RUSH: Here’s Jack in Pompano Beach, Florida, on Open Line Friday. Welcome, sir. Great to have you with us.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thanks for taking my call. You do a wonderful job.
RUSH: Thank you. I appreciate that. That’s because I’m a thinking, involved, engaged person.
CALLER: I think I am too. What I called about is recently they decided to rate movies based on the amount of smoking in them as well as sex and violence.
RUSH: I think if it’s pervasive or if smoking is glamorized, then it’s going to get an R rating.
CALLER: So what came to mind is the whole generation of us in the 30s and 40s that learned to smoke because of Bogey and Bacall, and I think it’s about time we sued — maybe we could get Edwards to sue — the movie industry for getting us all to smoke, because now they’ve admitted to culpability to it.
RUSH: Well, now, that’s an interesting concept. As litigious as our society is and as many tort lawyers as there are out there chasing ambulances, I’ll bet your comment is reverberating. The problem is most tort lawyers are rabid Democrats — and, of course, most Hollywood types are rabid Democrats.
CALLER: Get them to fight each other.
RUSH: You gotta ask the question, ‘Will ideology trump the quest for bucks?’
CALLER: There you go.
RUSH: But you know what will happen with this, if this ever does happen, this is the rating. Hollywood is not
CALLER: It just brought it to mind because I was taught for years that it was really because of the movie industry that we smoke.
RUSH: It still is. There’s no question. Look, I watch movies. They light up and they look cool. They look sophisticated. Yes, there’s no question. They put stuff in movies on purpose. People like to see it.