An interesting passage in William Saletan’s otherwise ho-hum editorial on the anti-tobacco crusades:
Urine tests are a warning sign that the war on smoking is morphing into a war on nicotine. The latest target is snus, a tobacco product that delivers nicotine without smoke. Despite studies showing it’s far safer than cigarettes, most European countries [...]
Archive for the ‘Tobacco’ Category
What was that saying about forests and trees?
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco on August 17, 2007 | 3 Comments »
secondhand smoke: The numbers don’t exist, but I swear it causes cancer.
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco, Tyranny of Public Health on August 3, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Sitting in a bar the other night, drinking $3 martinis by myself because I had nothing better to do, I was reading the spring issue of Regulation magazine, because I thought that would be less awkward than reading a book.
There was a great article in which Gio Batta Gori debunks the “science” behind secondhand [...]
Shhhh! You’re not supposed to know this!
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco on July 18, 2007 | 6 Comments »
A strange twist in Congress’ attempt to give the FDA regulatory power over tobacco: it must be kept a secret.
Anti-smoking advocate Michael Siegel even thinks this is silly:
In a last hour maneuver, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman – Senator Edward Kennedy – inserted a provision into the bill which [...]
teens are also disproportionate consumers of wine coolers, arbor mist, mad dog, and natty lite
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco on July 17, 2007 | 7 Comments »
The Senate health committee is scheduled to consider a bill tomorrow that would allow the FDA to regulate cigarettes. It is getting stalled, however, because it would keep clove cigarettes legal. This is apparently unacceptable to sponsors of the bill, who are insisting that clove cigarettes, along with all other flavored cigarettes, should be banned. [...]
Memo to Republican senators: Please get back in big business’ pocket. Please? I could stomach your “family values”* better when you at least didn’t want to tax everything
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco on July 11, 2007 | 2 Comments »
From a USA Today article on SCHIP and proposed tobacco tax increases:
“It really does come down to a choice between children and tobacco,” said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., who originally proposed the 61-cent increase.
Except …. not at all? But nice framing there, Gordo. Not at all inflammatory and completely misleading.
(It only comes [...]
more on SCHIP and tobacco taxes
Posted in Health Morality, Nanny State, Tobacco on July 10, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Via WSJ:
Anti tobacco groups also have been advocating a higher tobacco tax, which also appears to be getting attention in the House. Recently, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids presented to House Democratic aides a survey it funded that showed substantial support – even among smokers — for raising tobacco taxes.
So I was skeptical [...]
taxing the overweight
Posted in Health Morality, Obesity, Tobacco on June 20, 2007 | 24 Comments »
I think we should start taxing people based on their weight. Weight tax, if you will. Healthy weight? Then you don’t have to get weight taxed. Overweight? Well, then you get taxed. And the taxes increase incrementally for every 5 pounds over healthy weight you are. Maybe if you don’t like it you’ll stop eating [...]
Paternalism: “I know you better than you do” says government
Posted in Libertarians, Nanny State, Tobacco on May 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Let’s talk about Paternalism for a moment. This has been on my mind for a couple of days, triggered by a TV commercial regarding Ohio’s seatbelt law. Now, most people agree that wearing seatbelts in cars is good and people want to be safe while they are driving, but look at the big picture here. [...]
Well do you want homeless people to get lung cancer? Do you?
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco, What the Fuck? on May 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A while back, an art dealer in NY tried to sue homeless people for messing with his storefront ambiance. What’s new in the world or atrocious measures to get rid of homeless people news?
As Mayor Tom Bates sees it, the alcoholics, meth addicts and the like who make up a good portion of the [...]
my hollywood heroes may have lit up, but it was the kids behind the roller coasters at Kings Island who started me smoking
Posted in Tobacco on May 15, 2007 | 1 Comment »
“I can only hope this means that the MPAA will strip such films as ‘Casablanca,’ ‘To Have and Have Not’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’ of their G-ratings and re-label them for what they were: insidious works of pro-smoking propaganda that led to millions of uncounted deaths. Bravo.” — Christopher Buckley (author of Thank You For Smoking) [...]
Ocean City hates art and sex! Man jailed for smoking! Taking precautions against baking soda fiends!
