I hate smoking. I think it's a nasty addiction that should be outright abolished, BUT since I also firmly believe that it's not my decision what other people do, I say let people figure it out for themselves.<P>I'm a Straight Edge, but I couldn't smoke if I wanted to, because in addition to being severely allergic to all kinds of smoke, I am an asthmatic. However one of my best friends smokes. Out of respect for me, he doesn't smoke when I'm around and airs out his car if I'm riding with him. It's just the nice thing to do.<P>As for smoking in movies, it is one thing entirely to protest the 'cool' characters in movies sucking on a cancer stick, because that could very well cause kids to say 'he's my role model... I want to be JUST like him'. But when you consider removing an integral part of a work of literature just because it is slightly politically incorrect, that's taking it a bit far. Instead they could just have Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and the hobbits all have to slow down and cough up a lung while they run away from orcs... Sorry... that was meant to be a short post!<P>My point: smoking isn't good, but that doesn't mean they should cut it from a movie if it was a big part of a book. What if the movie was about overcoming alcoholism? Would they have people drink rootbeer instead?
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