Sydney Morning Herald: Jessica Wright gets the facts wrong. An attempt to defame and smear?

The SMH — another Fauxfacts publication

Jessica Wright of the Sydney Morning Herald blatantly tries to smear The Heartland Institute with outright falsehoods:

“A sister pro-tobacco lobbying organisation and corporate member of ALEC, the Heartland Institute, paid for Senator Bernardi’s accommodation and travel to the US on four separate occasions in 2010 and 2011. The institute recently ran a two-day conference in the US entitled ”Can Tobacco Make You Healthier?”

Read more: SMH

But she apparently didn’t do much research. Heartland point out that the title was not “Can Tobacco Make You Healthier”, but “Can Tobacco Cure Smoking” and the “two day” conference was a 75 minute seminar from an expert, discussing another way to help smokers quit.

“The speaker, Prof. Brad Rodu, is one of the country’s (indeed, the world’s) leading authorities on the use of smokeless tobacco products to encourage smokers to smoke less or stop altogether. Given that message, it would be more accurate to say that Heartland sponsored a seminar on ‘how to stop smoking.’

Heartland corrects the record.

It’s probably sloppy journalism. But in its darker form, thus can a propaganda artist pose as a journalist, defaming and denigrating those who oppose their own personal political choices. Will Wright apologize and correct the record? Does she care at all about getting her facts right? Does it matter that Sydney Morning Herald readers will be left blind to what is really going on, and instead of understanding what the real debates are they’ll be left to feed on their own conspiracy theories about nasty big-corporates funding politicians?

Since Heartland is running workshops on ways to quit smoking they are obviously not “pro-tobacco”. When they support debate about taxes and health outcomes, they are merely pro good science and pro free markets, yet they get demonized.

This is not journalism Jessica Wright.

h/t to Andrew, commenter of Catalaxy for “Fauxfacts” (actually, I think Roger Franklin of Quadrant earnt that credit originally).

8.9 out of 10 based on 105 ratings

145 comments to Sydney Morning Herald: Jessica Wright gets the facts wrong. An attempt to defame and smear?

  • #
    The Black Adder

    It does not surprise me that Journalists make false assumptions…

    Posters here like Maxine, Catamonsgtmen, JB and MattB make false assumptions all the time too!!

    They say people follow the leader, and our leader the Red Dalek, PM Juliar Dillard is the ultimate in False Prophets..

    She lied about the Carbon Tax and many other things, budget surpluses, power of attorney forms, The knifing of former PM Kevin 07 and now today she has called for an election … Bloody 8 months away… !!!

    Time to bring out the baseball bats but…

    Why do we have to wait so long…

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      bobl

      Mine is leaning against the Veranda Post just waiting for the day – Hope rot doesn’t set in due to the long wait

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        Rohan

        Keep the bat out of the weather so it remains dry (<20% moisture content), oil it regularly with linseed or tung oil and it will never rot.

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      Len

      In Vietnam, (during the war)the US supplementary rations packs issued to Australians had chewing tobacco in them plus little packets of cigarettes. I tried some of the chewing tobacco. Most vile taste ever. Had to spit for a day to get rid of the taste.

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        J.H.

        You’re not wrong Len, Vile stuff chewing tobacco. However nowadays we have Nicorettes, nicotine in gum. A much healthier delivery system for nicotine in my opinion… Me and my brother gave up smoking and used these…. He reckoned he would rather chew nicorette gum for the rest of his life than keep smoking… He gave up chewing nicorettes about ten years after he quite smoking… They never caused him health problems during that period, with the side benefit of excellent dental health. 😉

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  • #

    What appalls more than the blundering and slackness – hey, it’s Fairfax! – is a lack of enthusiasm for an anti-smoking measure that does not involve punishment and finger-wagging.

    I’ve never smoked and, since childhood, can’t bear to sit at a table with a dirty ashtray. (Even a clean one is a strain.) Surprisingly, this powerful aversion has not made me smug or preachy. I might have smoked, I just got lucky. In fact, I’m very sympathetic toward smokers. It should be obvious that nicotine can addict like few other substances and that some new or radical remedy must be worth exploring.

    Just as I have nothing against experimental energy sources until someone pretends they can be mainstream sources, so I’m more than happy to see something different tried out – yes, at public expense – to help smokers. Someone needs to tell the Big Anti-Tobacco that it is the poor (and indigenous) who smoke the most. From working in country retail, I’ve noticed that young aboriginal women are a growth market, as are young women generally.

    Taxing cigarettes may help, and it is certainly a great way to re-cycle Federal welfare money into state revenue. But if Heartland is prepared to support Brad Rodu in exploring other solutions, and if there is no evidence of sinister motives, then our minds should be wide open.

    But why do I talk of open minds? For antiquated institutions like Fairfax,the Guardian and the NYT, smugness and conventional piety are default positions. However, since reading the SMH front page evacuation plan for the NSW coast a few years ago, I’ve decided Fairfax may be more than just smug and pietistical.

    I think they might be a touch “pixillated”. If you know what I mean.

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  • #
    bibiana

    Nicotine is a mood altering, not a mind altering drug, and very addictive. It is the smoke that is the healt hazard. Delivering nicotine without smoke, with a similar lift effect like smoking, has to be a great start to improving public health. But those who need to have some group to bully, will never agree to these products being legally available in Australia.

    I have never been a smoker, but like many Australians, I have a lot of sympathy for the despised and denigrated underdog. Smokers today lead that field.

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  • #
    pat

    the war on tobacco is as fake as the war on CO2.

    we send China all our coal, then don’t count the CO2 that the coal emits in China, so we can say we’re saving the planet from CAGW:

    Wikipedia: Prevalence of tobacco consumption
    Of the 1.22 billion smokers, 1 billion of them live in developing or transitional economies. Rates of smoking have leveled off or declined in the developed world. In the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year as of 2002…
    It is predicted that 1.5 to 1.9 billion people will be smokers in 2025…
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_tobacco_consumption

    so it’s expected there will be an extra 280-780 MILLION more smokers by 2025! just as there will be thousands more coal-fired power stations all over the world by then, BUT NOT IN AUSTRALIA!

    the other irony is smokers in australia – as in many other countries – are predominantly low-income individuals who can least afford Gillard’s increasing tobacco taxes, which i gather are set to go up yet again.

    ah, but our Govt and the likes of SMH’s Jessica Wright can be holier than thou on this and the CAGW issue which also impacts low-income families disproportionately, even after u factor in compensation (ABC does cite studies that claim increased taxes does reduce smoking, tho they don’t say among which demographic:

    20 Sept 2012: ABC America: Lara Salahi: Cigarette Tax Burdens Low-Income, Doesn’t Deter Smoking
    Higher cigarette taxes may be financially hurting low-income smokers rather than making them more likely to quit, according to a new survey by researchers at RTI International.
    The survey, which looked at more than 13,000 people living in New York state, found that lower-income smokers in the state spent nearly a quarter of their household income on cigarettes compared with an average 2 percent spent by wealthier New York smokers.
    The national average spent by lower- income smokers – those with a household income under $25,000 — was 14 percent, according to the study, published Thursday in PLoS ONE…
    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/09/20/cigarette-tax-burdens-low-income-doesnt-deter-smoking/

    linking back to the previous election thread, i wouldn’t be surprised if low-income voters turned against Labor on the increase in price of cigarettes alone! LOL.

