Right on Dog. You tell 'm ol' buddy
Posted on 10/05/2005 9:59:55 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER
When Drunk Driving Deterrence Becomes Neo-Prohibition
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
By Radley Balko
This fall Mothers Against Drunk Driving marks its 25th anniversary. The organization certainly has much to celebrate: Deaths from drunk driving are down more than 35 percent since the early 1980s. We no longer chuckle at the bumbling drunk who can barely get his key into the ignition — we scorn him. Hopefully, we arrest him, too.
Unfortunately, MADD has come to outlive and outgrow its original mission. By the mid-1990s, deaths from drunk driving began to level off, after 15 years of progress. The sensible conclusion to draw from this was that the occasional drunk driver had all but been eradicated. MADD's successes had boiled the problem down to a small group of hard-core alcoholics.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
MADD has fallen into the routine that many "movement" organizations do after they encounter nationwide success: instead of declaring victory and going home, they expand their focus to encompass matters that have little or nothing to do with their founding purpose, and in the process they distort and pervert the nobility of the cause for which they originally fought.
It was a good thing that MADD fought for, and won, tougher penalties for DUI offenders during the eighties; but now they have turned into a modern day version of Carrie Nation fanatics, and have no more credibility with sensible people than the NAACP or the ACLU. Their current efforts are, indeed, an attempt to "back door" another eighteenth amendment by legislative, as opposed to constitutional, means, and they are succeeding.
They've become one of those organizations--such as the aforementioned NAACP--which it becomes impossible to criticize without touching off the indignant howling of the politically correct, left and right. Critics are likened to folks who must "support" drunk driving if they take on MADD--just as those whom criticize the NAACP's cynical race-baiting are dismissed as "bigots" out of hand.
What's worse, they've got their hands in the federal till, and are using taxpayer dollars to subsidize their advocacy for what indeed is "neo-prohibition." It's a shabby coda to a once legitimate organization.
Bump!
MADD provides an outlet for grieving, angry mothers to get their pound of flesh. They have a good side and a bad side. Trying to prevent unnecessary deaths is good, but it's being overdone now and is turning into more of an anti-alcohol platform than anything else. Some states have gone so overboard to appease these nags that they've lowered the drunk-driving blood alcohol level to something akin to being legally drunk if you had a piece of rum cake before driving.
What do you mean?
Back door prohibition ping.
"Dropping the level from .08% to .10% did not save lives..."
I meant to say:
"Dropping the level from .10% to .08% did not save lives..."
It's about time somebody started looking into and seriously criticizing this domestic terrorism organization.
Seems MADD is finally getting some journalistic inquisition.
Here's another recent adversarial article.
It's USA Today, or I would post it in full.
MADD enters 25th year with change on its mind
Interesting quote:
"You're impaired the moment you have any antihistamine in your system."
Ah yes, MADD. What a wonderful collection of sour, sanctimonious, ridiculous sows. Make no bones about it, prohibition is and always has been their ultimate goal. And of course, all for the CHILL-dren. Some weeks ago I had the misfortune of running into a coven of these hags actually collecting money(!) outside my local supermarket. I tossed a handful of pocket lint and Ballantine Ale bottlecaps into their jar and asked if they could direct me to a local tavern famous for Fifty Cent Draft Fridays. F*** these people, and their CHILL-dren to boot. What the heck do I care about their larvae? There's never been a shortage of the obnoxious little buggers in this Dog's lifetime...
Mind if I borrow your rant to send to a friend of mine? One of the best I've seen in awhile.
Borrow away, Amigo.
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