TICAP, The Hague, March 15th 2010

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Photographic Treat


Nick Hogan Interviewed By A British Journalist Before Signing The Aldebaran Treaty In Hoorn, Holland, At The Beginning Of May.

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Bump for Truth Seeker


Hi All

Just thought I'd remind people to pay a visit to Truth Seeker's blog. It seems comments have died down and I think there is still valuable discussion to be had. I feel that this is a genuine request as I have had personal emails with Truth Seeker. We are also promised some input from ASH, which would be just grand. I know..don't hold your breath..but it would be quite a first for them to come out of their ivory tower in this manner and it will definitely be interesting if it doesn't raise to many hackles! Here is a link...Truth Seeker.

Phil

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Kwok, further examination..


Figure 2 Adjusted* hazard ratios with 95% CI for first hospitalisation by causes and age groups in relation to baseline second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure (compared with no SHS exposure). *Adjusted for sex, birthweight, gestational age, breastfeeding history, maternal age, highest parental education level, type of hospital at birth, household income per head, mother’s smoking and mother’s SHS exposure in pregnancy.

Here is Figure 2 from the Kwok report. I primarily choose it as it gives a very good immediate visual impression of the true outcome of the statistical manipulation.

If you just gaze at the whole image you will see that the X's and O's are pretty close to the baseline RR of 1, despite the expanded x-axis scale. You will also notice that the universally accepted level of RR to hint at an association of 3 is not met by any of the values except in the accident group.

No information as to the actual number of hospital admissions in each group (infection, accidents etc) is given, which is essential to make any conclusions.

Apart from the accident and all causes groups the distribution of values across the baseline is equaly shared between the increased and the decreased RR areas. (Above and below the baseline). You may also notice that virtually all the lines would overlap if they were superimposed.

These graphs, far from supporting any association between the proximity of the smoker to the infant and illness in these infants, irrefutably show that this study has demonstrated no link between "passive smoking" and hospital admission of infants for any cause.

This type of analysis is what is lacking in the media and can be applied to all studies on passive smoking.

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Johnson, New Labour’s New Dunce


By Blad Tolstoy

“New Labour’s new dunce? Don’t they have so many?” I hear you ask in surprise.

Yes, well they do, but Johnson is yet another and very current manifestation of how stupid and devious they can be.

Let’s consider matters simply. New Labour is finished and we all await with impatience for the demise of this “fag end” of a government (pardon the pun). Things can only get worse for them now and matters are horrendously terrible as they run into yet more trouble with proposed road fuel and road-tax price rises.

Enter Alan Johnson (he’s the cone head pictured here) who attempts to seize a new initiative which shows that our idiot government has still not learnt enough from the kicking it just received at the Nantwich and Crewe by-election.

No, of course it hasn’t. It thinks it’s all down to outside factors affecting our economy adversely - plus poor leadership demonstrated by gormless Gordon - that are all the cause of its present ill fortunes.

The public thinks otherwise, of course, and identifies correctly a whole host of reasons why New Labour is finished, ranging from the government’s own mismanagement of the economy, swinging taxes, the failure to grant an EU treaty referendum and excessive regulations and interference in citizens’ lives.

The smoking ban is certainly one of these factors, for not only has it adversely affected the lives of smokers but also many people’s businesses such as pubs, clubs, bingo halls, some cafes and restaurants, and hosts of connected occupations dependant upon smokers. These make up a very large percentage of the population, but of course, as this government has a severe reality check problem, it prefers to believe ASH and their toadies who whisper honeyed words in its ears about how popular the smoking ban really is. Well, I’m sure it is with some people, but it also isn’t with a lot of others either, and many more think it’s gone too far, and that’s precisely the message our government fails to grasp along with the Nu-Tory Party and the Lobotomised Dead (better known as the Liberal Democrats).

So, what happened next? Well, following the announcement by the Scottish Executive that it intends to ban the display of cigarettes in shops, Johnson announces he’s going to do the same in England and Wales. This came as a shock to many tobacco retailers (newsagents, grocers and others) who thought they were undergoing a consultation process with the government about this issue, as suddenly, Johnson jumps the gun, which is to completely ignore their contributions, to make a decision before the conclusion of the consultation is reached. (Typical New Labour: pretend to consult and ignore.)

I was struck by the final part of the discussion on 5 Live last night (26/5/08) when the ASH representative intoned mollifyingly: “Of course, there will have to be careful discussions about this.” Does she believe that? Does she heck, for she knows she has the ear of fuckwit Johnson and that he’s stupid and gullible, and, dishonest. Like most politicians in a fix he’s looking for a way to look good when the NHS is unable to cope. So off we go. “We’ll extend further this ‘popular’ smoking ban,” thinks Johnson, which demonstrates precisely why he should be wearing a dunce’s hat.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

SHS, Babies, Hong Kong & Garbage


The media including all the nationals, GMTV and no doubt every available platform for the anti-smoker reports today that young babies are at risk of harm from passive smoking. Naturally that is not the case, but hey, that doesn't matter any more in this age of Orwellian "newspeak". On the contrary, all media should jump on any bandwagon, so as to cause as much avoidable hysteria as possible, thereby stifling any independent thought.

Words included in the new language are:

"Study", which now means "survey of no credibility designed and undertaken by wankers"
and
"Experts", which now means "anyone including Fiona Phillips and Hiliary Jones"
also
"Smoker", which now means "murdering fuckwit"

The furore is loosely based around an article, today published online, in Tobacco Control, a BMJ journal. An organ renown for its adherence to its strict criterion for vetting what it prints; "if it stinks we'll have it!".