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    • #

      Pat, where I live those least able to afford to smoke, smoke the most. They can live with the grizzly illustrations on packets, but how do they deal with the cost? Okay, all people need take consequences etc etc, but at what point do you stop inflating the price. People in these parts have even tried smoking the wild tobacco. (Don’t ask me how that went.)

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    John Brookes

    Call me a cynic, but Heartland being involved in a method to stop smoking sounds dodgy. Its a bit like big oil and big coal putting a token effort into renewable energy. You do it, not because you hope it will work, but because you think it will buy you time to keep doing the thing that makes you money.

    But don’t get me wrong, if someone can find a better method of nicotine delivery that comes without all the problems of smoking, that would be great. We could then do the sensible thing and make smoking illegal.

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    • #
      Rick Bradford

      And that’s always the way with the Left, isn’t it?

      If a Leftie doesn’t personally like something, then they want to ban it outright so nobody else has a choice about the matter.

      Just as with Jessica Wright, the Leftist movement unthinkingly mistakes the things that it approves of, for the way that all society should be organised.

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    • #
      Kevin Lohse

      It has obviously escaped your attention that the likes of BP, Shell and Texaco are now calling themselves energy companies precisely because they are involved in renewable energy scams. Big Oil puts money into renewable energy because financial incontinents such as the EU, The Obama administration and your own dear Labour Party have hosed other peoples money into renewables and the false market so created means that profits to be made are far greater than with conventional power. Certainly in Europe, the fight against developing the vast discovered reserves of shale gas is led and funded by Big Oil precisely to protect their investments in renewables.

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      The Black Adder

      I won’t call you a cynic JB…

      I’ll call you a bullshit artist!!

      CO2 is not a problem, why do you continue the lie??

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      Ian

      Dear John You’re not a cynic you’re just a prat who is unable to see merit in anything that comes from institutions that don’t subscribe to your personal prejudices. The speaker Professor Brad Rodu is the inaugural holder of the Endowed Chair in Tobacco Harm Reduction at the University of Louisiana and is researching safer tobacco products to assist smokers who can’t or won’t stop smoking. Think of the level of smoking in countries other than Australia (I’d best not mention them) to see the potential for harm reduction globally. Unfortunately articles such as this are pumped out by the Fairfax media and are not subjected to any critical thought by either the writer of the piece or the reader. This unchallenged reporting by the MSM is the major reason why the fear of the changing climate has been prevalent in the wider community. Fortunately blogs such as this and some parts of the MSM (surprisingly The Age) are giving the other side of the coin. A side you will not or cannot comprehend. As I said you’re not a cynic, you’re a prat

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    • #

      There’s two ways of looking at Wright’s article. It’s either demonstratably shoddy journalism or deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. A failure to acknowledge or condemn either puts you into the same camp, irrespective of how many red herrings you throw out.

      Pointman

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    • #
      OzWizard

      Make smoking illegal? They’ll never do that. No way! Too much revenue foregone.

      Best decision I ever made two years ago was to switch to the ‘electronic cigarette’ system after a lifetime of smoking, most recently, rollies.

      Compared to cigarettes, the hardware (reusable cartridges, rechargeable battery) is dirt cheap. Flavoured nicotine liquid I import tax free. I get 500 ml for about $50 (incl freight) and 1 ml lasts a full day.

      Best of all, my employer allows use of this type of ‘inhaler’ in our airconditioned office. Without the smoke, there is no smell (except for the Vanilla flavouring, in my case).

      It’s true that I’m still addicted to the nicotine, but I have now recovered my sense of smell, and am enjoying food in a totally new way. If there is any health risk in taking nicotine this way (smokelessly) it is apparently not measurable.

      And John, don’t waste your energy being cynical; visit Hearland’s web site and read their material. You may learn something useful.

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      • #
        Andrew McRae

        Smoking without smoke? Yer a wizard, harry.

        But wait, if you take the bad smell and lung cancer risk out of smoking, how am I going to get on my moral high horse and chastise smokers for their disgusting addiction? They killed my horse!

        Curses to them what invented Organic Chemistry.

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      Bill

      Not sure why Heartland being involved should seem “dodgy”. It’s been shown that they do not have tobacco sponsors nor big oil sponsors. It took criminal activity on the part of Peter Gleick, which back-fired, to show that this was true.

      The only involvement of which I am aware, is that they had research that showed that “SECONDHAND SMOKE” was not nearly as dangerous as some were making it out.

      It’s clear that you don’t want to smoke heavily in a home with children, but some were exaggerating the dangers as far as smoke outdoors and in smoking areas. Very alarmist in nature and this is what they were saying “wait a minute to”, just as they (and I) say “wait a minute” to other alarmist claims about climate.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        The only involvement of which I am aware, is that they had research that showed that “SECONDHAND SMOKE” was not nearly as dangerous as some were making it out.

        In fact, the worst that can be said for secondhand smoke is that it’s an eye and respiratory irritant and just plain unpleasant. Even an ashtray smells offensive. But health dangers are a big fat no!

        No one has ever shown a credible link to any problem unless you’re allergic to tobacco or have some similar problem unique to you. The supposed danger has been debunked too many times to go on arguing about it.

        My father smoked like a chimney for my entire childhood. And before that my mother was exposed even more intimately to second hand smoke before I was born. I left home when I married at the age of 22. So I was heavily exposed for 22 years. I have been exposed to second hand smoke a lot since then. I’m now 73 and I defy anyone to find a single problem I have that can be traced to tobacco smoke.

        I really enjoy a smoke free environment. But my objection to the smoke is based not on misuse of statistics but on something much more palpable. It is obnoxious to be around.

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    • #
      lurker passing through, laughing

      John,
      It would appear that the deceptive article in question was aimed at you very successfully.

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    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Did anyone hear anything from the direction of John Brookes? I thought I heard a noise but I guess it was just a mouse or something.

      No matter what Heartland does you’re going to find fault with it, John. So why would I consider your opinion? Give me even a shred of a good reason.

      Honesty escapes a lot more than journalists. 🙁

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    • #
      Ace

      Its called nicotine lozenges…nicotine patches, nicotine mints, nicotine inhalers, etc, etc, etc…dimmock.

      It must feel like really very bad constipation having ones cranium lodged way up inside ones own colon.

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      • #
        Ace

        …I was replying to Saint Brrokes above (us all in the firmament of pious superiority, he who is without sin).

