I So Quit Smoking at the Right Time

Because it's only going to get harder and harder to find a comfy place to light up:

Illinois smokers are in for a cold winter.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation Monday making Illinois the latest state to ban smoking in public places — including bars, restaurants and work places. The law goes into effect Jan. 1.

Cue the hyperbolic outrage:

"I feel like it's the Nazi regime coming in here, talking away all of our rights, said Tim Main, as he cleaned up Mike's Ten-Pin Lounge in Alton. "First they make it so you have to wear seat belts, and now they want to put a stop to smoking. What's next?"

Yeah, what's next?! Vegetables at restaurants?!

Okay, in all seriousness, the libertarian part of me totally gets the whole knee-jerk aversion to nanny-state shit like seatbelt laws and public smoking bans. But the former smoker in me remembers the hundreds of times I sucked down a cigarette, not because I was enjoying it, but because I was feeding an addiction, and thought, "I wish they'd just make these fucking things illegal."

And the current nonsmoker in me thinks of how I can do a huge, guffawing belly laugh now without coughing, and I can't reasonably say that discouraging people from smoking is a bad thing, even if it is their right. I just don't believe it.