Mothers Against Buzzed Trainriding

Radley Balko | August 2, 2007

Buried in this article about a new Amtrak promotion ($100 toward free alcohol for long train rides!) comes this:

Mothers Against Drunk Driving questioned whether $100 in free alcohol was too much.

"This sounds like a lot of credit toward possible overindulging," said MADD spokeswoman Misty Moyse.

What in the world is a MADD rep doing in an article about free booze on trains?

I believe it was a Hit & Run commenter who wrote a few months ago that MADD is no longer just "mothers"—it's current president is a man. Nor is it any longer just about "drunk," they generally opposed to drinking, too. Nor, as this article indicates, are they merely concerned about driving anymore. In the MADD acronym, that leaves only the word "against." Whatever it is, if it's related to alcohol, they're against it. Which sounds about right.

Comments

Groucho Marx|8.2.07 @ 11:12AM|#

Whatever it is, I'm against it!

|8.2.07 @ 11:17AM|#

Don't you understand? MADD is saving us. What if an Al Quaeda operative sneaks aboard the train and "takes out" the engineer? If all the passengers are drunk, who will take the wheel?

|8.2.07 @ 11:18AM|#

What do you expect.One drink is too much to these people.

|8.2.07 @ 11:18AM|#

Radley is correct that MADD has evolved over the years into being a mostly anti-alcohol group.

But I'm not sure that's such a bad thing. Somebody needs to at least point out occasionally that there is a cost that comes with the recreational consumption of booze.

Episiarch|8.2.07 @ 11:21AM|#

Maybe if Misty actually saw how much hooch costs on the fucking train she'd shut up.

Oh, and screw MADD.

|8.2.07 @ 11:22AM|#

No shit there is a cost that comes with consuming booze. It can get pretty expensive, especially with all of the taxes.

|8.2.07 @ 11:30AM|#

"there is a cost that comes with the 'recreational' consumption of booze."

This doesn't apply to me. I'm all business when it comes to consuming booze.

|8.2.07 @ 11:33AM|#

You know when I read it quickly it looked like: "Mothers against Buzzard Training."

|8.2.07 @ 11:40AM|#

I'll pass on the booze if they let me be the designated driver. Accela, my ass. TGV, baby.

D. Greene|8.2.07 @ 11:42AM|#

Booze on trains could lead to all sorts of objectionable activity that we disapprove of, including profanity and sex! Somebody should do something.

Windypundit|8.2.07 @ 11:49AM|#

"Whatever it is, if it's related to alcohol, they're against it."

It doesn't have to be related to alcohol. The are currently supporting primary enforcement of seat belt laws, and they also favor graduated driver's licenses for young drivers, including nighttime driving restrictions and restrictions on carrying young passengers.

MADD also spends a lot of time and money trying to get federal grant money for "helping victims."

I don't know if I'm the H&R commenter Radley is referring to, but I blogged about MADD's change in focus a while ago.

brian|8.2.07 @ 12:01PM|#

In Massachusetts last election, there was a proposition (Prop. 1) to allow convenience stores and grocery stores to obtain liquor licences to sell wine.

The liquor stores worked against the bill with MADD to stop competition from cropping up stop drunk driving accidents!

It looked like the prop. was going to pass, but MADD started an ad campaign right before the election saying "OMG WINE AT WALMART!" which for some reason frightened people enough to vote against it.

Anonymous Bastert|8.2.07 @ 12:04PM|#

The children.

|8.2.07 @ 12:04PM|#

MADD's numbers are also suspect.First they said 40,000 died because of DUI,when challanged they reduced it to 7,000.Now we know they were counting any one ivolved[passenger,bicycle rider] with a measurable BAC.I turns out the number is around 4500.They also stated that for every one DUI aresst,10-15 people are not caught.That's over 10,000,000 people,yet very few die as a result.I do not support drunk driveing,I think the term has be down graded so far as to include people that are not a danger.

|8.2.07 @ 12:05PM|#

Sorry,ment 17000

robc|8.2.07 @ 12:09PM|#

there is a cost that comes with the 'recreational' consumption of booze.

About $4/gallon. I homebrew, so my costs are fairly low.

|8.2.07 @ 12:16PM|#

Whenever I get a call from MADD soliciting donations, I point out to them organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous support themselves through donations from their own members. Then I ask them why, if organizations composed of drunks and drug addicts can support themselves, why can't an organization of busy-bodies?

|8.2.07 @ 12:26PM|#

God I hate MADD. They should all burn in hell just for coming up with the idea of a 21 drinking age.

|8.2.07 @ 12:30PM|#

Brian at 1201 provides us with an excellent modern example of the "Baptists and Bootleggers" (PDF) story. The rent-seekers and the moralist who oppose what they do work in cahoots to screw the rest of us.

|8.2.07 @ 12:57PM|#

These guys are twerps. But they do have something of a point.

