R-Rating Sought in Some Smoking Films

AP/Yahoo ^ | March 9, 2004 | ANTHONY BREZNICAN

[Texan5]

"What a crock of"

Amen to that-it's a load of kerry...

[metesky]

Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund

Finances for fiscal year ending 12/31/2001

Total Assets		$395,322,718.00
Grants Awarded		$29,949,270.00

Original Funding Source
The Goldman Fund was endowed by Richard Goldman and his wife, the late Rhoda Haas Goldman. Rhoda was the daughter of Walter Haas and great-grandneice of Levi Strauss, who founded the clothing company that bears his name. Strauss was childless and left his company to four nephews, one of whom was Sigmund Stern, Rhoda's maternal grandfather.

Address		One Lombard Street San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone		415-788-1090
Fax		415-788-7890
Email		andrea@goldmanprize.org
Website		www.goldmanfund.org

Selected Grants *
	Recipient		Tides Foundation & Tides Center
	Grant		$60,000.00 in 2000
	Source		The Foundation Center
	Details		For the Center for Ethics and Toxic Substances -- To raise awareness of risks posed by biotechnology
	Recipient		Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
	Grant		$60,000.00 in 2001
	Source		Foundation Annual Report
	Details		Ending Industrial Aquaculture campaign
	Recipient		Union of Concerned Scientists
	Grant		$100,000.00 in 2001
	Source		Foundation Annual Report
	Details		Animal Antibiotics program

Top Grantees *
	Activist Group		Total Donated		Time Frame
	Tides Foundation & Tides Center		$4,648,000.00		1991 - 2001
	Natural Resources Defense Council		$1,205,000.00		1993 - 2001
	Environmental Media Services		$775,000.00		2000 - 2001
	Union of Concerned Scientists		$500,000.00		1994 - 2001
	Environmental Working Group		$220,000.00		1990 - 2001
	SeaWeb		$105,000.00		1999 - 1999
	Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy		$65,000.00		2000 - 2001
	Waterkeeper Alliance		$60,000.00		2000 - 2001
	Center for Media & Democracy		$50,000.00		1999 - 2001
	EarthSave International		$20,000.00		1993 - 1996

Officers & Other Supporters
	Director		Michael C. Gelman		President, Gelman Rosenberg & Freedman; Campaign Chair, Jewish Federation of Greater Washington; Member, University of Maryland Board of Regents
	Executive Committee		Susan R. Gelman		Former member, the President's Advisory Council on the Arts; Trustee, WETA; daughter of Richard & Rhoda Goldman
	Executive Committee		Douglas E. Goldman		Retired emerg. physician; chair, Certain Software; founder, the Goldman Jewish Genealogy Ctr.; chair, Stern Grove Festival Assn.; son of Levi Strauss heirs Richard & Rhoda Goldman; trustee, the Goldman Environ. Fdn.; pres., the Lisa & Douglas Goldman Fund
	Executive Committee		John D. Goldman		CEO, Richard N. Goldman & Co. Insurance Services; President, Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco; President, San Francisco Symphony; son of Richard & Rhoda Goldman; trustee, Swarthmore College
	Director		Lisa M. Goldman		Wife of Douglas E. Goldman
	Director		Marcia L. Goldman		Co-Chairman, Theaterworks; wife of John D. Goldman
	President		Richard N. Goldman		Chairman, Richard N. Goldman & Co. Insurance Services; widower of Rhoda Haas Goldman, the great-grandniece of denim blue jeans innovator Levi Strauss

[cinFLA]

Stay out of Amsterdam!

Anti-smoking law snares French drug smuggler
Source: Expatica.com (nl), 2004-01-21

Intro:
AMSTERDAM A man who carelessly drew police attention to himself by lighting a cigarette in a no-smoking zone in Rotterdam's central train station on Wednesday has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 2.3 kilos of heroin to France.

The 26-year-old man from the French city Lille was planning to take the international train to Paris and but for his cigarette "addiction" he would probably have escaped detection.

He was in the waiting room on a platform when he saw two police officers nearby. To calm his nerves, he lit up a cigarette, police spokesman Frans Zuiderhoek told Dutch news agency Novum Nieuws.

Unfortunately for him, new regulations which came into force in the Netherlands on 1 January prohibit smoking in most areas of train stations.

[Old Professer]

The PC police have already written their disapproval into the script; any movie made in the past ten years or so in which you see someone smoking early on is a sure tipoff that he is one of the "badguys."

[cinFLA]

French strike over cigarette prices


Angry protesters have taken to the streets
France's 34,000 tobacconists on Monday staged their first ever national strike in protest against a sharp rise in cigarette prices.
The strike coincided with a 20% increase in the price of a pack of cigarettes, the second of three planned price rises.

"Three separate price increases will push the cost of smoking up by half in the space of a year," said BBC News correspondent in Paris, Quentin Somerville.

