MADD are nothing more than neo-prohibitionists. If they had their way, this would be a dry nation again.

They must be fought at all costs.

When the founder of your group says you guys are jerks....

Candy Lightner who founded MADD, and left over 20 years ago, has said that MADD "has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving".

Full disclosure: less than 38 hours ago, I provided wine to my elementary school daughters.

We got a telemarketing call from MADD last week. I told the man about the different things happening in DC and other states, and he didn't believe me and said I must be mistaken.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union rides again!!!

Candy Lightner who founded MADD, and left over 20 years ago, has said that MADD "has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned

The same thing happened with one of the founders of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore. He left the organization in '83 because the "environmental movement" had been hijacked by people with political agendas who "abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism."

Leave it to extremists to take a good idea and fuck it up...although I have never been fond of MADD from the get-go.

...plus...it's a very lopsided playing field. No public official is going to listen to an anti-MADD lobby for fear of being branded as "pro-dunk-driving".

Exactly how successful do you think MADD would be with attempting to take away the drivers license of a parent who offered wine or beer to their 20 year old son or daughter who has just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq?
I'd like to see a test case on this and see MADD slapped down.

As I've posted before, we had alcohol offered to us by my parents -- it not being forbidden, we weren't interested. At 15, however, when I decided I wanted to see what it was like to get drunk, I did it at my cousin's wedding because I was there with my parents, and I knew my dad would be there if something happened. With laws like this, kids will be out in some field drinking...and driving home afterward. Consequences to teens and to adults are two different things.

My parents let me drink wine at the dinner table when I was 13. Once the novelty wore off, I realized I didn't care for the taste and quit drinking it. The one and only time I've ever got puking drunk was on my 18th birthday and I had no desire to repeat the experience, so I didn't.

Unlike most of the people my age, I was never a drinker and I think it's because my parents didn't make a fuss or forbid me to drink. Drinking wasn't an act of rebellion for me, it had no appeal as 'forbidden fruit' and it certainly wasn't cool if my parents did it.

Today they'd probably be in hot water for serving booze to a minor.

I'm sorry but I can see the point in not allowing vendors to sell alcohol to minors.

But if the government wants to get involved in parenting perhaps they aught to pay all the bills for children as well

This from a non-drinker -- changing the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 was nothing but blantant age discrimination anyway. I was over 21 and don't drink anyway but it still pissed me off. If you're old enough to vote, be tried as an adult, or die for your country, you're old enough to drink, damn it!