Clearing The Air

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

New Year's Eve party-goers in Michigan plan to kick off the New Year with a show of freedom

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20101229/NEWS01/12290341/Some-Michigan-bars-may-allow-smoking-New-Year-s-Eve-in-protest

Some Michigan bar owners plan to protest the state's eight-month-old smoking ban by allowing party-goers to light up Friday after 9 p.m.
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On another front, the statements below are poised to become signage for Michigan hospitality businesses fighting for their financial survival:

"If its not your business, then its not your business".

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"A smokers right to smoke does end at your nose -- but your right to complain ends at the front door of the private property you just walked onto".

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"A bar is not a library. A tavern is not a park. A pub is not a sidewalk. This is not a public place!"

PRIVATE PROPERTY

You're very welcome to come in -- but we make the rules.
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Update on the prosperity that freedom brings:

....just got a text message from a server who I've known .... for years... it was a picture of them at their server station this evening, with lit cigarettes in their mouths and cash in their hands (y'know, the playah picture) that said: "Hi, Tell everyone at your group we said THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"... The best, ....3 of the 4 of them don't smoke.!!!

The protest, as the news comes in to me via email, text and calls is this may be bigger than we thought. Many who had no intention to take part are all turning a blind eye. The above was an enormous small victory.

Happy New Year everyone!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

St. Paul City council member Dave Thune claims to be concerned about local retail outlet, Macy's, remaining in downtown St. Paul

However, in reality; Minnesota smoking ban activist Dave Thune helped eliminate 430+ local hospitality businesses taking with them approximately 10,000 local jobs......Thune does not have a pro-business / pro-jobs track record.

Sign written on Mike's Bar St. Paul, MN. explains cause of closure.

St. Paul Works Overtime To Keep Macy's Beyond 2012 (link to KSTP story)

In 2001, the city gave Macy's a 6.3-million dollar loan, in exchange, Macy's promised to stay downtown through 2012. City officials tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the St. Paul Macy's store is making money and that the city will continue to talk with the retail downtown anchor to make sure everything stays that way.

Council member, Dave Thune, represents the downtown district. He told us that the city will be hard pressed to make a similar offer to Macy's, but that it is imperative the city do all it can to make sure Macy's remains a business fixture downtown.

My advice to Macy's.......run. Thune and St. Paul city council members have proven themselves to be anti-business, over-regulatory thugs....let them collapse from within and hopefully voters will wake up next election.

How has Dave Thune's smoking ban law affected St. Paul and surrounding businesses? His behavioral control, arbitrary smoking ban law was the catalyst causing an avalanche of local bar & restaurant closings.....430+ and counting.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

Meanwhile, workplace secondhand smoke "hazard" (and subsequesnt smoking bans) are an unjustifiable double standard......welding smoke, regulated by OSHA in the workplace, is just fine.....and legal.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Ohio Dept of Health takes page from Obama admin playbook "smoking ban has saved or created 186 lives..."

Story here:

http://newstalkradiowhio.com/localnews/2010/11/health-district-state-smoking.html

Of course just like Obama's lame attempt to justify another trillion dollars in wasted stimulus spending.....ODH has no way to verify this outrageous claim. We, on the other hand, CAN and DO verify the damages and massive number of job losses due to smoking ban legislation:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

http://www.smokersclub.com/banloss3.htm

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-uk-during-past-two-years-3382-pubs.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

Monday, December 13, 2010

Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up....

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

"First they came…" is a famous statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group....

Of course the modern incarnation in society today would start:

They came first for the smokers, (by enacting smoking bans)
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a smoker.

Then they tried to limit calorie intake, by banning foi gras, sodium, sugar, fat.....and Happy Meals which easily became law because by that time no one was left to speak up.

The sad fact remains though, that the only reason any of these bans occur today is because corporate special interests fund the pro-ban lobbyists for their own rent seeking, profit motive which typically is a lucrative pharmaceutical product, meant to replace the inexpensive consumer product now banned. IE. Johnson & Johnson manufactures Splenda, in order to increase demand for this expensive sugar substitute, J & J's partner Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provides hundreds of millions of dollars to lobbyists who promote bans and tax increases on soda drinks at schools etc.

Similarly, Johnson & Johnson manufactures Nicoderm, Nicorette, Nicotrol, etc. in order to increase demand for these expensive pharmaceutical nicotine substitutes, J & J's partner, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), provides hundreds of millions of dollars to lobbyists who promote government enforced smoking bans.

Am I saying that the special interest, pro-ban lobbyist groups are Nazi's?.....you'd have to admit the similarities are eerily familiar.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Latest Surgeon General's report ..."just saying the word 'cigarette' causes brain cancer, incontinence and anal leakage"

Smoking bans destroyed businesses and eliminated jobs but even so, the number of smokers has remained relatively unchanged......So what's an irrational, truth challenged tobacco control movement to do?...........Spread even more outrageous lies in hopes of selling more pharmaceutical nicotine products as an alternative to cigarettes.

Plus, the Nicoderm (RWJF) funded smoking ban activists just lost their court battle to have the FDA ban e-cigarettes, the new SG announcement was a pathetic attempt to remain relevant in the media.

In other news, smokers banned from looking at cigarettes; story here.

Monday, December 06, 2010

South Dakota's smoking ban (1 month old) is already causing significant revenue losses for the state, taxpayers, and businesses

CTA visited South Dakota on numerous occasions to warn them of the financial, business, and job losses that would occur if the latest incarnation of their statewide smoking ban was enacted, so I won't say I told you so......I'll let the local South Dakota media tell you the story instead:

http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=107959

Excerpt:

South Dakota's cash cow is drying up. The state's share of Video lottery is down almost 20 percent since the statewide smoking ban took affect last month. Bar owners say they've seen a drop in business and fear it's only going to get worse.
Bar and casino owners were betting there'd be a loss in revenue if voters passed a statewide smoking ban and according to one bar owner, it's happening. ..."Everybody is down, I've heard numbers anywhere from 10% to 52%, every bar's a little different in what they are down," Don Rose owner of Shenanigans Pub. ..Rose says he knows of a handful of casinos across the state that are either closed or about to close, and points to the statewide smoking ban as the reason. .."This is the strictest ban in the country....."

Mr. Rose, I know what the American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Cancer Society, etc. would say, "Stop being an ingrate, you may soon be poor and out of work, but at least you'll have your health; thanks to our new smoking ban.......and we have $200+ million in lobbying fees from Nicoderm corporate interests at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)." It's an all too familiar ending everywhere smoking bans have been enacted.

In Minnesota for instance, 500+ bars and restaurants have closed since smoking bans were enacted. In 2004, the last year without a ban, only 14 closed.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Tobacco control and smoking ban activists cost taxpayers & local governments hundreds of millions of $$ in losses

Black Market Cigarettes Cost New York $20 million a month.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/11/26/black-market-cigarettes-cost-new-york-m-month/

While smoking ban activists cost taxpayers hundreds of millions (perhaps billions) of $$ in lost tax revenue due to losses from their anti-business policies:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

Also visit our sponsors at bottom of webpage

Boycott these special interests (J & J) who destroyed the hospitality industry & jobs

Why does UCSF researcher Stanton Glantz support smoking bans?

The beginning of a revolution

"Though we may not be able to protect your business property rights, we certainly support your Second Amendment Rights"