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0 Document(s)  0 Reference(s)  7 Point of view(s)  3 Expertise(s) 

• Warning: The Tobacco Settlement Is Dangerous to Your Liberty

   Point of view 
  6 March 2007, by Robert A. Levy
  The tobacco settlement is a shameful proposal, extorted by public officials who have perverted the rule of law to tap the deep pockets of an unpopular industry. In a 68-page "Proposed Resolution," the industry agreed to pony up $370 billion, submit to Food and Drug Administration regulation, and rein in certain sales and marketing practices. In return, tobacco companies will be exempt from punitive damages for past conduct and immune from new class action lawsuits. Part of the monetary (...)
  
  

• The liberty problem

   Expertise 
  6 March 2007, by Cervantes
  Yesterday's post invokes a much broader, indeed nigh ubiquitous problem in public health, which is the tension, perceived or real, between promoting the general welfare, and liberty, which is a right that pertains to the individual. (Of course, one way to look at it is that individual liberty is part of the general welfare, so we are really talking about trying to balance competing welfare interests. I note this only to avoid getting bogged down in semantics.) As it happens, (...)
  
  

• The Economics of Smoking

   Expertise 
  6 March 2007, by Pierre Lemieux
  Although the Greeks have one of the highest per capita tobacco consumption rates in the world, their country shows a relatively low incidence of lung cancer. In an obscure annex to its famous 1992 anti-smoking report, the Environmental Protection Agency explains this paradox by high fruit consumption in Greece. Why, asks British philosopher Antony Flew, did EPA bureaucrats not recommend that smokers eat fruit instead of foregoing tobacco? Yet, in general, the medical literature strongly (...)
  
  

• Coalition rekindles fight over smoking

  Owners and the Boone Liberty Coalition want the ban repealed

   Point of view 
  6 March 2007, by Matthew Graham
  “It has affected my livelihood,” said Joel Thiel, owner of Otto’s Corner Bar and Grill at the corner of Eighth and Walnut streets. “In the past month, we’ve seen our Monday through Thursday night numbers drop by half.” Jackie Cockrell, owner of the Bull Pen Cafe, said her business has been hurt because patrons have started going to nearby bars outside the city limits. “I feel like it’s just not fair for them to walk in here and do this to us because this is our bread and (...)
  
  

• Liberty cannot be sacrificed in the name of public health

   Point of view 
  6 March 2007, by Michael Hugman
  You're awakened to the sound of furious pounding on your door. “This is the police, permission to enter!” The voice seems loud enough to wake the neighborhood. You look at your alarm clock - 6:15 A.M. - and you wonder what on earth is going on. You stumble towards the door and open it, only to be greeted by a dozen black-garbed men with submachine guns. They quickly set you aside and begin rummaging through everything you own. One of the officers spots several cigarette (...)
  
  

• Galveston considers a Smoking Ban

   Point of view 
  6 March 2007, by Liberty
  It looks like they are going, to make a no smoking ban, but the city council seems open to being a little less restrictive than earlier conciderations according to Daily News. The city council is planning a town meeting on a proposal to ban smoking in bars, restaurants and other public spaces. However, council members made clear Thursday they are likely to settle for an ordinance that does considerably less. They hope to use public comments from a (...)
  
  

• Equality and Liberty : Can We Integrate These Two Concepts?

   Expertise 
  6 March 2007, by Jonathan Dolhenty
  The Greek philosopher, Socrates, once said that the unexamined life is not worth living. With all due apologies to that great thinker, I would like to suggest that unexamined concepts or ideas are not worth having and, in fact, may cause great harm. What do I mean? The rhetoric is heating up in the political arena these days, particularly since some of the social changes being suggested involve such "basic rights and entitlements" as welfare, Social Security and affirmative (...)
  
  

• Senate panel backs statewide smoking ban in MN

   Point of view 
  6 March 2007, by The Admiral
  Amendments that would have allowed bar and restaurant owners to install ventilation systems or pay a license fee to allow smoking failed in the Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee. The bill heads now to the Business, Industry and Jobs Committee before a likely floor vote. A House version, which passed its first committee last week, also has one more stop in committee before it could head to the floor. The ban, long sought by antismoking advocates and (...)
  
  

• liberty up in smoke?

   Point of view 
  6 March 2007, by James Wagner
  A silly piece in the local section of today's NYTimes is more than a case in point, since it represents itself as a news article about the not-so-private campaign of the editor of another publication to reverse New York City's smoking ban. The reporter writes that Mayor Bloomberg and Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, used to be friends. But that was before Mr. Bloomberg imposed an almost total ban on indoor smoking in public places in New York City, infuriating (...)
  
  

• Smoking ban debate is about personal liberty

   Point of view 
  6 March 2007, by Craig Westover
  It is the 229th year of the American experiment and some tremble still at the consequences of liberty. They consistently barter individual freedom for the chimera of "collective public good." Case in point — the collective preference for a smoking ban on bars and restaurants that strips autonomy from individuals, who uncoerced, would seek employment at and patronize those private establishments. That brings us to the tale of two legislators who exemplify the best and worst of (...)