Product Description

Detailed tirade against antismoking (tobacco) crusaders.

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Product Details

Publisher	Aethna Press, Inc.
ISBN	0974497908
Format	Paperback
Author	Michael J. McFadden
EAN	9780974497907
Label	Aethna Press, Inc.
Edition	1st
Dewey Decimal Number	323
Studio	Aethna Press, Inc.
Number Of Pages	384
Title	Dissecting Antismokers' Brains
Publication Date	2004-05-31
Manufacturer	Aethna Press, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Much better than I expected!

Review by Mara, 2010-01-30

I'm a nonsmoker but have read other stuff on this subject since my "significant other" smokes, and this book stands out as both having an unusual approach and having a lot of real science rather than just arguments. The psychology framework makes sense and the author argues it very well. Highly recommended if you're curious about the whole smoking controversy and want to see a different perspective than most of what you get out there. I'm only giving it four stars because I'd like to see it updated. The author did a good job of looking into the future but I'd like to see what he'd predict now that so much of what he warned about has come true!

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Great read

Review by scribe, 2009-11-08

A fascinating read, and an important book at a time when anti-smoking fanaticism is reaching a new level of hysteria, with a proposed ban on OUTDOOR smoking in parks and beaches here in NYC - a proposal that has FINALLY provoked a significant amount of backlash, with dozens of angry comments posted on a Daily News blog. McFadden's book is an important contribution to the growing body of work on the anti-smoking movement and why the movement is just so wrong and so dangerous to our liberties.

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A Breath of Fresh Air

Review by R. Schultz, 2009-09-22

This book was a real find for me. At last - someone who challenges the junk science and the appeals to irrational fear that has characterized many campaigns against second-hand smoke! I had long felt that second-hand smoke in a typical restaurant or bar just COULDN'T be nearly as dangerous as those promoting current smoking bans claim. McFadden confirms that feeling and presents facts to back up his position. He writes with an even-handed, rational style that gives the reader confidence he has no ax to grind and no affiliation with Big Tobacco.

McFadden covers a lot of ground in this very lively, readable book. He starts with a consideration of the personality types who have become invested in increasing smoking bans and who use falsified figures accordingly. The largest number of these people have merely uncritically accepted the assertions they've heard repeated in the media over the years about the horrendous dangers of even miniscule amounts of second-hand smoke. For their benefit and for the benefit of us all, McFadden goes back to many of the original studies and shows how the figures have been twisted and exaggerated, until they actually seem to prove exactly the opposite of what they really indicate.

He goes on to analyze some of the faulty arguing techniques the anti-smokers use to make their case. He shows how they redefine terms, for example reclassifying college seniors as "children," in order to make their case more appealing. He also shows how they assume correlation to indicate causation, and how they also either mistakenly or purposefully make the fallacious argument of post hoc, ergo propter hoc (if it happens after, it must happen because of). So they declare the strict smoking bans they put in place in California have resulted in steep decreases in cancer - shortly after the bans were instituted. In making this congratulatory announcement, they neglect the fact that cancer usually takes decades to develop.

McFadden ends the book with a series of interesting appendices, including a list of resources that can be used to learn more about the subject and to link up with others wanting to set the record straight after years of anti-smoking lobby dis-information.

There are a few things I might have put on my wish-list for this book. First of all, I wish McFadden had found another title. "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" is obviously a dig at the host of over-the-top public service ads that anti-smokers have sponsored, in which various body organs of dead smokers are autopsied to show - yuk, how gross! However, this turn-about-is-fair-play title just ends up being obscure and clumsy. I'm afraid the awkwardness of the title might make it hard for a lot of potential readers to find this book.

Then I wish McFadden had taken a few pages to explain to laymen some of the basics of interpreting statistics. Many of the books I've read by contrarian doctors who want to statistically illustrate the futility of routine medical testing - do a good job telling the reader how statistical "levels of confidence" are arrived at and what constitutes "significance" in a finding. McFadden unfortunately doesn't provide this review.

Also, while McFadden does a good job calling anti-smokers' on the false linkages they make between second-hand smoke and cancer - he doesn't spend as much time addressing any links that anti-smokers might make between other conditions such as asthma attacks and barroom smoke. However he does cite an amazing study that found children of smokers have LESS asthma than children of non-smokers. So we can draw our own conclusions.

Overall, McFadden's book is an important and moving appeal to all of us not to let our personal freedoms get eroded by one repressive ban after another.

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A shocking exposure of Truth and Lies

Review by J. Forseth, 2009-08-17

I went into this book knowing only what I have seen on TV, heard on Radio and read in the news. And I didn't have to turn too many pages before my blood pressure started rising as the Truth exposed lie after lie I had been bombarded with for years.
Books like this Should be on the best of the best sellers list because what you find between the covers is something that every person in his country should know.
I would recommend everyone read this book, then buy a copy for everyone they know.
By the time I finished this book I was ashamed at what is going on in this country, and the pretty much lack of any opposition to the lies being spread.
Maybe even worse for Smokers is that they are forced into footing the bill for their own demise.
The latest abuse to smokers is Obama's breaking of his promise about not raising taxes, any tax on anyone making less than $250,000 a year, he raised the Federal Tax on Cigarettes 62 cents a pack, which turned into $1 at the store, but for the Poorest of the Poor who are lucky to get $7,000 a year to live on, some live on a lot less, for ALL the People that typically bought the cheapest rolling tobacco, for $7 to maybe $15 a pound, that cost is now $50 or more, one of if not the largest single tax increase in the history of this country, up to 2,000% for some.
Buy this Book, read it and learn what is really going on, what you will never see or hear or read about in the news.
I give this book a 5 plus star rating and my full endorsement.

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July 2009

Review by Mary Rose Weckerle, 2009-08-02

Although most adults intuitively recognize the
exaggerations of the purported risks of secondary or
ETS, Mr McFadden has studied and published the research to
prove the fear tactics used to inculcate the
criminalization of a free choice habit.
While the author does not deny health risks to a smoker,
he has offered facts revealing motives for
bans & regressive taxes and describes unexpected consequences.
One, notably,
is the less frequent filtrations on airplane flights, where much
more dangerous viral infections can easily spread in such a closed
environment.
This review is not written by the author; the reviewer
has no connection whatsoever with tobacco companies.
I am most concerned about the Property Rights issues of smoking bans
and the fallacious arguments used to convince
lawmakers it's "ok" to criminalize a
personal Choice.
It is my firm belief that Drug companies have discovered the
benefits of nicotine and the goal is to make it a
controlled substance through which future huge profits will
be unending.
The new FDA control will not address the actual cancer
causing agents in cigarettes; it is Not nicotine.
Thereby, keeping actual smoking a health risk and at the same time giving Nicotine control to the pharmaceutical agents.
Thank you, Mr MJM, for excellent work.
It is my opinion that a pregnant woman murdered for smoking
in a parking lot should be enough motivation for
every human being to see the harm inherent in
such devastating lies.

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