France has long had some of the cheapest cigarettes in Europe but is now trying to persuade people to quit the habit.

However, critics say the increases are being used to help bail out France's troubled state finances.

Cross-border buying

Nine out of 10 tobacconists were closed for the day, and 60 demonstrations were planned across the country.

Average price, pack of 20 (euros)
Norway 7.3
UK 6.7
France 5.0
Germany 3.4
Netherlands 2.9
Italy 2.5
Spain 1.9

---

US 3.3
Japan 2.2
South Africa 1.3


Cigarette prices: Your comments
French tobacconists have a monopoly on cigarette sales and take a percentage of every packet sold.

The price rises will force tobacconists out of business, and the number of bankruptcies has already gone up by 57% in a year, according to the Confederation of Licensed Tobacco Sellers.

"The government says loud and clear that it wants the day to come when there is not a single smoker left in France," said Rene Le Pape, president of the confederation.

"What I want is to make sure that our network of 34,000 traders doesn't disappear as well."

The government has offered an aid package worth around 120m euros to help the worst-affected tobacconists, but the shopkeepers say it is not enough.

[RonHolzwarth]

reply to: "smoking be treated by Hollywood as seriously as it treats offensive language,,," response: "Then the same sandard should apply to homosexuality."

I thought any sexual activity portrayed on the screen gave a film an R or X rating,,, or did I miss something?

[In_25_words_or_less]

The PC police have already written their disapproval into the script; any movie made in the past ten years or so in which you see someone smoking early on is a sure tipoff that he is one of the "badguys."

Pearl Harbor was notoriously scrubbed clean of cigarettes -- though in 1941 nearly everyone smoked.

[Prodigal Son]

Why is it a crock?

Why is it a crock? Oh my.

Let me through you a curve ball. What if I say that I want every motion picture that depicts a black person to be rated R?

The reasoning? Simple. What percentage of the American populace is black? At best 13%?

What percentage of people smoke? Is it more or less than 13%?

(It's more, by the way)

Chew on that for a while.

Life is a terminal disease, depending upon how you look at it. I can guarantee you that everyone you see that is living will definitely die. They will suffer a lot more during their life if they hear any democratic propaganda. Liberals are Pro-Slavery and Anti-Freedom.

You know what I would do if I were in charge? I'd make any liberal ideology rated X and let people decide for themselves if they wanted to smoke. Liberals are deadlier than second hand smoke.

[ProfoundMan]

This is actually a Kerry jobs program. Remember when they erased the guns shown in a scene of "ET"? Well imagine the work created for all the folks who will expunge the offensive smoking behavior in every film ever made. What a visionary...

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[Prodigal Son]

LOL. But, but... Banning smoking could only happen in a non-free country...

[GulliverSwift]

What a bunch of BS. They want to classify a 1970s cartoon as PG. "101 Dalmatians" is anti-cigarette one could very reasonably argue.

[Prodigal Son]

Wait til they start digitising Bogie's butts into toothpicks.

Oh, given the way the gays have taken over American politics, what do you think Bogies butts will be digitized into in the future?

[GulliverSwift]

Put that death stick out!

[GulliverSwift]

You're harming our nation's health!

[swarthyguy]

Having fun? Or is there a point apart from your glee.

Make smokes illegal, I'd rather pay sellers than the state.

Dare ya! Funny how the states are now dependent upon revenue from the most ostracised element of society.

I hope they go after eating habits soon. Meat, beef in particular would be rather nice.

I'm sending money to PETA and some of the most liberal groups I can find.

But you're prolly vegetarian, too.

Let's see, there's virtually nothing that can't be regulated, controlled or taxed under the rubric of health.

You can't even see the endresult of all these statist policies, disagreeable as some of their target behaviors are to you; seems something as American and indicative of a free society as freedom of association which you have effectively gone after in your jihad against bars and nightclubs. Which until recently, were the last places one could freely smoke. So, it wasn't about health per se, but rather a vindictive, vicious exercise in domination, control and intrusion into an individual's behavior, just so it could be done. My feeling is that the virulence of the American Taliban's behavior and their motivation was to eventually limit liquor sales in bars and outlets. Asking for Prohibition would be too much, but smoking would be a safe way to eventually reach that reality, perhaps restricting alcohol consumption to private domiciles.

America's future may not be as Orwell said, a boot in humanity's face, rather a sensible granny shoe.

[Prodigal Son]

Free Republic is a great place.

Currently on the forum:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1094157/posts

Obesity to overtake smoking as the number one threat to US health: study

---

In other words, eating is deadlier than smoking.

So, we should rate all movies depicting actors eating should be rated R.

[kcpopps]

One for the puff list

[swarthyguy]

Nope. Halve the portions in restaurants but keep the price. No doggy bags! The owners will like the profit increase.

Tax rates predicated on body weight/height index or some infernally complex and arcane BMI ratio.

Smokers who quit, got fat, are bummed.

[hchutch]

Agreed.