1/7/09 Concious Law

Growing up in the 50's in rural America we didn't wear seatbelts, couldn't imagine a telephone you carried in a pocket, and sadly, it was considered cool to smoke. It's now unlawful to not use seatbelts, and you can be ticketed for using a handheld cell phone while driving in most states. State governments now want to add smoking in the car while children are present to the list of secondary ticket able offenses; four states already have such a law in effect. I myself am not a smoker and have fumed about people I see smoking in cars while there are child passengers, but&.. I have to ask myself where this trend of creating laws to govern the population's conscious or lack there of is leading us. If we justify law making on the basis of "what's good for people", the sky will be the limit. Will the next step be to outlaw listening to music while operating a vehicle or farm machinery? In all of this the obvious question remains; since smoking and second hand smoke has been proven to cause cancer and heart disease, why then the "salad bar" mentality of law making; smoking is a health risk only in certain public places, now possibly cars, and only in certain states? Hmmm&.