And the expansion of our authoritarian government.
This may be the last smoken news. Disagreeing with the government is now a prosecutable offense. Regardless of what you think of what I say about smoken you should be very much afraid.
Odd Numbers
Nov 20 2007
Q & A on the Personal Costs of Smoking
Last week, I wrote up a new NBER paper on the personal costs of smoking which has generated a bit of interest around the blogosphere.
I’m sure a lot of people would like to run with these in various different directions. I’ve also found that smokers overestimate the life-expectancy loss associated with smoking. So, if that’s the case, then they would’ve already taken [our findings] into account.
Justice Department Dung
And the expansion of our authoritarian government.
This may be the last smoken news. Disagreeing with the government is now a prosecutable offense. Regardless of what you think of what I say about smoken you should be very much afraid.
1. 75% of health care dollars are spent in the last six months or weeks of life.
2. 80% of Medicare money is spent on people over the age of 65.
3. Anti smokers claim that smokers die prematurely.
Think about the above real hard.
Our States AG’s brought a frivolous lawsuit against the tobacco companies several years ago claiming that its product was causing untold expenses to Medicare. Just think about how stupid this claim is. Think real hard about the 3 statements above. In terms of pure economics, keeping people healthy does not save money over the long run. These government programs depend on people dying before they can collect. The outcome was a settlement known as the Master Settlement Agreement, MSA. Why the tobacco companies settled has puzzled me. I see only three possibilities: The AG’s threatened the tobacco companies with further litigation. Some kind of extortion or blackmail was imposed. The tobacco companies wanted to lose. The business world thinks the MSA was a good thing. “Those who have examined the evidence – whether lawyers, laymen or judges – have expressed amazement that such stuff had been taken seriously.” “That is what happens when people start with a preconception and seize upon anything that looks consistent with it. Statistical disparities are a major source of such fallacies. “
We are being molded against our will. You know it and feel it and yet you tell yourself it is only smokers or only fat people. We let it slide so that we can get by. We do not realize that with each passing day our response to these onslaughts on our freedom become automatic. Thus, we have been preconditioned with a preconception that if you just stop and think about is BS. This is how an authoritarian government is formed, preconditioning and preconception. Health and Children are foremost in the formation of an authoritarian government. Der Reich’s Furher formed an authoritarian government using these exact same methods.
The Department of Justice filed a 2,500-page document in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia the other day. The court session opened today, September 21, 2004. The document spells out the central accusations in its $280 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry. The lawsuit was initially filed by the Clinton-era DOJ, and the Bush administration has continued to press it.
I find all of these lawsuits that are brought by the government extremely humorous. There are probably more public officials on the tobacco companies premises than tobacco company employees. The government even kept tobacco company secrets locked away in a safe for decades so no other companies could copy their processes. The Federal Trade Commission and other Federal and State agencies control and govern just about everything they do. If you believe the smoking bunk then we should hold
the government responsible, they control tobacco.
I digress. Below is the reason that I might not be able to continue railing against the lies and thievery of our government. I’m chicken.
In the section of the document titled “Summary of the Defendant’s Scheme to Defraud and Disgorgement,” the DOJ alleges that “the Defendants devised an extensive scheme to defraud the public of money that they have executed for nearly 50 years, and which continues to this day. Defendants have carried out this massive scheme to defraud through a variety of means, including, but not limited to, causing the public dissemination of numerous false, deceptive and misleading statements that, among other things: denied that smoking and secondhand smoke cause disease and other adverse health effects; denied that cigarettes are addictive; and denied that tobacco products were marketed to young people.”
“The Bush DOJ apparently believes that it is a prosecutable offense – under the made-for-mobsters Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), no less – for legitimate businesses to defend their products.”
As most of you know I am convinced that the anti smokers is a hate group and cult. I am not alone. Below is just a sampling.
Rep. Thomas Bliley, member of the EPA oversight committee, presented a amning report to Congress about the shenanigans going on. Our boys and girls didn’t listen. Why? I’ve known for quite some time that few of them could read. I strongly suspect that they have selective hearing also.
