Monday 27 May 2013

The Sage Of Sydney

I've mentioned the astonishing arrogance of anti-smoking zealots before ...
You see, they're the experts on everything. They've already re-designed the laws of physics and chemistry to advance their agenda, why not the principles of economics too?
More than once.
The tobacco control industry like to portray themselves as 'experts' in everything from economics to organised crime, when the only area they are truly expert at is hating tobacco companies and sponging off our taxes to do so.
But, while finally finding time to clear out my blog drafts this bank holiday weekend, I found probably the funniest 'expert' fail of the lot.

On March 5th, Patrick Wintour published a piece in the Guardian confidently predicting that legislation on plain packs would be in the Queen's Speech.

Alex Ralph at the Times tweeted that there might be some doubt, but a tobacco control 'expert' was on hand to educate him.


Thank heaven for the expertise of political 'expert' Chapman, eh? The sage of Sydney, no less.

Otherwise, we might have believed ridiculous stories from non-Guardian inferiors like Murdoch's Sun ... which turned out to be true.


So it would seem journalists are, after all, proper experts in evidence-gathering, and Chapman just a common-or-garden typically pompous tobacco control windbag.



2 comments:

What the.... said...

Always “good” to hear from the Oracle of…. well, in his own
words….. Onanism:

http://nannyingtyrants.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/the-root-of-all-evil-goes-too-far.html

What the.... said...

From another blog recently:

End ‘cruel” smoking ban, says health campaigner

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/end-cruel-smoking-ban-says-health-campaigner-20130525-2n3rb.html#ixzz2UPOKxn8K

Don’t believe too much of Crapman’s “voice of reason”. Crapman is a
pathological liar, a long-time propagandist for the cause.

More recently, Chapman has been involved in getting outdoor bans
implemented.

Chapman’s University of Sydney has banned smoking on campus, save four designated smoking areas that are close to the perimeter of the university anyway.

In this article, Chapman reiterates his position that he does not support
outdoor bans except in al-fresco dining areas. He claims he does not support bans that effectively stamp out smoking on an entire university campus; these bans at U of Sydney have “nothing to do with me”. Although he does not agree with such bans, he does not question the mental state of those proposing/instituting such bans, i.e., bigotry. He spends most of the article reinforcing Tobacco Control propaganda, e.g., “no safe level”. And, of course, Chapman has to indulge in his incoherent analogies:
“Someone smoking next to me while I eat lunch outdoors is not going
to really harm me, but the imposition is unpleasant in the same way as loud
music away from music venues or dog faeces underfoot.”

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/why-even-wowsers-argue-about-smoke-bans-20120222-1to4x.html#ixzz1nD5K0cJ3

Now here’s the thing. While Chapman claims he does not support
university-wide bans in particular, he is, again, lying. This is an [Australian] advocacy manual for instituting smoking bans at universities, beginning with a few [inconvenient] designated smoking areas, eventually followed by a complete smoking ban on the entire campus. Lo and behold, there’s Chapman’s signature to the plan (p.2).
Guide For A Tobacco Free Campus
http://www.ashaust.org.au/pdfs/TFcampusGuideAus09.pdf

From the same “Guide”, you’ll also notice that he is a board member of the
antismoking activist group ASH. ASH was also behind the recent, despicable “Lavac Incident” of which Chapman surely must have been aware:
http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/peter-lavac-whole-story.html
http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/march-of-morons.html