Big Pharma is on the prowl for E-Cigarettes

They’ll get my E-Cig, when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

The Story: (H/T Jazz Shaw)

So, I’ll give you three guesses which industry is behind the global push to clamp down on e-cigarettes.

If you assumed concerned doctors or “consumer-rights advocates” are the driving force for regulation in Europe and the U.S., then you haven’t been paying attention to way profit and politics interact.

If you said Big Tobacco, close, but no cigar. Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorrillard all jumped in the e-cig game in the past two years. They’re not opposing regulation (the big guys rarely do), but they’re pushing back on the most onerous rules.

Big Pharma is the real foe of e-cigs, and Big Government is their weapon of choice — on both sides of the pond.

This fall, the European Parliament considered new rules regulating e-cigs. E-cigarette manufacturers, of course, lobbied like crazy to block the proposal, and it seems they won. But the drugmakers fought for stricter regulations, for obvious reasons: E-cigarettes compete with prescription drugs that are supposed to help people stop smoking.

GlaxoSmithKline sells Nicorette gum and Johnson & Johnson manufactures nicotine patches. The New York Times reported these companies helped lead “strong opposition” to e-cigarettes.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration is about to announce new proposed rules on e-cigarettes. Big Pharma’s shadow hangs over the rule-making.

via Big Pharma, not tobacco companies, wages war on electronic cigarettes | WashingtonExaminer.com.

Yes, I use E-cigs, and yes, I am a Christian. Judge me, I do not care. I started back smoking, after that idiotic debacle that happened with a well-known trucking company. So, I decided that I did not want to inhale all of that crap that they put in cigarettes; and I picked up a Lava e-cig. It works well, gives me the same amount of nicotine; and I might actually live to see 70 years old!

Good ol’ crony capitalism; lets deny people a healthy alternative to tobacco products; so we can pimp our pills and patches! Unreal. 🙄

The Friday Night Music Express Presents: The Boston Symphony Orchestra

I am including this because of this historic day and anniversary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IVNKNz-lc6k

Via UpWorthy:

President Kennedy was a transformational leader, and it’s hard to imagine what it felt like to hear of his assassination 50 years ago today. Kennedy was shot as the Boston Symphony Orchestra was about to begin its regular Friday afternoon concert. When word of his death reached the hall a few minutes later, the audience was already seated, oblivious to the world-changing events happening in Dallas.

In a powerful — and stunningly level-headed — decision, the orchestra’s music director, Erich Leinsdorf, sent librarian William Shisler to get the music for the funeral march from Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony. Shisler quickly distributed the music onstage, letting the musicians know what had happened.

This recording, from WGBH in Boston, begins when Leinsdorf takes the stage to announce the terrible news to the audience and captures the BSO’s heart-rending performance of the Beethoven symphony — a work they found out they were playing only minutes before.

ORIGINAL: By Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Originally broadcast on WGBH and found on Time. You can hear the full introduction from the radio broadcast in WGBH’s archives.

Again, may we never forget; and never forget who did this.

Videos: 50 years ago today – The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

It is quite hard to believe that one of the worst tragedies in the United States of America happened 50 years ago today — The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Much ink will be spilled this day; and I must say, much of it is well done.

However, as a history buff, I believe the best way to remember, is to go back and watch the event, as it happened.

The first breaking report by Walter Cronkite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K8Q3cqGs7I

The news as it broke on ABC Radio:

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Coverage from all the major networks:

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ABC TV’s two hour coverage of it:

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A stunned New York reacts:

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Reactions from many major states:

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Martin Luther King Jr’s reaction, who would join him in death in 1968:

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A documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg0f_QHNSUw

May we never forget. 🙁

The most important thing to remember about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1964

Is this right here:

There will be a lot of retrospective stuff published today, and I suspect that much of it will either omit or distort one key fact—Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who killed President Kennedy, was a leftwing nut job; he was a communist.

via 22 November, 1963 | hogewash.

Me and Sen. Carl Levin are on the same wavelength!

Which is pretty scary, considering he is a Democrat and I am a paleoconservative.

In a previous posting I wrote:

Not only that; what happens if the Democrats lose the majority in both houses of Congress? Then, the Republicans will use that relaxed power to stack the courts with people who, of course, the Democratswill not like and then you would have state Christian statism in a horrible form; and you have to know the Democrats will not like that one bit. Now, if I were a partisan type, I would think this would be awesome. However, I believe in divided Government and I happen to believe that one party acts as a check and balance to the other. It keeps one party from holding a monopoly on Government.

Take it away Senator Levin:

But Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, one of three Democrats who voted against diluting the filibuster, noted that past Democratic minorities have used the procedure to block GOP moves to limit abortion rights and repeal the estate tax.

He said he feared that a future Senate majority would weaken filibusters against legislation and “down the road, the hard-won protections and benefits for our people’s health and welfare will be lost.”

