Defending the rights of selfish smokers...

Seriously?

With everything that's happening in the world and in legislatures across the country and someone is actually moved to write an Op Ed for the New York Times opposing laws that make it illegal to smoke in a car with a minor. Yeah! Go smokers' rights!! Everyone should have the opportunity to increase their children's risk of asthma, several forms of cancer and increase their susceptibility to upper respiratory infections!! What's a little war in Iraq or an invasion of Iran when we're talking about upholding the rights of STUPID selfish parents???

Seriously.

Give me a break.

Let's just get past this silly idea that the rights of parents should supersede the rights of their children even when the child's welfare is at stake. Just because you can conceive a child does not make you a master of some great domain. If that were the case, cockroaches would rule the world.

Now before you start painting me as some knee jerk liberal, government interventionist, etc, etc, let me offer you a little bit of information. I was born and raised in the Granite State. You know, Live Free or Die, the only state in the union without a seat belt law? Ringing any bells? And I have no difficulty defending that. Why? NH does have seat belt laws for minors and they do have safety seat laws for children. The government may not have the right to tell citizens how to live their lives (they can die if they want), but when parents are not protecting their children, the government has an affirmative responsibility to step in and protect them.

This is where auto smoking laws and smokers' rights (and please, someone point out the Constitutional amendment that protects the right to smoke,) part ways. No one says you can't smoke in your car as much as you want. Hey! Smoke all twenty cigarettes in the pack at once for all I care!! You just don't get to fill a confined space that you're sharing with a child with cigarette smoke. Capiche?

And please! The research that proves second hand smoke is harmful was funded by pharmaceutical companies that make alternative nicotine delivery products?? Get real!! Second hand smoke and environmental tobacco smoke research began years before there even were alternative nicotine delivery products!! And the funding of it? NIH, CDC, good ol' federal tax dollars! And if you don't find this research compelling and proof enough of the danger of secondhand smoke, let me introduce to a good friend, Medline. There is 60 years of medical literature that supports these laws.

Now explain to me again where the right to smoke comes from?