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    • #
      Sean

      Call me a cynic, but John Brookes being involved in a university, even as a secretary, sounds dodgy.

      140

    • #
      Olaf Koenders

      Mainstream smoking and health beliefs (ahem.. science) disproved:

      Smoking and asthma

      Passive smoking is unpleasant but does you no harm. See here and here and here and here and here and here.

      As as smoker, I simply wish all these self-appointed authoritarians and control freaks to leave us alone. NEVER have I had a desire for a non-smoker to join my ilk, let alone create a fanciful “scientific” lie-fest-tirade to MAKE them see my ideology is better.

      These feel-gooders have not only invented all manner of maladies concerning smoking and secondhand smoke, they’ve now invented another.

      Where will my freedom end? They decide where and when you can smoke, down to the point where neighbours and friends are encouraged to report your non-submmission to their ideology.

      Only recently, a license to smoke was proposed to turn us all into perfect marionettes of Mary Poppins, including Australia.

      Notably Frankston city council, “after extensive public consultation with key ‘stakeholders’, businesses, community and ‘health experts'”, are trialling smoke free areas.

      I don’t know how they could enforce such a thing, considering the result from the 1988 Federal Referendum rendering all councils powerless.

      Anti-smoking control freaks say that the cost on the health system is extreme, however the taxes, excise and duties (read: TAXES!) on tobacco products would beg to differ, considering “tangible” and “intangible” costs to the community range so far from smoking being the actual cause to other causes that cannot be differentiated.

      Currently, Australian tobacco industry contributes a large proportion of excise, GST, retail sales and employment to the country. If the gubberment only used that money effectively (smoker’s taxes paying for their illnesses) then there shouldn’t be a problem.

      Then we get illegitimate “authorities” on the subject such as JB, whom likely never understood, let alone tried smoking for any length of time calling for a complete ban and subsequent jailing of people only interested in exercising their own Rights and freedoms.

      Remember JB – the exercising of a Right cannot be converted into a crime.

      And for Jessica Wright – deliberate and malicious misrepresentation carries severe penalties. Best change your name..

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      • #
        Streetcred

        As a reformed smoker of many years, I now dislike the smell of smoke around me … especially those civil servants that crowd around the street lobbies setting fire to waste bins with their butts.

        None the less, the incidence of smoking in our society is reportedly reducing … but the spending on health is sky-rocketing. What gives ? Where are the magical savings that anti-smoking was going to deliver to health ?

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        • #
          Geoff Sherrington

          It is interesting that your dislike of smoking increases as more public officials formulate more plans to demonise it.
          Does this parallel the way in which CAGW has grown through demons?

          Propaganda is powerful when you have the resources of the State. Look at what Angela Merkel is doing to nuclear power in Germany, in the cause of reducing GHG. She has convinced a near majority that more coal-fired power has to replace the shut-down of nuclear. The reasoning is 180 degrees out of kilter, yet the green alliances are winning provincial by-elections, while Angela does to Germany what Tim would like for his prostate test.

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      • #
        Ace

        A friend of mine who has asthma sometimes uses an inhaler but very often lights up a cigarrette instead.

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  • #

    I was talking with a chap this lunchtime about how ‘low’ the journalistic standards are in this country. There used to be a time when journalists would actually check the facts before publishing to make sure that what they were reporting was as correct and accurate as they could make it. Now it seems to go from Inbox to front page with barely a spell check on the way through; this could be automated with such ease and nobody would notice…

    Surprise surprise – Jessica just goes ahead and proves how correct that statement is. This is not journalism; its nasty propaganda roughly dressed up as journalism. Where can I write a complaint?

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    • #
      John Brookes

      Nah. That was in the mythical past. If you have a memory, you will remember that the press has always been dodgy.

      My earliest realisation that newspapers were dodgy was when I was around 10 years old and read a story about the classification of some movie or TV show because of bad language. At the time I though, “Don’t these people spend any time in a primary school playground?” Because if they did they would realise that we already knew how to use those words.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        “Don’t these people spend any time in a primary school playground?” Because if they did they would realise that we already knew how to use those words.

        But that doesn’t mean you were required to use those words. Or does it? And what has that got to do with the press being “dodgy”? That’s just a case of you disagreeing with the reviewer. It hadn’t anything to do with slipshod or dishonest reporting.

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      • #
        Ace

        So…according to Saint Brookes of Erehwon, reporting an opinion is the ame as holding an opinion.

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        • #
          John Brookes

          Why would you report a completely stupid viewpoint without any counterargument? Because thats what the media does. Because it sells papers. They’ve always done it.

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            Ace

            So what do you want, every time anyone campaigns for anything the report of that should be devoted 50% to a dialectic thesis in the opposite contention? Thats not reporting, thats editorialising,its selective and it is reserved usually for special columns.

            Agreeing the media is dreadful and papers only try to sell, that doesnt make it their role to put arguments for or against anything. If party A says they want to ban daisies the media should report it however stupid that may be and its not their responsibility to offer a judgement on the matter.

            Thats in the ideal world. But of course there is often a judgement implied in what they choose to report or ommit. But that works both ways: if they didnt report stupid opinions that, too, would be warping the represention of whats happening.

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          • #
            Backslider

            John Brookes – You mean things like catastrophic global warming?

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      • #

        John, the press has always had some ‘dodgy’ elements – the difference between now and then is that then they were quite self evident and more often than not found in known ‘dodgy’ publications. The trouble now is those that are ‘dodgy’ are everywhere and it seems they are getting away with lower standards repeatedly.

        Simple fact checking for some seems to be below them (or perhaps beyond them might be more accurate).

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  • #
    ChrisPer

    Its interesting that activists under the Public Health banner are such dishonest people. Anti-smoking, anti-booze and most of all anti-gun politics involve enormous self-righteousness, and the camouflage of that self-righteousness with a cloud of ‘Argument from Authority’ and dodgy, poorly-designed research papers.
    Viz Anti-Smoker in Chief, Professor Simon Chapman, who now publishes research in the media with his academic titles that goes counter to independent work, and purports to justify the mis-directed gun buybacks, while concealing his past anti-shooter activism so as to claim the mantle of academic independence.

    His sexualised language of abuse of shooters rather gives him away though. I loved it when Professor Don Weatherburn tore him a new one for publicly criticising Weatherburn’s reporting that actual evidence contradicted the idea the Buybacks had achieved anything much.

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  • #
    Athelstan.

    Bit like CAGW – fix the illusion and bamboozle ’em with facts um statistics, pad them round the fiction and see how it makes them tick.

    Jessica Wright, she really should apply for a job at common purpose + agenda 21 @ post normal central – ‘The Guardian’.

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  • #
    janama

    He is probably referring to this product, the electronic cigarette that is having heavy TV advertising here in the Mid East.

    http://www.blucigs.com/

    20

  • #
    David

    And now amongst the self righteous we have a councillor from the City of Melbourne wanting to ban smoking in the CBD. You have just got to love a totalitarian – well actually you don’t because we have fought wars against them. We are truly surrendering our freedom bit by bit. Me, I’m a non-smoker but I object to people telling others how to live their lives when what they are doing is perfectly legal. As for Faux-fax – who apart from John Brookes cares?

