From: Hermit (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Wed Jul 17 2002 - 19:35:53 MDT
In the same way that individual maturity ages vary dramatically, so does blood alcohol tolerance. So in the same way that an age of consent is highly prejudicial to the bulk of the population (society invariably chooses to err on the side of caution), blood alcohol level tests are vastly prejudicial to those with even marginally higher than usual tolerance levels. Yet while operator competence tests would be more reliable, far safer and vastly fairer than simpleminded blood alcohol tests, they are not available (probably at least in part due to the vested interest in the vast industry spawned by the status quo). Instead, whether justified or not, we apply draconian rules to drunken drivers - from fines, revocation of driving permits and incarceration, all the way to appointing them president.
So, Dr. Sebby, while you might be a safer driver when drunk than when sober, the incredible cost to yourself of the state determining otherwise, and a cost which you are well aware of, indicates a massive lapse of judgment on your part in placing yourself in a situation where you might have had to experience that cost.
In a second lapse of judgment that night, while it might have been your party - and as such you might have felt, "It's my party, I can skip if I want to", you had rather a lot of fellow Virians sitting around waiting for you to arrive on the night in question. The fact that we have seen not a word about this lapse of manners, whether attributable to memory, personality or judgment, leads me to consider that you understand what you did - and do not care. Which in turn lessens my care and respect for you.
Although the consequences of the second might seem to some to be less severe than those for the first, I'd suggest that the visibility of the second was - and is - an actuality - while the potential consequences for the first - fortunately for you - were avoided. Nevertheless, I would suggest that they both count as lapses of judgment - and both visible. I would suggest that not one but two lapses of judgment in one evening implies to me that your tolerance for alcohol is not nearly so great as you imagine - or were you trying to assert that you are like this all the time - when not drunk?
Curious minds want to know.
Hermit
---- This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25709>
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