WIStv.com Columbia, SC: AMA asks for movies showing smokers to get “R” rating
The [American Medical Association alliance] says their research shows that smoking in movies recruits close to 400,000 adolescent smokers each year, eventually killing over a third of them.
Okay, I’m totally on board with trying to keep kids from smoking. And frankly, I think we’re well on our way – with more and more places banning smoking in bars, I think we’ll soon reach the tipping point where we really start to make progress towards getting rid of cigarettes completely.
But R ratings for showing people smoking? Why don’t we just take children from their parents at birth and raise them in sanitized cocoons where they’re only exposed to purified air and educational material until they turn 18. Obviously human beings are inherently incapable of raising children, so we should just outlaw that. While we’re at it, people eat too much fatty foods. Let’s ban eating. You can get your nutrients from an IV in the hospital. It’s safer there anyway. Otherwise you might go out and drive somewhere in your SUV and talk on your cell phone or adjust your iPod and crash into a farmer’s market.
I’m sure most of you have seen the movie Demolition Man, where Stallone goes to “cryoprison” where they freeze him for 70 years and he wakes up in a place where kissing and salt are illegal, because exchanging body fluids and eating salt can be bad for you. This is funny because it’s so ridiculous.
It’s not looking so ridiculous any more. They start with fois gras and trans fats. Eventually they’ll get to something you care about.