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not like 12, but I think 18 is reasonable. Me personally, I, in this past year from June '13 to June '14, have had 4 beers, all with my parents. It used to be 18 then someone decided to ruin the fun of being a teenager. You can say " oh well, they can't handle booze at that age. They're immature" You know who's 21? That Miley Cyrus, is she mature? no. If anything leave it up to the parents. My parents know I'm a good kid and know that, if it was 18, I wouldn't be at the bar nightly getting hammered. If your kid is dumb and irresponsible, keep them away from it as best you can. No one magically matures on their 21st birthday, plenty of people of legal age are morons. I was watching that " What would you do" show and 1 episode had 2 soldiers both 20, try to get a beer and they were refused. Really? So you're telling me at 18, I'm allowed to buy a house, get married, buy cigarettes, adopt, get shot at in battle and go to strip clubs. But drinking a beer is a no-no?
When I was growing up, you could buy alcohol at 18, you could fight for your country ( most of our friends did - it was Vietnam and there was a draft) -- but you could not vote until 21. Soldiers were often too young to vote! We got the right to vote at 18 close to when I was 21; years later, the powers that be moved drinking to 21. Which is more important? The alcohol or educating yourself on the laws of the country and trying to impact the mess out there?
So do other states. All you do is drive to the next county. When I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1980s, there was a dry town just outside the eastern suburbs there. Never understood that. Just drive 3 miles down the road to the next town.
There can't be anything worse than being prepared to die for your country in some meaningless conflict on the other side of the world knowing you country is willing to let you kill another human being legally yet not allow you to walk into a bar and order a cold beer.
Some crazy priorities at work here and an example of a nation still uneasy with itself and its citizens.
Last edited by Roscoe Conkling; 07-12-2014 at 03:06 AM..
The government has no right to use the threat of force (do this, and we lock you in a cage) to prevent an independent human being from drinking whatever they want. The action of purchasing alcohol is, in-and-of-itself, a non-violent act. Causing a wreck is not, and neither is getting fired up off liquid courage and starting a fight. But in both of these cases, the wreck was the wrong, not the drinking, and same with the fight. Nobody committed a violent act in the exchange of alcohol for money.
Now, if kids live with their parents, and parents have an agreement that, so long as the kid lives at home, he or she is not allowed to drink, then the kid violates that contract by drinking, which is certainly an offense against the parents who then have a right to take action. But if a child is emancipated, regardless of age, he or she has a natural, inalienable right to purchase and consume alcohol under whatever circumstances he or she desires. It is not up to a third party (the government) to threaten violence (you will be kidnapped and caged) against two people (the seller and consumer) engaged in a mutually-beneficial transaction.
The government has no right to use the threat of force (do this, and we lock you in a cage) to prevent an independent human being from drinking whatever they want. The action of purchasing alcohol is, in-and-of-itself, a non-violent act. Causing a wreck is not, and neither is getting fired up off liquid courage and starting a fight. But in both of these cases, the wreck was the wrong, not the drinking, and same with the fight. Nobody committed a violent act in the exchange of alcohol for money.
Now, if kids live with their parents, and parents have an agreement that, so long as the kid lives at home, he or she is not allowed to drink, then the kid violates that contract by drinking, which is certainly an offense against the parents who then have a right to take action. But if a child is emancipated, regardless of age, he or she has a natural, inalienable right to purchase and consume alcohol under whatever circumstances he or she desires. It is not up to a third party (the government) to threaten violence (you will be kidnapped and caged) against two people (the seller and consumer) engaged in a mutually-beneficial transaction.
That is extremely libertarian. I can't really argue with any of it, from a conceptual standpoint.
It reminds me of these two bits:
Universal Declaration of Mental Rights and Freedoms:
Quote:
We hold this truth: That all human beings are created differently.
That every human being has the right to be mentally free and independent. That every human being has the right to feel, see, hear, sense, imagine, believe or experience anything at all, in any way, at any time. That every human being has the right to behave in any way that does not harm others or break fair and just laws. That no human being shall be subjected without consent to incarceration, restraint, punishment or psychological or medical intervention in an attempt to control, repress or alter the individual's thoughts, feelings or experiences.
Proposed Amendment to the Constitution:
Quote:
Congress, or the States, shall not imprison any citizen as punishment for a crime that neither violates nor directly threatens the right of another individual.
That is extremely libertarian. I can't really argue with any of it, from a conceptual standpoint.
It reminds me of these two bits:
Universal Declaration of Mental Rights and Freedoms:
Proposted Amendment to the Constitution:
Whatever those two things are from... they sound great!! ahaha I would be ALL for that.
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