It is impossible to make a case for driving drunk. Being inebriated and operating a motor vehicle are two rights you have that are mutually exclusive.

You've probably heard all of the valid reasons not to drink and drive before: Alcohol impairs coordination, information processing ability, eye movement and steering ability, among other things.

At the risk of sounding like an overbearing and graphic "Blood on the Highway"-esque driver's education film here, any decision to drive drunk is a bad one. By putting your inebriated self behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, you not only are endangering your own life, but the lives of passengers, other drivers and pedestrians.

But as unwise as it is to drive any time your blood alcohol content is at or greater than the state limit of 0.08, there can be no denying that the ability to drive decreases dramatically as your BAC increases. A person who had one beer too many is probably going to be far less dangerous on the road than someone who has just bonged a fifth of Jose Cuervo Especial.

For that reason, two House bills that seek to hand down harsher penalties to extremely drunken drivers should be enacted. Under the bills, a person operating a vehicle with a BAC of 0.20 or higher would be given penalties similar to a second-time drunken driving offense.

This concept makes perfect sense. Although driving drunk should never be seen as an option, a person who makes the decision to drive with a BAC at 0.20 or higher clearly has little regard for his or her life, or the life of others. Increasing penalties for such drivers is tantamount to handing out higher fines the more a driver exceeds the speed limit.

These measures also could serve as a deterrent to driving excessively drunk. If people who realize they are far too drunk to drive know they are risking serious penalties (up to 180 days in jail, up to a $1,000 fine and a suspended license), they might make the life-saving decision to find alternate transportation.

Again, it's worth noting it is always unacceptable to drive intoxicated. It just makes sense to severely penalize those drivers who are most careless with the lives around them.