Posted in Drugs, Nanny State, Sex, Tobacco, What the Fuck? on April 6, 2007 | 1 Comment »
I’m just going to aggregate some of the more obnoxious, civil-liberties infringing, you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me laws passed/upheld/introduced this week:
Ocean City, Md. approved a resolution putting a moratorium on “sexually explicit stores,” including adult arcades, adult bookstores, adult video stores, “adult cabarets,” adult motels, adult movie theaters, adult theaters, escort agency’s, “seminude model studios” or sexual encounter [...]
“Due to the fact that most of the characters in this movie were dolls, there wasn’t much smoking.”
Posted in Pop Culture, Tobacco on April 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I’m in class right now, and we’re learning about the Hollywood Anti-Smoking Watchdog group Scene Smoking right now. The group runs the Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! project, which content analyzes smoking in films and is apparently paid for by a government grant:
“Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down!” is a project of the American Lung Association of [...]
smoke-easies, altoid tins, blue moon, janis joplin and vivid imaginations
Posted in Ohio on my Mind, Tobacco on March 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Via To the People, a piece on Philly.com about “smoke-easies.”
Now “smoke-easies” are nothing new. When my former hometown of Columbus, OH, banned smoking last year, my favorite bars generally didn’t pay heed. One of my favorite neighborhood watering holes got rid of their tell-tale signs of being a smoking establishment, ashtrays, and replaced them [...]
smoking bans everywhere!
Posted in Health Morality, Nanny State, Tobacco on March 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Via Michael Siegel at The Rest of the Story, an op-ed in The Australian by Simon Chapman, a professor of public health, about the ethics of public health policy, and tobacco policy in particular.
Apparently, Australia has enacted some pretty intense smoking bans lately: ban on smoking in cars with children, ban on smoking in [...]
next time I’m wearing my hot-pink-and-black dress….
Posted in Tobacco on February 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Camel introduces girly cigarettes. Marty Kaplan at the Norman Lear Center blog thinks the marketing campaign is sort of silly:
What’s surprising, or at least worth a second look, is the degree to which the tobacco company believes that marketing and packaging — the dark arts of attention-getting — are smart investments. Again according to [...]
smoking ban bandwagon
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco on January 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Via To The People, according to DC Council Member Jim Graham’s unofficial Web site poll, 85 percent of people reported being less likely to go out to bars now that the DC smoking ban is in effect:
Smoke-free bars in the District: are you more or less likely to go out now?
Less likely.
352 85%
More [...]
for purely aesthetic reasons, I’m kind of disappointed my elected officials can’t smoke big cigars outside the House floor
Posted in Nanny State, Tobacco on January 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, the House of Representatives smoking ban within the Speaker’s Lobby outside the House floor entrance took effect. According to the WaPo article,
Smoking is still permitted in lawmakers’ offices, in two designated smoking rooms in the House office buildings and in a small, concrete room in the Capitol’s basement.
The article goes on to describe [...]
in which i start off with obesity report cards and get far, far off topic on health/morality tangents…
Posted in Food Politics, Health Morality, Obesity, Tobacco on January 8, 2007 | 1 Comment »
The New York Times has an interesting piece today on obesity report cards.
The practice of reporting students’ body mass scores to parents originated a few years ago as just one tactic in a war on childhood obesity that would be fought with fresh, low-fat cafeteria offerings and expanded physical education. Now, inspired by impressive [...]
5% profit loss, 15% profit loss, it’s all the same, really
Posted in Tobacco on January 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
When we said we’d have a hardship clause in the smoking ban for businesses who’ve lost 5 percent of their revenue, we really meant we’d wait and see exactly how bad it’s going to be for businesses and then raise the threshold just above that
Currently, there is a proposed exemption for businesses that show a [...]
the real nick naylor
Posted in PR, Tobacco on January 7, 2007 | 1 Comment »
“On the dance floor, results of over-indulgence are quickly revealed — causing embarrassment not only to one’s dancing partner but also to other dancers by encroaching on more than a fair share of space on a crowded or, as is often the case, on a dance floor of limited proportions. Dancers today, when tempted to [...]
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