Before I am charged with hypocrisy, I feel the need to come clean: I talk on my cell phone while I drive. I don't own a hands-free headset, (OK, I do, but it's in the junk drawer in our kitchen and I don't know how to operate it.) And finally, though it's rare, I have sent a text or two while driving. In fact, I sent one yesterday on the Skyway.

Whew! I'm not proud of those confessions but it was certainly cathartic. I feel much better. I am a scofflaw, and I am sorry. I dislike my cell phone (although I dislike it a lot less now that I have an iPhone) and part of me longs for the day when no one could reach you unless you were in your house.

There was that moment when you would walk in from a long day at work, drop everything and head straight for the answering machine. If you saw the light blinking, a rush of dopamine overtook you and, with giddy anticipation, you hurriedly tapped playback. Maybe it was just a telemarketer, possibly a bill collector - whoever it was, they were calling for YOU, and the anticipation as you prepared to find out whose voice was on the tape was exhilarating.

But, alas, that is no more. Does anyone under the age of 65 even have an answering machine anymore? And if so, do they use it? We live (and die) by our cell phones. We text, we surf, we get directions, we play games and sometimes we even use them to make phone calls.

Here's the problem: All of us over-caffeinated, on-the-go, too-many-eggs-in-one-basket overachievers seem to be in a perpetual state of multitasking. That 20-minute commute to work? It used to be a great time to relax, listen to music, catch up on talk radio, maybe get lost in your thoughts. No more. Today, that chunk of time is valuable real estate and not to be wasted. Calls can be made, dinner reservations secured, RSVPs texted and online banking transacted. Virtually everything can be done via our phones, and who among us can pass up the opportunity to embrace such efficiency?

Not many, if you believe the statistics. The more we choose to live by the phone, more people are indeed dying (or at least getting seriously injured) by the phone. So much so that the National Transportation Safety Board is now recommending a complete and total ban on the use of cell phones in automobiles.

I, for one, am in complete and total favor of such a ban. I think a forced return to less technology would be fantastic. I envy the few people I meet who have never owned a cell phone. A friend of mine climbed the corporate ladder in one of the largest companies in Western New York and made it to vice president having never owned one. It can be done.

As I daydream about life without my phone, I smile. Telemarketers can't find me, my boss will have to wait until the morning, friends can leave a message at home and my car ride will be stress free. Before you panic, though, please realize it will never happen. No lawmaker who actually likes his job (and accompanying pension) will ever vote for a total ban. Take away my freedom, constitutional rights, ability to choose. But take away my cell phone and it will be war. Such is the mentality of the masses, as indicated by the considerable buzz generated by the NTSB recommendation. There also are lobbyists and other icky types who will ensure you can continue to drive and endanger others, just because you want to.

Rather than debate the issue (much like religion, political affiliation and abortion, it isn't a fight I want to take a side on), I'm more interested in what kind of snowball effect might occur if by some miracle of fate, an all-out ban of cell phones in automobiles was implemented. If you can take away the phone, everything is fair game. After much consideration (at least as much as I could afford on deadline), I came up with a few thoughts. If marijuana is a gateway drug, and legalizing it opens the door for cocaine, meth, acid, etc,. then likewise, a cell phone ban is a gateway piece of legislation. So what's next?

• The return of prohibition? Laugh if you will, but I would be willing to bet far more people talk on cell phones than drink alcohol. If every person who drinks owns a cell, then a whole bunch of people who don't drink own one, as well. It becomes a plausible scenario.

• A ban on fast-food drive-thru windows. What is more dangerous: holding a phone to my ear and talking, or trying to navigate a Big Mac while driving, without ending up with a  lapful of special sauce?

• Banning children in cars? Sure, maybe this sounds extreme, but you try driving with a few wild animals wreaking havoc in the back seat and then tell me talking on a phone is dangerous. Leave the kids at home but bring the phone - it just might be safer.

• The elimination of talk radio: With the Buffalo Bills' playoff drought continuing for another year, no one is safe on the road as long as fans have to listen to sports radio and hear the plight of the local team. Switch to the news station and you might really be driven to drifting off the road. FM only - let's all arrive alive.

If I end on what is supposed to be a humorous note, I will be accused of being insensitive to this incredibly serious issue that puts countless people in this country at risk every day. To that point, a complete ban on cell phones in cars may never happen, but as one veteran attorney told me today, "If we can save lives, it is an issue that at least merits a serious look."

Well said.

Matt Chandler: mchandler@bizjournals.com