Nanny State Strikes Again

Found via Leslie’s Omnibus:

Bill would allow only ‘fire-safe’ cigarettes

February 27, 2006

BY TRACY SWARTZ Sun-Times Springfield Bureau

SPRINGFIELD — As if being a smoker in Chicago wasn’t enough of a drag. Now some state lawmakers are pushing to restrict cigarette sales to brands that meet fire safety standards.

Only self-extinguishing cigarettes would be sold in Illinois under a plan intended to reduce the number of fire-related deaths. If such a bill passes, Illinois would join three other states in forcing tobacco companies to make cigarettes the companies say aren’t really “fire safe.”

read the rest…

Then we’ll need fire safe candles too, and gas that doesn’t ignite, how about water you can’t drown in? And knives that don’t cut!

Much as some people would lilke it to be so, it isn’t government’s job to save us from ourselves.

And what about all the potential lawsuits! “I bought fire-safe cigarettes and my house still burned down! Now I have no place to live! I must sue the tobacco companies for millions and millions of dollars so I can get a really, really big house!”