[Industrialblog,
June 2, 2004]
Smoking
Re Foxnews: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121485,00.html
Characters' smoking in movies may earn that movie an R rating. What a culture. The Puritan instinct continues, even by anti-Puritans.
No smoking. No rare burgers. Legally drunk is 0.08, and under 21, it's any alcohol. Wear your seatbelt — it's the law.
At the same time, now it's OK to gamble. We're getting casino gambling everywhere. State governments run the old numbers rackets.
And it's OK to swear.
By the way, 'effing' just means 'very'.
So right now, in: tattooes, piercings, swearing, gambling, promiscuity, pornography, reality shows, and debt.
So right now out: smoking, drinking, eating, driving.
What I'm getting at: If you look at our culture's sins, smoking isn't up there. In fact, if you notice, the whole mass layoffs from corporations started at about the same time corporations began to ban smoking in the workplaces, right in the mid-80s. The CEOs and CFOs got irritable, and without a soothing blast of nicotine to calm their nerves, they sharpened up their axes and began cutting off heads.
Characters' smoking in movies may earn that movie an R rating. What a culture. The Puritan instinct continues, even by anti-Puritans.
No smoking. No rare burgers. Legally drunk is 0.08, and under 21, it's any alcohol. Wear your seatbelt — it's the law.
At the same time, now it's OK to gamble. We're getting casino gambling everywhere. State governments run the old numbers rackets.
And it's OK to swear.
By the way, 'effing' just means 'very'.
So right now, in: tattooes, piercings, swearing, gambling, promiscuity, pornography, reality shows, and debt.
So right now out: smoking, drinking, eating, driving.
What I'm getting at: If you look at our culture's sins, smoking isn't up there. In fact, if you notice, the whole mass layoffs from corporations started at about the same time corporations began to ban smoking in the workplaces, right in the mid-80s. The CEOs and CFOs got irritable, and without a soothing blast of nicotine to calm their nerves, they sharpened up their axes and began cutting off heads.