Military Banning Tobacco?
The Defense Department is being urged to ban tobacco use by its personnel, Gregg Zoroya reports for USA Today. Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking. Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon's office of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 10, 2009 12:26
Obama Bans Yummy Cigarettes
The FDA now has the power to regulate what cigarettes taste like. For the children. President Barack Obama cited his own long struggle to quit the cigarettes he got hooked on as a teenager as he signed the nation's strongest-ever anti-smoking bill Monday and praised it for providing critically needed protections for kids. "The decades-long effort to protect our ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 22, 2009 16:03
North Carolina Bans Smoking in Restaurants, Bars
We're in Asheville, North Carolina for a couple of days, the first stop on a road trip to see friends and family. I awoke to find a copy of the Asheville Citizen-Times at the door with a headline I thought I'd never see: "NC approves ban on smoking." North Carolina, a state built on tobacco, will outlaw smoking in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 14, 2009 06:57
Too Big to Fail = Too Big to Exist
One of Dave Schuler's favorite statements in recent months is that "Anything too big to fail is too big to exist." If we're not going to allow them to shoulder the negative consequences of failure because we deem it too dangerous to society, then their very existence is too dangerous for society. Ezra Klein makes a similar argument with slightly ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 6, 2009 11:35
Plan B For 17-Year-Olds
The FDA has agreed to make the "morning-after pill" available to 17-year-olds without a prescription, pursuant to the order of a federal judge. [caption id="attachment_35178" align="alignright" width="292" caption="Plan B, also called the morning-after pill, is intended to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex."][/caption] On March 23, a federal court ordered that Plan B, an emergency contraception pill, be made available over the counter ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 23, 2009 07:24
McCain Killing Iranians with Cigarettes, Risks Killing Presidential Chances with Bad Jokes
John McCain's secret plan for Iran: kill them with cigarettes. Presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be "a way of killing 'em." McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 9, 2008 09:50
Universal Childhood Suffrage
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry argues for abolishing the minimum voting age and letting kids vote "when they decide they want the vote." Matt Yglesias seconds the emotion. Gobry's argument is long and largely defies excerpting. It boils down to: Setting maturity at 18 is arbitrary. Kids will grow up and face the consequences of current policy decisions, so should have some say over ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 11, 2008 09:00
House Introduces Legislation to Outlaw Mail Order Cigarettes
Two days ago, Rep. John McHugh (D R-NY), introduced legislation that would ban the mailing of cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and roll-your-own tobacco. The relevant portion of the legislation is as follows:Sec. 3002b. Nonmailability of certain tobacco products `(a) In General- Cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and roll-your-own-tobacco-- ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 1, 2008 22:07
Gazans Knock Down Border, Flee to Egypt
Massive numbers of Palestinians are fleeing to Egypt. Tens of thousands of Palestinians on foot and on donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza Wednesday after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah. The border breach was a dramatic protest against the closure of the impoverished Palestinian territory imposed ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 23, 2008 11:39
Mike Huckabee – False Conservative?
Bob Novak has a scathing attack on Mike Huckabee's conservative credentials. Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist advocate of big government and a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to expose the former governor of Arkansas as a false ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 26, 2007 12:58
Ballot Measures Defeated Nationwide
Several highly touted ballot initiatives were defeated in yesterday's off-off-year elections. Cost-conscious voters rejected school vouchers for Utah students, state-sponsored stem cell research in New Jersey and higher cigarette taxes in Oregon to fund health care for uninsured children. Texans, meanwhile, authorized up to $3 billion in bonds over 10 years to create a cancer research center, one of the few ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 7, 2007 09:09
Tennessee Cigarette Police State
Tennessee revenuers are waiting at the borders to arrest people with cigarettes. Starting [Thursday], state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars. Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 28, 2007 13:01
No Surgery for British Smokers?
This news is a couple of months old, but I stumbled across it and still think that it's worth noting. Apparently, the National Health Service in England is considering a plan to bump patients of surgery waiting lists if they refuse to quit smoking one month prior to surgery. SMOKERS are to be asked to give up their habit ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 7, 2007 00:42
Tobacco Suits Stay in State Courts
The Supreme Court yesterday denied Big Tobacco's bid to take smoking lawsuits out of state courts. In a major blow to tobacco companies, the US Supreme Court yesterday denied tobacco giant Philip Morris' s request to shift all smokers' lawsuits to federal courts, which generally give greater leeway to corporations and smaller damage awards to those claiming harm from years of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 12, 2007 10:56
Caption Contest Winners
The Thinly Veiled Patriotism Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES) The Winners: First: Ator - Bush: "Damn these photo-ops, Mr Thumb hurts like hell..." Second: Mister Biggs - "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." Third: CowBoy Blob - We're ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 28, 2007 19:57
