Petit Piton, originally uploaded by brianandcourt.

After dealing with a family emergency, Laura and I are finally on our honeymoon in St. Lucia. Yesterday we climbed the Petit Piton. It was great, but we are pretty sore.

luckless, originally uploaded by stoneth.

I hate the anti-smoking activists. They can’t leave other people alone. It’s not enough to teach people about how bad smoking is and let people decide for themselves how do live their lives. In their efforts to enforce their silly morals on others, they have convinced the MPAA that smoking should affect a movie’s rating. According to Variety:

“In the past, illegal teen smoking has been a factor in the rating of films, alongside other parental concerns such as sex, violence and adult language” the MPAA said in a statement. Now, all smoking will be considered, and depictions that glamorize smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of a historic or other mitigating context may receive a higher rating.

…

“Clearly, smoking is increasingly an unacceptable behavior in our society,” MPAA topper Dan Glickman said in a statement. “There is broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine’s highly addictive nature, and no parent wants their child to take up the habit.”

No parent wants their child to take up overeating and end of morbidly obese and yet there aren’t call to make PG-13 movies R because it features funny fat people. No parent wants their child to die in a car accident, and yet there’s no problem glamorizing driving fast. This is a stupid argument.

Here’s the thing about smoking. I don’t smoke. I never have and the only reason that I might take up the habit is just to piss off the anti-smoking loons. It is disgusting habit, but so what. If people want to smoke, let them. If people want to eat too much. Let them. I pray I never run into a fat anti-smoking activist.

Obviously my blog is now rated R because I’m glamorizing this “unacceptable behavior.”

This year is the 35th Anniversary of the Godfather. As a tribute I recently re-read the book and re-watched the movie. Ilya Somin at Volokh Conspiracy has written comments on the law and economics of the book and how the book may be an unintentional libertarian critique of the state.

Listen to what CNN tried to do to Glen Beck on his show:

Environmentalists will hate this–intelligent cars that are more fuel efficient than hybrids. Why will environmentalists hate this? Because it makes car use more attractive. Environmentalists would like more people to use collective transport, such a rail systems instead of having the freedom to drive. Fuel efficiency is just the beginning with this type of technology. Next cars will be able to travel closer together and faster, allowing more and more people to use current roads. That’s good news for people who want the freedom to live where they want to live. It’s bad news for environmentalist and others who want to control the lives of other Americans.

This is absolutely unbelievable. It looks like Zimbabwe will head the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. What does Zimbabwe know about sustainable development, or any development other than the development of economic suffering? Nothing. But competence doesn’t matter at the UN.

What’s the other news about Zimbabwe today? You might be surprised at what the NY Times reports:

Zimbabwe

From Russ Roberts, “The Invisible Heart“:

“”Capitalism makes us rich. … But that’s not why I love it. The marketplace, unfettered by government regulation but fettered by competition, gives each of us a chance to transform the world in the way we wish.”