Get Mad At Madd

[hblask 1]

MADD (Mother's Against Drunk Driving) served a valuable purpose: educating the world against the dangers of drunk driving. They've succeeded. It's time for them to go away. Having accomplished their mission, they have now evolved into a temperance organization.MADD recently got a law pushed through in North Carolina that will *encourage* drunk driving? How so? Let's say you are 20 y/o and come home from college and are trying to decide whether to go out and party with friends or just stay home. So your parents say "if you stay home, we'll have a big meal and open a bottle of wine." So you decide to stay home with your family. Too bad for your parents. Thanks to MADD, your parents will lose THEIR driver's license for letting you have wine with your meal, despite the fact that NOBODY IS DRIVING ANYWHERE. So what are the odds your parents will make you that offer? So you go out and party with friends. Which one has a better chance of leading to a drunk driving incident?MADD is attempting to pass similar laws in other states. They no longer care about drunk driving, they want to prevent ALL alcohol consumption.It's time for MADD to disband.

[HollywoodAFD 0]

MADD (Mother's Against Drunk Driving) served a valuable purpose: educating the world against the dangers of drunk driving. They've succeeded. It's time for them to go away. Having accomplished their mission, they have now evolved into a temperance organization.MADD recently got a law pushed through in North Carolina that will *encourage* drunk driving? How so? Let's say you are 20 y/o and come home from college and are trying to decide whether to go out and party with friends or just stay home. So your parents say "if you stay home, we'll have a big meal and open a bottle of wine." So you decide to stay home with your family. Too bad for your parents. Thanks to MADD, your parents will lose THEIR driver's license for letting you have wine with your meal, despite the fact that NOBODY IS DRIVING ANYWHERE. So what are the odds your parents will make you that offer? So you go out and party with friends. Which one has a better chance of leading to a drunk driving incident?MADD is attempting to pass similar laws in other states. They no longer care about drunk driving, they want to prevent ALL alcohol consumption.It's time for MADD to disband.

This is absolutely the dumbest thing I have ever read....from start to finish.They arent encouraging drinking and driving. Here's an idea...how about you and your parents obey the LAW !Unreal.

[Balloon guy 158]

I thought MADD was the dyslexsis democrats against marriage group that tried to make homosexual marriage legal by backdooring an all marriage is illegal law.I was againt them also

[HollywoodAFD 0]

I thought MADD was the dyslexsis democrats against marriage group that tried to make homosexual marriage legal by backdooring an all marriage is illegal law.I was againt them also

LOL @ "backdooring" implication. Brilliant!

[Nimue1995 1]

Here in Montana, parents are allowed to serve their underage children alcohol in their own homes. And being the type of state it is, I doubt that MADD will have much luck changing that anytime soon. Up until recently, there wasn't even an open container law here. And the judges still let drunk drivers with multiple convictions off with very little jail time. MADD does serve a purpose here as people and judges have been very slow to change their minds regarding drunk driving. As it stands, it takes the drunk driver killing someone before they get any significant jail time. My advice to MADD is to concentrate their efforts on states that still let drunk drivers off with a slap on the wrist and cease operations in states that already have tough drunk driver laws and sentencing. JMHO.

[Figger 0]

I am a member of DAMM - Drunks Against Mad Mothers and we tried to stop the passage of that law, but were unsuccessful.If anyone would be interested in helping in a membership drive, I'm sure we can beat these bitches back.

[chrozzo 19]

I am a member of DAMM - Drunks Against Mad Mothers and we tried to stop the passage of that law, but were unsuccessful.If anyone would be interested in helping in a membership drive, I'm sure we can beat these bitches back.

we missed you at the last meeting though...where were you?

[Jeepster80125 0]

hblask, you're a tad out of line. If parents are going to give their kids alcohol, a law passed recently increasing their penalties if caught isn't going to curtail their behavior. The wasted teenagers sitting at home are safe fore now.How do you suppose we curtail kids' use of illegal drugs, and increasingly, their parents' prescription meds?How would you suggest that we stop kids drinking? What's your position on underage drinking?

