NYC: The City That Never Smokes

by Patrick Basham and John Luik

A proposal to ban lighting up in New York's parks has exposed the puritanical agenda behind the crusade against smoking.

The truth about second-hand smoking is finally out.

Thanks to some unusual candour on the part of the anti-tobacco brigade in New York City, we now have official confirmation that banning smoking in public has absolutely nothing to do with protecting the health of non-smokers from second-hand smoke, but everything to do with stigmatising both smoking and smokers. Closer to home, new evidence from the National Health Service (NHS) shows that the public smoking ban in England has made absolutely no positive difference in smoking rates, despite claims made by its champions that it would.

In September, Dr Thomas Farley, New York City's Health Commissioner, proposed banning smoking at all of the city's parks and beaches (1). Dr Farley's rationale for the ban has nothing to do with the risks that outdoor smoking pose to non-smokers, but rather with preventing people, particularly children, from having to see anyone smoking in public. Farley says, 'We don't think children should have to watch someone smoking'. Farley also defends the extension of the smoking ban to outdoor areas by arguing that it is 'part of a broader strategy to further curb smoking rates'. New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, confirmed earlier this month that he would implement Farley's proposal, arguing that the public is 'overwhelmingly in favour' (2).

Why have the champions of banning smoking everywhere, even in private accommodation, suddenly come clean about the driving force behind their crusade? The answer is that they have essentially won the war over public smoking. But why is this the case? The answer, sadly, is that for the past 15 to 20 years, the public has been bombarded with a carefully orchestrated government-funded anti-tobacco campaign to convince them — in contradiction of the scientific evidence — that smokers pose a deadly health risk to non-smokers, particularly children.

The scientific evidence has never supported the case against public smoking. The US Environmental Protection Agency's seminal early 1990s report on second-hand smoke was severely flawed. Its critique of second-hand smoke was only sustained through a careful exclusion of non-confirming evidence and a non-traditional application of the statistical test known as confidence limits. The report was subjected to a scathing analysis by a US federal court, which rejected its scientific claims about the dangers of second-hand smoke, a finding that even on appeal was not reversed (3). READ MORE

CLASSIC DREW CAREY

David Boaz on military libertarianism, White House and Fox News, and the pay czar.

REASON.TV'S NANNY OF THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER 2009

Latest ACORN Pimp/Prostitute Video

Keep Government Out of Media

Marta Hummel Mossburg

If Fox News is not news, according to the White House, then what is CBS' "60 Minutes"? If Sunday's lineup is an example, it's flirting with becoming Obama TV.

It began its program with a piece on Medicare fraud - a worthy topic. But it's all about "perspective," as President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said of Fox's reporting.

Steve Kroft began the segment with, "Of all the problems facing the United States right now, none are more important than health care. President Obama says rising costs are driving huge federal budget deficits that imperil our future and that there is enough waste and fraud in the system to pay for health care reform if it were eliminated."

Who says health care reform is the biggest issue in the country - "60 Minutes," the president or the people of the United States? Polls consistently show the economy outranks health care reform on the list of Americans' concerns. But it certainly is Obama's chief concern as he seeks to overhaul the U.S. health system this fall. Kroft did mention that the $60 billion fraud industry raises "troubling questions" about the government's ability to run a bigger health care bureaucracy and told a chilling tale of how easy it is to defraud taxpayers. But the entire story is framed under the auspices that the government says this is the biggest issue, so therefore it should be covered.

That segment was followed by what can only be called an epilepsy advocacy piece by Katie Couric focused on Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod and his wife, Susan. Their family faced a huge struggle with a disease that struck their daughter Lauren, 28, as an infant. Theirs is a compelling story and the debate over funding for epilepsy certainly is a worthy public policy issue. But with three million people suffering from the disease in the United States, according to Couric, aren't there others who could have served as her protagonists? There was nothing particularly newsy about the piece that made them necessary headliners.

READ THE REST @ MPPI

Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock Details Fallout from Chrysler Bankruptcy

Great American Quotes

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. "

– H.L. Mencken

Greed Is Good?

by Pat Dixon

“What is greed? Of course none of us are greedy, it’s always the other fellow that is greedy” (Dr Milton Friedman)

Welcome to the War on Greed. It manifests itself in massive government legislation, Michael Moore films, Paul Krugman editorials, TV news, and elsewhere. All those greedy corporations, greedy bankers, greedy entrepreneurs have ruined us. They need to be stopped!

