Nanny-State Harangue

This doesn't have much of anything to do with IPE[1], but I need to blow off a bit of steam anyway. When Barney Frank is the loudest defender of keeping the government out of my life, conservatism is well and truly dead. Get with it, Mama Grizzlies and Papa Bears, or else it's all over.

In other "What Gives You the Right to $*%# with My Life?" news[2], my tobacconist in Illinois is now legally prohibited from shipping my favorite blend (or any cigarette blend, although pipe blends are somehow okay) to North Carolina. I'm pretty sure this is an Illinois law, even passing that sort of law makes no sense[3].

Fortunately, I found a decent-enough replacement brand at a local shop. Not as good as my preferred blend, but it'll do until I can get back to Illinois and bring some of the good stuff back with me. The irony? This new brand is imported from... wait for it... drum roll please... DENMARK!

So it is now illegal for a North Carolinian to buy tobacco from Illinois, but perfectly fine for a North Carolinian to buy tobacco from Denmark. Of course, once I get it from Denmark I can't smoke it in any privately-owned establishments (e.g. bars) whether the owners like it or not, but that's true in Illinois too.

I'm annoyed.

[1] Actually it does, in more ways than one, but I don't feel like tracing the lines right now. Connect the dots if you like, or maybe I'll return to the theme later. There is a WTO case about this, tho.

[2] Swedish pop singer Robyn has a new single that speaks to this pretty well, but it's probably NSFW (language) so I won't embed it. Link here. The quote is from this Stars song.

[3] Illinois is beyond bankrupt, and willingly forgoing sales taxes in that situation seems really dumb. It could be a NC law, but based on the response of my tobacconist, I don't think so. If I'm wrong, I assume someone will correct me.

UPDATE: It appears to be a federal law. Why?