From: noreply@pugleaf.net.invalid   
      
   On Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:31:28 -0000 (UTC), Cujo DeSockpuppe wrote:   
      
   > mpsilvertone@yahoo-dot-com.no-spam.invalid (HarryLime) wrote i   
   news:B4SdnVPXPMrd5dz0nZ2dnZfqn_idnZ2d@giganews.com:   
   >> Will Dockery wrote:   
   >>> Edward Rochester Esq. wrote:   
   >   
   >>> Smokin’   
   > >>> June 10, 2008 by George J. Dance Leave a Comment   
   > >>>   
   > >>> To smokers like me, anti-smoking legislation is a serious threat to   
   > >>> our personal liberty and property rights. A prime example is the old   
   > >>> Toronto bylaw banning smoking in restaurants. That law died quickly   
   > >>> in the face of public and media criticism, restaurateur lobbying,   
   > >>> and widespread civil disobedience, but is being revived under the   
   > >>> new megacity's bylaw consolidation process.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> No-smoking bylaws rest on the rationale that ETS (Environmental   
   > >>> Tobacco Smoke, or “second-hand smoke”) is a threat to   
   > >>> nonsmokers. A typical claim is the oft-repeated one that ETS causes   
   > >>> more than 3,000 cases of lung cancer per year in the United States "   
   > >>> a claim that originated with a 1992 summary report by the US   
   > >>> Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).   
   > >>>   
   > >>> That report has often been challenged. Critics have charged the EPA   
   > >>> with violating scientific procedure, and manipulating and   
   > >>> suppressing data, to reach a prejudged conclusion. This past July   
   > >>> [1998], Judge Osteen of North Carolina's Middle Court agreed, ruling   
   > >>> that the EPA had acted unscientifically and therefore illegally   
   > >>> under its mandate, and ordered the report nullified.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> The Osteen decision, and the evidence on which it was based, are   
   > >>> dealt with in a new book from Vancouver's Fraser Institute, Passive   
   > >>> Smoke: The EPA's Betrayal of Science and Policy. In a clear and   
   > >>> readable style the authors, biologist Gio Gori and philosopher John   
   > >>> Luik, make a convincing case that the EPA report was “corrupt   
   > >>> science” and dangerous for public policy.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> Smokers in particular will welcome the scientific discussion. The   
   > >>> authors give all the details of how the EPA misrepresented research   
   > >>> data, cherry-picking supportive studies and suppressing unfavourable   
   > >>> ones. But they do much more. They explain why such studies are   
   > >>> never, and can never, be scientific.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> They then review the known scientific facts about ETS to show that   
   > >>> “smokers cannot be accused of posing a significant risk to   
   > >>> non-smokers” . The argument that smoking endangers others   
   > >>> collapses, and with it the case for governments' involvement.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> Non-smokers, too, will appreciate the public policy chapters. The   
   > >>> authors present a chilling portrait of a government agency engaging   
   > >>> in deceit to further its own political agenda, and of the threat   
   > >>> that agenda poses to “the democratic values of autonomy,   
   > >>> diversity, and respect”.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> The myth of the impartial bureaucracy, serving only the public good,   
   > >>> dies hard. The facts presented in Passive Smoke are a welcome new   
   > >>> nail in the coffin.   
   > >>>   
   > >>> [reprinted from Libertarian Bulletin, 19:3 (Spring 1999)]   
   > >>>   
   > >>> Has his stanch changed today?   
   > >>>   
   > >>> Speaking of 'nail in the coffin'   
   > >>> the proof is in the pudding   
   > >>   
   > >> The old smoking debate.   
   > >   
   > > But why are you reposting an Off-Topic rant over a Canuckian law that   
   > > was passed 26 years ago?   
   > >   
   > > It should never have been posted to this group in the first place.   
   >   
   > I'm baffled as well.   
      
   Look at the start of the thread, the original post was by Jim Senetto.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)