I feel the same way but have mellowed. An awful lot of people have different ideas about what should happen while driving than we do. And it will only get worse:
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People obviously get value out of doing these things; I guess that's progress. Our world is just a little less safe than it used to be. But cars are more safe than they used to be so maybe on the whole we are still ahead.

I am in favor of laws that prohibit driving and talking on your mobile without a headset, period.

Please also refrain from: listening to music on your stereo, taking sips from your bottle of water, smoking cigarettes while driving, changing the CD in your deck, turning around to scold your kids for hitting each other, putting on your make-up, eating that fast food hamburger, speaking with anyone else in your vehicle, glaring at other drivers' despicable behavior with cell phones, and any other atrocities that I may have forgotten to list.

Bruce,

Hands-free laws are fine, but they address only a small part of the problem. Merely engaging in a telephone conversation disengages a part of the brain from the act of driving. How many times have you (I don't mean you, specifically, Bruce) had a hands-free conversation and had no memory of the actual trip during the phone call?

It's my personal opinion that talking on the phone (hands-free or not) decreases a driver's IQ by about 30 points. Drivers on the phone (including me) turn into morons.

We're not going to outlaw in-car phone use. But let's also not think that hands-free laws really solve the whole problem. It's about personal responsibility. Regardless of cellphone use, drivers are not allowed to drive while impaired -- by anything.

I agree with John that talking on a cell phone, even handsfree is still a distraction. It also occurred to me that carrying on a conversation with a person in the car is a huge distraction as well. I don't mean to say we should restrict driving to total silence, but it really highlights the fact that piloting a heavy, metal machine at any speed takes a lot more concentration than we'd all probably care to admit!

There's a difference between talking on a cell phone and talking to a fellow passenger. The passenger sees what the driver is confronted with. If the driver stops talking the passenger understands. On a phone, the driver somehow feels obliged to keep the conversation going no matter what which of course can be a huge distraction

I like what Ellen Degenerous said. "If you need both hands to do something the brain should probably be involved."