Fraters Libertas

Temperance Tantrum

Since I've spent most of the last day or two either drunk or hung over, I'm just now getting to the stacks of recent newspapers covering my kitchen table. What I have found there makes me a very un-happy boy.

Saturday's St. Paul Pioneer Press featured this piece on the front page detailing an 18 year old Wisconsin law allowing bars to stay open past normal hours on New Year's Eve.

Since all of this keyboard clacking is wreaking havoc with my already pounding headache, let's all just read an excerpt:

The law dates to 1987, when the Legislature offered it as a concession for making bar closing times a uniform 2 a.m. across the state, (Pete) Madland (executive director of the Tavern League of Wisconsin) said.

"Some would close at 1 o'clock, some at 2 o'clock. Milwaukee would close at 6 o'clock," he said.

The patchwork shutdowns led to a lot of barhopping and, presumably, drunken driving, he added.

"The benefit, I think, is it allows bars to stay open longer (on New Year's), instead of everybody having to leave the doors at 2 o'clock," Madland said.

He said that since bars can choose to close at different times during the morning, it staggers the number of potentially intoxicated drivers on the road at any given time.

Sounds reasonable, don't you think? No sane human is in favor of drunk driving and if staggering bar closing times reduces the drunk driving threat on New Year's Eve by even a hair, who could argue?

I'll tell you who...the Mad Mothers themselves:

Kari Kinnard, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Wisconsin, wasn't aware the law existed. She fears it could cause trouble.

"The problem that it creates is that when you open up access to alcohol, you open up increased risk to irresponsibility and other dangers," she said from her Appleton office.

I nearly spit my morning Irish whiskey all over my bowl of Cheerios when I read that little nugget. In one single sentence, Kari exposes M.A.D.D. for the frauds that they really are. Their mission has nothing to do with ending drunk driving. They seek the resurrection of the eighteenth amendment, pure and simple.

Kari, and those of her ilk, have already succeeded in blackmailing states to adopt the national .08 standard that makes criminals out of people who have two glasses of wine with dinner while people like this drive freely.

It is now painfully obvious that their ultimate goal is to criminalize the mere act of having a drink because you and I are just too stupid to know how to do it responsibly. At least they're now being honest about it.