[digitalmonkey 929]

[hblask 1]

This is absolutely the dumbest thing I have ever read....from start to finish.They arent encouraging drinking and driving. Here's an idea...how about you and your parents obey the LAW !Unreal.

If you remove an option for safely drinking and NOT driving by threatening parents with an arbitrary and severe penalty, you decrease the likelihood that the safe option will be chosen, and kids will go and drink they way they always have: by driving somewhere. MADD has no business telling people what they should do in the privacy of their home.

[hblask 1]

hblask, you're a tad out of line. If parents are going to give their kids alcohol, a law passed recently increasing their penalties if caught isn't going to curtail their behavior. The wasted teenagers sitting at home are safe fore now.How do you suppose we curtail kids' use of illegal drugs, and increasingly, their parents' prescription meds?How would you suggest that we stop kids drinking? What's your position on underage drinking?

First of all, the 21 y/o drinking age is a joke. It's ridiculous that people who are 20 are considered adults in every way EXCEPT for drinking.Second, adults should be free to ingest whatever the hell they want in their own home. It's better than taking it on the road.Third, if parents want to allow responsible drinking for minors, that is the parent's business, not the courts. (NOTE: Any parent who let's their child drink dangerous amounts of alcohol should be punished for child endangerment. What I am saying is that learning responsible social drinking at home, and taking the mystery and danger out of drinking would go a long way toward preventing alcohol abuse by adults once they finally get their freedom).The way to stop kids drinking is responsible parenting, and education. I think it is OK for businesses to not be allowed to sell to minors, although I don't believe that there is any evidence that such laws change the amount of drinking kids do. But I do believe kids are primarily the responsibility of their parents, not the state, unless the parents are actually endangering their health or safety.EDIT: Oh, but my main point was that MADD has lost track of who they are, and have become neo-prohibitionists. Prohibition failed once, and it will fail again.

[Figger 0]

we missed you at the last meeting though...where were you?

I had a conflict with my AU group meeting... Alcoholics Unanimous.

[speedz99 145]

MADD recently got a law pushed through in North Carolina that will *encourage* drunk driving? How so? Let's say you are 20 y/o and come home from college and are trying to decide whether to go out and party with friends or just stay home. So your parents say "if you stay home, we'll have a big meal and open a bottle of wine." So you decide to stay home with your family.

This has never happened. Ever. No kid has ever decided not to go out on the town for an entire night just because his or her parents promised to let them have a drink at home. Also, in your hypothetical situation how are the parents going to get caught? I thought the kid decided to stay home all night (amazingly only because he can have some wine). You might want to reassess your position on this one. Even though it's a dumb law, it's not going to encourage drunk driving. At all.

[ShakeZuma 585]

This has never happened. Ever. No kid has ever decided not to go out on the town for an entire night just because his or her parents promised to let them have a drink at home. Also, in your hypothetical situation how are the parents going to get caught? I thought the kid decided to stay home all night (amazingly only because he can have some wine). You might want to reassess your position on this one. Even though it's a dumb law, it's not going to encourage drunk driving. At all.

but what if his mom is really hot?

[speedz99 145]

but what if his mom is really hot?

All the more reason not to go out after a glass of wine at home.What?

[checkymcfold 0]

i'm still not sure about the logical leap between "group makes policy error" and "group should be disbanded" that seems to be so inherent to libertarianism .

[hblask 1]

i'm still not sure about the logical leap between "group makes policy error" and "group should be disbanded" that seems to be so inherent to libertarianism .

They are not doing the thing they were created for. They have become a ridiculous parody of themselves, and have no reason to exist. It's like they entered a time machine back to the 20's and are pushing for prohibition. WTF? Do we really need to try that experiment again? They should go away before they cause more harm. Unfortunately, their previous good cause gives them the credibility to do bad things now, because anyone who votes against them is accused of wanting drunk drivers to kill innocent people, even if the law they are voting against has nothing to do with drunk driving or will have no effect on the number of people harmed by drunk drivers.

