I don’t have a TV set these days. I stopped watching years ago when I realised that all TV channels were thoroughly antismoking. They weren’t speaking for smokers like me. So I stopped watching.
But when, as at present, I’m house-sitting for my brother, I get to watch TV again. And it’s very interesting to pick out the messages that it’s sending.
I’ve just been watching a programme about the decay of plants and animals by fungi and bacteria and maggots. I was a bit shocked by a piece of raw Darwinism that appeared in the middle of it, as Penicillium fungi were described as “poisoning competing fungi.” That’s the Darwinian war of everything against everything else.
I shouldn’t have been shocked, but then I don’t watch much TV these days. Probably everybody who watches TV gets given a bit of Darwinian education every day. It’s a central part of contemporary ideology. It’s one that I reject because the idea of a war of nature is entirely incompatible with my least-action view of life: in my view war is simply far too energetic a business for the natural world to engage in.
Apart from that, in my two evenings of viewing I’ve seen no smokers at all. Well, almost no smokers. In a history of lunar spaceflight, when the Eagle lands on the Moon, and everyone is celebrating, one of the NASA engineers lights a cigar. I’m surprised that this shocking sight wasn’t cut. It sent the wrong message: cigars as celebration. Oh dear!
But if I’ve seen few people smoking, I haven’t seen any antismoking messages either. So that’s a bonus.
Nor, surprisingly, have I heard any mention of global warming. It used to be de rigueur for any programme about the natural world to mention global warming at some point. But perhaps I’ve not been listening hard enough.
Another surprise was a new focus on Africa. For example, Dan Snow’s History of the Congo was very much an immersion in black Africa, and seemed to be about the expiation of colonial crimes. The same theme emerged in several other programmes.
The oddest thing of all was Channel 4 News’ John Snow interviewing Tom Hanks about a new movie he’d just made about Somali pirates. In the middle of this Snow suddenly burst out about how the US “Tea Party” in Congress was about to bring about “the collapse of civilisation.” It was clearly something that was more on the veteran anchor’s mind than some new movie. It had nothing whatsoever to do with Somali pirates, and Tom Hanks neatly skipped over the matter by saying it was “above his pay grade” to address such issues. But, unlike my US commenters, all the media are united in a shared apocalyptic view of the US government shutdown.
Apart from that, everything on TV seems to share an implicit (and occasionally explicit) set of values. And to sit and watch it every day entails absorbing those values, which are more or less identical from one channel to the next. It’s a conditioning medium. It’s like being immersed in warm soup.
The same isn’t true of surfing the web, where there’s a genuine diversity of opinion. It had me wondering how long the mass media could continue to condition entire populations, when people like me have simply stopped watching.
Frank Davis 
Nor, surprisingly, have I heard any mention of global warming. It used to be de rigueur for any programme about the natural world to mention global warming at some point. But perhaps I’ve not been listening hard enough
L.A. Times To Stop Publishing Letters from Climate-Change “Deniers”
http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/l-a-times-to-stop-publishing-letters-from-climate-change-deniers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AccuracyInMedia+%28Accuracy+In+Media%29
Finally after 5 tear downs Ive replaced the new old pistons in my jeep wranglers new/new again motor! Now this time that damned knock is gone out of MY MOTOR!
As the old government worker adage goes with enuf time,effort,manpower and money anything can be overcome!
.
Funny the bums sent me an UNlubricated REBUILT SHORT BLOCK. I had it pumped up with oil all the way to the lifter and valves. Yet they did not pre lube the pistons,rods,crank bearing or cam bearings. Then I find out the EPA forced the motor oil companies to stop putting zync and other additives for the older motors in the oil these days. Older motors require these additives to protect and enhance the metals especially for cam lifters that aren’t roller types! It ate 1/4 inch off my cam also and had to replace it too!
All tolled up Ive got 3200.00 in a 1200 dollar rebuilt motor and nearly 3 months figuring out what the hell else was wrong with it!
