Bangor, Maine

I'm a "long hauler". I drive my truck all over the country and get to hear all sorts of local things everywhere I go. Last week I was in Texas. Yesterday it was Maine. By next week, I'll be in California and get to hear all the craziness that goes on out there. But my story today is about Maine. Bangor, to be exact.

They must think they're in California or something. They have passed a new law that is so asinine I can hardly believe it! Parents are now unable to smoke in their own cars or trucks if their children are present. WHAT?? The wife and I raised our kids around our smoking habits and they turned out just fine. One of them doesn't even smoke. If the second hand smoke that all the noise is about was real, wouldn't everyone from my generation be dead already? My parents smoked. Two of my sisters don't. The second hand smoke didn't hurt us at all. And it didn't hurt my kids, either.

I heard on the news and on www.thepoliticalbrief.com that the World Health Organization and the British Medical Society have conducted studies and found that second hand smoke isn't squat. It's the new "monster in the closet" that the liberals are using to scare us. So why are all these crazy new laws going unchallenged? I'm from Nevada and until a few weeks ago we were allowed to smoke in restaurants. Gotta tell you, I resent the hell out of being told I have to leave the room for an after dinner cigarette where it used to be legal.

I don't understand all the new laws and rules that are being shoved down our throats. There was a time I could ride my motorcycle without a helmet if I wanted to. It was my brain that could get scrambled and my right to risk it. Then there were car seats in the far back. Kids aren't safer in the far back! If a car is in water or on fire, you can't get the babies out in time to save them. But you get a ticket if you try to keep them close enough to be rescued. Then you get social workers telling you that you've endangered the life of a child by putting them in the most unsafe place in your car (when you know better). Now in Bangor, Maine, you can't smoke a legal cigarette in the same vehicle with your children. Who do the kids belong to, anyway? I always thought that parents had rights. Obviously I was wrong. Now the state determines what is and isn't safe for your kids. If they decide that you aren't allowed to eat beans because methane might be harmful, I'll really be in trouble!

I can't help wondering if the pot clinics in L.A. issue warnings that marijuana isn't allowed around people under 18. After all, everything is legal these days but cigarettes. How many crack smokers get their kids back as soon as they get out of rehab? How long will it take to get your children back if you're caught smoking cigarettes in the car with them?

At my age, I can still remember when freedom meant freedom. I remember when parents had the right to raise their children the way they wanted to. I even remember cigarette ads on television!