Columnist Gregory Rodriguez bemoans the French smoking ban:

Particularly to the guilty, austere American mind, France has served as a sophisticated and less uptight oasis in a way that other more illicit and gritty getaways -- think Tijuana or New Orleans -- could not. It is the French who have given us terms for the things we lust after but rarely indulge in -- like femmes fatales or ménages à trois. They have been the baroque to our utilitarian sensibility. And by example, they have given us the sense that there is more to life than work, and that some "sins," ritualized and accepted, may protect us against even more destructive cycles of self-denial and excess.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending the glories of smoking. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life. I even agree wholeheartedly with smoking bans in workplaces and restaurants. But I do find it absurd when smoking is banned in nocturnal haunts where adults commonly repair to imbibe known-to-be toxic beverages and otherwise indulge in (lightly) supervised, socially acceptable self-abuse.

California Chief Justice Ronald M. George says letting state appellate courts review death penalty appeals would ease backlog, and Elizabeth Larsen asks if Guatemala's adoption reforms will help kids.

The editorial board says no on Proposition 92, wants nuclear accountability from North Korea, and thinks its time for a Supreme Court review of the death penalty.

Readers offer their views on activist Ted Hayes appeal to African Americans on illegal immigration. L.A.'s Yuisa Gimeno says, "In my experience, the African American community opposes immigrant-bashers like Hayes because it knows well what it is like to face racism and economic hardship."