Casablanca

This posting is going to ramlble around a little, so please bear with me...

Pervasive and glamorizing. Its almost impoosible to debate that "Casablanca" didn't do this to smoking back in 1942. As far as I can tell, only about 25% of the population smoked back in 1942, and even less would have back when the events depicted in "Casablanca" take place. Therefore there really isn't a historical motivation for so much onscreen cigarette usage. Therefore, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) should re-rate this film with an "R" rating. "Casablanca" was released before films were rated by the MPAA, but it was brought before the board and given a "PG" rating in 2000 prior to a special edition DVD release. The MPAA recently announced that it will be taking smoking into account in rating every movie that comes before it. Not all films with smoking will be rated "R", the motivation for inclusion of acts of smoking will affect how the film is judged. One must assume that a film addressing the struggle of a teenager to fight peer-pressure, may only get a "PG-13" as long as only the "bad kids" are smoking. I'm guessing that Steven Speilberg will go back to "Jaws" and rerelease an edited version where the sea captain is sucking on a lolipop instead of smoking a cigarette. "Casablanca" deserves to be rated "R". The smoking rates among the population skyrocketed from about 25% in 1942, to almost 43% in 1965. Obviously it's all because of movies that people do things, this explains why everyone is so funny, pretty and ready to save the world with action packed carchases and kung-fu fighting. What I think he MPAA should do is get together with a group of concerned parents and decide what else they can do to protect children. I think that any movies that glamorize crossing the street without looking both ways, or any films that have pervasive chewing of gum found stuck under public picnic tables should be given automatic "R" ratings too.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. I get the privellege of honoring my mother and the mother of my children. What better way to do this than to release a new Dlog with Dumb Dumb Dog doing his thing? I haven't started on it yet, but I'm sure I'll get some inspiration soon and you'll all see what I come up with tomorrow over on the Dlog.

After tomorrows posting, I don't think anyone will be hearing much from me for like three and a half weeks. On May 16th the HAlo 3 beta is coming, and aside from the stuff I'm supposed to do, that's going to probably take up most of my free time. The've been showing off some footage from the internal beta on the internet, and boy is it sweet. If you don't already have an Xbox 360, then it's almost time to get on so you'll be ready when Halo 3 comes out (this is for you specifically Mom). Once again, I'm not trying to brag or anything, seriously if anyone wants to play with me, you all know where I live.