Time for another update. Robert (Bullseye Saloon) is working with the lawyer on the injunction case, it is not DEAD. As a reminder, this Friday at 1:00 PM (St. Louis County Courthouse in Virginia) is the ticket case against Tom (Tanks in Babbit). Mark Benjamin will be defending this case and I will be in attendance also.
I would like to share some e-mails with you all that I have received from CONCERNED citizens. I have copied them below along with 2 articles that I picked up from the Force's website http://forces.org/News_Portal/ . Forces is such a great website, I would encourage you all to visit and keep up to date with whats going on in the world. In case you haven't heard, I just wanted to mention the article that Greg posted on the www.freedomtoact.com website " County: Smokers need not apply" .
People - This is not over, as a matter of fact, it has just begun. The legislators decided not to address the smoking ban issue this session, regardless of the hardships that it has caused for small "mom & pop" establishments, VFW's, Legions, employees, distributors, vendors, entertainers, charities, and etc.... This fall some of them will regret their decision. I will be putting together information on these legislators and distributing it so that all of you know where they stand....you can take this information to the voting booth with you! WE WILL BE HEARD!
Sheila, Mark, Robert
E-Mail from Angie
Sheila,
First of all- I am so behind in personal email, it's sad! But yesterday I spent some time reading through a bunch of your messages. I think I know why I don't like reading them- they just get me more and more upset. What bothers me the most, more than the smoking ban, is the bigger issue of how new laws are beginning to crop up. I loved the term "Nanny Laws", it very accurately describes what is going on- people creating laws to protect adults from themselves. That is a very condescending term to use in relation to adults- who, by every definition, are responsible for their own actions (i.e. choices)!
In my mind, the battle is about our rights as US citizens, not specifically about smoking. The best way to rally people, are to focus on that big issue- and try to keep the smoking bans as just one component of many. I would imagine, many advocates of the ban, are just not thinking of the big picture, because all they think of is their own preference to not be around smoke. The smoking issue creates such passion, it clouds peoples' ability to see the overarching issue.
I think you've done a nice job of keeping that component in your messages- keep it up!
Anyways, on to my idea. I was trying to think- why is it so hard to vote out those who don't support freedom of choice, and vote in those that do. Because, it's really hard to know what people stand for. Our incumbents that go for re-election have a voting record we can use, but how can you be sure you don't vote one out, only to get the same thing with your new person?
So here's my idea- a little rough- What if there was a way to contact all "new" candidates who will be appearing on our 2008 ballots (from small city to large state elections), and ask a simple question like... In light of the recent law passing a state-wide smoking ban, how would you vote for an appeal of this law? And, how do you feel about other recent bill proposals that discuss proposals to fight obesity and alcohol consumption, by creating laws to protect people from .... themselves?
If you could compile a list of candidates, their responses, who supports the ban, and who would fight to overturn it, maybe it would be helpful for all of us as voters. I can see myself taking it in to the polls with me!
Ideally, you'd want to see something documented- in writing for example. I could even see it making statewide news.
So there's my idea, maybe something already exists, but if it doesn't maybe something a large group of people can gather around and complete this summer.
Thanks for listening to my rambling! Have a wonderful weekend,
~Angie
E-Mail from David
Dear Sheila,
I appreciate all that you, your group and legal representative are doing to fight the smoking ban. I was disappointed but not surprised that a temporary injunction was issued. I know that you are all trying to keep a positive attitude and took some solace in the fact the judge commented on an acceptable way to conduct these 'performances'. The problem, I believe, is that this is only a gimmick and that the state can and will change this loophole quickly and much effort and resources will be lost.
I ask you and your group to please consider another approach. This issue is not about one bar fighting a battle over a loophole, it is exponentially larger than that. This issue affects a vast amount of restaurant and lounge property owners. It affects liquor vendors, suppliers, employees, and most importantly the general public who would wish to perform a legal activity on private property with like-minded people. This goes beyond the borders of our state, as adjoining states now face cross-over problems caused by this Minnesota smoking ban.
I was recently on a trip and stopped in an Applebee's Restaurant in Kansas. When the hostess asked me if I wanted "smoking or non-smoking" I was thrilled. I said, "You mean I can eat, drink and smoke here all at the same time and be human?" She smiled and said yes. I proposed to her and asked if I could stay forever. She laughed and said she didn't get that reaction often.
The point is, how far has the government gone in over zealous action to control our lives 'for our own good' without us doing anything or noticing? Two years ago would you have bet a simple dinner out with a drink and cigarette would be better than winning the lottery? I think not!
