Harry Potter and the Deadly Traffic Hazard

This morning, while driving in a slow patch of traffic on 238 on the way to work, I noticed that the early-fortysomething guy driving the SUV next to me had a copy of, what else, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows propped up on his steering wheel and was tooling down the road reading it while driving. He looked to be a little over two thirds the way through it. I was so tempted to roll down the passenger side window of my car and yell, "Hey! Arthur Weasley, it's dangerous to read a book while attempting to operate one of these things!" but I figured the guy's attention was divided enough already. I should have known that a mere day or so would not be enough time for the insanity to dissipate.

Skeery! I went to dinner last night and saw someone reading the book while waiting to be seated. I thought for a minute, this world wide mania reminded me of the children's book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" when the whole world was buying Wonka Bars looking for the "Golden Ticket!"

What a freak! I'll admit I opened the book up last night to only read 2 chapters and was in chapter 6 before I knew it. I had to turn out the light by that time, but then couldn't sleep until two hours later. Should have kept reading I guess. ;)

LOL.

Absolutely not. Moral busy-bodyism is the root of all evil.

For starters, lets consider that the proposed tactic itself is not very feasible. A picture of a guy reading a book behind the wheel of a car which may or may not in fact even be moving, coupled with a second photo of a license plate which may or may not even be the license plate of the vehicle in picture number one hardly constitutes reasonable proof that the actual hazard or transgression of malum prohibitum actually exists. All of that is irrelevant though, really. Even if I could "prove" that guy was doing what I said he was doing I wouldn't be running off to "The Authorities" to have them "give him a good talking to" when he hasn't in fact actually injured anyone yet. Lets also consider the idea that taking a cell phone camera picture of a guy reading while driving, while I am myself driving, is just as distracting to me (and just as equally malum prohibitum now, in California) as the "crime" I would be photographing. It may not always be as obvious "why," as it is in this case, but we really do always get the best mileage out of sticking to principle. ; )