[rescue] RE: Small schools...

[Joshua D. Boyd]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001, Sam Creasey wrote:
> I think every state is 21 now....  The legal drinking age for the US is a
> little sketchy.  Sometime in the 80's, Elizabeth Dole (saw her speak once
> in person, god is she creepy) decided to spearhead a campaign to make 21
> the national drinking age...  except that the federal government doesn't
> exactly have constitutional control over than one, so federal law states
> that if the drinking age is less than 21 for any state, they don't get
> federal money for transportation (e.g. road maintnence). (sound a little
> coercive?) A few states tried to resist (e.g. Louisiana), but I think they
> all gave up and went for the $$$ in the end.
 
I heard somewhere that some places (DC?) have a lower age, like 19, for
non hard alchohol, but I never double checked that.

Personally, I wish my state had passed up the federal money then.  Now,
the federal government is trying to co-erce to do more for them for the
same money.  Now, we are about to be required to do emissions testing if
we want to keep the money, and we have to yet again lower the legal blood
alchohol level even more.  

I think that both moves are bad.  The new blood alchohol level, according
to one NewsSpeak person, is less than what you blood alchohol would be an
hour and a half after having a beer.  Now, I am all against people driving
drunk, but an hour after one beer should be long enough for most people.

And, I think that emissions testing also could be bad.  I drive a
"student" car.  Specifically, it is nearly 15 years old.  Cars like that
don't tend to do so well when passing emissions tests.  On the other hand,
when someone is driving a 1990 Dodge Spirit that is belching big clouds of
noxious smoke (an example picked because I was behind one yesterday
morning for most of my commute), well, that car should be taken off the
road.

So, if it weren't the federal government co-ercing us (because, I always
instintively want to resist co-ercion, even if the co-ercer is also
right), then, I'd be all for a local law calling for some minimum standard
of emissions (preferably one that older cars that are running well
wouldn't have trouble passing), plus giving police the ability to give
official warnings to cars that appear to be in violation (in other words,
so what if you passed a month ago?  Your car is belching smoke, so it must
be fixed and retested in 10 business days or you will be given a
citation).

--
Joshua Boyd