It is easy to apply the greed label. That’s because most people applying that label don’t know what greed is. What is greed?

If you reached this far in my article, you already read the quote and viewed the video by the great Dr Milton Friedman. He provides a necessary context to the question but does not really answer it.

My observation is that most people that apply the greed label think that profit is greed. Those people are confused. They think anyone that has achieved and are wealthy are greedy. They are wrong.

Greed is an addiction. It is an addiction to possession. A greedy person just needs to have more stuff. Be it money, land, art work, or power, the greedy person will do anything to have it. They will break the law, steal, cheat, lie, murder. Their compulsion to acquire is all consuming and ultimately self destructive, as shown in Citizen Kane. Some of the greedy people are bankers and corporate CEOs. Many greedy people are politicians.

Profit is not an addiction. In order to profit, you must provide a good or service that people want. The more you produce, the more profit you make. In order to grow profit you must continue to offer what is in demand, and if you do so you will be rewarded with higher profit. There is no lying, stealing, or murder involved. It is voluntary, peaceful, and ethical.

If you apply the proper definition of greed to our current condition, you will find most of the people labeled as greedy are not greedy. They may have made bad business decisions and took unwise risks. But they did not lie, steal, murder.

Much is made of health insurance companies making record profits. Their profits are reported to have increased 350% over a decade. A fine example of the War on Greed was recently shown on Fox News. How greedy they are! However, these greedy health insurance companies are nowhere near as greedy as beer brewers and software companies. The profit margins for these greedy health care companies are about 3%. Yes, for every dollar invested they get back 3 cents. For those who suffer from the experience of a government controlled education system, you may need to learn what a profit margin is.

There are others that are greedy and have not been labeled as such. They have acquired more power by lying and stealing. They tell us they need to take more money from us to stop all the greedy people. And we re-elect them.

So if you are watching Citizen Kane or Wall Street and ponder Gordon Gekko’s famous statement that greed is good and that greed works, you should now have a proper perspective.

Greed is bad. Profit is good.

Pat Dixon is the Chair of the Texas Libertarian Party and a City Council Member in Lago Vista, Texas.

Libelous Leftist Lynch Mobs

by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

Watching Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson get away with libeling Rush Limbaugh with several outrageously spectacular lies recently (they falsely claimed Limbaugh "defended slavery" and praised Martin Luther King, Jr.’s murderer) reminded me once again how the American Left throws all morals out the door when it comes to any challenges to their secular "religion" of welfare statism and socialism. (The neocon Right, which includes Limbaugh, tells even bigger lies, such as the ones that "justified" the Iraq war.) It also reminded me of how campus leftists at Loyola University Maryland libeled Dr. Walter Block last year with equally outrageous slanders.

LRC readers may recall that after Dr. Block presented a very mainstream economics lecture on "The Economics of the Gender Gap" the university president, Rev. Brian Linnane, S.J., who did not attend the lecture, issued an email to all faculty, staff, students and alumni that did not mention anything that was said in the lecture, but libeled Dr. Block as a racist and sexist. Dr. Block’s apparent "offense" was to use economic theory to challenge one of the superstitions of academic feminism – the dubious notion that all of the difference in male/female wages is caused by sex discrimination, something that no self-respecting economist would ever claim. The obvious goal of such obnoxious tactics is to censor all views of such subjects that do not conform to left-wing political correctness. (Linnane's academic field of specialization is "feminist theology.")

I suspected from the beginning that the libeling of Dr. Block was a set-up by the self-appointed Campus Thought Police, who never stop reminding everyone that they are in favor of "social justice." (The implication is that anyone who opposes their socialistic political agenda must be in favor of injustice.) It was this "social justice crowd" on the Loyola campus who immediately claimed after Dr. Block’s lecture that a student complained to them about the "insensitivity" of Dr. Block’s rendition of the economics of discrimination. Within twenty-four hours I learned that the university president was preparing his libelous letter despite the fact that he had neither attended the lecture nor contacted Dr. Block to ask him if the scurrilous slanders about him were true. I have always suspected that the student was sent to the seminar with specific instructions to cause trouble, which he did. READ MORE

CONGRATS TO REASON FOUNDATION'S SHIKHA DALMIA FOR WINNING BASTIAT PRIZE FOR ONLINE JOURNALISM!

Ron Paul on H1N1

Jim Harper discusses the FCC's plan to regulate the internet

Stenny Hoyer shouted down during Town Meeting

Great Libertarian Quotes

"There's no way to rule innocent men.
The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime
that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."

