April 4, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
April 4 is … Tell-A-Lie Day. Why wasn’t this April 1st but it is a good day for lawyers.
The White Sox quit scoring but at least the Cubs blew one.
In a news story somewhat related to the story in yesterday’s column about the Montana legislator that wants to lessen the penalties facing those arrested for DUI, an Alaskan legislator wants to lower the drinking and smoking age for military personnel in Alaska. Defense Secretary Robert Gates doesn't support lowering the drinking age for U.S. troops, but that hasn't deterred one Alaska lawmaker from renewing the debate over whether military members old enough to fight and die for their country are responsible enough to drink and smoke. The argument dates back decades to the Vietnam War, and now Alaska state Republican Rep. Bob Lynn is proposing a bill that would allow military members in his state under 21 to legally drink and smoke there. Alaska residents can't legally drinking until they're 21 and legally smoke until they're 19. Lynn has been careful to note that neither he nor his bill promotes drinking or smoking as a habit. But, he says, the bill would "enable all active duty warriors in our U.S. Armed Forces to be treated as adults, regardless of age." "It's outrageous that a member of our military can be subjected to the horrors of war but can't legally have a beer or smoke a cigarette," Lynn wrote in his blog Monday. "Any soldier who braves military combat and risks their life for our country should be treated like an adult in every sense of the word."
In other countries, the minimum drinking age for U.S. troops is 18 unless an international treaty, agreement or a local situation determined by a commander sets it higher, according to a Pentagon directive issued in 2009. Two state House committees are considering Lynn's bill now. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, opposes it. "MADD fully supports the courageous work of our men and women in uniform," a MADD spokeswoman said in an email to FoxNews.com. "However, we believe that all Americans, including members of the military, should adhere to the federal 21 minimum drinking age law, which saves lives and protects still-developing young minds." The Feds haven't always had a say in setting the drinking age. During and after the Vietnam War, 29 states lowered their drinking ages below 21 in the face of baby boomers protesting that they should be allowed to drink if they can be forced to risk their lives abroad. But after the debate shifted to drunken driving, the federal government intervened. In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act that required all states to raise their legal drinking age to 21 by 1988 or face a 10 percent reduction in federal highway funding. For Alaska, that means the state would risk losing nearly $50 million of the state's $495.3 million in 2010 federal highway funds if Lynn's bill passes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told FoxNews.com, noting that it doesn't make a difference whether the law is applied to military members only or the general public. "NHTSA estimates that the 21-year-old minimum-drinking-age laws have reduced alcohol traffic fatalities by 13 percent and have saved an estimated 27,677 lives since 1975," the agency said in email. "In 2009, an estimated 623 lives were saved by minimum-drinking-age laws."
Some statehouses have considered bills lowering the limit since 1988 and a few – Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin -- have targeted members of the military, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But none of them have succeeded. U.S. lawmakers have also tried to lower the drinking age. Most recently, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., proposed a bill last year that would have allowed U.S. troops who are at least 18 to drink beer and wine on military bases. The bill died, but Kingston is planning to re-introduce it in the current session now that Republicans control the House, his spokesman told FoxNews.com but Gates, a former president of Texas A&M University, said he doesn't want to encourage drinking among the troops. "One of the things we're seeing as a result of repeated tours is not just an increase in suicides but an increase in risky behaviors, particularly by young men. And so that would be a concern of mine," Gates said at a House committee hearing this month under questioning from Kingston.
MADD should learn to pick their fights better. They need to open their minds a little and accept that everything wrong with the world is not caused by alcohol or alcohol and driving. People die in alcohol related auto accidents but people die in war, in peace, in terrorist attacks, in natural disasters, in criminal acts, medical reasons and for no reason. It is called natural selection. It is not nice to fool mother nature.
From FOX News on March 31, 2011. What a weird world we live in. I would like to see the girlfriend, just for grins and giggles.
A morbidly obese Ohio man has died after police found him fused to a chair he had not moved from in two years and were forced to cut a hole in the wall of his house just to get him out, WTOV-TV reported Wednesday. The unnamed 43-year-old man's roommates called police who found him unconscious. He was taken to Wheeling Hospital in nearby West Virginia, where he later died.
A hospital spokesman would not comment on the man's death.
The man apparently lived with two able-bodied roommates including his girlfriend, who officials said fed him since he never got up in a home in Bellaire, Ohio. I do not believe the roommates have a legal obligation to do anything in this situation but, if they can, the local authorities will try to charge somebody with something. The roommates called police upon finding the man unresponsive on Sunday.
Officers who responded to the scene said that the man's skin was fused to the fabric of chair and that he was sitting in his own feces and urine with maggots visible, WTRF-TV reported earlier. One officer said it was the worst thing he had ever responded to. Another told the local TV station he had to throw away his uniform after helping remove the man from the chair. "The living room where the man lived in his chair was very filthy, very deplorable. It's unbelievable that somebody lives in conditions like that," Jim Chase, a local city code enforcer, told WTRF. "I instructed the landlord this [Monday] morning and the two people, the tenants at the house, they had to get it cleaned, there's no way they can live in something like that, and so they are working on it," he added. "I'll be going back daily, checking on it, making sure that they get it cleaned it and serviceable. If not, they must get out." The landlord said the man used to be an active person and said she had no idea how bad his condition was since he covered himself with a blanket every time she came to visit.
What a world?
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
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Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself." Anthony Trollope
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