It literally melted the cam bearings with melted waves in the block when I first opened it back up on teardown. The crank bearings were a tad better just scored and the pistons were scored but I thought not that bad,but 2 of them were and enuf to put a sweet double knock in it…………..Its gone now,happy days are here again fall sterling bathroom beer again lets all have a toast and cheer again……………………..
Audrey Silkposted toNYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (C.L.A.S.H.)
***********VICTORY***********
I have just gotten off the phone with C.L.A.S.H.’s lawyers.
The judge in our lawsuit against New York STATE Parks has.
STRUCK DOWN THEIR SMOKING BAN & INSTRUCTS THEM TO REMOVE ALL “Smoking Prohibited” SIGNS.
I await a copy of the decision.
I stopped watching TV last year in May Month for the same reasons, and I stopped listening to radio too. At the same time, I started to read what i could find about antismoking. It was vital for me to find out. And so I found your blog, Michael McFadden, Richard White, Klaus K Blog and many other things and people. But when I share this on my FB-wall, there is deep silence – also from smokers. I have learned a lot, but nobody listens.
I think I first read an essay by Joe Jackson about 3 years ago, that really amazed me. It was the first time I’d actually come across anyone criticizing the antismoking movement. After that i started checking out as many blogs and books as I could find. Now I notice more and more how smoking is treated (or not shown at all) on TV, movies, and even in contemporary novels. I have found that most smokers I know aren’t really interested in this stuff right now- at least not the ones my age (mid-30’s). Hopefully this is slowly changing though.
TIME Interview with Mike Bloomberg
Mike Bloomberg is about to be unemployed for the second time in his professional life. The first was in August of 1981, when Saloman Brothers fired Bloomberg from the only full-time job he had ever known. The second time will be January 1, 2014, when he hands control of New York City over to the next mayor.
The cover story of this week’s TIME magazine is about what Bloomberg will do next, with a clear focus on his enormous wealth and his determination to spend it down changing the world to fit his vision. We live now in a new age of mega-philanthropy, when newly minted billionaires have enormous powers to influence politics and how we live our lives. To report the story, I travelled in late September with Bloomberg to Paris and London, where he reviewed grant proposals and launched new philanthropic efforts and met with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Before they remove my comment on the above;
JohnDavidson
1 minute ago
How about admitting your lies about second hand smoke and repeal the indoor smoking ban you pompus @ss
You have got to read the comments to funny!
frustrated1
16 minutes ago
a frue psychopath
very dangerous because of the money he controls
needs to be put down, immediately
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mickrussom
mickrussom
30 minutes ago
Put this traitor in prison. NOW. For life.
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rowheel0420
rowheel0420
35 minutes ago
He should spend his money by partnering with one of the private space travel companies, build a new mansion on the moon, move there and the rest of the world very happy.
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SandMan00
SandMan00
36 minutes ago
Great advice Doomberg. Most working stiffs would be on the streets if they just “took two months off” to ponder their next opportunity. Shows how out of touch this megalomaniac control freak is. NYC is a worse place for having him in the mayor’s office, yet he thinks he is doing great. My advice to this colossal jerk would be to take a job paying $30K a year and actually trying to live on it. Until then, I could care less what he thinks about the world that 99.9% of us have to live in. This sicko f*cks with other people’s lives as a hobby.
TBH Harley, if they remove that they’d have to remove about 95% of the others.
Hopefully Bloomberg will piss his massive fortune up the wall, and not be heard of again, until he will probably seek redemption in the arms of some quack church/cult.
There have been numerous (partial) “shutdowns” of the US government over recent decades. They are political football events. Eventually they are, individually, resolved. The ultimate trajectory, however, is practical ruin such as we’ve see with Cyprus and Greece. The US will utterly ruin itself over time unless it reverses course. Probably it won’t reverse course. When the US economy tanks everybody will feel it everywhere. But that will not stop the utterly mindless tax-and-spend liberals from bringing this on. Anti-smoking is just a part, if the single most disgusting part, of this dissolution. There is lots more badness coming before we see any restoration of sanity and possible hope. The smoker pogrom may (only may) end whenever sanity comes back into fashion, That means: who knows when? Anti-smoking is the straw on the camel that convinced me that humanity is a bad thing. Humanity deserves what it gets. If anti-smoking did ever end the bastards would replace it with something equally evil. So shut the government down. The government is shit. Humanity is worthless. I hate to say it. But, now, I surely believe it.