—Ayn Rand

The Blind Side - Great Story Coming to Theaters

The life story of the Baltimore Raven's Rookie Offensive Tackle Michael Oher is coming to theaters on November 20th. Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw play Leigh Anne and Sean Touhy who took in a homeless teenager from a broken home.

IMDB's synopsis says:

"The Blind Side" depicts the remarkable true story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher's presence in the Touhys' lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle. In the latest chapter of his inspiring story, Oher was a First Round draft pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, selected by the Baltimore Ravens. The Touhys were there to share the moment with him."

Great story and since Oher is a Raven we wish to encourage everyone to check it this incredibly inspiring story.

Greasing the Palms of Democrats & Republicans from the Same Wallets

CREW - Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics In Washington have filed a complaint with the FEC concerning campaign contributions to Michael Steele's 2006 Senatorial Campaign. There website stated the following:

20 Oct 2009 // Washington, D.C. - Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and Maryland citizen and CREW Chief Counsel Anne Weismann, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against a Maryland real estate developer and a number of his employees, alleging serious violations of campaign finance law in giving to Republican Federal Committees.

The complaint seeks an FEC investigation of Edward St. John and six employees of his company, St. John Properties, Inc., for making over $60,000 in illegal corporate conduit contributions to the Maryland Republican State Central Committee and the 2006 Senate campaign of RNC Chairman Michael Steele. The contributions that are the subject of the FEC complaint were made contemporaneously with contributions to several Maryland state candidates that the Maryland State Attorney determined last year had been reimbursed by Mr. St. John using St. John Properties, Inc. funds given to company employees in the form of year-end bonuses. Mr. St. John paid over $100,000 in penalties to settle those state allegations, but he has never been held accountable for the much larger contributions made in connection with the 2006 federal election.

CREW's executive director Melanie Sloan said today, "The facts indicate Mr. St. John made illegal conduit contributions to Michael Steele's campaign committee. With the 2010 campaign cycle in full swing, the FEC should investigate Mr. St. John's activities immediately and make clear that violations of campaign finance law will not be tolerated."

This comes on the heals of last year's fine stated below from CREW's website:

In June 2008, St. John paid $55,000 in civil fines after being charged with making campaign contributions exceeding legal limits through third parties that anticipated reimbursement.

According to the Office of the State Prosecutor, several St. John vice presidents made contributions to the campaigns of Gov. Martin O'Malley and Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith in 2006 and were paid back by St. John in the form of year-end bonuses.

No criminal charges were filed because "there was insufficient evidence to establish that Mr. St. John knew that such actions violated Maryland law," the office officials said in a statement.

The state prosecutor also found more than $300,000 had been contributed during that election cycle through third parties and limited liability companies to both Democrats and Republicans. All of the contributions, however, were within legal limits.

What these situations prove is that both political parties are simply funded from the same source. Money is what controls the agenda and the strings that our current corrupt crop of political rulers dance to.

For the 2010 Census: Name and Address Only

(Congress Will Obey the Constitution When the People Demand It)

by Paul Galvin

Next year the country will go through another census. The people and the states – the creators and on-going sustainers of the federal government – have authorized this undertaking (U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 2). The census should be seen not as a burden but rather as an opportunity for Americans to practice self-government. Let me explain.

Our written Constitution embodies ideas to which every member of Congress has taken an Article VI oath to support. In taking their constitutional oath the members of Congress are joined by every member of the 50 state legislatures, every federal executive, legislative, judicial officer, and every executive, legislative, judicial officer of the 50 states, as well as all military personnel. That so many are required to take the oath "to support this Constitution" is ample evidence that the Framers thought their written document to be quite important, a belief shared by most Americans.

Our Constitution is written in clear, understandable English. Consider the census provision. "The [first] actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States [March, 1789], and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they [Congress] shall by Law direct." This allows Congress to count us, but only count us. The operative word, "Enumeration."

How then can we help Congress? By giving census officials your name and address, thereby counting you, but nothing more. By doing this simple task, you assist Congress and census officials fulfill their oath-taken duties "to support this Constitution."

We have agreed to be counted but the license ends there. With our consent Congress is authorized to count us for one purpose: to apportion among the states, as a function of population, the number of House representatives who will then speak for / represent the people on federal matters. That’s it. As to senators, the representatives for the states, no apportionment/enumeration scheme is necessary because no variable is involved: each state is entitled to two senators regardless of demographic or geographical size ("The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State"). These provisions are the result of the delegates’ debates on representation and their final agreement, often referenced as the Great (or Sherman’s) Compromise. READ THE REST...

