>>On the subject of drunk drivers, I become a regular neo-con. First offence, take away their car and sell it. Take away their license for a year. Second offense is jail time, the car gets sold, and no more driver's license.
>>
>>And this assumes simple DUI. If they kill somebody, even on a first offense, it's murder, plain and simple.
>>
>>I agree with you. It is hard for me to argue against ANY firm punishment for DUIs. If a state decided to put a drunk driver who kills someone in the electric chair (which will never happen), I'd find it difficult to argue against it.
>>
>>Years ago, I dated a girl who had a huge DUI (something like double the legal limit) after we broke up. She somehow got her rich father to intervene, and she wound up getting a very light punishment. She flaunted to everyone how she beat the system, and it angered me so much that I confronted her, got in her face, and gave her an earful. I scared her so much that she wanted to call the cops, but she realized that the local cops were angry that she got off light.
>>
>>My nasty moral streak covers drunk driving, smoking, child abuse...and people who don't like .NET. ;)
>
>Well, I'm with you on drunk drivers, and child abuse (which afaic is one of the worst crimes I can think of), but I'm more ambivalent on smokers. Just as long as they don't follow me around, I don't care if they smoke (unless they smoke around their children, which is child abuse). I'm not a big fan of non-smoking restaurant and bar laws. I'm an adult, and I can easily choose where I want to eat or drink, or not. Given a vote, I'd vote against such laws, but we have them, and I'm certainly not interested in crusading to change them.

England has just gone smoke-free 1 July, and the last 2 nights I've been in a pub. It was weird seeing with crystal clarity across the bar, coming home without the smell of smoke on your clothes. I'm an occasional pub smoker (rollies) and it didn't bother me. One thing of note though: when one of your companions goes out for a smoke and comes back you can SOOOO smell it on him now as he approached the table. It's all a bit strange just now.

What bugs me though: it seems every building now has a no smoking sign on it. Like my office entrance door. Now, smoking in offices has been illegal for ages I thought. Also the church hall where we practise choir (who the hell ever smoked in a church building FCS?! and I believe they're now on churches too!). Now if the law is that every non-private building or enclosed space with a roof is a smoke-free zone why do we need goddamn signs (in case we can't discern what's what)?