Author Archives: mike

Nannyism: It’s for the Military, too

So if the military trusts you with some of the most deadly and destructive weapons known to man, the logical thought would be that they would also trust you to handle yourself around alcohol, right?

Wrong.

“For all other 2ID Soldiers who choose to consume alcohol, they must do so responsibly at all times. Specifically, they will moderate their alcohol consumption and not consume alcohol to the extent that their blood alcohol content (BAC) is above .10.”

Yes, you heard correctly. The Army’s 2nd Infantry Division (responsible for most of the U.S. Army personnel in South Korea) has mandated that no one under its command will have a BAC above .10%. Ever.

What is the reason given for this drastic action?

“All 2ID Soldiers must be in a high state of readiness and must be able to respond immediately and decisively in order to perform their armistice and wartime fighting mission. Irresponsible alcohol consumption is harmful to that readiness and detracts from training. Furthermore, alcohol-related incidents by 2ID Soldiers can have strategic consequences and can jeopardize the important relationships we maintain with the Republic of Korea. Furthermore, there has been shown to be a direct correlation between alcohol abuse and misconduct (e.g., sexual assault offenses). Therefore, we must ensure that irresponsible alcohol consumption does not deter 2ID from accomplishing its armistice training or wartime fighting mission, and does not endanger the lives and well-being of 2ID Soldiers and others. We must also establish and maintain a Warrior ethos that deglamoratizes alcohol and promotes early identification and treatment of abusers.”

Makes perfect sense to me. Actually, if you dig a little deeper you’ll find that this policy is an attempt to help cut down on the number of underage drinkers. Of course, this raises the question of why we have the idiotic 21 year old age limit on alcohol in the first place, but that’s a battle for a different day. The bottom line is that the 2ID has decided that the solution to underage drinking is to punish everyone and try to control soldiers’ behavior when they are off duty. I wonder how many otherwise good soldiers careers are going to be adversely affected when they blow a .11% BAC?

In any case, this is just the latest in a series of actions by the U.S. military to increasingly control the off-duty lives of its personnel. My favorite is the USAF’s “Culture of Responsible Choices.” It’s a sad commentary on our culture that even the military has been affected this deeply by nannyism.

A Step Back

I put up this video over at my blog, it’s well worth a look if you’re interested in the idea of Web 2.0

The reason I post it is that I think it’s important every now and again for us to all step back and fully appreciate just how revolutionary this medium that we all take part in is. A group of like minded people ranging from coast to coast and all points in between are able to communicate to an audience of thousands from around the world. It seems like something we would take for granted, but not even 10 years ago this type of a communication tool barely existed.

So as you’re reading this blog tonight, by all means, engage in all forms of spirited political debate. But take a moment to consider how amazing it is that we’re able to have this discussion at all.

The Road to Serfdom (in cartoons!)

A few days ago Adam wrote about F.A. Hayek’s “The Road to Serfdom.” In that post, he linked to an online copy of the piece. Included in that online copy was a set of cartoons that laid out, very briefly, the thrust of the piece. I stumbled across the same cartoons on a separate site. (I would give a hat tip, but I can’t remember who put me on to the cartoons. If it was you, just let me know.)

In any case, it doesn’t take very long to read but it definitely gets the point across.

More from Manassas Park

I’ve written before about the plight of the David Ruttenberg and his bar. There’s been some new developments, and the police look worse than ever. Radley Balko’s Cliff’s Notes version: “David Ruttenberg hires a guy named Tom Kifer to head up security for his bar. Kifer is specifically charged with keeping drug activity out of Rack n’ Roll. Ruttenberg later finds out that Kifer is working for the police, who have instructed him to set up drug deals in the bar, which they then plan use against Ruttenberg, who would later lose his license for — wait for it — failing to stop drug activity in his pool hall.”

What is one supposed to do in this situation? You know there is drug activity going on in your bar, so you hire bouncers specifically charged to deal with that drug activity. You install sophisticated security devices to help with the problem. You even go so far as to invite police into the bar, because as a good citizen, you want to cooperate with the law. The police repay that cooperation by setting you up and coopting your security in order to help them implicate you in a drug deal. Where do you have left to turn?

This whole story stinks to high heaven, and it looks like it’s about to blow wide open. Make sure to check out Radley Balko’s site and Black Velvet Bruce Li for further updates.

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