The New York Post reports that more New York smoking bans may be on the way, including bans that reach inside your own private property. Soon it may be illegal to smoke in the sanctity of your own car or home. Anti-smokers pull out all the usual plays to further their prohibitionist agenda.

Grannis (D-Manhattan) said bills like those outlawing smoking in cars with kids on board and banning the sale of more affordable small packs of cigarettes are designed to protect children.

And he insists his bill to ban smoking at parks and beaches is meant to cut down on litter.

The for the children rationale is nothing new, but litter has to be the lamest excuse I've ever heard. Just what cannot be banned in the name of cutting down on litter? Look on any street, and you're likely to see plenty more soda cans and fast food wrappers than cigarette butts and empty packs. Just about anything you can carry in your hand can be banned in the name of cutting down on litter.

If smoking is banned using the "litter" excuse, then all food, drinks, snacks, batteries, Kleenex, and any other consumable or product that comes with a wrapper should also be banned. And of course, you can forget about bringing a pic-a-nic basket.

-- In other news, smoking in restaurants *may* be reconsidered, because of the political fallout of the current ban. (Translation: Restaurants and wait-staff are losing their shirts.)