“Judge William Osteen of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina who vacated – that is, vaporized – the Environmental Protection Agency’s 1993 conclusion that secondhand smoke causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths per year.”
“The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world’s pre-eminent medical journals, which permitted University of Chicago Hospitals Health Studies Chairman John Bailar in 1998 to expose as junk science research that alleged secondhand smoke was associated with heart disease.”
“New York University professor Mort Lippman, the chairman of the EPA Science Advisory Board’s Indoor Air Quality Committee, reviewed the EPA report on secondhand smoke and famously noted in 1991 that the health risk from secondhand smoke was so small that it was “probably much less than you took to get [to the EPA building] through Washington traffic.”
This case, if won by the government, and it probably will be since they have already spent $135 million in tax dollars on it will effectively shut me and others up or we will be prosecuted by the ever expanding authoritarian U.S. government. Think about it, disagreeing with the government is a prosecutable offense. That’s what this suit is really about. And, money.
“President Bush was critical of the DOJ suit during the 2000 campaign, saying that he was “troubled by the Justice Department’s reversal” of a previous position that there was no merit for a federal lawsuit. President Bush added that he hoped “the era of big government is not replaced by the era of big lawsuits.” If the president doesn’t get a grip on the Department of Justice, businesses could be threatened in the future with similar RICO lawsuits anytime they find themselves disagreeing with the government over scientific issues – blaming the food industry for obesity and the energy industry for global warming are two ongoing controversies that come to mind.”
In the last editorial I asked where is John Ashcroft. Guess I found out.
Tom Oyler
Wichita, KS
affair held at Northeastern University, concluding on September 19,
2004. Attendees included trial lawyers, dietitians and public-health
advocates. I’m glad these groups are looking out for my health, what
philanthropists they are. I say that with tongue in cheek. But, many of
you see nothing wrong. Shoot they are just trying to help and besides
it’s only fat folk. Just another small step. We won’t let it get out of
hand. The faith many have in these goobers is appalling. Another
victim to be sacrificed on the altar of altruism. Ah, the illusive greater
good.
conference.
obesity lawsuit drive had achieved more in the last few years than the
first tobacco lawsuits.
sued” for misleading consumers or targeting young audiences, said Dallas
lawyer Steve Gardner.
that in a lot of obese people who have lost control with eating,” said
William Jacobs, anesthesiology and assistant professor of psychiatry at
the University of Florida.
projector on the last day of the conference.
of society? Soon you will be classified as addicts just like the evil
smoker. Mr. Jacobs, mentioned above, says that fat folk demonstrate
addiction symptoms such as preoccupation, relapses, narrowness of
interests, loss of control and continued detrimental behaviors despite knowing
the harm associated with excessive weight gain. Well, that explains a
lot. Detrimental behaviors, now there is something one can get their
teeth into. I was watching the research channel the other day. Dr.
Adam E. Levy of Washington University was explaining the techniques for
transplanting livers. He made a statement that I found fascinating. 90%
of all the bad stuff, germs, bacteria, and viruses come from the hands.
So wash those hands and don’t be speaking to them unless they are
washed, hear that Arnold. I’m not going there.
second-hand danger from fat folks. I’m sure they will come up with
something and they will have a study or studies to back up their claim
which many will embrace.
children and how to regulate it. Health and Children, what a combination.
Wonder who thought that up?
classes in eating. The schools there are now known as “Schools of
Wellness”. Anyone know where they got the $1.5 million grant to do this?
The program’s pilot school has hired a new coach to teach expanded
physical education classes. Writing classes have been eliminated in order
to accommodate the budget and schedule. I know that I have read about
this before, somewhere. Just can’t quite remember. I see a lot of
brown shirts and little kids marching like soldiers, saluting some crazed
individual. Must have been a bad dream. Yes, that’s what it was a bad
dream.
Tom Oyler