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    • #
      John Brookes

      Ahh, but David, if we make tobacco illegal, then it will be an illegal drug, and you’ll be against it, won’t you?

      My personal favourite is not to make it illegal, but simply raise the legal smoking age by 1 year every year. Those who get addicted could register as addicts.

      But I still remember working in the early 80’s, when I’d come home from work with my eyes stinging and my clothes and hair stinking of smoke. Going to the pub was the same. People used to walk into your house and start looking for an ashtray so that they could light up. Aeroplanes had non-smoking sections, which was no use at all, as smoke permeated everywhere. Restaurants ditto. It used to be hell.

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      • #
        Truthseeker

        The problem with the freedom of choice argument for any addictive drug is that there is no freedom of choice. Once you are addicted, your freedom of choice is taken away from you chemically. That is the issue. The other problem is that addictive drugs mean that addicts need more medical attention and that is medical resources that could be used to improve the care of the chronically ill or accident victims or those that are just sick.

        Sure, make all addictive drugs legal, but you are then disqualified from medicare or the equivalent and are ineligible for medical insurance of any kind. You have to pay for every cent of medical resource that you require. Now make a real choice about using addictive drugs, one that does not impact everyone else.

        Harsh but fair …

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        • #
          PAYG

          Good onya Amigo, you forget add “for the chronically stupid” and “for the purposefully stupid” to your little unhinged thought-bubble.

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          Roy Hogue

          Here’s our real problem with tobacco. Governments have learned that they can tax it at just about any rate — it’s addictive after all and the tax base is trapped. So now there is a vested interest in not stopping smoking. They may not admit it but that cash cow will be around forever because government is sucking its teats from dawn till dark, every day, on into the future for as long as I can foresee.

          They can justify this robbery as being in the interest of discouraging the use of an addictive and dangerous substance. But don’t believe it, not for one second. As Rush Limbaugh has correctly pointed out, follow the money and you’ll know the truth.

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          • #
            Len

            I know a carpenter who gave up smoking when Blue Capstan went to 1/6 a packet.

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          • #

            I gave it up when it was 33 cents a packet. Carried an unopened packet in my pocket for yonks.

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            John Brookes

            The way to handle this dilemma, Roy, is to raise the smoking age a year at a time. That way your smoking revenue goes down slowly, as your medical expenses go down slowly – so the whole thing is fairly neutral financially, and relatively painless for the government (and taxpayers).

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          Roy Hogue

          By the way, I agree with you.

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        • #

          Well, I gave up. 30 years a smoker, woke up one morning and thought “Sod this. I don’t need it”, some 8 years back, and haven’t had a puff since.

          Free will, I think you would call it. Mind over addiction, or will power. Without that, no addiction can be broken.

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          • #
            Roy Hogue

            Jeremy,

            I believe you; my mother-in-law did the same thing, cold turkey! And after probably a lot more than 30 years of smoking too! She lived another 12 years and never went back.

            On the other hand, most can’t, my father included. He was one of the lucky ones who died from something other than smoking. He escaped the worst of it because he didn’t start until he was over 30 years old. But it was clear to the whole family that he could not just drop that tobacco monster, no matter how much he wanted to. And I believe he really did want to stop in his final years.

            For the most part, any free choice about smoking is only there before or right after you start. After that it takes a heroic effort and the recidivism rate is pretty high. The problem is similar to any other addiction; if you want to lick it badly enough you probably can. But few seem to be up to wanting to lick it more than they want to go back to it. So as a character in a famous play once said, “…there’s the rub.”

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          Ace

          What defines an “addictive drug”

          I should warn you, I have a recent pass in a degree level course on the dopimanergic system. alright,only a “3” but thats still a pass even if I’ve forgotten most of what I learned.

          You see the problem for your argument is that the neuro-chemistry of addiction that underpins any addiction is found to influence a vast range of behaviours. If the case for banning something hinged not on its its addictiveness then pretty much nothing would be exempt from potential prohibition.

          Are you a T-totaller? If not you are striking a stance of pure hypocrisy. If you are then you should be alerted to the fact that tea might itself fall under your definition of an addictive substance.

          The only thing that needs to be banned is people trying to have any conduct aming consenting adults banned.

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            Ace

            …correction…if the case for banning hinged not on “not on its addictiveness” but “on its addictiveness.”.

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            Truthseeker

            Ace,

            If you are asking me, then yes I am a “T-totaller” as you call it. I made a choice that smoking and drinking alcohol were two things that I may want to give up a some stage so it was better not to start. So it looks like I am not a hypocrit after all.

            Prohibition has not had a stellar success rate so I agree that is not the best approach. However freedom in society is not freedom from responsibility. Consenting adults should not be allowed to things that harm others. The problem we have is that “entitlement” has overtaken “responsibility” as our guiding principle. Actions have consequences and the act of using addictive drugs has consequences that must be laid squarely at the feet of an addict. If it is there “freedom” to use addictive drugs then they cannot claim to be a “victim” of that addiction.

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            Ace

            Truthseeker…good, not a hypocrite over drink. But you do come on the prig. And I can show you to be a hypocrite yet.

            Before that, you wont become a lousy boosed up druggie because you have a drink. I was introduced to alcohol by my parents whilst in primary school and they gave me a sherry every bed-time. The reasoning was partly because I had to share a tiny room with two teenage brothers but thats beside the point. The point is Ive downed thousands of gallons of booze in my life and Im not an alcoholic. On the contrary, it has been one of the most useful devices I have had, God given and a blessing to me.

            I didnt start smoking in youth as I felt no need to. Ive never tried a tobacco cigarrette. But I chose to take up cigar smoking in middle age. I dont ever experience a need to smoke. Just as well given the cost of these things. Pleasure does not equal addiction and it seems that some of us who do believe in Christ may on some matters feel less guilt-ridden and compelled to make that guilt-laden equation than those of you who are without Belief.

            Then if I referred to “among consenting adults” that by definition excludes non-consenting third parties. However, you may have an elastic sense of collatoral effect. In which case next to hypocrisy is inconsistancy. Most of the people who ever took your tone were inconsistant if not hypocrites. And hypocracy arises from inconsistancy. Bring me to your home and allow me to vet your lifestyle and I am absolutely damn certain I will instantly identify a number of things you do every day that have a marginal effect upon non-consenting third parties. Do you drive? Do you ride a bike? do you jog? Do you listen to music? Do you wear deodorant? Do you have a dog? Do you have a cat? Do you fart in public?

            On the other hand, those who are not inconsistant on conduct in terms of that precious evaluation tend towards the other extreme. They inhabit cultures in which it is attempted to iron out all these wrinkles of life. In those cultures not only is alcohol a criminal offence but so is listening to music. Once you start “laying down the law” there really never is an end to it.

