Free Republic

“Understanding that an essential part of being America’s best means being a leader, Swedish Match worked diligently over the past several months to make changes in response to our heightened awareness and our desire to be more inclusive,” said Joe Ackerman, vice president of marketing. “Consumers and diverse agency partners were selected to participate in the rebranding research. It was critical and valuable for us to gain these insights and recommendations to develop America’s Best Chew packaging.”

Yesterday I was at my local Foodland buying a large bag of Purina Dog Chow for my loyal pet, Jake, the Wonder Dog, and was in the check-out line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think I had....an elephant ? So because I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that 'I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened...

WASHINGTON -- U.S. senators and health officials are taking on a baseball tradition older than the World Series itself: chewing tobacco on the diamond. With the Series set to begin Wednesday between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers, the senators, along with health officials from the teams' cities, want the players union to agree to a ban on chewing tobacco at games and on camera. They made the pleas in separate letters, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

In the continuing debate over whether to ban smokeless tobacco from the MLB, Commissioner Bud Selig wrote in a letter today that he personally believes that "smokeless tobacco should be banned at the Major League level, but that is a subject that we are required to bargain over with the Major League Players Association." That said, in the current round of bargaining to take place this year, the MLB will propose to restrict the use of smokeless tobacco "comparable to restrictions in place at the Minor League level" [which has an all-encompassing ban on tobacco products], wrote Selig in a...

NEW YORK -- A Long Island pet supply company is recalling a chew toy after some dogs suffered serious tongue injuries while gnawing on the playthings. At least two dog owners say their pets had to have their tongues amputated because of the mishaps. One New York man says his 10-year-old Labrador mix got his tongue stuck in a hole in the ball. Veterinarians cut the chew toy off, but the dog's tongue became so swollen it needed to be amputated. Another owner says she had to have her dog euthanized after a similar injury. The company that made the...

US Closeted No More by: Malcolm A. Kline, February 04, 2008 No wonder I haven’t been getting any alumni mailings. It seems that my alma mater is trying to embrace “diversity” without becoming Catholic in Name Only. “The University of Scranton is one of a number of Jesuit schools currently working on ways to add resources for its gay and lesbian students,” Network Notes, a newsletter for the University of Maryland at College Park’s Rainbow Terrapin Network reported in 2003! “This fall, in fact, the small northeast Pennsylvania college will debut its ‘Ally’ program, a program intended to train interested...

Excerpt - LITTLE ROCK - Gov. Mike Huckabee, who successfully pushed for a statewide workplace smoking ban earlier this year, predicted Wednesday that cigarettes eventually won't be sold because of their health risks. "I think the day will come when we probably won't" sell cigarettes, Huckabee said on his monthly call-in radio show. "If cigarettes were introduced to the marketplace today, they wouldn't be sold. They'd never make it because what we didn't know when they were first created, sold and marketed is just how deadly harmful they were." Huckabee was responding to a caller's question of why cigarettes are...

Police: Suspect Tries To Chew Skin Off Fingers To Foil ID Robert Anwar Nicks. LOWER PAXTON, Pa. -- Robert Anwar Nicks. A fugitive wanted on robbery and weapons charges went to great lengths to conceal his identity, including trying to chew off the skin of his own fingers so he couldn't be fingerprinted, Lower Paxton Township police say.Robert Anwar Nicks, 24, ran across an interstate and ditched two handguns, a 9-mm and a .45, and tried to hijack two cars, assaulting one owner, before bystanders and police restrained him Wednesday, police said.Officers spotted Nicks in the 200 block of North...

Michigan Firm Won't Allow Smoking, Even On Employee's Own Time LANSING, Mich. -- A Michigan health care company has fired four of its employees for refusing to take a test to determine whether they smoke cigarettes. The company enacted a new policy this month, allowing workers to be fired if they smoke, even if the smoking takes place after-hours, or at home. The founder of Weyco Inc. said the company doesn't want to pay the higher health care costs associated with smoking. An official of the company -- which administers health benefits -- estimated that 18 to 20 of its...

Vatican City, Vatican City, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An article in a leading Roman Catholic journal signals that the Vatican may join the public health establishment's crusade against cigarette smoking. The latest edition of the scholarly publication Civilta Cattolica, published by the Jesuits and approved by a top aide to Pope John Paul II, says smokers cannot damage their own health and that of others "without moral responsibility." The article by Giuseppe de Rosa stops short of calling smoking a sin, but says lighting up is "not neutral either in social or indeed moral terms." De Rosa's views, and presumably...

It's Edwards-ette for Veep

House votes fails to increase the cigarette tax By AMY F. BAILEY The Associated Press 5/19/2004, 10:46 p.m. ET LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan House failed Wednesday night to approve increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes from $1.25 to $2 on July 1. The House voted 44-55 on the bill. Measures need 55 votes for approval in the 110-member chamber where there is one vacancy. Twelve representatives didn't vote. Instead of voting on a House plan to increase the tax only on cigarettes and not other tobacco products such as chewing tobacco, the chamber voted on Gov....