Nanny Goes to the Movies

Let me see if I have this right.

The Motion Picture Association of America, that wonderful industry trade group that provides those useful ratings of movies, has decided that smoking - on screen - is bad for your health. So they're going to start viewing new movies, looking for smoking scenes, which can now earn an "R" rating, meaning that admission should be restricted.

Oh please.

So glad we discovered that danger. Slasher flicks? OK. Strewing body parts all over the screen? No problem. Language that used to be restricted to occasions like dropping a heavy weight on your foot? Shout it out.

But don't show people smoking, for goodness sakes. Why, that might make a bad impression on our ever-so-impressionable youth.

And the censors wonder why we don't give them the love and respect they so clearly deserve. After all, they're just doing it for our own good.