            If heroin addicts…and thats really the only thing of substance your narrative applies to…commit crimes to fund their habit that is a matter first of addressing the crimes they commit and not the motive, but more fundamentally its the responsibility of pious prigs like yourself who maintain the futile attempt to control things that need not concern them and thereby create the foundations for immense criminal enterprise. Not just in drugs but in other areas extending right to the door of real-life modern slavery.

            Yep…I hold “worthies” responsible for that.

            Lighten up. Have an orgasm. Get a life. You may make it to my age if you do.

            PS, dont be offended, its not personal, I just saw your comment as a good opportunity to launch a few points. Apologies for any offence caused. Consider it collateral to seeking truth.

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          • #
            Ace

            …that is to say, I am willing to believe you aren’t anything like the “prigs” I referred to above, but your comment will serve to represent such people. Consider it theatre. In pursuit of truth.

            10

          • #
            Truthseeker

            Ace, the advantage of use pseudonyms is that nothing that is said can be taken personally and I certainly did not do so with anything you said.

            Your cigar smoking indulgence is not an addiction, by definition of the infrequency that you use it, and so it has no relevance to any of what I said. I do a number of the things you mention but I do not harm (in any verifiable and measurable sense) anyone else when doing so. Take driving as an example. Exercising the freedom of driving a car where and when I like does not include being reckless and putting others at risk or driving against the road rules and injuring others. That is the reason we have road rules.

            The overarching principle for any free society is that you must allows others the same freedom that you enjoy. This includes the freedom of good health and the quite enjoyment of property. Be free, but don’t harm others doing it. By the way, being “offended” is not being harmed. If someone offends you, say so. It is a clash of opinions, nothing more. It is not a reason to restrict freedoms.

            01

          • #
            Ace

            TS…In all honesty thats the first time I ever wrote a reply not to such a person as I thought a comment probably by but to such a person as I could transpose them into. Hence my making a fussy footnote about it.

            But it is so often the case folk get carried away on forums and it ends in burst blood vessels and wasted time.

            For example, we could get deeper into this matter of whether it is possible for you to drive a car without marginally harming others. If I were a Green I would say every time you started the engine it did harm. I am not a Green so I wont adduce the various environmental effects of driving they bang on about.Nothing any of us does is without marginal or indirect effects upon others. But in any case you agree on the point of such examples being that they are not substantively harmful to third parties if conducted properly (ie, not recklessly).

            Which leaves us only at issue the conduct of activities between consenting adults that do not directly or substantively affect others. This will encompass activity that is self injurious.In the case of criminalised activities (eg, heroin consumption) the injury is displaced onto others away from those who the laws are aimed at. Hence I would prefer any number of people die from cheap legal heroin than any single addict rob me because of the expense of illegal heroin. I am not aware that there are measurable instances of people mugging and burgling to sustain a tobacco habit.

            As regards slavery, it has allegedly re-emerged in countries where prostitution is illegal. Although a major national police investigation in the UK failed to prosecute in a single alleged caseof “people trafficking”. So looking back I think I over-larded my earlier piece by including that. On the other hand, in the USA there are many actual cases of teenage girls who have been kidnapped and found later in the clutches of pimps.

            To say this never can happen at all in a country where prostitution is legal would be like saying no desperate impoverished smoker ever stole to pay for cigarettes. A true picture is hard to get. But it does nonetheless seem that in this instance too, laws created to impose moral mores actually create the environment in which crime thrives.

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      • #
        Ace

        But our Sainted One, Brookes of Erehwon…hath He not Writ that he wanted tobacco banned, but two comments previously.Now he sayeth He does not!

        I really do wonder now if Brookes is an invention of someone else here.

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        • #
          Roy Hogue

          But our Sainted One, Brookes of Erehwon…hath He not Writ that he wanted tobacco banned, but two comments previously.Now he sayeth He does not!

          I really do wonder now if Brookes is an invention of someone else here.

          Ace,

          Never take John Brookes seriously. Raising the legal smoking age by a year every year will do nothing and he knows it. Nearly every smoker in the western world started while too young to do it legally and he knows it. Laws to the contrary notwithstanding, tobacco is pushed to teenagers and below and he knows it. Taxing tobacco at a high enough rate may give some an incentive to stop; but not most. And he knows that too.

          Tobacco company stock is among the three most profitable stocks to have in your portfolio. I think readers can figure out why without my help. And I wouldn’t be surprised if John knows that also.

          Addiction is an intractable problem no matter how much we want it to be otherwise. Fortunately many of us avoid the trap in the first place. Some who don’t avoid it manage to lick it and keep it licked. The rest are a problem to be managed so as to minimize the damage to anyone else. And we don’t even do that job well.

          Brookes is consistent within his self. He blows with the wind, dropping off whatever comment pops up in front of him without any real regard for the picture of John Brookes it reveals to the rest of the world. If there’s anything imaginary or invented about him it’s within his own head I think.

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            Ace

            Except for one thing Roy, he doesnt actually, really reveal anything about his self. As I commented previously, hes like one of those people who lurk in the shadows at the back of a room and shout disconnected heckles of opportunity.

            The comment of his I referred to was earlier, he said banning. Then two comments later not banning.

            Sorry to plug on, but theres no Maxine or Matb around at the moment.

            Regarding addictive substances, the only issue really is their availability. Rather than discussing the ridiculous notionof regulating tobacco folk should address the need to legalise heroin so that we can reduce the level of theft and robbery that results from its demand. If people want to take anything as long as they dont burgle me or mug me etc to sustain it then let them. Why should I give a shit?

            That said I detest gluttons. Eg, Al Gore, Michael Moore, et al.

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            John Brookes

            You are partly right about my attitude Roy.

            There are many sensible measures that we in Australia are currently taking to reduce smoking, often with great success. But there are people who find it impossible to give up smoking, and in their case I’d like to see a lot of research on cheaper, safer alternative methods of delivering nicotine. We may not conquer the addiction, but we can minimise the harm it does.

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            Roy Hogue

            Ace,

            I think you may have missed my point. You’re right in that John hides a great deal of himself. But his off the wall comments reveal much, his shallow thinking for one thing. I don’t know John except by what he says on this blog. But I suspect that if I met him in some pub he would turn out to be a friendly, personable guy whose company I could enjoy; at least as long as the discussion didn’t turn to anything very serious. I have even agreed with him on several occasions. But his overall demeanor on this blog is shallow and thoughtless.

            He consistently supports the CAGW alarmist position, yet when challenged to provide even basic support for what he says, he either cannot or will not engage in debate about evidence. If he does provide “facts” they’re easily refuted.

            I think he reveals much about himself.

            00

          • #
            Roy Hogue

            You are partly right about my attitude Roy.

            So what is the rest of the picture, John? Let yourself be a little bit vulnerable and give us the real John Brookes.

