The Nanny State's Third Rail

With beloved colleague George Howland Jr.'s rah-rah to the nanny state post in mind, I point readers to an ongoing debate among antismoking Nazis: Should parents who smoke around their children be charged with child abuse? Should doctors and others who interact with their children fink them out? The nut jobs at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) say, "Take the kids away and put the parents in leg irons."

Not so fast, says Michael Siegel, whose blog, The Rest of the Story, has become one of the most interesting reads in the blogosphere. Siegel is a tobacco-control advocate of long standing and a medical doctor. He says that the rhetoric and lies of the antismoking Nazis have gotten way out hand and that doctors should not be intruding into private lives in such a fashion.

He's right, of course. And he'd sure have plenty of grist for that mill in our area. Why, it was only six months ago that King County's own tobacco czar, Roger Valdez, told Seattle Weekly that people shouldn't be allowed to smoke in their own homes. Seemed nuttier than almond rocha to me. But in May, Bellingham physician Chris Covert-Bowlds stated that it should be a crime for parents to smoke around children, a pronouncement that seemed to touch off the debate among the antis.

Of course, the antismoking Nazis are feeling their oats these days: Legislators bow before them, and voters pass their insane initiatives without reading the fine print, as they did in our fine state last November. But with arrogance comes inevitable overreaching—going after taxpaying citizens who smoke around their kids, and calling for the state to take said kids away. This is going to be the comeuppance for the antismoking movement.

Just you watch, George. And look both ways when you cross the street, lest you run into a third rail!