RTDs are disgusting things, not my thing at all. So I think we should ban them - NOT.
They are linked to crime and car crashes we are told, sniffly, and banning them will reduce both we are told.
And the fun police who resent anything that gives other people pleasure chalk up another victory.
My friends many many people enjoy RTDs (why remains a mystery to me but there it goes) and don't crash their cars or commit crimes.
And the people who get tanked up and crash their cars or commit crimes will get tanked up on mouthwash if that's all that's left to get tanked up on after the dreary have banned everything else and crash their cars or commit crimes as ever before.
Hands up anyone who believes that when RTDs have become a distant memory the disorderly members of our community will suddenly see the light and fill in their evenings by joining a sewing circle?
Related Reading: RTDs linked to crime, crashes
They are linked to crime and car crashes we are told, sniffly, and banning them will reduce both we are told.
And the fun police who resent anything that gives other people pleasure chalk up another victory.
My friends many many people enjoy RTDs (why remains a mystery to me but there it goes) and don't crash their cars or commit crimes.
And the people who get tanked up and crash their cars or commit crimes will get tanked up on mouthwash if that's all that's left to get tanked up on after the dreary have banned everything else and crash their cars or commit crimes as ever before.
Hands up anyone who believes that when RTDs have become a distant memory the disorderly members of our community will suddenly see the light and fill in their evenings by joining a sewing circle?
Related Reading: RTDs linked to crime, crashes
14 year olds love to drink RTDs. RTDs are sugary and don't taste like alcohol. They come in fun colours and brands and look good in your hand. They are easy to get from your older mates and don't fill your bladder the way beer does, or make you belch. They have a much higher alcohol content so you get wasted much faster than with beer and they smell nicer. Everything about RDTs favours and encourages drinking by people who are at the first stages of their drinking career.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with that, eh Andrei!
If you swap "RTD" for wine in your post Robert it reads exactly the same (apart from the sugary bit, obviously). Fruity, wonderfully packaged and weighing in at about twice the strength of most RTDs, they are avaiable from $5.99 in your local supermarket. Nothing wrong there either?
ReplyDeleteDid you realize when you wrote your comment Mr Bearhunter that $5.99 from the supermarket is in the sights of the nannies.
ReplyDeleteAn appropriate minimum price is for alcohol is to be calculated, determined and applied.
The peasantry with not much to go on are to be denied their cheap wine and small pleasures in life.
It's for their own good you know
14 year-olds are beginning their drinking careers on wine from the supermarket Bear Hunter? Not likely.
ReplyDeleteYour 'wonderfully packaged' comparison is wrong, I have to say, unless your supermarket sells wine in brightly-coloured cans with names like 'Purple Goanna' or 'KGB'.
Andrei - it's not your 'peasantry' that I'm thinking of. It's kids.
It's illegal to sell alcohol to 14 year olds. Banning RTD's is not the answer, enforcing the laws that we already have might go further.
ReplyDeleteWhen RTD's disappear, new drinks will replace them - perhaps brightly labelled wine bottles. At least until you ban colourful designs on all wine bottles Robert!
Tackling root causes is far too hard for the socialist - better to ban and tax with the faint hope that will change the culture.
Or legislate for laws that aren't enforced, to then justify more laws, and more laws and then more taxes. Has it worked yet? No, so up the taxes with a minimum price. It's not going to do the trick, Robert.
Time to work on the cause, not the symptoms. This is just wasting everyone's time.
"Man deprived of his freedom to do wrong would be a mere automation." --Fulton Sheen
We need to teach people to make better choices, and use their freedom more wisely. Indeed, the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen went on to say:
"He who interprets freedom to take a drink as the right to be above restraint and reason eventually discovers he is no longer free not to take a drink."
It is a cowards action to ban the drink and not address the real problem, and we do our young no favours by this course of action.
It's illegal to sell alcohol to 14 year olds.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think this fairly obvious fact would be known to the head of the liquor licence inspectors, but I guess these days it doesn't pay to assume.
OK Robert Guyton how many kids have you raised?
ReplyDeleteMe I've raised four - the youngest is now fifteen and they have at times made my hair go grey - there's a fact.
But the oldest two have negotiated the perils of fourteen, fifteen etc with some stumbles and bumbles along the way and we were there to pick them up and give them guidance and they are on their way negotiating this wicked world for themselves now and doing quite well for themselves and I am proud of them.
To tell the truth Robert Guyton it amongst the perils that 14 year olds encounter RTDs are not the worry. School teachers indoctrinating them over "sexuality" is a far far greater threat to their well being.
14 year olds love to drink RTDs. RTDs are sugary and don't taste like alcohol.
ReplyDeleteMy 14 year old thinks getting drunk is for losers. He doesn't love to drink RTDs.
I've not suggested banning anything at all. Most of you jumped to conclusions that suit your prejudices about Green voters (of which I am one). I've just passed on information I'd read saying that RTDs are especially attractive to young people.
ReplyDeleteAndrei - I've 'raised' 3 children who are now young adults.
Andrei - you sound a bit manic with your 'evil sex-educating teacher' rant. Just sayin'.
Seems like you are all saying, 'leave everything out there in the playground/market-place and let the children choose. That's what's happening now. Is it going well? Zen, your 14 yera-old might eschew RTDs - please don't tell me you're basing your opinion on the preference of one person.
Good to hear you are not advocating banning Robert. Also, I'm not basing my opinion on the preferences of one person, that was merely a comment in reply to your use of the word "all", as in "all 14 year olds..."
ReplyDeleteIn fact, my point has nothing to do with what 14 year olds might like or not like. My point is that to change the drinking culture we have to more than just ban RTD's, or colourful packing, or increase the taxes on already over-taxed items. Indeed, all of those measures enable some sort of justification that meaningless action absolves us from taking effective action.