Prescribing Lipitor or other statin drugs for a very high cholesterol that is not responding to diet and exercise intervention is one thing. Prescribing it indescriminately for even slightly elevated readings is, in my opinion, unnecessary. When prescribing (and taking) medication, one has to weigh the possible benefits against any possible risks and decide if one outweighs the other.
We have been so terrified for so long of "high cholesterol" that just the mention of having this dreaded malady is enough to get some people jumping on the "lifetime of prescription drugs" bandwagon.
Personally, I'm not all that convinced that cholesterol is the huge evil that is has been portrayed to be, especially given that more than half those that have a cardiac event have normal cholesterol readings.
It's now thought that triglycerides and a particular protein level (c-reactive protein) are much better markers of cardiac risk than total, HDL or LDL levels.

For more information on the idea that cholesterol may not be the danger that it's been presented to the public as, see this link: http://www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm
and this one too: www.thincs.org

*shrugs* maybe we all just wind up believing what we want to believe, but a lot of what the authors in the links above have to say makes a great deal of sense to me.