The "study" can be found here, as I have saved it to a location of my choice for your perusal. I would rather trust your opinion than the aforementioned "experts". Needless to say it involves the collection of information via a questionnaire from the mothers of some foreign babies relating to there husband's smoking habits. Specifically these people where asked whether the man of the house smoked within 3 metres of the baby and these ladies answered accurately. The authors then applied some sums to some numbers that were generated and produced some Odds Ratios. The end result is that there was no difference between the groups of babies who were smoked on and those who were not. However, something else seems to have been concluded by virtually everyone other than me.

Have a read for yourself and see what you think. Kwok et al, Tobacco Control.

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Friday, May 23, 2008

Passivrauchen Video

Many of you will be familiar with Hairy Chestnut's quality pro-choice videos on YouTube. Blad has alerted me to his latest offering. This really is a must see. I shall attempt to "embed" it below, but otherwise you can follow this link...Passivrauchen!

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Coalition Grows


By Blad Tolstoy

I am pleased to announce that the full list of organisations which are now on the Coalition list, or who took part in the recent Summit in Holland at which the Aldebaran Treaty was signed, has grown and will continue to do so. They are, to date:

Ban the Ban Winconsin,
Citizens Against Government Encroachment (Canada),
DaRy (Denmark),
Forces Germany,
Forces Holland,
Forces International,
Forces Italy,
Freedom to Choose Scotland,
Freedom to Choose (UK),
Jean Nicot (Belgium),
Liberté de Choisir (France),
My Choice (Canada),
Pennsylvania Smokers' Action Network,
Serving Freedom (International/USA),
Sleepwalk Prison (UK and France),
Smokers' Interest (Holland),
Swan Hospitality Limited (UK),
The Danish Smokers' Party,
The Dutch Association of Coffee Shops,
The Dutch Party Against Nannyism,
The German Party Against Nannyism (BmB),
The Hungarian Smokers' Society,
The Smoker's Club (USA).

This list does not include the names of individuals, mainline political parties and MEPs who are supporting and/or showing an interest.

This is the beginning, now let's unleash the whirlwind!

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Thursday, May 15, 2008

"Rob", our new contributor

Pro-choice smoking doctor blog has gained a new contributor. "Rob" as he likes to be known has a particularly unrevealing Blogger profile, so clearly is a secret agent. However, he is responsible for alerting us to the Desmond Morris article below and now has uncovered this quite lovely article that discusses quite scathingly and at length the micky mouse use of epidemiology in health science reporting. A recommended read!

Rob says:

Here's another article I quite like... an award winning article published in Science magazine about the problems with Epidemiology.

http://nasw.org/awards/1996/96Taubesarticle.htm

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Why man COULD live for ever


Here is a very readible article by Desmond Morris now in his 80's. In it he discusses the matter of mortality and longevity, siting the example of a late 120 year old woman, who he had met. You'll be pleased to hear she was a smoker. It is a good read. Follow this link to read the Daily Mail article...

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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Truth Seeker

Hi bloggers
I was alerted to another bloggers plaintive cry for balanced information on the risk to him or her of smoking 5 cigs a day. The beginning of my response is below. If you are willing to help, I would suggest as many of us as possible provide our views.

"I believe you raise an important point: How do you decide what to do for you own good? You suggest that the available information is tainted by agenda and I agree absolutely. I would also say however that the nature of scientific evidence is however very inexact and will never be able to direct one individual's personal choices with any level of certainty. So the influence of agenda is an additional complication. So that's the short answer, nobody knows the whole picture! There are simply too many variables."

Here is the link to the blog...The Truth Seeker

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Sunday, May 04, 2008

The Aldebaran Treaty (A landmark is made)

by John Gray

During the last few days covering the 1st to the 3rd May a group of people gathered for a Summit meeting on board the Aldebaran, an old sailing ship docked at the small port of Hoorn, in Holland. (Hoorn is fairly close to Amsterdam.) The purpose of this Summit was twofold: firstly to establish the existence of the International Coalition Against Prohibition (ICAP), and secondly, to plan for the 1st International Conference Against Prohibition intended to take place either in mid autumn or early next year.

We are pleased to announce that the Memorandum and Articles for ICAP were successfully agreed and signed by an international body of subscribers and the document will now move forward to Companies House (UK) where ICAP will be registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. This has been significant agreement between national representatives, many of whom had never met before, and which will also be known from now on as The Aldebaran Treaty.

Planning for the International Conference will also go ahead although there is an enormous amount of careful and painstaking work necessary to be undertaken.

As representatives of European and transatlantic nations and organisations we are now bound in solidarity against smoking bans and the so many other damaging prohibitions that are lucrative and fashionable in today's world of scientific fraud and political stupidity where adults are treated as children and freedom of choice is under threat. Furthermore, although all our strategies and objectives have not been fully agreed, as much of this will be decided at the coming International Conference, we now have the vehicle with which to co-operate nation with nation and this co-operation has already started. Also, as a result of the Summit, one of the participants - well known British publican and freedom fighter Nick Hogan - has already been invited to Brussels by a British MEP in order to lobby and network.

Countries represented by the signatories of ICAP's governing document include: England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Italy, America and Canada.

Organisations represented at the Summit were:

Freedom to Choose (UK)
Freedom to Choose (Scotland)
Forces International
Forces Italy
Forces Holland
Forces Germany
Dary (Denmark)
The Danish Smokers' Party
The Party Against Nannyism (Holland)
Smokers' Interest (Holland)
The Association of Dutch Coffee Shops
The Hungarian Association of Smokers' Societies

We are on the march and will not stop now!

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