[hblask 1]

This has never happened. Ever. No kid has ever decided not to go out on the town for an entire night just because his or her parents promised to let them have a drink at home. Also, in your hypothetical situation how are the parents going to get caught? I thought the kid decided to stay home all night (amazingly only because he can have some wine). You might want to reassess your position on this one. Even though it's a dumb law, it's not going to encourage drunk driving. At all.

Hey, I can overstate my case if I want! It turns out I shouldn't have here, because my main point was that MADD did their job and has moved on to other ridiculous things now. They have no reason to exist now.But I do think that anything that discourages *responsible* drinking will absolutely have the effect of increasing *irresponsible* drinking. Sometimes, an adult providing a 19 y/o with a drink in a safe place is the only thing between a drunk driving incident and a night at home. If you don't like the example with parents, use a group of friends who are trying to decide whether to stay home or use their fake IDs at a bar. If a couple of the people are legal, they risk their license by staying home, whereas if they go to a bar, only the people actually drinking and driving are risking their license. Why would we want to put the people on the side of "drinking at home" at risk for doing the smart thing? They are probably the same people who would NOT drink and drive, but if that means losing their license they'd probably say screw it, everyone for themselves, I'll get a taxi home and they can do what they want.

[speedz99 145]

Hey, I can overstate my case if I want! It turns out I shouldn't have here, because my main point was that MADD did their job and has moved on to other ridiculous things now. They have no reason to exist now.

They may have expanded their efforts (and I do agree with you that it is getting ridiculous), but I don't think that they did their job and have no reason to exist now. I'm pretty sure that drunk driving still exists, and there are mothers who are against it.

If a couple of the people are legal, they risk their license by staying home, whereas if they go to a bar, only the people actually drinking and driving are risking their license. Why would we want to put the people on the side of "drinking at home" at risk for doing the smart thing? They are probably the same people who would NOT drink and drive, but if that means losing their license they'd probably say screw it, everyone for themselves, I'll get a taxi home and they can do what they want.

This is a better example. I just don't know if an increase in the punishment for letting underage kids drink at home will sway that many people from the decision they would have made otherwise. Put more simply, strict parents still won't let their kids drink at home and loose parents still won't care. I don't think there's much of a gray area there...most parents either do it or they don't, and the ones who do aren't considering consequences. Maybe. I don't know.I guess that's all I have to say about that.

[HollywoodAFD 0]

Drunk driving exists more now than ever. To say "they have done their job" and they need not exist anymore is silly.Your 'Let me drink illegally at home or it's your fault if I go driving to find a place to break the law' stand is the most retarded thing I have ever heard.

[runthemover 39]

All the more reason not to go out after a glass of wine at home.What?

it'll be like that commercial where all the dude's friends come over to his mom's house for 'food' even though he's not there.

[checkymcfold 0]

They are not doing the thing they were created for. They have become a ridiculous parody of themselves, and have no reason to exist. It's like they entered a time machine back to the 20's and are pushing for prohibition. WTF? Do we really need to try that experiment again? They should go away before they cause more harm. Unfortunately, their previous good cause gives them the credibility to do bad things now, because anyone who votes against them is accused of wanting drunk drivers to kill innocent people, even if the law they are voting against has nothing to do with drunk driving or will have no effect on the number of people harmed by drunk drivers.

it's not like prohibition at all. like, at all.

[hblask 1]

Drunk driving exists more now than ever. To say "they have done their job" and they need not exist anymore is silly.Your 'Let me drink illegally at home or it's your fault if I go driving to find a place to break the law' stand is the most retarded thing I have ever heard.

To your first sentence, that's just plain false. Drunk driving per capita is WAY down. (e.g., http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/18/...in533451.shtml) There may be an increase in the number of tickets, but that's because legal blood limits have been lowered way below any sensible definition of intoxicated. As to your second statement, the belief that people do not respond to economic and legal incentives is the most retarded thing I have ever heard. If that were the case, we may as well do away with the legal system in the first place.

[El Guapo 8]

it'll be like that commercial where all the dude's friends come over to his mom's house for 'food' even though he's not there.

Thats not a commercial.

[phlegm 6]

WHAT? ME WORRY?