Friday, May 13, 2005
The insufferable Mr Robson
Finally found a couple of minutes to blog about Mr Robson's "recriminalization of adult drinking" bill, aka raising the drinking age from 18 to 20. Yamis and I have had a bit of a chat about this over at the Discussion Board, and while both of us had a bit of time for Matt Robson in the past, his moralizing (and that of his Dear Leader) is becoming ever more insufferable.
Robson:"Raising the drinking age was vital to limiting access to alcohol and providing public health authorities with time to educate teenagers about its dangers".
Yamis points out he was "fucking 17" when he started univeristy: "What had I not been told by the health authorities (presumably at high school in the 4th form cos I never met them anywhere else) that I was miraculously going to learn from that point on??? I well remember having to spend 2 and a half years at university and not being able to legally drink."
University students are not children in need of "education" about supposed health risks. Like other *adults* most of them drink responsibly most of the time, and most of them are irresponsible once in a while. Which it might be said is quite a lot of fun.
If you're old enough to attend higher education, make your own way to and from the city each day, decide when to study and when to party, study political ideology, etc. you're old enough to drink. You're not sitting at your desk in the compulsory education system any more, under threat of detentions and the like.
It really appears that Anderton and Robson are unable to distinguish between adults and children, and in their desire to protect the latter from harm (or rather, to use the power of the state to do so) they fail to acknowledge the rights of the former. Anderton was on Campbell live last night saying that cannabis use should never be decriminalized for adults because it is a problem in schools. What's the connection there, moron? We don't think children should do lots of things which are generally morally unproblematic for adults ... like driving, getting married, and killing Iraqis (sorry, serving in the military).
We should agree on a uniform age at which one assumes all or almost all of the rights and responsibilities of adulthood (and 18 seems about right to me), including sovereignty over one's own body, and what one may wish to put into it. The likes of Mssrs Anderton, Robson and Dunne don't own the livers or lungs of such adults, and should kindly stay out of them. I wouldn't mind if this wasn't 18 ... 17 or 19 wouldn't bother me a great deal, but consistency in such matters goes a long way. Plus, as Yamis notes, "I could have sworn I was 19 once," and despite the obsession with multiples of two, there isn't "a law or something that says things must be at 16, 18 or 20 years of age"
Please, good people of Wigram, hold your noses, vote for Mike Mora, and rid us of these Regressives once and for all.
Robson:"Raising the drinking age was vital to limiting access to alcohol and providing public health authorities with time to educate teenagers about its dangers".
Yamis points out he was "fucking 17" when he started univeristy: "What had I not been told by the health authorities (presumably at high school in the 4th form cos I never met them anywhere else) that I was miraculously going to learn from that point on??? I well remember having to spend 2 and a half years at university and not being able to legally drink."
University students are not children in need of "education" about supposed health risks. Like other *adults* most of them drink responsibly most of the time, and most of them are irresponsible once in a while. Which it might be said is quite a lot of fun.
If you're old enough to attend higher education, make your own way to and from the city each day, decide when to study and when to party, study political ideology, etc. you're old enough to drink. You're not sitting at your desk in the compulsory education system any more, under threat of detentions and the like.
It really appears that Anderton and Robson are unable to distinguish between adults and children, and in their desire to protect the latter from harm (or rather, to use the power of the state to do so) they fail to acknowledge the rights of the former. Anderton was on Campbell live last night saying that cannabis use should never be decriminalized for adults because it is a problem in schools. What's the connection there, moron? We don't think children should do lots of things which are generally morally unproblematic for adults ... like driving, getting married, and killing Iraqis (sorry, serving in the military).
We should agree on a uniform age at which one assumes all or almost all of the rights and responsibilities of adulthood (and 18 seems about right to me), including sovereignty over one's own body, and what one may wish to put into it. The likes of Mssrs Anderton, Robson and Dunne don't own the livers or lungs of such adults, and should kindly stay out of them. I wouldn't mind if this wasn't 18 ... 17 or 19 wouldn't bother me a great deal, but consistency in such matters goes a long way. Plus, as Yamis notes, "I could have sworn I was 19 once," and despite the obsession with multiples of two, there isn't "a law or something that says things must be at 16, 18 or 20 years of age"
Please, good people of Wigram, hold your noses, vote for Mike Mora, and rid us of these Regressives once and for all.
Comments:
Surely there is an argument that students should be allowed to drink the instant they arrive at tertiary education.
That way impressionable first year students will be kicking-back basking in the alcohol-induced warmth of Shadows or the like, and not wandering awkwardly around the campus alone where they at risk of being accosted by the vulture-like Christian freaks who congregate in areas of high pedestrian traffic where they seek to fuck with vulnerable young people's minds.
Man I wanted to molotov-cocktail those bastards at Uni!!
That way impressionable first year students will be kicking-back basking in the alcohol-induced warmth of Shadows or the like, and not wandering awkwardly around the campus alone where they at risk of being accosted by the vulture-like Christian freaks who congregate in areas of high pedestrian traffic where they seek to fuck with vulnerable young people's minds.
Man I wanted to molotov-cocktail those bastards at Uni!!
Every single reason I have seen these dickheads use has got little or nothing whatsoever to do with the drinking age at 18.
They are going on about the need to teach teeneagers responsibility about drinking but of course 18 years olds and older aren't being aeducated about alcohol in the workplace or at university or the dole office so what difference will that make?
And then I heard some dick saying that teeneagers are learning their bad drinking culture from adults. If that's the case then why the fuck don't we ban adults from drinking then and only allow teenagers to drink?
The reasons just don't make sense, but every man and his dog has come out in support of it. the only dissenting viouce I have heard is Nandor Tanczos and that's it. The age is looking almost certain to be changed back to 20 and it's a disgrace.
I propose several drunken teen rampages as protest.
They are going on about the need to teach teeneagers responsibility about drinking but of course 18 years olds and older aren't being aeducated about alcohol in the workplace or at university or the dole office so what difference will that make?
And then I heard some dick saying that teeneagers are learning their bad drinking culture from adults. If that's the case then why the fuck don't we ban adults from drinking then and only allow teenagers to drink?
The reasons just don't make sense, but every man and his dog has come out in support of it. the only dissenting viouce I have heard is Nandor Tanczos and that's it. The age is looking almost certain to be changed back to 20 and it's a disgrace.
I propose several drunken teen rampages as protest.
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