a West Wing observation

[ratcreature]

When Donna has this conversation with the new military guy (sorry I'm bad with names) among other things about the budget and wasteful military spending, she talks about very expensive ashtrays as an example, and he then lectures her how those are necessary because they are made from this special material, so that there won't be glass shards flying around when a submarine is hit by a torpedo and they break, but just blunt pieces. During this, I kept thinking: What's wrong with cheap metal ashtrays? Also I was surprised that US anti-smoking laws still allow smoking on submarines.