Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms – in Kindergarten

Well, okay not so much.

But I've got another burr under my saddle and it's this:

Smoking is bad for your health and costly to society, no question.

TV shows and movies routinely get harangued for showing smoking in a positive light.

Remember when Winona Ryder was being lambasted for smoking in all of her movies? The poor thing had to resort to shoplifting to relieve the stress.

The pilot of Desperate Housewives got more hate mail for Eva Longoria's lighting up a cigarette after sleeping with a high-school aged gardener than for sleeping with the high-school aged gardener.

Okay, fine. Keep up the ads. Kids, please don't smoke. Eva and Winona should also stop, not because they are role models but because it's going to hurt them physically.

But why is it that in nearly every sitcom these days everyone is guzzling alcohol.

Case in point: What I Like About You. I don't particularly like this show but my lovely wife does. It's on the WB before Reba which we both enjoy watching. Watch it sometime. Every single scene has alcohol in it. Trust me on this one. Do you think Amanda Bynes was all cross-eyed before this show? No, it's because she's constantly drunk on the show. Oh and underaged to boot. And Jennie Garth (the oldest living high schooler in the 90210 area code many years ago)'s character arc is based on the premise that she got so totally drunk that she married a guy during an alcoholic blackout.

Reba's show is better but they consume a lot of beer in a house where the daughter is a saucy young alcoholic.

Maybe it's because I don't drink alcohol (I've too much of an addictive personality and it does nothing for my girlish figure) but this seems like a huge double standard.

Tobacco is addictive and causes cancer. Yet alcohol can also be addictive and causes 17,000+ driving related fatalities per year. That's just driving.

Watching Will and Grace leads me to believe that the age of the good-natured and loveable drunk (Karen) is finally back after a hiatus during the 70's and 80's. Maybe we can bring back other old favorites: the loveable wife-beater, the happy go lucky shoplifter, the white supremacist with the heart of gold. Oh wait, I have one: performers in black-face tap dancing.

But then folks would write letters of condemnation. Better to have a bunch of happy drunks. Apparently the Salvation Army has no propoganda General. At least they still have their sniper corps.

Word to the wise: Don't let anyone on Will and Grace drive you home. 'Sall I'm sayin'.

Cheez… all this ranting lately. Perhaps I need a drink.

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Click on my renter: Gidget Bones. Really, you'll be glad you did.