            00

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            Ace

            Roy…I think I agree with that. Take his mug-shot, or the one he uses. Looks a real affable guy. Like Fred West. But I digress.

            Most of the people we argue with online or are even scathing of we would probably find agreeable in person. This aint the real world. But what yousay about his shallowness is certainly tyrue. Look what he wrote a bit above:

            “But there are people who find it impossible to give up smoking, and in their case I’d like to see a lot of research on cheaper, safer alternative methods of delivering nicotine. We may not conquer the addiction, but we can minimise the harm it does.”

            Now he brought that one up earlioer, to which I tried to sarcastically point out that threre are numerous Nicotine delivery systems on the market. Im not a smoker even but I use nicotine lozenges as an aid at times.

            But he repeats the same idiotic comment in spite of how dumb it looks.

            This is like I said, akin to heckling. The worst part of it is that it creates an atmosphere in which we are reticent to express ourselves because we know hecklers like him are waiting to seize on any unfortunate choice of words we may happen to make and blow that up into The Topic.

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            Roy Hogue

            The worst part of it is that it creates an atmosphere in which we are reticent to express ourselves because we know hecklers like him are waiting to seize on any unfortunate choice of words we may happen to make and blow that up into The Topic.

            That is precisely why I sometimes spend 10 or 15 minutes massaging what I want to say so I get it down in understandable form and avoid saying things I don’t intend.

            I’m also careful to not step outside the envelope defined by what I really know into the realm of what I wish to be true.

            Others will have to decide how well or poorly I manage that. But I understand the problem.

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        David

        Wrong JB. While tobacco is legal the totalitarians should stop telling people how to live their lives. Making something illegal overnight because “I know what I am doing is good for you” is Nanny State stuff. No government is going to make it illegal as they draw too much revenue from it – just like alcohol. Look how well prohibition of alcohol worked in the USofA. I object to zealots chopping away at the freedoms we should enjoy and telling people how to live. Drugs like Ice, Cocaine and Heroin are a different issue which, if you had worked in areas where addicts of those drugs have hit rock bottom, you would know. Councils, and this is a proposal by a councillor, are there to pick up the garbage and maintain the roads and parks and should keep their noses out of other areas of peoples lives. AS they don’t do the essential three all that well it is not hard to forsee what would happen if they start pulling up people for lighting up a gasper.

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      • #
        ian hilliar

        JB, after your wish is granted, and tobacco is banned on health grounds, the next target would logically be alcohol? we all saw how well that worked in the USA

        10

  • #
    The Black Adder

    If it is a legal product…

    How can they do this??

    Next will be breathing out CO2…

    40

  • #
    Shevva

    She read it on one of her activist web sites she visits, when not tweeting her ill-informed twits, and forgot to double check her sources ie: a comment by another activist.

    Ego bigger then their intellect ‘I’m saving the world so must be right’.

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      lurker passing through, laughing

      Shevva,
      When one considers the demonstrated size of the intellects in ‘journalists’ like this, it would not take much of an ego to overwhelm the intellect in question……

      00

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    ANDYD

    She maybe wrong, but she’s not far wrong.

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    ANDYD

    They should set up safe-injecting rooms for nico addicts.

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    Turtle

    It tells us much about the leftist ABC/Age/SMH reporter: their perception is based on a puerile melodrama, and their opponent is an evil caricature who doesn’t exist. That she would assume a lecture would claim smoking is good for you in the 21st C shows that she sees her opponent as being 50 years behind – when it is she who is 50 year behind.

    40

    • #
      Andrew McRae

      Nah, 100 years behind. She’s excited that a new Red October is only 4 years away.

       
      Did you you hear that Sonny? New CT. Get onto it lad.

      00

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    Mark D.

    What, “journalists” carrying water for a political agenda?

    I can’t believe it!

    What I find fascinating is that world wide, almost as if on cue, anything conservative (right wing) or republican (if you prefer) is being maligned in this same fashion.

    30

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      It’s the Internet I think. If we had been smart and put Al Gore away years ago where he couldn’t do any harm then he could never have invented it and we’d all be better off. 😉

      Come to think of it, maybe that remark deserves this one. 🙂

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    lurker passing through, laughing

    Journalists are not doing us or themselves or the issues any favors, if truth or facts are the desired goal.
    If deception and confusion are what they are after, they are doing a bang up job.

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    lurker passing through, laughing

    Journalists seem to take to corrupt practices and deceptive reporting like ducks to water.

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  • #

    John Brookes
    January 30, 2013 at 5:51 pm · Reply
    Call me a cynic, but Heartland being involved in a method to stop smoking sounds dodgy. Its a bit like big oil and big coal putting a token effort into renewable energy
    =-===========================

    John.

    Big Oil have put millions, if not billions, into renewable energy. And by the way. do you know which company was largely responsible for the funding which set up the first Climate Research Unit, the now infamous one at the University of East Anglia? Shell International. Let me state that again

    Shell International.

    This constant, unproven and fallacious “link” between big oil and climate sceptics does little except how how desperate the warmer camp is. I’s smear tactics, nothing else.

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      lurker passing through, laughing

      Jeremy,
      The point of the AGW believers is to end discussion, not to be bothered with facts.
      Their recitation of little bits of untruth about ‘big oil’ and Heartland and other skeptics is not to point out the truth, It is more like a faux-mantra, designed to comfort their belief systems, not to explore or promote anything to do with reality or truth. At least with a rosary or mantra recitation the believer is seeking something in the spiritual realm and not seeking to attack individuals and other people’s thoughts. AGW, since it is filled mostly with ‘sophisticates’ do not have the option of spiritual ideals. Their faith-based acts must manifest in the ‘real world’. Frankly they are more destructive than nearly any sort of non-militant religious movement I can think of.

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    Ace

    I was a weekly magazine columnist for a while. I couldn’t stand the people on the publication. Not the worst but one of the worst concentrations of a%$h*&s Ive ever experienced. Variously defective people…arent we all…except they were the type who displace it onto everyone around them. Nasty.
    I didnt need it. I let it go.

    Actually I could use the additional salary now but thats just a measure of how bad things have got this century.

    As for tobacco. I never smoked a tobacco cigarette in my life. But I took up cigar smoking a bit before I reached forty. Ive never had a craving for nicotine. Tobacco really has enhanced my life.

    30

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      Ace

      …in fact Ive sat down and thought over how much additional income I duiscarded back then to spare myself E-mailing the editor. It doesn’t seem real now that I can barely afford to pay my heating bills. But, hey, Green charges have increased those bills more than SIXTY PER CENT in the last decade alone. Who could have foreseen that?

