From: Jack Hirsch <??????????????????>
Subject: Re: Article by Walter Williams

Steve,

At yesterday's meeting of the Southwest Pipe & Cigar League, the subject 
of Walter Williams' recent column on smoking and liberty and related 
matters came up.  The article is attached and I have received permission 
from the publisher to pass it along to you for inclusion in your next 
newsletter if you deem it appropriate.  If you've not heard of Mr. 
Williams, well, neither had I until yesterday.  But I am told he is a 
syndicated columnist and is published in over 100 newpapers around the 
US.  And I must say that, after reading this article, I would like to see 
more of his works. 

Please let me know if the attachement "reaches you" whole.  When I've 
tried this in the past, it sometimes has failed.  Also, contact me if you 
have any questions about this.

Regards,

// Jack         ??????????????????

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Remember to ask "what's the crap-to-worth ratio?"
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A MINORITY VIEW
BY WALTER E. WILLIAMS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1994

SCIENCE AND TOTALITARIANISM

        Some of the world's most barbarous acts, from slavery to genocide, 
have been facilitated by bogus science. The Food and Drug Administration's Dr.
David Kessler, along with Rep. Henry Waxman and Environmental Protection 
Agency head Carol Browner are modern-day leaders of that ugly scheme. Don't 
get me wrong; I'm not equating them to Hitler. But what distinguishes them is 
a matter of degree but not kind. In pursuit of their vision of what's a 
"desirable" society, they seek to abrogate private property rights, personal 
liberty and rule of law using bogus science to justify their actions. Just as 
decent Germans built a Trojan horse for Hitler to take over, decent Americans 
are doing the same for a future tyrant. Let's look at some of the bogus 
science used by Dr. Kessler and his accomplices in their pursuit of a 
"desirable" society -- one that is smoke-free.
        Kessler's attempt to equate nicotine in cigarettes with other 
addictive drugs is fraud. Traditional definitions of addiction included 
intoxication. The behavioral effects of tobacco differ fundamentally from 
addicting drugs like cocaine, heroin and alcohol. Ask yourself: "Which pilot 
would you like to fly you -- one who's had a couple of cigarettes, a couple 
snorts of cocaine or heroin, or a couple of martinis?" Give me the cigarette 
smoker. Cigarette smoking is more properly labeled a habit like coffee 
consumption. Habits may be difficult to break. Cigarette smokers who attempt 
to break the habit often suffer the same fate of many fat people who work hard
and lose weight only to gain it back again and then try again.
        Dr. Kessler's able accomplice is EPA head Carol Browner. When Browner 
classified environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as a group A carcinogen, just 
like benzene and asbestos, her actions were based on grossly fraudulent and 
dishonest statistical methodology. Twenty-four of the 30 studies the EPA 
reviewed reported no statistically significant ETS-lung cancer relationship. 
Of the 11 studies done by U.S. scientists, not one reported significant cancer
risk. The EPA was aware of and ignored similar findings of the two largest and
most recent studies on ETS-lung cancer (Stockwell, 1992; Brownson, 1992, 
sponsored by the National Cancer Institute).
        But the EPA may not get away with its lies. The U.S. District Court 
for North Carolina recently ruled in Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative vs. EPA 
that the plaintiffs could proceed with a court challenge to the EPA's 
designation of "secondhand" cigarette smoke as a known carcinogen. Plaintiffs 
argue the EPA lacks statutory authority to issue that designation. Moreover, 
it's based on EPA data manipulation it knows to be false. The EPA didn't 
challenge Flue-Cured's allegation of data manipulation. Instead, it tried to 
get the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that federal law does not 
permit judicial review of federal designation of a product as carcinogenic. 
The court disagreed, saying it does have that right and because the EPA's 
declaration has led to banning of cigarette smoking in thousands of public and
private establishments, it is "ripe" for review.
        That's why Hitler in Germany, the parliament in apartheid South Africa
and tyrants elsewhere hate judicial review of legislative or quasi-legislative
acts. And so do Browner, Kessler and Waxman.
        Whether you hate smokers or not, Americans must reject bogus science 
and attacks on the principle of rule of law, personal liberty and private 
property as a means to achieve a "desirable" society. If we permit it against 
smokers, you can rest assured that somebody else with another vision will use 
the same Trojan Horse in pursuit of his objectives.
COPYRIGHT 1994 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC. 

[ Reprinted here for educational purposes. I disagree with some of
this (it _is_ possible to get addicted w/o intoxication; witness
Methadone, and, yes, tobacco.) But a lot of it is right on. Thanks! -S. ]


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