Smokers’ Rights Association
Contact: Jesse O. Kurtz For Immediate Release
Tel. 609.334.3756
E-mail: smokersra@gmail.com
http://smokersra.wordpress.com
CITIZENS GROUP OPPOSES ANY FURTHER GOVERNMENT-IMPOSED
CASINO SMOKING BAN
500+ People Urge Atlantic City Councilmen to Vote “No” on an Increased Smoking Ban
Smokers Rights’ Association has formed to protest Councilman G. Bruce Ward’s proposed casino smoking ban. The Councilman and his co-sponsors are following the lead of Trenton, incrementally eroding New Jersey’s civil liberties and business rights. Smoking bans attack liberty and harm business in the name of health. The existing City-imposed casino smoking ban is partially responsible for Atlantic City’s recent revenue losses.
The issue of smoking in casinos has three components: 1) health, 2) business, & 3) liberty. There has been a lot of talk about health, speculation about business implications, but as SRA Spokesman Jesse O. Kurtz points out, “Where is the talk about Liberty?” Kurtz asks, “Have people in Atlantic City forgotten about the America promise of freedom?” The proposed smoking ban further encroaches on civil liberties. We will be speaking on the issue at tonight’s City Council meeting.
SRA represents over 500 members, who are against government dictating smoking policy to private business. SRA stands for the existence of smoking, partially-smoking, and non-smoking establishments based on individual choice, not government imposition. Against a well-funded, militant anti-smoking lobby, our organization has enjoyed unprecedented success in the less-than-three weeks we have been established. Taxes and tobacco settlements fund anti-smoking groups; we are a 100% volunteer-based organization.
The SRA is committed to defending the freedoms of smokers in America. We also defend the right for individual businesses to determine if their establishment will permit, partially permit, or prohibit smoking. We are free and should be permitted to make individual decisions that affect our lives. Smoking bans hurt America and Americans. Government bureaucrats imposing smoking bans abandon the power of legal persuasion to convey their anti-smoking agenda. Those government agents seize and expand the power of government to unjustly order society to their ideas of the perfect society. We need to stop the encroachment on civil liberties.
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April 11, 2008 at 11:18 am |
Is the World health Organization through HIA Industry partnerships, loaning its stamp of approval to cruelty and intolerance? There are consequences to consider, not the least of which is the fact Philip Morris stock values have tripled in the past eight years as a direct result of a huge shift in responsibilities.
Anti smoking, Anti fat and Anti alcohol in their current renditions are progressing perilously close to the anti witch movement in Salem. One has to keep in mind Hitler was a staunch paternalist with all the deceptive packaging removed, and what that popular attitude empowered in what he would eventually do. I repeat; there are consequences to consider, not the least of which is the fact Philip Morris stock values have tripled in the past eight years as a direct result of a huge shift in responsibilities.
We often hear the phrases “measures which reduce tobacco use”, “Those who wish to harm children” and “defenders of the Tobacco industry” as empowerment spin to legitimize smoking bans, all in a stated effort to “Help smokers to quit”
It is highly offensive and blatantly opportunistic to state; anyone who wishes to defend their own freedom. or in fact defending their own personal economy, by challenging the efforts of Paternalist Lobby groups, to inflate the value and cost of a product they know a smoker will use every day, Is a promoter of the Tobacco industry, who are doing quite well by their silence, considering.
If the truth is recognized Public Health is actually the true defender of the Tobacco Industry’s interests.
They have;
-Reduced the costs of advertising and research,
- Reduced the cost of the raw tobacco through “no safe cigarette” campaigns.
-Eliminated the costs of litigation and all responsibility.
-Increased the value of the product through deals like the MSA agreement.
-Surrendered them stability long term; in both market share and cash flow analysis.
Most significantly they have shifted the blame for costs to society associated to smoking, from the industry to the consumer, who gets to not only pay double those claimed costs, but gets to wear the Yellow Star in community perspectives, as a result of what appear to be Public Health efforts to defend Tobacco Industry interests.
All the while violent confrontations which were once rare, in resolving disputes concerning smoking are increasing, at an alarming rate within communities.
As for the statement “measures which reduce tobacco use”; in theory the denormalizing strategies of making smokers “not normal”, might be believed to reduce tobacco use, however even a short term analysis indicates this has not been the case. The recent and as yet unexplained increases we see in young people starting to smoke is alarming. Public Health statements in the media grow more outrageous and demanding by the day, eventually [if not already] young people will be starting to smoke, just to spite the anti freedom attitude associated with these regressive and paternalistic campaigns. Just like the last time prohibition was deemed a noble human experiment.
