Angry in the Great White North

In New Jersey, the legislature is considering such a bill:

Those cigars, pipes and cigarettes would become no-nos for drivers. Offenders would be stung with a fine of up to $250, under the measure, whose sponsor said it's designed more to improve highway safety than protect health.

Assemblyman John McKeon, a tobacco opponent whose father died of emphysema, sponsored the legislation. He cites a AAA-sponsored study on driver distractions in which the automobile association found that of 32,000 accidents linked to distraction, one per cent were related to smoking.

The measure, co-sponsored by Assemblywoman Lorretta Weinberg, a fellow Democrat, was introduced last month just before legislators' summer break.

My God, if you can't smoke in the privacy of your car, where are you going to be left alone?

I don't smoke. I don't like smoking. I don't like the smell of smoke. But dammit, just make it illegal! Stop pussy-footing around with these ridiculous bans and lame excuses. And if you don't have the guts to make it illegal, leave these people alone in the privacy of their homes, and by extension, their vehicles.

This is about distractions while driving? Nonsense. It's about banning smoking. Ask me about distractions. I'm in the minivan with my wife and my four kids when the complaining starts two minutes after we pull away: "It's too hot", "I want milk", "I don't like this radio station", "I have to pee".

And then the kids get started! [OK, I'm kidding -- I hope my wife never reads this thing.]

I'm glad I don't smoke. With all the ways smokers are being abused in Canada and the US, I'd be furious 24/7. That can't be good for someone's health.