Gallup Sees Libertarianism at an All-Time High

Posted on October 27, 2009, 7:52PM | Brian Doherty

David Boaz at Cato@Liberty points out that since late 2008, the percentage of Americans whose political beliefs could be roughly characterized as "libertarian" (that is, say yes to both "government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses" and "government should not favor any particular set of values") has hit a high of 23 percent.

Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie wrote about the "libertarian moment" in the December 2008 issue of Reason magazine.

Ready Money but Not Quite Dirty

A Baltimore nonprofit raises millions for the needy, while its checkbook enables city officials to spend with little oversight

The Stench Continues to Rise in Baltimore City by the Gunpowder Chronicle certainly explains the awful smell floating over the Bay that we have been smelling. The Baltimore Sun's article raises some questionable spending practices through private funds that city officials are using for pet projects.

Check Out The Article.

Libertarians attend the National Equality March in D.C.

posted by Mark Meranta on Oct 22, 2009

By: Ivy Wisner and Ashley O'Donnell

On October 11, 2009, Libertarian Party interns joined over 150,000
protesters at the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. The march
was organized to show support for the LGBT community and came in response
to the Obama administration’s negligent attitude towards gay rights. After
nine months of serving as president, Obama failed to end the
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy on banning open homosexuals in the military,
prolonging the ban until 2010 or later. The administration
also ignored the subject of gay marriage as other issues took the
forefront. This leaves liberty-minded individuals wondering how long will
gays be treated as second-class citizens. So far, the Libertarian Party
seems to be the only political party to offer uncompromising solutions to
these issues.

Instead of urging the government to grant same-sex couples the same
benefits as heterosexual married couples, the Libertarian Party advocates
for zero government intervention in personal relationships with the goal
of privatizing marriage. Libertarians maintain that as long as the
government has the power to distribute marriage licenses, it has the power
to define marriage itself. Therefore, the only way to preserve the
greatest amount of freedom for members of the LGBT community is to
regard marriage and other personal relationships as private social
contracts, eliminating the special benefits that are assigned to the
government sanctioned institution. The government should not treat
married people differently from unmarried people.

The official Libertarian Party platform states: “Consenting adults should
be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships.
Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict
personal relationships.”

The issue of privatization is not often discussed in gay marriage
debates. People frequently look to the government to enact
legislation to secure so-called “endangered” civil liberties, but
the solution which provides the most freedom is one that is separate
from the government. Therefore, it is important to attend protests
such as this, spread the Libertarian philosophy, and recruit new
Libertarians.

Mr. Wu Award

Ted Kennedy is the current holder of the Mr. Wu Award from the Gunpowder Chronicle. Actually, I doubt he is able to hold it, but it is his..... Mr. Wu Award.....

LP Monday Message: Libertarian candidates on November 2009 ballot

This coming November 3 is Election Day in many places throughout the U.S. Since it's an odd-numbered year, there are relatively few races. Nevertheless, dozens of Libertarians are on the ballot for various positions.

While you may not live in a place with a Libertarian on the ballot, perhaps you've got friends or family who live where one of our Libertarians are on the ballot. If so, I hope you'll encourage them to vote for the Libertarian candidates in their area.

You can view our list of Libertarians in upcoming 2009 races.

Only two states have gubernatorial elections in 2009 (New Jersey and Virginia). Ken Kaplan is the New Jersey Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate.

Last week we posted an entry on our blog about Matt Drew, who is in a run-off for Durham City Council in North Carolina. He placed second in a five-way primary on October 6.

I am especially thankful for every Libertarian candidate who throws their hat in the ring and runs for office. In some cases Libertarian candidates do win and have the opportunity to directly implement libertarian policies. Usually our wins come in small towns or small jurisdictions where there aren't too many voters and a candidate can campaign door-to-door.

On the other hand, many of us live in large cities where winning isn't feasible in the short term. Nevertheless, every Libertarian on the ballot helps to publicize the Libertarian Party and our ideals, and helps build the party for future races.

I've run for office five times myself. As Executive Director of the Libertarian Party of Texas, I helped get a record 173 candidates on the November 2008 ballot in Texas. As your national Executive Director, I'm looking forward to recruiting an army of candidates across the country for the November 2010 mid-term elections.

I hope you'll visit our website and make a contribution to help us prepare for the upcoming 2009 and 2010 elections.

Sincerely,

Wes Benedict
Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee