Maryland Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin. (Photo: Associated Press)

As mentioned here earlier, yesterday the Maryland House of Delegates passed a bill that would make texting while idling at traffic lights illegal. Many legislators feel the law is necessary because the current texting ban applies only to drivers whose cars are actually in motion.

As WashCycle points out, the Examiner's Hayley Peterson has pulled a gem of a quote from Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin, a Republican from the Eastern Shore:

"This law goes to the core of the state invading the car," Pipkin said. Regulating such a common behavior "makes a mockery of many of the laws that we pass," he said.

It is a sad day, indeed, when the once-inviolable automobile is denigrated in the name of saving lives.