Can anyone imagine the coercive value of a single cigarette for those confined inside a prison or a mental institution, where smoking is banned? What consequences from human rights violations in torturing prisoners, will we all have to bear eventually?
If tobacco “medical dependency” or “addiction” is a reality, it constitutes a disability. Dehumanization through public health is then, actually seen as a criminal act, which is an activity which could eventually require punishment, at a huge cost to society when compensation is eventually assessed and paid.
How does anyone moralize punishing an addiction, in order to force compliance to a “prohibitionist normality”?
“Helping someone to quit” is nothing more than a convenient lie, to quell the discomfort of conscience. Medical treatments which demand punishment, are not “tough love” or in any way justifiable, they are simply the stepping stones to legitimize the intolerant few among us.
Those very individuals who society used to believe were “not normal”
We can’t blame the media entirely, when someone announces a long term education program to purchase hundreds of millions in advertising to warn of the “dangers of second hand smoke” in order to put a lot of pressure on smokers to “help them to quit”. Ad agencies would understandably be quite enthused in competing for those large advertising contracts and want to put their best opinions forward, to suit the needs of the client.
What is truly alarming is the fact the increased violence, which is resulting from smokers wearing the Yellow Star of de-normalization, is being played down in the media, apparently in order to keep the monetary drive alive.
“Erosion of Civil Liberties is the genesis of Genocide.”
Elizabeth Kirkley Best PHD; Et Al Author of the Shoa education project.
April 11, 2008 at 7:19 pm |
Very good points above.
Why can’t a private business decide what they’re going to offer their customers? You don’t have to go to a casino where smoking is allowed. You don’t have to work in a casino where smoking is allowed. In fact, all these workers who are blathering about smoking as a threat to their health KNEW smoking was allowed when they started. It’s THOSE people who should be laid off first when the coming business slowdown requires staff firings.
April 12, 2008 at 8:10 am |
i am one of those workers is blathering about smoking as a threat to my health. yes, I did take a job in the casino at my own risk…but most never knew they would be getting sick from someones elses smoking that is more dangerous to me then to that smoker! Also, the Surgeon Generals Report of 2006 reported the dangers of secondhand smoke that most did not know years ago. Why aren’t you allowed to smoke on an airplane, or on a bus or in an airport??? why?? because it could kill you. so why are you so worried about a casino violating your so-called civil liberties??? Please…give me a break. Take your damn ignorance elsewhere with your nasty cigarettes. You should be Laid off first for your idiotic incompetent sorry words.
April 12, 2008 at 5:13 pm |
Sorry Danny, you have been brain washed by the ACS,EPA,AMA and the rest of the ban pushers.
The research I have been doing since 1998 has shown me the real truth of the myth being spread about Second Hand Smoke worldwide by the Pharmaceuticals. They do this to boost their profits into the Billions through the sale of pills and patches.
I found the largest studies ever done. These studies were completed by the American Cancer Society, the World Health Organization, the National Oakridge Labs, one simply called The Enormous German Study and many others. These were all long term and the largest ever done to date. NONE have been larger or longer in years to complete. None have ever been more complete in their investigation of the supposed problem. The largest percentage started their studies to prove the link of SHS to cancer and or Heart Disease.
They all agreed in their findings. None found any connection of SHS to Cancer or Heart Disease. The World Health Organization even stated they also found no connection of SHS to Heart Disease. They also stated there is the possibility that SHS may have the beneficial effect of helping the immune systems of children to develop. The WHO also found that Children of smoking families are 22% less likely to contract cancer.
I also fond an almost unbelievable co-operation between Government Agencies, Studies by non-profit organizations, scientist, National Media, Doctors and almost everyone who stands to profit by spreading the misinformation provided by the Big Pharma/RWJF.
The worst of the myth spreaders are the EPA and the American Cancer Society. The EPA study was no study. They came up with 3,000 deaths a year caused by SHS by computer generated junk science and that so called study has been proved rigged and false. Even our Surgeon General is still using that figure today,, and the 3,000 figure is still the same. He couldn’t even adlib. His review of studies was a farce and he is no longer the Surgeon General. He is currently working at a health spa.
The Surgeon Generals study by press conference ( his study of selected studies provided by the EPA) is the product of politically connected charlatans led by Jonathan M. Samet, who has been the ringleader of every major anti-smoking fraud since the EPA ETS report. Like ALL the anti-smokers’ reports, it is founded on the deliberate and systematic use of defective studies to falsely blame passive smoking for diseases caused by INFECTION or VIRUS as stated by the ACS in 1955. It is also the most flagrantly politically corrupt: Fred Malek, who was deputy director of President Nixon’s board of directors of the contracting firm which concealed the identities of the anti-smoker authors of the EPA ETS report behind illegal pass-through contracts. The EPA’s own scientists would not stand behind this false study but it is being used by every Health Department here and overseas.