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    Ace

    Well obviously we have to ban EVERYTHING thats bad for people…smoking, goes without saying, and fatty foods, and eating too much, and sitting on your arse too much (compulsory exercises in front of the Viewscreen each day…they are well slim in North Korea) and strong perfumes (oh, already banned in many public buildings) and fizzy drinks (think of the CO2) and loud music, and masturbation (save folks ending up like St Brookes) and farting, and the internet and driving and riding a feckerin pushbike and football (ESPECIALLY the crazy Australian kind) and Rugby, Angling (kills more people than shootings every year)and skiing and picking yer fecking rectum (spreads E-coli) ….BUT we MUST legalise cannabis. Yess sireee…more carcinogenic than tobacco and only makes a few percent of those imbibing it become psychotic.

    Do you know of ANYONE in the public eye who is anti-tobacco but who is not also pro-legalisation of cannabis?

    Anyone?

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      Ace

      …oh yeah, banning pork is basic as well as all images of pigs and that Piglet mug. We are well advanced on this in Europe.

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        Roy Hogue

        Ace,

        When everything you like is either illegal, immoral or fattening it’s time to learn not to give a rat’s toot. It helps a lot. Guilt is such a drag! 🙂

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    Bruce

    It’s probably sloppy journalism, you say. I wouldn’t bet on it.

    30

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    pat

    UK phase auction of 4.134 mln EUAs clears at 3.72 euros- traders
    LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Britain sold 4.134 million spot EU carbon permits from the third phase (2013-2020) of its emissions trading scheme on ICE Futures Europe at 3.72 euros ($5.01)a tonne each on Wednesday, traders said…
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.2160223?&ref=searchlist

    Australia’s carbon market at stake in September election
    BEIJING, Jan 30 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Australians will go to the polls on September 14 in a general election that will determine the fate of the country’s carbon market nearly two years before its official launch…
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2159789?&ref=searchlist

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  • #

    Jessica Wright’s article is both demonstrably shoddy journalism and also a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. Her failure to acknowledge or correct the record puts her into the same camp as the great propagandists who know that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.

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    Peter Crawford

    The strange thing is, and almost any doctor or nurse will tell you, the doctors surgeries are full of non-smokers claiming they are a bit chesty or have a tickly throat or a dicky tummy or some f*****g thing or other.

    Smokers, like me, only ever seek medical treatment if there are bones poking out of the flesh.

    If we feel a tad unwell we simply retch and cough over the bog for a couple of minutes, wipe our eyes, brush our teeth, then carry on as normal.

    Non-smokers are therefore more of a strain on health services than us doughty smokers who at least have the courtesy to die in our seventies instead of hanging on for bloody years, a misery to ourselves and a burden to others.

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    Brendan

    Apparently Bernardi is taking legal action for libel.

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    RoHa

    Has the SMH been informed of this?

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    gbees

    It’s called copy & past journalism …

    41

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    Jeff

    Hello Hello, the day AFTER Dillard calls the election date, one of her previously protected species is facing 150 criminal charges.
    Oh, sorry Juliar, another one of those coincidences that you seem to specialise ine.
    I thought you or possibly Nickola Rockson must have in you possession the worlds best Crystal Ball, or do you have a direct hot-line with the NSW and Victorian police force.

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    Bruce D Scott

    A lying journalist employed by SMH, excuse me whilst I have an attack of the vapours.

    30

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    Ace

    smoking. Well OK I will get to the point. When it was everywhere and you couldnt escape it was too much. I reluctantly agree with Brookes on that. But now that nobody has to put up with itanywhere, then to continue harping on about itand seeking more restrictions is Obsessive Compulsive behaviour.

    In Britain, shops are not even allowed to have tobacco on view. Its all behind a sliding door.

    Thankfully, in my “other” home, although the ban on smoking in premises exists, its rarely enforced and people know where smoking is or is not acceptable. You even see signs: “Rauchen Gestatten” (excuse my spelling) and I can enjoy acigar.

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    dp

    It makes you wonder if some journalists jot off such rot as a test of our ability to look the other way.

    30

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    MadJak

    The Sydney Morning Herald – Brining you lies, spin and propaganda through tardy third rate journalism to a community near you.

    They could at least have printed the SMH in Double ply extra absorbent!

    The Editor of the SMH should be named here as well. Because they obviously have difficulty understanding their job description.

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    Anton

    There is no doubt that if alcohol were invented today then it would be banned. It was banned in 1920s America which set great store by the Bible even though Jesus of Nazareth is recorded as drinking it (Matt 11:19). A fine book (whimsically written but making a serious point) on the urge to ban substances and its futility is “The art of suppression” by Christopher Snowdon.

    As for cigarettes, not only do they bring in money to government via taxes but they kill people earlier so that pensions have to be paid for a shorter time.

    30

    • #
      AndyG55

      “It was banned in 1920s America which ”

      Yep, That worked out well, didn’t it !! 🙂

      If cigs were banned, the black market would flourish big time..

      Same with Wilkie’s and Xenophon’s stupid ideas on gambling….

      Will just force it underground run by even worse criminals.

      40

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    pat

    it’s all over bar the prosecutions!!

    Deutsche Bank quits carbon market: board member
    LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Deutsche Bank has shut its global carbon trading operations, a member of the investment bank’s board of directors said on Thursday…
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2162216

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      RoHa

      As I said on WUWT, if the Big Money boys aren’t making big money, we can expect the CAGW scare to quickly disappear.

      10

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    pat

    into the Deutsche Bank void???

    INTERVIEW: World Bank eyes spring launch for new carbon fund
    LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters Point Carbon) – The World Bank aims to launch a new carbon fund this spring after it was delayed almost a year because falling carbon prices made it harder to raise cash, a senior official at the bank told Reuters Point Carbon..

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    AndyG55

    Hey, is anyone elese not getting comment numbers ?

    I’m getting the # with no number after it.

    20

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    Peter Crawford

    [ Don’t worry about it, bud.

    00

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    Drapetomania

    Non-smokers are therefore more of a strain on health services than us doughty smokers who at least have the courtesy to die in our seventies instead of hanging on for bloody years

    Cognitive dissonance humour at its finest.. 🙂
    You jump from lame analogies..to that “conclusion”.???
    If you seriously think the taxes on cigarettes you pay..cover the medicaL expenses you lot induce on the health care system before you croak years before non smokers..then nicotine has rotted whats left of a brain..
    A smug smoker..sweet baby jesus..what next..

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    Slabadang

    Tip 🙂 🙂
    New paper say you aint drowning down under1

    Abstract:
    As an island nation with some 85% of the population residing within 50 km of the coast, Australia faces significant threats into the future from sea level rise. Further, with over 710,000 addresses within 3 km of the coast and below 6-m elevation, the implication of a projected global rise in mean sea level of up to 100 cm over the 21st century will have profound economic, social, environmental, and planning consequences. In this context, it is becoming increasingly important to monitor trends emerging from local (regional) records to augment global average measurements and future projections. The Australasian region has four very long, continuous tide gauge records, at Fremantle (1897), Auckland (1903), Fort Denison (1914), and Newcastle (1925), which are invaluable for considering whether there is evidence that the rise in mean sea level is accelerating over the longer term at these locations in line with various global average sea level time-series reconstructions. These long records have been converted to relative 20-year moving average water level time series and fitted to second-order polynomial functions to consider trends of acceleration in mean sea level over time. The analysis reveals a consistent trend of weak deceleration at each of these gauge sites throughout Australasia over the period from 1940 to 2000. Short period trends of acceleration in mean sea level after 1990 are evident at each site, although these are not abnormal or higher than other short-term rates measured throughout the historical record.

    http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.se/2013/01/inconvenient-truth-sea-level-rise-is.html

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      AndyG55

      The drowning is coming from rainfall at the moment !.

