Friday, January 20, 2012

Getting 21 Wrong Again

Once again, the politicians are wrong on the rights of young adults:
Iowa lawmakers are being asked to crack down on those who provide alcohol to minors.

A House subcommittee began work Wednesday on House File 396,which would make it illegal for the owner, lessee or person who has control over a property that is not a licensed premises to allow a person under the legal drinking age of 21 to consume or possess an alcoholic beverage on their property.

Rep. Lee Hein, R-Monticello, said he filed the bill to address problems associated with underage drinking at house parties in college towns, “keggers” or alcohol-related events “at the back 40” of a farmstead.

“It’s just another one of the tools in the toolbox to help in the enforcement of underage drinking,” he told members of a three-person House panel assigned to consider the bill.
Hopefully this is just one of those silly season bills which dies at funnel time, but guess who's lining up behind it:
Jessica Harden, a lobbyist representing Iowa City, said officials there would welcome any part of the bill becoming law. “Overall, they support anything that gives them more tools to help them control alcohol locally,” she said.
The "lobbyist representing Iowa City," or better yet the elected officials representing Iowa City, should be taking completely the opposite approach. Insert my standard rant: the problem isn't "underage" drinking, it's the drinking age itself. My read of the Constitution is an 18 year old is an adult.

And in Iowa City, they're sending in 20 year old ADULTS to play gotcha at Bo James, trying to drive Leah Cohen out of business. Yet still people wonder why the students are going to vote no on the jail.

Meanwhile, where law enforcement has actual problems to deal with, Broadway, they want to deal with it by... changing the street name? Chris Rock has a classic suggestion:



Great idea, Chris. Better than the real estate developers who name cul de sacs after their kids, or the 60-somethings who think they're hip and throw in an Abbey Road or a Penny Lane. If I'm ever a real estate developer I want to name streets after Marxist leaders and serial killers, or both, and then write the whole thing off as a tax loss when I can't sell lots on Stalin Street. Let's vote.


New Name for Broadway
Martin Luther King Boulevard
Tupac Shakur Boulevard
The Glorious Shining Path To The People's Revolution
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Euphemism Street
Justice Center
Highway to Hell
Ron Paul
  
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