Well.. even though I said you and I won't agree on the laws I'll continue for a bit.

First: I don't think Texting while driving is a good idea for the vast majority of people. I just don't think it should be a law to such.

For your argument about holding a conversation taking more brainpower than yelling at your child I disagree. Both require similar amount of cognition. Holding a conversation with the neighbor sitting next to me actually takes more of my thought than texting (there's a caveat explained below).. because I am focused on what they are saying, or what I'm yelling to my kids, or looking at my kids in the mirror instead of focused on the road.

The caveat is entirely with the keyboard of the device you use. I used to text-while-drive with nearly no problems at all (never any missed calls or swerving) with my Blackberry Pearl. I would read texts at stop lights, and responding while driving was easy as I used only 1 hand, and knew exactly where the keys where. Granted, not all my texts were sensible, but most of them came out fine and so did I.

Now I have the G1.. I texted while driving once with the G1. First I tried the big hardware keyboard and realized that wasn't going to work with one hand.. so then I tried the portrait keyboard where I can't feel the buttons.

I spent the majority of time driving and looking at my phone.. not the road. I'm not an idiot.. and even though I caused no accidents, I *did* have to correct my slight sway. I am no fool.. this no longer happens as I realize I can not do this safely with my G1. I could not do it safely with the N900. If I had the Palm Pre, however, the story might likely be different.

So IMHO, the risk of texting while driving increases and decreases with the type of phone you are using - and is heavily dependent on how responsible the person doing it is. However, a swerving vehicle is a swerving vehicle, no matter what the reason is. And this is where the "Reckless Driving" should be employed.