Richard Disney

The money quote from this article about overturning a smoking ban in Germany is this one near the end, “Under the Nazis smoking was frowned upon. After 1945 smoking became a symbol of a post-war freedoms and broadmindedness.”

Looks like the Progressive Smoking Nazis are making a resurgence.

Article follows:

The ruling came after a case brought by the owner of two small bars, who claim that their business has been unfairly hit by the smoking ban.

Introduced in patchwork fashion across the country’s 16 federal states earlier this year, Germany’s smoking ban has been poorly received by often tobacco-friendly Germans, about a third of whom smoke.

The laws have often been ignored or barely enforced, with the owners of small bars and restaurants claiming that their businesses were threatened by the legislation.

Among them were the owners of two separate one-room pubs in Berlin and the south-western state Baden-Wuerttemberg.

They claimed that their bars small size prevented them cordoning off a smokers’ area, as other bars have been allowed to, putting them at a competitive disadvantage. The constitutional court agreed.

“I am satisfied all around,” said Sylvia Thimm, owner of ‘Doors’ in Berlin, one of the two bars involved in the case.

German tobacco lobbyists DVZ said the smoking ban was heavy handed.

“We are warning against a growing culture of bans and regulations in Germany,” said DVZ chief Wouda Kuipers.

In fact, Germany has long been notoriously heavily regulated, but smoking has established itself as a lone act of rebellion against the prevailing culture.

Under the Nazis smoking was frowned upon. After 1945 smoking became a symbol of a post-war freedoms and broadmindedness.

Now, all German states will have to review their smoking bans and come up with new legislation by 2009, either banning smoking outright or allowing it in one-room bars too.

German court overturns smoking ban - Telegraph

Tags: smokingban, germany, nazis, progressive nazis, fascist, cigarettes, tobacco, berlin, baden-wuerttemberg, liberal fascism

I told someone about a year ago that ethanol and biofuels were going to wreak havoc on food prices. I remember saying something like, “when you start burning your food in your gas tank you are not making a good decision.” The person I said that too kind of scoffed with an eyeroll. I may have been more correct than I wanted to be.

Again, government mandates in the marketplace prove to be harmful. If there was a real non-government enforced market for biofuels people and companies would buy into them. When are the Stateists ever going to learn?

Article follows:

Fri Jul 4, 3:34 AM ET LONDON (AFP) - Biofuels have caused world food prices to increase by 75 percent, according to the findings of an unpublished World Bank report published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday.

The daily said the report was finished in April but was not published to avoid embarrassing the US government, which has claimed plant-derived fuels have pushed up prices by only three percent.

Biofuels, which supporters claim are a “greener” alternative to using fossil fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions, and rising food prices will be on the agenda when G8 leaders meet in Japan next week for their annual summit.

The report’s author, a senior World Bank economist, assessed that contrary to claims by US President George W. Bush, increased demand from India and China has not been the cause of rising food prices.

“Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases,” the report said.

Droughts in Australia have also not had a significant impact, it added. Instead, European and US drives for greater use of biofuels has had the biggest effect.

The European Union has mooted using biofuels for up to 10 percent of all transport fuels by 2020 as part of an increase in use of renewable energy.

All petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include a biofuels component of at least 2.5 percent since April this year.

“Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate,” the report said.

It added that the drive for biofuels has distorted food markets by diverting grain away from food for fuel, encouraging farmers to set aside land for its production, and sparked financial speculation on grains.

But Brazil’s transformation of sugar cane into fuel has not had such a dramatic impact, the report said.

“The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140 percent between 2002 and this February,” The Guardian said.

“The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15 percent, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75 percent jump over that period.”

Biofuels behind food price hikes: leaked World Bank report - Yahoo! News

Tags: biofuels, stateism, statism, collectivism, capitalism, market forces, global, maize, wheat, prices, distorted food markets, green,

Hat Tip: First Friday Collective

A vintage video produced in 1942 showing how General Motors contributed to the war effort before the “Wussification of America.”

This film produced in 1955 by Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas breaks down very simply why the United States is so productive and has such a high standard of living. Notice that the instructor mentions the “Freedom TO” do things not the “Freedom FROM” doing things. Today Collectivists trumpet freedom from hunger not the freedom to produce more food. The “Freedom to” is liberty, the “Freedom from” is dependancy.

Archive embed is not working. This video is not available on YouTube.

Click here to go to source site.

Hat Tip: Bookworm Room

By MARK STEYN in the OC Register

This past week’s issue of the Economist has a heart-rending vignette from one of the most ruthlessly capitalist industries on the planet:

“In 2006 EMI, the world’s fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free.”

“That was the moment we realized the game was completely up,” an EMI exec told the magazine. In the United States, album sales in 2007 were down 19 percent from 2006. Don’t blame me. I still buy plenty of CDs. But that’s because I like Doris Day, and every time I try to insert one of these newfangled MP3s into my fax machine it doesn’t seem to play. But if you’re not Mister Squaresville, and you dig whatever caterwauling beat combo those London hep cats are digging on their iPods, chances are you find the local record store about as groovy as the Elks Lodge.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Hat Tip: Bookworm. Thank you Bookworm for posting this cartoon!

Here is another gem of a cartoon produced in 1948 by Searcy College in Arkansas. This is a cartoon that should be shown in schools around the United States and probably would be but for the Collectivist bent of the educational establishment.

My friend Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters blog was right on the money (as usual) when he encouraged me to dedicate a catagory of my blog to vintage nostalgic video content. There is a large community out there that shares my love of these video gems.

Hat Tip: First Friday Collective

It is long but it is funny.