Harley==
The decision says what Audrey herself first brilliantly thought, then carefully researched, and successfully proved: That according to the NYS constitution, a bureaucracy (in this case the State Parks Dept) can’t enact a law by its own fiat– only the legislature can make laws and the NYS legislature has, for over 10 yrs, refused to legislate outdoor bans, no matter how frequently the TC forces w/i and w/o have attempted to bring it up; that the Dept can’t pass it off as mere “rule making” w/i its province when it’s clearly law intended to be enforced with police powers and fines.
On “Watching TV” I just watched a segment on the 11PM network news warning how “teens” (aka The Children™ ) are using ecig tubes to smoke weed and how, because there’s no weed smell etc, it’s harder to detect that they’re doing it in unquantified droves. And oh yeah, teen use of nicotine ecigs has doubled in recent years (like from 1% to 2%??) and how, of course, it’s a gateway not only to actual cigarettes but to… marijuana and other drugs. Conjure the circular illogic of that.
Haven’t read the Bloomberg link yet but the avowedy socialist candidate for NYC Mayor (spent his honeymoon in Cuba mooning over Castro), a guy who approves of smoke bans in apartment buildings and boasts about how he’ll redistribute the city’s wealth, is now ahead by 50 points. Similarly, a corrupt and slimy ex-Clinton operative (MacAufliff) is running a dirty campaign in Virginia and is also way ahead. Virginia is where I’d thought of leaving NY for but it seems as though the land all around here is poisoned and hope will never bloom.
Being a follower of Christ (I call myself this rather than a “Christian” now, as the latter can mean just about anything) I cancelled my TV licence coming on for nine years ago after the BBC showed the blasphemous “Jerry Springer, the Opera”.
Stewart Lee, alleged comedian and co-author of that piece of “entertainment”, said, “One would like to think that comedy could incite religious hatred. That would be great.”
But despite 50 to 60 thousand complaints (not sure if my letter, email and ‘phone call counted as one or three), many before broadcast, nothing was done.
Imagine this number of complaints from any other group being totally ignored – other than smokers (obviously “in the pay of Big Tobacco”) and manmade climate change “deniers” (clearly mad for disagreeing with the scientific (i.e. political) consensus).
I once complained about a particularly heinous show on Channel Four which Ofcom, or its predecessor, ordered be stopped after the second episode (of an intended six) – after just two dozen complaints.
But it was in part for the cheeldren.
So the Wicked Step-Auntie Beeb has cost herself over £1,000 from me alone.
I have to say that this was the straw which broke the camel’s back for me (to copy Mr Kelly, above), as I had been considering doing it for a number of reasons for a long time. Although, I don’t believe that mankind is bad per se, but Christ did say on being asked, “16 Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” 17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments…” and ended with the instruction to sell what he has and give the money to the poor and have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.
But he went away sorrowful as he was rich, and we get the saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew ch. 19)
That Jerry Springer show was on BBC2 and I actually watched it (apart from the last 5 or 10 mins after being thoroughly sick to my stomach) and switched over to BBC 1 Scotland which was showing one of Billy Connolly’s travelogue shows in which he was ridiculing Christ/Christians as well while I was watching.
A comment left on my blog this week by someone who still watches telly…
Over the years of waiting for MOTD2 to start on a Sunday evening, I’ve seen the tail-end of a range of ‘historical soaps’ which evidently have large viewing figures and consistently have a ‘Christian’ of some ilk at the core of the plot, such being represented as either a hypocritical imbecile, or downright sinister and wicked – always of course opposed, exposed, and ultimately vanquished by contrastingly lovingly-depicted characters who openly identify with atheist or new-ageist belief (in both respects, usually gross chronological anchronisms in the eras portrayed) – rant, rant, I know – but I can prove it with the productions described if required.”
