"Intexication" Rant

Been a long time since I ranted. So here we go...

Story on KHQA tonight at 6 about distracted driving.

No question, any idiot texting while driving should have the book thrown at them.

But I don't agree with the notion of extending the "distracted" nomenclature to any use of a cell phone or bluetooth in the car.

I am perfectly capable of talking on the phone and continuing to drive safely as are the vast majority of drivers out there. Obviously hands off operation is the safets so your hands can remain on the steering wheel where they belong, but the notion that talking in the car is an accident-causer...well, I'm hearing the same propaganda from law enforcement that I heard before we got the seatbelt law foisted on us.

If talking while driving is a distraction that causes accidents, are we going to see laws that prohibit us from not only talking on the phone, but also talking to passengers? Will we (and our riders) get ticketed for conversing at the same time we travel down the road?

And why stop there? Ditch radios and tape decks and CD players! You get doubly distracted there--setting 'em up and then listening (and god forbid you sing along!).

Friends in law enforcement and government: we do not need more intrusion of your tender mercies into our private lives. What we need is an effort to encourage common sense, not legalism that just ends up making more and more good citizens into criminals by sanctioning perfectly normal behavior.

I'm not opposed to nailing someone for doing something stupid while using their cell or even chatting with a passenger and driving.

But for pete's sake, we DO NOT need laws to prohibit us from talking in the car as if we were all petulant, misbehaving children. You're not my mom, guys and gals. Give the "we gotta protect you from yourself" insanity a rest.