist leaning blogging counterpart in the UK is trying to make parallels between our form of government and the Roman Republic. In many ways he is correct. But he is drawing the wrong conclusions from history. Rome was a strong republic for 500 years. It was socialist programs that demanded higher and higher taxes that forced it into civil war thus ending the Republic of Rome and began the Roman Empire with an over powerful central government,

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterized by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean .

Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he became the master of the Roman world.
After assuming control of government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He heavily centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed “dictator in perpetuity” . . . .

Caesar proposed a law for the redistribution of public lands to the poor, a proposal supported by Pompey, by force of arms if need be, and by Crassus, making the triumvirate public. Pompey filled the city with soldiers, and the triumvirate’s opponents were intimidated. Bibulus attempted to declare the omens unfavourable and thus void the new law, but was driven from the forum by Caesar’s armed supporters.

For more on the Roman Empire.

This BBC article shows how Rome went from republic to democracy to dictatorship.

In 133 BC, Rome was a democracy. Little more than a hundred years later it was governed by an emperor. This imperial system has become, for us, a by-word for autocracy and the arbitrary exercise of power.

At the end of the second century BC the Roman people was sovereign. True, rich aristocrats dominated politics. In order to become one of the annually elected ‘magistrates’ (who in Rome were concerned with all aspects of government, not merely the law) a man had to be very rich.
Even the system of voting was weighted to give more influence to the votes of the wealthy. Yet ultimate power lay with the Roman people. Mass assemblies elected the magistrates, made the laws and took major state decisions. Rome prided itself on being a ‘free republic’ and centuries later was the political model for the founding fathers of the United States.

That is the biggest problems with democracy. The people vote for convenience and temporary security sacrificing the freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the constitution.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Ben Franklin

“A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

Union greed and government social engineering

It is high time that people wake up to the role that both the government and the unions have played in the economic disaster that we find ourselves in at this point. We are at a point where we are socializing the automobile business. Of course I don’t think that the liberals would be pushing so hard for a bailout if it were not for one of their major backers involved. The trade union. If you take a look they are demanding to control the wages of the executives but are doing nothing about the bloated benifits to the employees. Most of us do not have these bloated benefit packages and have seen our 401Ks drastically reduce in value and yet we are expected to pick up the tab for this.

But high current costs are only part of the problem. So-called “legacy costs” leave Detroit paying an enormous sum of money for mistakes made in the past. In 2004, GM, Ford, and Chrysler employed approximately 370,000 people in their U.S. automotive operations but supported more than 800,000 retirees with expensive pension and health care packages negotiated through collective bargaining.[7] From 1993 to 2007, General Motors alone spent an average of $7 billion per year to fund legacy pensions and retiree health care.[8] These legacy costs create a catch-22 for automakers: Not only are they nearly impossible to trim outside of bankruptcy, but as firms downsize existing operations, they become a proportionately larger burden on the company.

Just as the liberals helped cause the financial crisis by forcing banks to give risky loans to low income people they and the government unions did the same with the government pension funds. I sometimes wonder if this push for a cap and trade tax is nothing but a feeble attempt to bolster their bad investments and cover their tracks.

The largest public pension fund in the United States, the California Public Employees Retirement Security System (CalPERS), lost a staggering 20 percent of its value in just three months last year. In May 2008, Vallejo, California, became the largest city in the state ever to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, thanks largely to unmanageable pension obligations.

During melting markets, all pension funds come under siege. If you’re covered by a “defined contribution” plan, contributions are invested, usually by your employer and usually in the stock market, and the returns are credited to the employee’s account. Your retirement savings grow if the market rises or, as is the case now, bleed when it crashes. You carry the risk on your shoulders.

The risk shifts to the employer under “defined benefit” plans, in which future outlays are guaranteed. That seemed like a great idea for business as recently as 2007, when the market was rising and the pension funds of America’s 500 largest companies held a surplus of $60 billion. Now they’re at a deficit of $200 billion, with fund assets dropping like a lodestone.

Here is where the social engineering comes in. Instead of thinking like a businessman and investing in sound projects that would maximize the profits of the fund. They used the money to fund pet projects and investments that they deemed “socially acceptable”

Traditionally, public investments and union-based corporate pension funds were managed according to strict fiduciary principles designed to protect workers and taxpayers. For the most part they invested in safe government securities, such as bonds or U.S. Treasury bills. Professional managers oversaw the funds with little political interference.

But during the last 30 years, state pension funds began playing the market, putting their money into riskier and riskier securities—first stocks, corporate bonds, and foreign investments, then real estate, private equity firms, and hedge funds. Concurrently, baby boomers whose politics were forged in the 1960s and ’70s began using those pension funds to advance their social visions. Investments designed for the long-term welfare of retirees began to evolve into a political hammer.

Many union funds and larger state pension plans screen stocks and investment opportunities based on what are known as “socially responsible investing,” or SRI, principles. Instead of focusing solely on maximizing value, fund managers have used the economic clout of concentrated stock holdings to make a statement by divesting from companies that don’t make it through certain “sin screens.” These included companies involved with weapons, nuclear energy, tobacco, alcohol, natural resources, and genetic modifications on agriculture, many of which did well over the past decade. Stocks of public companies deemed to have poor records on labor, environmental issues, women’s rights, and gay rights are also frequently screened out, as are corporations that do business with regimes that activists consider unsavory.

I don’t know about you but I find this very disturbing. The government has never been able to run a business that could break even much less make a profit. The railroads and the postal system are classic examples. Do we really trust them to run the automotive industry?

Left coast loons and Justice Sotomayor

Ryan a fellow Ban the Ban Wisconsin member and co founder shook quite a few coconuts loose on his blog today. What I find so humorous is the comment section, Ryan is repeatedly called a racist, told to join the Skinheads, one person even said “you are a KKK just like Bush for he is the anti-christ and you are one of his disciples” Now if you read his post the whole point he made was that if you were against Sotomayor’s appointment that you would be accused of all of those things. Not one person gave a legitimate reason as to why she should be appointed The first comment from futiledemocracy dedicated an entire blog entry on the subject. The problem with his blog entry was the same as all the comments. Not one legitimate reason for her to be appointed, just conservative bashing. Now here are the facts. The role of the courts are to enforce the law, the role of the appellate courts and the supreme courts are to make sure that the laws are Constitutional and that the constitution has been followed, anything more is activism and beyond the scope of the courts. Here she is in her own words.

Now as Ryan put it.
She has blatantly proven support for the race quota system (reverse discrimination) per her opinion on the New Haven fire department test case (Ricci v. DeStefano), she supports the Kelo decison (Kelo v. City of New London) which is one of the worst decisons on emminant domain the court has ever ruled on.

She has also ruled against second amendment rights. In this case we are not even talking about guns. We are talking about a common weapon that is used in the martial arts nunchaku commonly called nun-chucks. Now this person was not carrying them in public he was not brandishing them and he has no criminal record. Simple possession is considered a crime in New York.

Now these are good enough reason on their own to question her qualifications to those who believe in liberty and the constitution. How long can these so called “Progressives” claim the high ground with there venomous hate and Bush bashing. Bush is gone and wasn’t exactly the poster boy for the Constitution or liberty, the Patriot act is proof of that. Is Obama the new Bush?

Morticians Association of America Endorses President Obama

Yet another joke from the liberals, now that they run the car companies they are now going to dictate what kind of cars that they are going to build. Now this would normally be decided in the free market by demand. Under Socialism it is decided by a central government.

Socialism

Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.