And I don’t know how many of you have noticed, but “Christ” used as a swear word appears in numerous films and TV programmes ONCE. I don’t know if it’s a marker left by an anti-Christian writer/studio for others to recognise or if it raises the film rating a notch in the US, like one F-word does in the UK, but it serves to equate Christ with bad things – as people generally swear after something bad has happened.
One of my most recent DVD purchases was three different films/TV series and each one took Christ’s name in vain – just once. One was in the extras, as it wasn’t in the actual series which was broadcast.
Just a coincidence?
If I recall correctly the two films were “Nuns on the Run” and “Dumb and Dumber”, both with “Jesus Christ” used as swear words ONCE. The TV series was Dom Joly’s first “Trigger Happy TV”, which didn’t have any real swearing in the series, so he included ONE “For Christ’s sake” (again, if memory serves) in the extras – as if to say to the Satanic-controlled media, “Hello. Hire me. I’m onside now; I didn’t understand the “rules” before if you want to make it big”.
And I was an evolutionist before I gave up broadcast TV. Then I had more time to study the actual evidence for Creationism (did I even know the term existed before?) and the lack of evidence for the Theory of Evolution.
How many people are totally convinced by the Theory? Not as many as you probably think. I remember leaving a comment on Tom Harris MP’s former blog about a poll just out which showed a surprising number of UK young people who believed in a literal Creation, not evolution over billions of years. Harris (he described himself as a “born-again Christian”, bizarrely, but he’s demoted himself to a mere “Christian” (still bizarrely) on his twitter a/c) was outraged and wrote a separate post deriding Creationists.
So, how many TV programmes mention Creationism in a positive light, if at all? I used to watch Horizon and Equinox and many other science progs and never remember any. They have the debate switched off, yet many people still don’t believe them.
In the USA, a 2012 Gallup poll about Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design had those who believed God created humans in our present form ranked highest on 46%, God-guided evolution was next on 32% and evolution without God on a mere 15%.
Is this even remotely mirrored on US “science” TV channel outputs or is the high number of “unbelievers” totally ignored as with our broadcasters?
They still cannot convince large numbers of people, many not “religious” but base their assumptions on the actual evidence and call it “Intelligent Design”. The more that science is becoming debunked and being weaponised against us on climate change, I hope more people expand their research into other areas they thought “the science was settled” like the Theory and smoking.
So yes, the mass media is like having your brain simmering in soup and turning it into vegetable soup.
Why does everyone have to believe the same thing, think the same way? With Idle Theory, I have an unique take on evolution. Nobody else thinks the way I do. And why should they? It really doesn’t matter to me what they think. They can think or believe whatever they like. It’s what they do that matters.
Kenya: Want to Loose Weight? Try It Through Smoking
By Dr Maurice Waka, 10 October 2013
Smoking has always been discouraged for all sorts of reasons ranging from accelerated aging process to risks of developing cancer to even formation of grey hair. The list is endless with every conceivable thought and even prejudice towards all smokers being laid bare. One thing is surely obvious, that once you start smoking, stopping requires either an experience with a tragedy, a miracle or one very good anonymous group rehab.
The Forgotten Truth:
For several years, research has proven the following truths;
Tobacco Smokers are rarely afflicted with Ulcerative Colitis
Tobacco Smoking increases the body’s Basal Metabolic Rate and helps to prevent Obesity. Ex-smokers generally gain weight following abstinence from Tobacco smoking.
Tobacco smokers have a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease compared to non-smokers (due to the Nicotine content). However Tobacco Smoking is NOT recommended as a preventive measure.
Tobacco Smokers have a lower incidence of Parkinson’s disease compared to non-smokers.
How This Works:
It has been shown that those who quit smoking end up with a rapid weigh gain by 4 to 5 kg with higher rates of up to 13 Kg. The answer to this lies in the brain. Within the hypothalamus, a part of the brain is a region called the arcuate neuron that contains receptors called melanocortin 4(MC4). These melanocortin cells control skin and hair color, making on light or dark colored to help prevent UV light damage to the skin.
The MC receptors also help control weight gain or loss through the effect of nicotine. When nicotine binds to them it activates them leading to frequent appetite suppression. This is the key to weight loss.
