Public Humiliation is Sweeeet

Nope. I didn't do it, but here is a sign that popped up on the edge of the parking lot down the street by some local businesses. Winnie says "better them than us", as we used to find the MD20/20 bottles out in front of our house.

Can anyone tell me how to look up, for free this VA license plate? It might be nice to send her a copy.

Sex & Alcohol

Just more proof, if you ever needed it, that sex and alcohol don't mix.

A FEISTY raccoon has bitten off a pervert’s PENIS as he was trying to rape the animal.

Alexander Kirilov, 44, was on a drunken weekend with pals when
he leapt on the terrified – but toothy – fur ball. “When I saw the raccoon I
thought I’d have some fun,” he told stunned casualty surgeons in Moscow.

Now Russian plastic surgeons are trying to restore his mangled manhood.

“He’s been told they can get things working again but they can’t sew back on what the raccoon bit off," said a pal.

“That’s gone forever so there isn’t going to be much for them to work with."

Teen Drinking

The Wall Street Journal touches on the practice we always followed in our house.

In societies where children drink with their parents, this typically means giving a kid a small amount of wine or other alcohol, often watered down on special occasions or a family dinner. Many European countries also lower the drinking age for children when they are accompanied by parents. In the United Kingdom, for example, the legal age is 18, but for a family at a restaurant it is 16. In France and Italy, where the legal age is 16, there is no age limit for children drinking with parents.

MYOB

There is a private group out of Colorado that is working with Amtrak to revive luxury rail service. Travel now and get a bonus.

Amtrak is trying to gin up new business by offering $100 in free alcohol to customers on some overnight trains.

The national passenger rail company is making the unusual offer to promote a new high-end service being offered on a trial basis for certain sleeper car trips.

Members of Amtrak's guest rewards program—the railroad equivalent of frequent fliers—can get a $100 per person credit for alcohol between November and January.

But someone has to be a spoilsport.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving questioned whether $100 in free alcohol was too much.

"This sounds like a lot of credit toward possible overindulging," said MADD spokeswoman Misty Moyse.

Uh, I thought the point was, they aren't driving. In fact some of these trips take three days. That's still several drinks per day though. The only response I can think to make to that is - mind your own business B-.

Underage Drunk Driving - Part II

A few days ago I commented on how a discussion of laws which allow parents to give their children (and only their children) alcohol in their own home. The article continued into the side issue of a high school girl, who had been drinking, and caused a fatal accident. I wondered why every such discussion about alcohol use of any sort led to talk about underage drunk driving.

Now why are these paragraphs in the same article? Why not just remove the word "underage" from the whole article and admit you're trying to ban alcohol?

Well, it turns out it might as well have been that instead. Today we get this news about the crash "victim."

A bartender whose death in a New Year's Day wreck sparked an outpouring of concern about underage drinking was intoxicated at the time of the crash, his family said yesterday.

He didn't cause the accident, but he could have. As a bartender, he presumably knew the risks he was taking himself, and that he was imposing on others as well, but he did it anyway. I hate to call this a mitigating circumstance, but this girl faces 20 years in prison.

Conflating Drinking and Drunk Driving

Why is that every discussion of alcohol use somehow leads to discussions of drunk driving?

Virginia law allows underage drinking.

"You can be 10 years old and drink in Virginia," said Beth Straeten, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

OK, you can give your kid wine for Christmas dinner, or their birthday, in your own home. Big whoop. The law still says I can't buy them a drink at Applebees, or whatever. In the same article -

Last week, however, more than 600 parents and students gathered at Deep Run High School near Short Pump to examine positive ways to erase underage drinking. Sarah Ann Haislip, the 16-year-old charged in the fatal New Year's Day crash, is a Deep Run student.

Now why are these paragraphs in the same article? Why not just remove the word "underage" from the whole article and admit you're trying to ban alcohol? You are not my mommy, nor are you the mommy to my kid. So, please just bleep off.