Smokeless Movies?

A group wants an R-rating for any movie with smoking on it, claiming that children watching people smoke in the movies will make them want to smoke. CNN

This is absurd and ridiculous. First of all, watching a character smoke on a screen won't cause children to start smoking, and if they do, then there are greater problems than just watching movies. Creating a zero-tolerance policy towards anything is subject to failure and always has been and putting such a policy on movie ratings is asinine. Children will encounter smoking in real life just walking down the street as much, and probably more, than they'd encounter in movies. Sheltering children isn't going to solve, or even help, the problem. This isn't even a bandaid fix.

Why have we as a society gotten to the point where other agencies have to make decisions for us? We are told what we can't show our children, we are told what we can and can't eat, we are told what to do and where to go and how to do it. And the worst part of it all is we allow them to do stuff like this because we are too lazy now to admit to any responsibility. Its illegal to drive without a seatbelt because people are too stupid to buckle up. It is illegal to text while driving because people are too stupid to put their cellphone away. If the US becomes a nanny state, it will be our own damn fault.

Its time to seriously start thinking about nanny laws and nanny groups and perhaps grow up as a society.

J Kuhl Signing Off