In these hypersensitive times, we are pretty much forbidden from criticizing or lampooning any group of people.

You can't make derogatory comments about gender (at least not women) (not that I want to!).

In matters of race, well, don't even go there.

When it comes to sexual preferences, it's hands off, so to speak.

You can't pick on a particular religion (well, unless it's Mormons).

They all enjoy politically correct protection. Every group is off limits, with only one exception.

Cigarette smokers.

They're still fair game.

Is this unfair and unwarranted?

Let me think about it for a ... no.

In the movie "Waterworld," the villains are called "smokers." Nobody called for boycotts or marched in a parade or spoke out in their defense.

Years ago, comedian Steve Martin did a famous gag on smokers that went basically like this:

"Mind if I smoke?"

"No, mind if I (pass gas)? Sometimes I like to light one up."

Were people offended? If they were, they were drowned out by laughter.

Smokers still show up in Hollywood's films, but not so much in the glamorous way they once did. The Clint Eastwood character in "Gran Torino" smokes like a steel mill, but he's constantly told by those around him that he should quit. Which is certainly a sign of the times.

In the real world, smokers have been banished from airlines and airports and public buildings and the workplace to smoke outside, if there. They huddle around the door or in the alley and puff away, social outcasts sharing conversation and toxins, shivering in the cold, sweating in the heat. Actually, they can't even do that anymore. According to the law, they have to be a prescribed distance away from the building before they can light up.

There are some places in the country (Utah County for instance) that ban smoking in parks.

This is not a good time to be a smoker. If you want to be a smoker, you should move to the 1950s and '60s. Or to Europe.

In my high school, a handful of kids sneaked out to the woods near our school for a smoke. Nowadays, adults have to do the same thing, as if they're worried the principal will catch them and send a note to their parents.

It's not unpopular to stick it to smokers. Recently, Gov. Huntsman proposed raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes in Utah from 69.5 cents to $3. My thought: He's way off base here. Make it $5.

Curiously, Utah, which has the nation's lowest smoking rate, ranks only 34th in the U.S. in cigarette tax rate; New York ranks first, at $2.75.