There are other brain cells called the AgRP cells that are antagonists to the MC receptors in that when the effect of nicotine is not present, the MC receptors hibernate and the AgRp cells dominate thus promoting weight gain.
It was shown through 15 yrs of study that when one restricts calorie intake, it activates these AgRp cells that promote appetite and thus weight gain, a reason never to miss meals in the name of weight loss therapy. Since AgRP antagonizes MC cells, when one is cutting down on calories, the MC receptors become dormant and the AgRP take over.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201310100469.html
Obesity is not a disease. Pretending otherwise will stoke an epidemic and crush the NHS
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9049971/the-battle-of-the-bulge/
The author is instead advocating more bullying:
Doctors should be required to tell patients a blunt truth: if you’re fat, eat less, exercise more, or both. And if you keep guzzling the tasty treats, you will die earlier. It’s not a disease, it’s a mindset — and that means it can be changed. We doctors need to be a little less understanding, a little more judgmental, and realise that our oath — ‘do no harm’ — must come before our desire to save the feelings of our patients.
There it is again, the do no harm principle/Precautionary Principle
I don’t have a telly either but that seems like a bit of in depth viewing. Nature, space flight and the Congo? What happened to X-Factor, the Kardishan menagerie and that that thing about dancing?
Those were the sorts of things that I used to like to watch. I never watched dancing or X-factor or soaps.
I don’t have a telly either but that seems like a bit of in depth viewing. Nature, space flight and the Congo? What happened to X-Factor, the Kardishan menagerie and that that thing about dancing?
I do have a telly but have no idea about X-fator (I switch over to another programme some other channel) BEFORE the title music has ended); WHAT is the Kardishan menagerie?, and that dancing this gets treated the same as X-factor (C’mon, watching people competing dancing is about as entertaining as watching grass grow).
There isn’t much on telly worthwhile watching but I’ve hooked up an X-Box to my TV and watch strange youtube documentaries. Much more entertaining!
Youtube documentaries. I’m with you on that
Bucko, unfortunately most of that crap is still on also. Dancing thing – I assume you mean “Strictly Come Dancing”? New series started a couple of weeks ago – I only watch it for the girls! X-Factor -hard to describe how utterley terrible that programme is
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/10/09/2828742/how-the-affordable-care-act-takes.html
How the Affordable Care Act takes aim at smokers | Other Views | The News Tribune
Breaking: The Fuehrer Rejects Boehner’s Six-Week Debt Ceiling Offer
http://patdollard.com/2013/10/the-fuehrer-rejects-house-republicans-debt-ceiling-compromise/
NYS PARKS DEPT’S OUTDOOR SMOKING BAN STRUCK DOWN IN COURT. SMOKERS’ RIGHTS GROUP PREVAILS IN LAWSUIT
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October 11, 2013 (MMD Newswire) -– On Thursday we learned that vindication for adults who choose to smoke came this past Tuesday when Albany County’s NYS Supreme Court Justice Honorable George B. Ceresia, Jr., dealt a resounding blow to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation, and its commissioner, Rose Harvey, by striking down the agency’s outdoor smoking ban on its properties and instructing Parks to take down all “Smoking Prohibited” signs that have been erected in response to a lawsuit by C.L.A.S.H. This includes state parks situated within the confines of New York City.
On April 9th, 2012, NYS Parks announced it was instituting a new policy — “effective immediately” — that bans smoking within state parks, including beaches, playgrounds and pools. On May 1, 2012, C.L.A.S.H. challenged the legitimacy of Parks’ consensus rule, charging that Parks exceeded its authority in bypassing the state legislature. Acknowledging that it acted without regard for an opposing view in rushing through a smoking ban and forced to adhere to consensus rule law, Parks suspended the ban by the end of that month on that legal technicality. However, in December 2012 Parks reintroduced its plan as a proposed rule and in February of this year published its Notice of Adoption. On April 10, 2013, C.L.A.S.H. commenced an Article 78 proceeding on the grounds that their action was unconstitutional and in violation of the separation of powers doctrine thereby exceeding its authority.
