Posse Incitatus

Drinking ages revisited

No sooner do we post regarding the foolishness of American drinking ages than the Wall Street Journal steps up to provide additional support for the Posse.

This passage is key:

Research published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2004 found that adolescents whose parents permitted them to attend unchaperoned parties where drinking occurred had twice the average binge-drinking rate. But the study also had another, more arresting conclusion: Children whose parents introduced drinking to the children at home were one-third as likely to binge.

"It appears that parents who model responsible drinking behaviors have the potential to teach their children the same," noted Kristie Foley, the principal author of the study. While the phrasing was cautious, the implication of the study's finding needs to be highlighted: Parents who do not introduce children to alcohol in a home setting might be setting them up to become binge drinkers later on. You will not likely hear this at your school's parent drug- and alcohol-awareness nights.

Exactly.  If children learn appropriate drinking behavior, if they are exposed to adults who partake of quality beverages in moderation, they will learn that there is more to drinking than seeing how fast one can get drunk.

I never got in the "kegger" mentality, in large part because the drinking I was exposed to was of the "after dinner cocktail" variety.  The quality of the drink was emphasized, not the amount consumed.

This blog isn't the first to point out that we have combat veterans that are viewed by the state as fully capable of life-or-death decisions but who cannot be trusted to buy a beer in their home town.  It is absurd - and, as the WSJ article points out, - ultimately counterproductive.

Drinking ages

We were out biking today and came across a sign that featured a smiling child with the words "She had her first drink at 14."

This was, I guess, supposed to be shocking.  It isn't.

It isn't for two reasons.  In the first place, it is not at all difficult to believe in the current day and age that 14 year olds are drinking alcohol.  If that's all they are doing, it's a good day for the Republic.  I will sleep much better at night if that is the best the scare-mongers can muster.

Moreover, I'm of the opinion that kids should be having their first drink while still teenager.  How else are they going to learn how to do it?  We offer learners permits for driving at 15 for goodness' sake.  In Michigan at least, there is a graduated procedure to allows young drivers to gradually get more responsibility behind the wheel as they grow and mature.  That is how it should be.

Yet with alcohol, we expect that they won't touch Demon Liquor until they turn 21 and that they will immediately have a solid grasp of their limits and its effect on them.  Pure hogwash.

We blog a lot about guns here at the Posse, but I find that as the Junior Posse Members grow up, alcohol is a far thornier issue.  How are we to teach our children to drink responsibly, to understand what hangovers are, what is acceptable and what is not if not during their teenage years?

We'd suggest a graduated drinking law - one can imbibe and posses in parental presence at 16, and purchase beer and liquor at 18.  The fact that we have combat veterans who cannot legally purchase alcohol is utterly insane.

Disappointingly good

One of our senior Posse members recently tried Military Special brand bourbon, and after a glass pronounced it "disappointingly good."

Civilians may not have much interaction with the Military Special brand.  It's sold exclusively (thank God) at military base outlets and pretty much defines cheap.  This review of Military Special rum gives an idea of it's taste:  an 11 out of 100.  It ranked lower than turpentine.

That said, the bourbon isn't bad, indeed it is in fact disappointingly good.  Reasonably smooth and leave no foul aftertaste.  Having screwed ourselves up into having a drink one would only take on a dare, we were a little disappointed.

And it's cheap as hell, so we'll be buying it in bulk.