The American Cancer Society is the worst offender of all the NON-Profits. The last figures I have are they have over a Billion dollars in cash and they have over 23 fundraisers a year and poormouth at every one of them. Most of their money goes into six figure incomes and more misinformation. The smallest part of their funding goes to research.They even get in a huff if there is mention of a cure. Why kill the Goose.
The RWJF (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) was set up by Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceuticals to fund the smoking bans through the ACS. Johnson and Johnson is the largest seller of stop smoking products. They own over 250 drug companies with the aim of controlling the nicotine market. The ACS was about to lose its tax free status because of their political funding of smoking bans and they had to create the ACSCAN foundation as a for profit agency to provide funds for pushing the bans.
It’s been a long, deliberate process that continues to become evermore sophisticated in its manipulation of the minds of the American public.
One of the principle architects in the takeover of the American mind is a man named Edward Bernays, who is considered the father of the American public relations industry. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, then maybe his Uncle Sigmund Freud’s will.
In 2002, the BBC broadcast a four-part documentary called “The Century of Self,” covering the story of the relationship between Freud and his American nephew, as Bernays learned about the human mind and how to manipulate the masses. Bernays’ goal, from the early part of the 20th Century, was to be able to teach corporations how to make people want things they didn’t need through a variety of manipulative techniques appealing to people’s unconscious fears and desires.
What makes this production interesting is that it covers post-war America and illustrates how politicians and policymakers learned to use Freud’s ideas in their desire to control the masses as well. It shows how Sigmund Freud’s daughter, Anna, and his nephew Bernays, were central players, along with the U.S. Government, corporate America, among others by controlling the masses via engineering consent.
Lasker (a student of Bernay) and his wife, Mary, longtime board members of the American Cancer Society, realized that really big money could be had for research, if only the public could be convinced that tax dollars — if poured into research year after year — might lead to cures for all sorts of diseases, particularly cancer.
Over the years, Lasker had developed a number of Madison Avenue propaganda techniques similar to Bernays that he applied to motivate people to generously fund the American Cancer Society (ACS). Lasker’s campaign strategy detail Lasker’s central role in creating the money hungry machine we call the National Institutes of Health, which began when he retired as the richest man in the history of advertising. was based on our fear of death and the hope that with enough money, we could cure cancer. He coached his friend, Elmer Bobst, president of the American branch of Hoffmann-LaRoche and later Warner-Lambert drug company, to start every fundraising speech with the following statement, “One in five of us here – every fifth person in the audience – will die of cancer.” He would then turn the fear he had engendered into hope with his next line, “We want to cure cancer in your lifetime…donate generously.”
If you have been mislead into believing that SHS is killing people you are just part of the millions so don’t feel too bad. Our City Councils have fallen for this overload of junk science by hearing and reading the same lies everyday in our major media since Surgeon General Coop had the first cigarette labels warn about cancer.
The Fat Police are coming. Can you even guess how many Billions the Big Pharma will make on diet pills? I may be wrong on this; they may go after alcohol next.
I’m up to over 350+ studies and reports on the myth of SHS and growing. I know I can’t stop this control of our lives by myself. There are too many people and too much money against me and too many people who won’t believe and won’t take the time to find the truth.
We don’t have an immigration problem either. Do you believe that?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts.
I have all the facts needed to show that this push for smoking bans is about money and control not health.
Virgil Kleinhelter
8804 Brown Austin Rd.
Fairdale, Ky. 40118
502-727-4747
v.kleinhelter@insightbb.com
April 12, 2008 at 5:16 pm |
The majority of studies find no connection. Here is one.
This is the longest and most comprehensive study ever done by the American Cancer Society.
California Study
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7398/1057
Objective To measure the relation between environmental tobacco smoke, as estimated by smoking in spouses, and long-term mortality from tobacco related disease.
Design Prospective cohort study covering 39 years.
Setting Adult population of California, United States.
Participants 118 094 adults enrolled in late 1959 in the American Cancer Society cancer prevention study, who were followed until 1998. Particular focus is on the 35 561 never smokers who had a spouse in the study with known smoking habits.
Main outcome measures Relative risks and 95% confidence intervals for deaths from coronary heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease related to smoking in spouses and active cigarette smoking.
Results For participants followed from 1960 until 1998 the age adjusted relative risk (95% confidence interval) for never smokers married to ever smokers compared with never smokers married to never smokers was 0.94 (0.85 to 1.05) for coronary heart disease, 0.75 (0.42 to 1.35) for lung cancer, and 1.27 (0.78 to 2.08) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among 9619 men, and 1.01 (0.94 to 1.08), 0.99 (0.72 to 1.37), and 1.13 (0.80 to 1.58), respectively, among 25 942 women. No significant associations were found for current or former exposure to environmental tobacco smoke before or after adjusting for seven confounders and before or after excluding participants with pre-existing disease. No significant associations were found during the shorter follow up periods of 1960-5, 1966-72, 1973-85, and 1973-98.