Here are my suggestions:
1. Never for a moment forget that the state and these zealots care NOTHING about your health. It is ALL about power and control, and this is only the beginning.
2. Build your base of concerned citizens, restaurant and lounge owners, vendors, suppliers, workers and patrons. Expand beyond our borders to reach the cross-over affected parties.
3. Set up a new fund to properly challenge this issue at the core - Constitutional rights of freedom of association, freedom of choice, illegal taking of property rights, illegal taking of legal capitalistic commerce. This new contact list could easily grow to 10,000 interested entities.
4. I would be the first to make a $100. per month commitment to contribute until we win. That could easily generate a million dollars a month.
5. Get a legal team to take the offensive. WE get an injunction against the state. We fight until our legal rights have been restored and protected.
6. Let us not forget the fight on the other front: The state is illegally spending the tobacco settlement money, obtained under the specious argument it was intended to supplement the health care for smokers.
We can do this. We must do this. I do not wish to live in Russia, China or North Korea. I want to live in the United States of America, where millions have sacrificed to secure the FREEDOM guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence, discussed extensively in the Federalist Papers, and permanently set into law by our federal Constitution and Bill of Rights.
I urge you to share this communication with all interested parties so we may consolidate and fight for our rights and freedom's together.
David S. Gageby
Tackle obesity like smoking: researcher
Wed May 14, 2008 8:02pm IST
By Michael Kahn
GENEVA (Reuters) - Tackling the global obesity epidemic will require governments to take similar action to that many used to curb smoking, a top researcher said on Wednesday.
This could include regulations that restrict how companies market "junk" food to children and requirements for schools to serve healthy meals, said Professor Boyd Swinburn, a public health researcher who works with the World Health Organisation.
"The brakes on the obesity epidemic need to be policy-led and governments need to take centre stage," Swinburn, a researcher at Deakin University in Australia, told Reuters at the 2008 European Congress on Obesity.
"Governments have to lead the way they did with the tobacco epidemic. We need hard-hitting messages."
Action is urgent because, aside from sub-Saharan Africa, nearly every country has suffered a dramatic rise in the number of obese people in the past 30 years. That increase has likely been a tripling in many industrialized nations, he said.
The World Health Organisation classifies around 400 million people around the world as obese, 20 million of them children under the age of five.
Obesity raises the risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart problems, and is a problem that is piling pressure on already overburdened national health systems.
Swinburn says the food industry has largely driven the epidemic with a stream of processed products that are cheaper and better-tasting but filled with unhealthy ingredients.
(To read the rest of the article click here http://in.reuters.com/article/health/idINL1481626820080514 )
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‘World no liquor day on Oct 2’
Ads By Google
Sanchita Sharma, Hindustan Times
Email Author
New Delhi, May 18, 2008
First Published: 02:22 IST(18/5/2008)
Last Updated: 02:24 IST(18/5/2008
India has formally requested the World Health Organisation to declare October 2 — Mahatma Gandhi's birthday — as World No Alcohol Day and introduce global restrictions on alcohol sale, advertising and consumption, similar to those against tobacco. If that happens, international flights may have to stop serving alcohol and pubs would turn into salad bars.
“We have written to the WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan requesting her to enact a law against alcohol similar to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that has the global mandate to counter tobacco use and reduce its deadly toll. Alcohol is as bad for people as tobacco, so the restrictions should be the same,” says Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who lately included alcohol in his list of things healthy India can do without.
“Along with junk food and smoking, alcohol is a leading cause of avoidable death and accidents. I know some people resent my speaking on these issues, but if I as health minister can't talk about them, who can?” says Ramadoss, raising fears that similar restrictions would next be imposed on chips and colas.
The Indian delegation will further raise the issue and lobby for support at the week-long World Health Assembly in Geneva beginning May 19, which has a special session on strategies to reduce the harmful use of alcohol.
About 2 billion people worldwide consume alcohol, which causes 1.8 million deaths a year, which represents 3.2 per cent of all deaths worldwide. According to WHO, accidents related to alcohol consumption account for roughly a third of alcohol deaths.
A study by Bangalore-based NIMHANS has shown the average age of initiation has reduced from 28 years during the 1980s to 20 years. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3, 2007), 32 per cent adults are current alcohol users and between 4 and 13 per cent have alcohol daily. The proportion of alcohol consumption among rural and urban India is very similar.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=b69cc44c-9654-4eda-a39c-a3af270421d9&&Headline=%e2%80%98World+no+liquor+day+on+Oct+2%e2%80%99
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