A dog enjoys the scenery while riding in a car through Latham.

When we were last forced to notice that the Albany County Legislature exists, the body was poised to give $25,000 to a dubious group that happened to share a mailing address with one of its legislators. Oops.

That was in April. Several months have passed, providing a welcome opportunity to avoid thinking about the legislature and what its 39 members might be cooking up.

Alas, they're again forcing us to pay attention, thanks to a proposed law that is too staggeringly stupid to ignore. I'm talking, as you may have guessed, about the bill that threatens to ban dogs from riding loose in your passenger seat — and possibly your back seat, too.

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The legislation proposed by Sean Ward, a Democrat from Green Island, is dubbed the PAWS law, an acronym for Pets in Automobiles Welfare and Safety. Note: Be suspicious of laws with cutesy nicknames; they usually mask terrible details within.

And so it is with PAWS, recently approved by the county Legislature's Law Committee.

Ostensibly, the proposed legislation is about prohibiting people from driving with dogs in their laps, which, depending on the size and........

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