Conclusions The results do not support a causal relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality, although they do not rule out a small effect. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed.
My note; The ACS funded this study until they saw the conclusions were not to be the conclusions wanted. They stopped their funding in order to stop the study. The funding was completed by the Tobacco Industry through a third party in order to take a hands off approach and could have no appearance of control.
April 12, 2008 at 5:55 pm |
The above post uses all the usual nonsense to try to rationalize his sh to control others and demonize a segment of the population to quench his desire to hate and punish. This is the true motives of the sick minded people who engage in this nazi campaign to mold the world to suit them on the river of irrational and unamerican “rules” they would have us live by in their utopia, a paradise with bars to allow your controllers to give or deprive at will. Oh, wait, that’s what we already have, sans the bars. Smoking is not allowed on planes, or in buses or airports because sheep allowed a few monsters to manipulate the legal system to feel better by control of people they decided they hate. I would just hope the above poster endures hardship by the very campaign he helped engineer.
April 13, 2008 at 10:33 am |
Hey Jessie, Tell us where your pregnant wife works so we can blow tobacco smoke in her face!
April 13, 2008 at 4:43 pm |
Billy:
Blowing smoke in someone’s face is ignorant and rude, regardless of whether or not the government has a ban in place. Why do you assume all smokers have no manners? Why do you confuse issues and offer a personal attack?
April 13, 2008 at 6:08 pm |
OK, let your wife do my shift on BJ. Not rude?, well manners aside, I have to stand there and ingest their smoke. Your wife looked pregnant to me, let me have my liberty to puff another drag in her face while I think about whether to hit or stand on 16!
April 13, 2008 at 9:21 pm |
I am 100% against the smoking ban. It is not the government’s role to put forth this ban. The government as a whole needs to become educated in the role of politicians and their purpose.
April 13, 2008 at 11:24 pm |
Yo, Billy…. QUIT if it’s so unsafe. You have the power to leave and find another healthier job! You are showing your ignorance by sticking with something you find so repugnant. A smart person would have a position where they were unhappy. Is that your problem, Billy? That you just have no common sense?
April 16, 2008 at 6:45 pm |
Sorry Dave, you lose again. I won’t quit my job and I am glad that government will make my workplace safe for me and my co-workers. Now Dave, read the next to the last sentence of your comment beginning with (A Smart) Now we know how not so smart you really are!
April 16, 2008 at 7:06 pm |
OK, Billy, you got me! Good luck with this. I’m sure you’ll be one of the first crybabies laid off when business plummets in your casino.
April 19, 2008 at 8:00 am |
I am 100% FOR the 100% smoking ban. I and MANY of my casino working collegues support a smokefree environment that the rest of NJ is afforded by the wonderful smokefree air act.
So, Micah, the government does some good things and some bad things. If you want to work in a smoke-filled environment and enjoy it, go right ahead. Remember, Smoking is OPTIONAL, Breathing isn’t.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it jesse.
April 22, 2008 at 8:58 pm |
Jesse can’t figure out how the state can take over a business and restrict 40% of their customers free activities, unless he knows that the zealots were paid to lobby the state, threaten the legislators, or in Whelan’s case, the Senator, that Whelan is acting by proxy by having the council handle his dirty work, that Bruce Ward is looking to have Whelan anoint him for a future spot, that the state paid their lobbists to recruit, with money, a rabid activist crowd, who fell under the spell of hatred for the sub-human group, the smoker, develop a desire to punish them, to control them, and prevail against them. Meanwhile, smokers couldn’t give a shit, they’re just going to stay away from Atlantic City by the millions, and their money, also millions, and the fascist puritans are going to lose their jobs, if they had any to begin with. Maybe they could go into measuring girls dresses to see if they’re low enough, or to try to ban fun itself. The drop is going to be 20% or more, building is going to grind to a halt, building trades are going to fold up, the recession is going to worsen, and Atlantic City is going to go back to 1988. Great job, nazis. Jesse’s life goes on unaffected, except for a further realization that the WRONG people have a strangle hold on his home town, and that money and lies do hold the day, sometimes.
April 24, 2008 at 6:59 pm |
Good points. The city government sticks its nose into private business at absolutely the worst time in the 30 year history of gaming in AC. It’s going to cost hundreds of jobs so I hope our casino employee friends here aren’t shocked when the pink slip comes along with their last paycheck.