{"id":125,"date":"2006-11-27T05:48:00","date_gmt":"2006-11-27T11:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/2006\/11\/27\/presumption-of-guilt\/"},"modified":"2006-11-27T05:48:00","modified_gmt":"2006-11-27T11:48:00","slug":"presumption-of-guilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=125","title":{"rendered":"Presumption Of Guilt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is the most dangerous group in America today.<\/p>\n

They’re not dangerous merely because of their ongoing effort to criminalize any <\/em>drinking, any <\/em>time, or even because of their massive assault against civil liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No, the big problem is that MADD has convinced a lot of otherwise intelligent people that what they’re doing is an objectively good thing<\/a>. The Strib editorial board opines in favor of MADD’s effort to force the law-abiding driver to prove his\/her worthiness every time they step into a car:<\/p>\n

MADD says you pull out all the tools we have — and work to develop some more. It has joined forces with insurance- and auto-industry groups to create the Blue Ribbon Panel for the Development of Advanced Alcohol Detection Technology. It will encourage the development of technologies that include and surpass today’s sometimes-used ignition interlocks — which test a driver’s breath for alcohol and, if the driver fails, prevent the car from starting. Minnesota and many other states already have provisions to require such equipment in some cases. New Mexico has had some success with a law requiring their installation after the first DWI conviction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MADD wants these intrusive, not-always-reliable interlocks in every car. They want you, whether you’ve had a beer or are a complete teetotaller, to prove your innocence every time you get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

And they want you to cheer and say “please, ma’am, may I have another”.<\/p>\n

It’s a promising line of inquiry. In the meantime, however, most of those who drink must make the same old choice: Stay put or find sober transport.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Simple facts: drunk driving fatalities are off by over 40% in the past decade. Very few accidents and fatalities trace to drivers with blood alcohol levels below .10 – indeed, the big spike starts at .14, and lowering the legal limit to .08 or even lower will have almost no further effect on the issue.<\/p>\n

In response to success, MADD proposes…more and more onerous regulation. More punishment of the law-abiding. More power for them.<\/p>\n

And if you dare criticize them? As they said<\/a> when civil libertarians opposed random checkpoint dragnets:<\/p>\n

Opponents of sobriety checkpoints tend to be those who drink and drive frequently and are concerned about being caught.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“If you criticize us and our ideas, it’s because you’re a criminal”.<\/p>\n

The Strib – which sniffs and phumphers about the “Civil liberties implications” of surveilling phone calls from terrorists to their contacts in America – stands up and cheers at the fascist antics of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which in the long run are vastly more dangerous.<\/p>\n

Yes.\u00a0 I said “vastly more dangerous”.\u00a0 If you want to create a nation with no civil liberties, you don’t go out and ban them.\u00a0 You kill them with a thousand cuts – and get the people used to the idea that “civil liberty” is an obtuse, picayune concept meant for others.<\/p>\n

Which, of course, has been the Strib’s point of view all along.\u00a0 The Second Amendment refers to the National Guard, Freedom of Speech is for people with printing presses, and that whole Innocent Until Proven Guilty thing only counts if you’ve been arrested.<\/p>\n

The Star\/Tribune; our own printed Abu Ghraib<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is the most dangerous group in America today. They’re not dangerous merely because of their ongoing effort to criminalize any drinking, any time, or even because of their massive assault against civil liberty. No, the big problem is that MADD has convinced a lot of otherwise intelligent people that what they’re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment","category-culture-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}