      Any sea level rise since I came to Australia 50 odd years ago is barely perceptable.

      00

  • #
    Crakar24

    Time to change the subject

    http://iceagenow.info/2013/01/arctic-ice-growth-shatters-previous-records/

    Now what i would lik eto know from the warmbots here is HOW IN THE HELL CAN AGW CAUSE A RECORD SUMMER MELT BUT YET CAUSE A RECORD FREEZE, WHILST SIMULTANEOUSLY CAUSE RECORD SNOWFALL IN SIBERIA WHICH IN TURN CAUSE MASSIVE SNOW AND BITTER WINTERS IN THE NH………………..and all this can be stopped by simply applying a carbon tax LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

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    Olaf Koenders

    The way to handle this dilemma, Roy, is to raise the smoking age a year at a time.

    So JB, you’re still asking anyone that’s eventually 20, 30 (or 60?)years old and can think for themselves with the Constitutional Right of personal choice to be jailed for smoking when the “legal” (not lawful) age is 31?

    Gimme a break. Have you ever looked into America’s biggest political “health” disaster – prohibition? THAT was a crime wave!

    40

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    pat

    time for a laugh:

    31 Jan: The Hill: Ben Geman: Dems ask NFL, NBA for suggestions on how to battle climate change
    A new Capitol Hill climate task force wants a wide range of parties — including energy companies, green groups, sports leagues and plenty in-between — to submit suggestions for federal actions to battle global warming…
    Also on the list: the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and other sports leagues…
    Click here for a sample of the letter…
    http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/280351-dems-ask-nfl-for-ideas-on-battling-climate-change

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  • #
    Peter

    JW trumpeted her article on twitter last week. Since it was published her twitter feed has been completely silent. Interesting!

    20

  • #
    Peter Crawford

    We are all going to die.

    My favoured method is to be bitten to death by a bloody great shark.

    Quick, painless, and guaranteed to get on the TV.

    You have to think about things sometimes.

    10

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    sillyfilly

    And now we pause for a quiet message from our sponsors!

    Smoking is good for you.
    Global Warming is a hoax.
    CSG Fracking never hurt anybody.

    09

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    Mark

    Whatever it is that you smoke silly is not doing you any good, that’s for sure. You clearly aren’t up with the news that there’s been no warming now for at least fifteen years. That’s despite steadily increasing co2. Not only that, but nobody’s expecting any warming for the next five years. Now get out and smell the coffee and the roses; not the crap at SkS.

    20

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    janama

    Been wondering what happen to Tim Flannery? –

    well he’s been hanging out with Richard Neville in the blue mountains talking up the gloom and doom

    Richard Neville is a serial lefty idiot.

    50

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      Crakar24

      Just read the link and have one question….what the f*&%K was that all about?

      It started off with Mr Panasonic postulating about pumping sulphur into the atmosphere as a last roll of the dice scenario (Now that will be chemtrails Sonny) and then it quickly spiralled into an end of days type armageddon sermon. I wonder how many bottles of red it took to reach this point, its very much like a failed religion i know i have said this before but if you read the story….well it really is to them. What a bunch sad sacks they are.

      The good news for us is that as the desperation rises the cries of geo eng will grow louder and the bigger loony they will look.

      20

      • #
        Kevin Moore

        It seems the possibility of outwitting climate change is slipping through our fingers

        Flannery thinks he can outwit nature? Something else is slipping through his fingers.

        20

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      Backslider

      That was the biggest load of bullshit I have read in my entire life. What the hell is this guy smoking??

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      Dave

      .
      I wonder if Tim Flannery has read this latest crap from Fairfax?
      Rainfall intensity to increase with Global Warming

      A worldwide review of global rainfall data led by the University of Adelaide has found that the intensity of the most extreme rainfall events is increasing as temperatures rise.

      Can someone tell Tim (our dams will never fill again) please.

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        RoHa

        “Tim (our dams will never fill again) ”

        As far as I can tell, he’s turned into Tim (expect more storms and floods than ever) without missing a beat. He’s good.

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      AndyG55

      Gees, next they’ll be joined by Quantock !

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    RoHa

    Has Heartland discussed this with Learned Friends in Australia?

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    janama

    OT – just a request to Joanne. Would it be possible to make links a more distinct colour? at the moment they look almost like the regular font.

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      AndyG55

      I agree, my eyes sometimes miss seeing links, especially if its only one word.

      Bright blue underlined is the normal colour for links.

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        Andrew McRae

        Suddenly, a browser-based solution appears.

        If you use Firefox then you are in luck.
        1. Go to menu bar and click Tools | Add-ons
        2. click Get Add-Ons, then find the plugin called “Stylish”.
        3. Install Stylish, restart Firefox.
        4. Go to the Userstyles.org web site and search for the style that I have just written called “Joannenova Unofficial Readability Improvements” .
        5. The Userstyles page for that style will have an “Install With Stylish” button, which installs the style into your browser.
        6. Ensure the Add-on Bar is displayed by clicking View | Toolbars | Add-on Bar. (This displays at the bottom left of the Firefox window by default.)

        You can then activate/deactivate this restyling rule with the Stylish button in the Add-on Bar.
        (I wrote this to only affect Joannenova.com.au, but there is another UsersStyle available which will underline all links on all sites, if you look for it).

        Hope that helps fellow Jonovians.

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    The Sydney Morning Herald published a news story in 2003 that helped reveal the deep historical roots of the Climategate scandal in 1945.

    http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/01/1070127350112.html

    Here’s the rest of the story of events from 1945 to 2009:

    http://omanuel.wordpress.com/about/#comment-2204

    With kind regards,
    Oliver K. Manuel
    Former NASA Principal
    Investigator for Apollo

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    I should make clear that this is not about any theory of mine. I am merely reviewing and citing a peer-reviewed journal paper written by Dr Hans Jelbring who wrote his thesis for his PhD in Climatology and cited it in that journal paper which I would encourage all to read, as it is one of the most important papers ever published on climate change.

    Dr Jelbring is now a fellow member of the 200-member strong Principia Scientific International for which I am one of several climate change researchers and authors. It is disappointing that the Sydney Morning Herald refuses to even comment on Dr Jelbring’s 2003 journal paper.

    Doug Cotton, B.Sc.(Physics-Sydney Univ)

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