Drinking and Driving...

[Stephen Biko]

A few days later, I repeated the test with 1 beer instead of two in an hour. Could have been arrested. Next night: 1 beer in 90 minutes - probably could have been arrested

Unless you are a tiny little woman under 90lbs that ought to be a wake up call that the law is wrong. You'll still lose in court if it comes down to it. But next time you hear a politician blabbering on about being tough on crime, you should ask yourself if he's really just pushing more bad laws for his own career.

[Marlin]

Last time we had a thread like this mommy and daddy had to step in as it got quite heated and I think the thread was closed.
Here is where I stand:
ZERO TOLERANCE

Makes me think of those anti-drug commercials from 10 or 15 yrs ago. Showed a ballerina, she said "I want to be a drug addict when I grow up". No one says that, and no one says "I am going to go out, get plastered, and kill a family tonight!"
Drinking and driving is just plain stupid, heaven forbid if my family was in an accident with someone that was intoxicated, I would end up in jail, the drunk driver would not(deceased folks don't go to jail around here)

My job (Navy) comes with a centuries old stereotype and culture that we try to fight everyday, the drunken sailor. Every year, on both coasts, some Navy guy kills someone and/or himself due to drinking and driving. There is no excuse, no matter how stressful your job is. Buy the 6 pack(or box of wine as I prefer) and take it home, it will save you a bundle of cash as well. Can't get a DUI in my house, might fall and hurt myself, but I have high quality medical care...

There shouldn't even be a discussion as to how to avoid getting a DUI, its simple, don't drink and then go drive. In Japan the limit is .02. We have a simulator here on base, like a fancy video game similar to what pilots use for training. First round you drive around before drinking. The second round it sends you through the same course, but figures in a delay associated with a .08ish intoxication. most folks make it through just fine, but when they ghost your first run over the second run, you can see how much of a difference it makes, delayed stopping, (they have someone run out in the street on the screen), lane drift is more, and so on. Then they send you through at .15, most do not make it through that without an accident. Maybe its all BS, but as noted earlier, the first thing to go is your judgment. If you feel fine at .15, maybe you have a drinking problem? I know right now I can drink a bottle of merlot and feel fine. If I do that when I get back from a 7 month deployment, I would be plastered. That is just tolerance, my physical impairment is no different. your body processed alcohol the same way no matter what, the rest is a psychological adjustment to the feelings induced by the alcohol, very scary indeed. Think of it like cocaine, 1 line gets you going, you are high, as you build up a tolerance, you need more, but regardless, you are still physically high off the same line, just not the same emotional/psychological feeling and thus you need more. (not saying anyone does coke, I just used it as an analogy)
Bottom line, no tolerance for drinking and driving.

[Scott Larson]

Wow, this thread has struck a derisive nerve! I remember a day when pulled over for "questionable driving", got you an escort or a ride home, yes, "HOME", Not jail!!! How times and standards have changed...sometimes for the better, sometimes...

[circmand]

Can't get a DUI in my house, might fall and hurt myself, but I have high quality medical care...

We have a simulator here on base, like a fancy video game similar to what pilots use for training. First round you drive around before drinking. The second round it sends you through the same course, but figures in a delay associated with a .08ish intoxication. most folks make it through just fine, but when they ghost your first run over the second run, you can see how much of a difference it makes, delayed stopping, .

To have the high quality medical and great expensive video games but most of us are tax payers trying to hold on to our jobs and pay the taxes that pay for all the medical care and million dollar video games. I do not begrudge the military people great health care as they do a tough job and do it well. But million dollar simulators for them to play in bars is not what I consider a good use of my tax dollars. After all you do not see lay offs in the military, the government or the highly Democrat teachers field.

[Marlin]

To have the high quality medical and great expensive video games but most of us are tax payers trying to hold on to our jobs and pay the taxes that pay for all the medical care and million dollar video games. I do not begrudge the military people great health care as they do a tough job and do it well. But million dollar simulators for them to play in bars is not what I consider a good use of my tax dollars. After all you do not see lay offs in the military, the government or the highly Democrat teachers field.

I was being sarcastic about the health care. My health care is horrible, motrin for everything.
As for no lay offs, find me another job that sends you away from your family for months at a time into harms way at a fraction of pay that your civilian counterpart gets paid. Find me a job that works you 18hours a day, 7 days a week for months at a time, no OSHA, no union to get you a 20 min break every hour, or to make sure you have a comfortable chair.
Murder rarely ever makes the news, neither do DUIs, unless they involve a military member, then its everywhere. Its kind of like being a Sports star, but without the paycheck or glamor.
We spend almost 500K training these kids to become nuclear operators, 3.5 yrs of college in less than 16 months. There isn't a civilian school in the world that can top that, so if putting them through a simulator can save lives, or at a minimum protect innocents from a drunken sailor, then go right ahead. Money well spent. Think of it as preventative maintenance for a million dollar tool. That is what a fully qualified Nuke operator is worth.

[Stephen Biko]

Here is where I stand:
ZERO TOLERANCE

Zero Tolerance is probably the worst concept ever to makes it way into politics (3 strikes being the second worst). That sort of thinking is what got a girl stripped searched in high school because another girl accused her of having a motrin and a 7 year-old suspended from school for drawing a stick-figure shooting a water-pistol. There's also the issue of alcohol in common food - for example 7-Up is 1 or 2 proof as are most other citrus sodas.

Drinking and driving is just plain stupid, heaven forbid if my family was in an accident with someone that was intoxicated, I would end up in jail, the drunk driver would not(deceased folks don't go to jail around here)

But all the other ways people get into accidents are not worth murdering for? Talking on a cellphone. Fiddling with the radio. Spilling a drink in their lap. Looking at a billboard. Yelling at the kids in the backseat. Eating a sloppy hamburger. Not getting enough sleep. Tailgaiting. Etc, etc. All of them cases of bad judgment. All of them just as preventable as getting intoxicated.

In Japan the limit is .02.

There's an old saying about jumping off bridges. A limit of 0.02 is particularly bad policy because it invites all kinds of false positives. Anyone experiencing ketosis from low-carb dieting or being diabetic can blow 0.02 without much trouble.