Sure, liberal lawmakers talk about choice. But if they believe your choices are bad for you, they will use the full force of the law to impose their will on you.

"It is, 'I can do it, so I'm going to,'" explained Belmont Councilman Bill Dickenson, who voted against the even-in-your-own-home smoking ban.

Assembly GOP Leader Michael Villines of Clovis lamented bills to mandate "what you can eat and can't eat" -- when mainstream voters are looking for "a good school, a good job and to live in a safe community."

Pity the poor busybody politician in search on an excuse to pass laws that mandate how other people live. After all, they can't outlaw all unhealthy behavior, so they have to find unpopular targets -- smokers, fat people -- or claim they are passing a granny law For The Children.

Then, they expand childhood. So that law to require booster seats for children until they're age 6 or weigh 60 pounds is rejiggered to kids up to age 8. After all, Sacto solons can't allow parents to decide whether or not to put school-age children in car seats. And they want to tell voting-age military-age 20-year-olds, who can't drink, that they can't smoke.

I don't want to knock old people. I plan on being one some day. But I don't want a stereotypical old lady, who peaks through her curtains, passing laws that dictate what I can or cannot do -- especially in my own home.

Yet that is what Sacramento lawmakers -- the macho Schwarzenegger even -- have decided they have the right to do. My generation thought we'd be so tolerant and open to the different drummer. Yet we keep electing politicians who believe they have a right to dictate how other adults live. Busybody granny politicians treat adults -- whether they're 20 or 50 -- like children. Maybe they're right, because California voters let them do it.