We hate to do it but here is a cultural note from the rabidly anti-tobacco, and hopefully soon to be bankrupted, New York Times.
It’s often the small things that indicate a level of decay in a society that will result in annihilation. Such is the case of a faction of the American Medical Association lodging a complaint with a film production company over a movie "promoting" a cigarette brand. Bear in mind that in this country there is something called the First Amendment that even in these decadent times renders the AMA’s complaint absolutely irrelevant. Bear in mind also that moral inversion is the order of the day.
He’s Just Not That Into You is a flick designed for young movie-goers. Part of the plot involves a wife who leaves her husband. She dumps the cad not because he cheats on her, a fact he readily admits, but because he won’t quit smoking. In this movie an adulterous husband is higher up on the moral totem pole than one who smokes. Instead of applauding this sick, anti-smoking message, the AMA goon squad is furious that the cigarette brand the philandering husband smokes is visible to all the impressionable kiddies. So AMA is threatening the movie producers.
The AMA has an ally in its attempt at artistic censorship. The manufacturers of Natural American Spirit cigarettes are also outraged at the movie, saying that the shots of its product in the movie are something it cannot condone. Again, in a country that claims it respects artistic freedom, portrayals of common products cannot be forbidden. It’s disturbing that the cigarette makers, along with Warner Brothers, the movie studio, are fully on board the concept of censorship, not yet by the government but by an organization that is dependent on the largesse of the pharmaceutical industry, the very people who are behind every smoking ban, cigarette tax and tobacco regulation scheme. The cowardice, while disturbing, is not surprising, nor are the thug tactics adopted by the AMA to serve its patrons in Big Drugs. Up is down in America these days and the only question is how long such a supine, cowardly nation can hope to exist.
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