This is because that Senator Levin is from the old school Democratic Party and he happens to know a little about the game. Also, unlike some of the other Democrats; Levin is looking down the road, past 2014 and 2016, when the Democrats might actually lose the majority in both houses, due to the Obama Administration’s failures —- and he sees the Republicans abusing this little change in the rules to the high heavens.

Another reason too, is because he is not running for reelection. This is because of the stupidity, like this, up on the hill. The Parties have become too divided; and the partisan rancour has become too ugly. Levin comes from the old school Democratic Party and he sees the future, this is why he is getting out of it. Which is a smart move in this paleoconservative writers opinion.

Kudos to Senator Levin for having the guts to call a spade for what it truly is; a massive blunder by the Senate Democrats.

Um, that’s pretty low brow ya’ll…

Nothing really shocks me in the political blogosphere anymore; but this here; is pretty darned low brow.

Click here, here and here.

I mean, I know that Reid did this here; but…. accusations of child molestation? Come on. 🙄

Of course, this is to be expected of the Trotskyite neoconservative right. As they do have a reputation of smearing people with untrue accusations; believe me, I know.

It’s just sad, really sad. 🙁 Whatever happened to blogger ethics, integrity and moral values?

UPDATE: I feel the need to post this update to say the following: I don’t claim to be any sort of a moral authority or anything like that. In fact, I will readily admit to have done some incredibly stupid stuff, when I started blogging. However, I just do not believe that the conservative right is going to help their cause any; especially among the blogging community,by lobbing tasteless and stupid accusations such as this one.

For one, the accusation comes from an anonymous source and from blogs that are simply not reliable. I think if the conservative right believes that lobbing accusations such as this is going to help their cause or even help defeat Harry Reid; then I believe they’re going to be highly mistaken.

I will simply say this: this little idea here is simply out of hand and I believe that it is going to hurt everyone on the right even in 2016 especially if the mainstream media like Fox News picks this up.

I can understand the entire Anthony Weiner scenario. But this here; this could damage someone’s marriage and family. Even if it is proven to be untrue. I simply do not understand how people can do this and look at themselves in the mirror this goes well beyond slander this is simply uncalled for.

I think the conservative blogosphere needs to really look at themselves in the mirror and think long and hard about this and ask themselves this; is this what the conservative blogosphere wants to be known for? Slandering people who they disagree with politically or don’t like what they did politically?

It simply does not make sense to this former left of center turned Paleoconservative.

And I simply ask those who have blogged about this and now have it on their site; do the ends justify the means? Does destroying a man’s reputation simply because you disagree with him justify blogging an unreliable story reported by anonymous sources by unreliable blogs?

I shudder to think the responses by those who I linked to, I really do.

I could understand the liberal left doing this to a Republican. However, I never thought I would see the day when conservatives, who are supposed to be better than the nasty liberal left, would actually do something like this? It is a sad state of affairs and shows you where America and the political blogosphere, especially on the right has come. It is simply a sad parody of what it was in 2006 when I started.

Costco apologizes for the Bible labelling incident

Remember that Bible labeling incident that happened at Costco? Well, they have had a come to Jesus moment on that.

Take it away Todd Sterns: (H/T HotAir.com’s Headlines)

“We deeply regret the mislabeling of the Bible and meant no offense to anyone,” the company wrote in an email received by several customers. “The buyer has let us know that this was an error and the books are being pulled off the shelves to be re-marked.”

Cue the angelic choirs.

We received a statement from Costco, too, it reads: ” Costco’s distributor mislabeled a small percentage of the Bibles, however we take responsibility and should have caught the mistake. We are correcting this with them for future distribution. In addition, we are immediately relabeling all mislabeled Bibles. We greatly apologize for this error.”

Translation:

We got caught and we’re very sorry for that. 🙄

 

The latest on Common Core

I haven’t really been following this topic that heavy; because I do not have any children. However, I believe it is important to those who are concerned about it. My friend “Da Tech Guy” has been following the story very closely.

Over to you, Mr. Tech Guy:

Those of us engaged in political debate know the term ‘new tone’. We’re used to seeing the hyperbolic, vitriol packed statements from legislators, talking heads and the like. Seeing people called racists, bigots, terrorists and worse have increasingly filled the airwaves and have been pounded out into articles and blogs all over the internet. Sadly, this is par for the course when it comes to political debate. I’ve been subjected to various incarnations of new tone in my time and have come to dub such attempts as ‘shutuppery‘ — as that is really a truer connotation of what these tactics are about; getting the opposing opinion to shut up.

via Da Tech Guy On DaRadio Blog » Blog Archive » The New Tone Of Common Core.

I did not want to quote too much of this story; as I want you to go over and check out “Da Tech Guy”‘s blog. He is a good man; he linked to me, despite my being blacklisted by the neoconservative Trotskyite Blogosphere —- for the unpardonable sin of actually being on the left at one point.

Anyhow, head on over and check out the his blog. “Da Tech Guy” has got a radio show; which makes me green with envy. In the words of the great Jewish comedian Don Rickles; *looks at “Da Tech Guy”* You’re getting on my nerves. 😉