Replying to a message of Bob Klahn to Tim Richardson:

 TR>> I find it disgusting that, in a country where there are
 TR>> elaborate ways to check the ID of someone buying alchohol
 TR>> or tobacco, and there are stiff penalties for using false
 TR>> ID to purchase either one of those products, something as
 TR>> important as voting to elect local and national figures who
 TR>> will determine our policy and how the public moneys gets
 TR>> spent, gets a pass.

 BK>  Yet there is a big problem with underage drinking,

No there isn't and there never has been.  There *may* be a problem with
teenage drunkenness but that is easily eliminated.  It won't happen, though,
because it would require the government to get the h*ll out of peoples' lives.

Europe doesn't seem to have the problems this country has with drunks.
I noted years ago that children in Europe are socialized to alcohol - usually
wine, and with meals - at an early age.  In this country if a parent gives his
or her kid a glass of wine with dinner, or even a beer on a hot afternoon, somebody
will call the cops, the parent will be jailed and the kids put in foster homes.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+