RUSH: I didn’t watch the Golden Globes. Did you watch the Golden Globes? Apparently Julia Louis-Dreyfus came out smoking an electronic cigarette. Yeah. And TheHill.com, it’s a political newspaper, TheHill.com: “Democrats Miffed at NBC for Smoking Gag During Golden Globes.” Honest to God, I’m not making this up. “Senate Democrats were not amused to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus puffing away on an electronic cigarette during the Golden Globe Awards.”

The Senate Democrats said that Julia Louis-Dreyfus “helped glamorize smoking on the broadcast and are pressing NBC Universal to ensure that the ‘e-cigarettes’ are not featured again.” We’ve got an economic recession going on. We’re about to lose Iraq to Al-Qaeda. We’ve got all kinds of absolute disasters taking place, and Senate Democrats are upset at NBC Universal because one of their stars was smoking a harmless electronic cigarette. (interruption) Well, I know, she plays the veep in a comedy show on HBO, big whoop. Electronic cigarettes right now are the rage in Hollywood. You can’t watch a Hollywood movie without — every other character smokes throughout the movie. (interruption) Who started the e-cigarette trend? Yes, I know. I know I did. I was on the cutting edge. I’ve been there, done that. I wasn’t even gonna mention that. But they are the rage out there. This, to me, is just hilarious.

There was actually a letter “signed by Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Ed Markey (Mass.), and sent to NBC Universal CEO Stephen Burke and Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Theo Kingma. The senators cited studies showing that on-screen smoking contributes to young people adopting the habit and said such images amounted to ‘celebrity endorsements’ of the behavior. During the broadcast, Louis-Dreyfus was seen puffing on an e-cigarette in an exaggerated manner after hosts joked that her award nomination in a film category had made her ‘too cool’ for television actors.”

There’s a story, I have it here later in the Stack. It might have been from yesterday. There’s actually been a study now, the e-cigarettes have been out long enough, there has been a study, and it has been proven — I tell you this guarded because I think all of this study stuff in the media, to me, I’m suspicious of all of it. But this study happens to say that e-cigarettes are actually reducing the smoking of real cigarettes. It actually is helping people quit real cigarettes.

There’s nothing in these things. It’s water vapor. They’re flavored. Sometimes you can smell the flavoring, but there’s no tar. There’s no tobacco. There’s no fire. There’s no flame. There’s no carcinogen. There’s nothing. There’s nothing in them. It’s water vapor. Well, yeah, nicotine’s in there, but what’s the problem with nicotine? Now, nicotine, I’ll tell you this.

(interruption) There’s that video of the devil baby. Fox is finally running it. This is hilarious. Cutting edge again here on the EIB Network.

Nicotine is the most addictive drug on the planet, hands down, not even close. You know how you can tell? No one has a pleasant first experience with it. In fact, everyone’s first experience with nicotine, i.e., inhaling a cigarette, sometimes vomiting, sometimes hacking cough, sometimes, “I’m never doing this again.” Five minutes later they’re lighting the next one.