Comments on: I’ll drink to that

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:00:13 +0000

I’m getting sick and tired of legislation being passed banning something because some moron was stupid enough to do it and kill either themself or somebody else. The 21 drinking age is just a feel good piece of crap. We are trying 13 and 14 year-old children as adults. Aparently they are responsible enough to be held accountable for their actions. Yet we state that someone under the age of 21 isn’t responsible enough to handle alcohol. You can be damned sure that someone under 21 is responsible enough to go to jail for consuming alcohol.

As far as MADD is concerned sombody needs to take a look at their non-profit status. Anybody here who works for the IRS?

By: Ed Brand

Ed Brand — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:11:10 +0000

I’m going to have to agree with Ryan on this one.

In my early 20s, I frequented an Irish Pub in Annapolis. Even on Friday and Saturday nights, with live music, it was still an older crowd, mostly 35+ and I loved it. A bit crowded at times, but almost always very low key.

When the bar was sold, the new owners (shudder) added a TV above where the bands would play and added a few NFL pennant streamers. The crowd started to get younger, and the atmostphere worse. It has been sold yet again and it is now a sports bar…complete with 21-22yo punks that don’t know how to act in public.

I like low-key, hole in the wall type places. One of my favourite places to go when I was stationed in Korea was the local VFW post simply because it was not the place to be. Mostly an older, retired military crowd, with some of us youngins that like to actually hold a conversation over a beer from time to time.

So yeah…hopefully some of my favourite places here in Maryland will decide to keep the under-21 crowd out if the drinking age were to be lowered. Nothing quite beats some peace and quiet while enjoying a pint of Sam’s du jour.

By: First Little Pig

First Little Pig — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:40:49 +0000

When I was 18, that was the legal drinking age and we drank in bars and acted like adults…. It was only after they raised the age that 18 year olds started drinking the same way we used to at 16 — Like animals.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:18:05 +0000

#4 | Ryan Grim | August 19th, 2008 at 9:59 am Yes, they should most definitely get off my lawn, too. Unless they bring beer.

But not beer that 18 year olds drink. They need to bring some Sammy or Harpoon or Otter Creek.

By: mgordon

mgordon — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:25:07 +0000

My chances of nailing an 18 year old are about to get better.

http://cdn.davesdaily.com/pictures/528-dontbother.jpg

By: Elroy

Elroy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:09:12 +0000

Get rid of the drinking age altogether. Then the nanny-statists can say no smoking because it harms the children now allowed to drink bars.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:24:35 +0000

I first got tipsy at 15. I didn’t throw up from drinking until I was 20, and I went out with a bunch of 22-30 year old Grad students. I’m now legal, and have managed to throw up from drinking twice in my life. Having libertarian parents who let me have an underage beer with dinner did me no harm, and might just have done me good. You don’t magaically know how to drink correctly at the age of 22. Seriously, have any of you ever seen a MFA student drink?

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:23:47 +0000

Sometime in the past Radley has mentioned a study that questions the idea that raising the drinking age lowered the drunk driving accidents significantly

It has something to do with the rates were already lowering thru education.

Here is one I like to thru back to MADD parrots. Well if lowering the drinking age would save one life wouldn’t it be worth it?

It is really entertaining watching them to try to weasel out of that.

By: Light

Light — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:45:44 +0000

The bar can also ban people under 21 if it wanted to. I believe bars have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. Or they could just say anyone under 21 already appears “too drunk to be served” to avoid any civil suits.

By: Julian Sanchez

Julian Sanchez — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:13:35 +0000

My experience is that in countries where kids start drinking in their early teens, the drinking culture is a lot more sane. I remember, with some chagrin, a visit to Madrid when I was about 16 — lots of us went out for drinks the first week or so; I was the only one getting wrecked. Fortunately, I adapted.

By: John

John — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:08:31 +0000

If we have to have a drinking age, then set it at 19. Just as with cigarettes, the 18 year-olds would be supplying alcohol to the underclassmen in high school. You may be mature enough at 18 to drink, but you are proabbly dumb enough to buy a handle for a 14 year-old.

By: Nando

Nando — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:23:48 +0000

Obviously most people would oppose this change saying that drunk driving incidents, deaths on the road due to alcohol, and other alcohol-related illnesses will increase. Well, no shit sherlock! It doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be afforded their rights.

If you’re an adult at 18 for everything else, then you’re an adult when it comes to alcohol, regardless of what bad things will happen.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:33:49 +0000

Pricing should segment and differentiate the market fine. If I don’t want the Chuck E. Cheese crowd on a date – but I solve that by not taking dates to Chuck E. Cheese.

the “Greatest Generation” and the “Baby Boomers” continue to treat their progeny like porcelain retards

I recently told the lawyer who is representing me with DSS (that’s why I’m anonymous!) that as far as I was concerned, if you don’t get hurt, you’re not playing hard enough, and I showed her some recent injuries (on me, not my offspring) that told me I hadn’t left any fun unexperienced. (2nd-degree burns heal; the memory of grilling hot dogs in a canoe remains.) She advised me not to put that into my statement, and just stick with notions about not wanting to be a helicopter parent. (It’s still a crapshoot – it’s not clear that DSS doesn’t consider failure to be a helicopter parent evidence of neglect.)

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:05:19 +0000

If you learn to enjoy good (read expensive) beer, then the college punks won’t bother you. Bud Light is for pansies.

By: Thomas Paine's Goiter

Thomas Paine's Goiter — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:58:05 +0000

Eh – it won’t matter as long as the “Greatest Generation” and the “Baby Boomers” continue to treat their progeny like porcelain retards.

By: Ryan Grim

Ryan Grim — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:19:28 +0000

I’m not advocating a universal ban of kids from bars. Just one bar. The kids will always have Adams Morgan — or your town’s version of Adams Morgan.

By: Chris in PA

Chris in PA — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:11:11 +0000

I have a 35-year old friend who wants to raise the drinking age to 28.

“Let’s the kids drink in their apartments, they’re crowding my favorite pubs.”

By: z

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:07:33 +0000

How is a law banning under 21 from bars different than one banning smoking in bars? Shame.

By: livingpre911still

livingpre911still — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:07:16 +0000

Maybe, just maybe, you yourself are getting too old to hang out in bars with the young ones. Been there, done that, move along.
If you’re old enough to die for your country, old enough to pay taxes and vote. You damn sure ought to be old enough to have a drink PERIOD!

The statisticians at MADD will have a field day with this one. As Mark Twain once said, “There are liars, there are damn liars and then there are the statisticians”.

By: Tybalt

Tybalt — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:03:28 +0000

…and a funnel.