At that time, Audrey Silk, founder of C.L.A.S.H, said, “This ban was imposed by bureaucratic fiat, not legislated law, and on that basis alone, it’s unconstitutional.” C.L.A.S.H. further pointed out that , in fact, the New York State legislature has repeatedly declined to pass this specific law for over a decade, as proposed by both houses. At least nineteen bills have been rejected.
The Parks Office, therefore, not only exceeded its administrative mission, not only assigned itself legislative powers, but in fact went against the legislature’s will.
In not only a victory for adults who choose to smoke but on the more fundamental level that protects the entire citizenry from agencies enacting policy in a rogue fashion the judge couldn’t agree more with C.L.A.S.H.’s contention.
In his decision, Justice Ceresia wrote, “The court finds that the [NY State Office of Parks and its Commissioner] extended their reach beyond interstitial rulemaking and into the realm of legislating.”
In addressing one of Parks’ other contentions that it’s been given the power to play a paternalistic role in the lives of parks-goers, Justice Ceresia appears to take a swipe at that notion, writing, “Nor does the broad language of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law empower [them] to promulgate rules regulating conduct bearing any tenuous relationship to park patrons’ health or welfare.”
“Sounds to me that he scolded them that they’re nobody’s mother,” says Silk.
Joshpe Law Group LLP, a Manhattan law firm, filed the suit on behalf of C.L.A.S.H. Attorney Brett Joshpe remarks, “This is another example of public officials exceeding their constitutionally defined limits. A government title is not a license to unbridled power.” Co-counselor Edward Paltzik adds, “We are pleased that individual freedoms have been vindicated in the face of governmental overreach.”
C.L.A.S.H.’s expectations in capturing this win reaches beyond the borders of New York state in that this will send a message to non-legislative bodies in jurisdictions across the country that might contemplate doing the same that they cannot violate the rule of law and to step back.
Silk says, “This is putting the prohibitionists on notice that despite their ugly war being waged on adults who choose to smoke they are not entitled to a free-for-all in governing when it comes to this segment of society. We will not abide being stepped on or succumb to shaming as a means to silence us by arrogant activist actors who enact a rule that could only be accomplished by ignoring the rules.”
Parks is not above the law. Smoke ’em if you got ’em.
http://www.mmdnewswire.com/nyc-citizens-lobbying-against-smoker-harassment-clash-130216.html
We could do with more Audrey Silks in this world. All power to her – that should give the zealots pause for thought…
State judge knocks down smoking ban in New York parks The Journal News, New York 13:33
In the last 2 hours
Judge strikes down smoking ban in New York state parks Medical Xpress 12:13
New York State Parks’ Outdoor Smoking Ban Blocked Bloomberg 12:04
Judge orders NYS parks to halt outdoor smoking ban WOKR-TV 13, New York 11:54
In the last 4 hours
New York State must stop enforcing ban on smo… Daily News, New York 11:48
New York state parks are ordered to halt outdoor smoking ban Post-Standard, New York 11:14
NY parks are ordered to halt outdoor smoking ban The Sun Herald, Mississippi 10:58
Judge Orders NY State Parks To Halt Outdoor Smoking Ban CBS New York 09:56
Knock ’em dead Audrey. Thanks for gunning for us. And an extended big thanks to all your colleagues who were involved, every last one.
I raise my glass: SKOL!
That’s great- go Audrey!
I can’t see other jurisdictions taking any notice of this decision. TC has the money now and not tobacco companies. TC can defend lawsuits all over the USA. They don’t care if they keep losing them – it isn’t their own money.
Just watched a couple episodes of “Sports Night”, a US TV show that ran from 1999-2001. Bar scenes showed ashtrays and occasionally even people smoking! How refreshing. But of course none of the characters smoke and there’s no hint of smoking anyplace but bars. Can’t have everything, I guess.
Smoking is like Nazis in movies. No matter how many get killed or how violently it’s done, everybody will be happy because Nazis are just evil. And that’s how smoking is viewed nowadays. It’s just something disgusting and anybody can use it as a free rod for their grudge. I think that there are much worse things in this world than cigarettes.