Depending on where I am going, after I exit an Amtrak train I often get into a car. If I were a commuter going to and from NYC/Connecticut or NYC/Philly this would apply.

|8.2.07 @ 1:02PM|#

MADD is no longer just "mothers"-it's current president is a man.

Not to mention that its founder and first president, Candy Lightner, broke with the organization in '85 and now describes it as a 'neo-prohibitionist' organization that went far farther in it's objectives than she ever intended.

Mission creep indeed.

x,y|8.2.07 @ 1:04PM|#

Depending on where I am going, after I exit an Amtrak train I often get into a car. If I were a commuter going to and from NYC/Connecticut or NYC/Philly this would apply.

And depending on where I'm going, after I exit a bar I often get into a car. The horror! We must ban alcohol from bars!!!

aaron|8.2.07 @ 1:12PM|#

Depending on where I am going, after I exit an Amtrak train I often get into a car. If I were a commuter going to and from NYC/Connecticut or NYC/Philly this would apply.

Except this promotion is for their new luxury long-distance package. Amtrak is trying to revive the past glory of luxury train travel.

I'm going to guess they won't succeed.

|8.2.07 @ 1:15PM|#

I remember when just a kid,when the shoe plant let out my dad and all his co-workers would have 2-3 beers before going home.Many times the police chief would join them.

Russ 2000|8.2.07 @ 1:19PM|#

Can't wait until MADD unites with the NRDC to ban cars.

|8.2.07 @ 1:27PM|#

Rode on Amtrak once. The best booze offering they had in 1997 was a 5 oz can of margarita for 4 bucks.

But I did get to take a shower while sitting on the toilet, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Lifelong dream #28: Fulfilled.

VM|8.2.07 @ 1:28PM|#

good thing you didn't elect to take a bath, then...

|8.2.07 @ 1:40PM|#

Well, the shower and the toilet were all in a single watertight room, so I did cheat a bit... but luckily "give a lot of leeway on the interpretation of fulfilling lifelong dreams" is Lifelong Dream #37.

Interesting sidenote (considering the bridge collapse thread is heading for another "9/11 Truth" troll circle jerk...):

I once told a girl: "You look like the kind of person who gets out of the shower to take a piss." For some reason this enraged her far more than any other insult or injury I had ever thrown her way. (And, mind you, one time I had hit her in the face with an acoustic guitar because she was playing it so terribly.) She never really spoke to me again. Straw on camel's back or secret shame? Never decided.

|8.2.07 @ 2:07PM|#

Yeah, $100 in credit on an Amtrak ride for booze isn't as much as it sounds. They have near movie-theater prices.

|8.2.07 @ 2:08PM|#

Still, Acela is the best NY to DC route since 9/11.

|8.2.07 @ 3:07PM|#

libertarianz r dum lol

|8.2.07 @ 3:11PM|#

Depending on where I am going, after I exit an Amtrak train I often get into a car. If I were a commuter going to and from NYC/Connecticut or NYC/Philly this would apply.

Yeah, and then there are people like me who live in the city sans car, so when I get off the train I walk, cab, take a bus or get a ride. Why should I get jacked because people on the train may be sloshed? If train riding and then drunk driving is such an epidemic, then MADD should lobby for those privacy invading DD checkpoints outside the train station.

|8.2.07 @ 3:40PM|#

"...MADD is no longer just "mothers"-it's current president is a man."

Grammar Nazi On Patrol -- the apostrophe in "it's" needs to be removed.

MADD makes me mad.

Alice Bowie|8.2.07 @ 3:47PM|#

MADD is a neo-prohibition movement

They are well aware that if they try to sound PROHIBITION-LIKE...people will bring up PROHIBITION...and it's Failures.

However, their strategy is NOT to outlaw liquor...but to outlaw anything that has to do with it...and it's working

Alice Bowie|8.2.07 @ 3:48PM|#

Why, for example, is MADD against people owning their own breath-a-lizers. B-cause they'd rather have alcohol drinkers go to jail...and be pursuaded to STOP drinking...than to have responsible people be aware of their BAC...and not drive

Tym|8.2.07 @ 4:13PM|#

...MADD is no longer just "mothers"

No, but they are "muthas"

|8.2.07 @ 4:49PM|#

Is it possible that this is a case of bad journalism, where the "journalist" was trying to get enough material for an article and for some reason decided to call MADD, who was mostly like "WTF?" but then decided maybe they should come up with a statement that sounded a like like "damn that's a lot of boooze."

sidenote: I too hate the bizitches at MADD

|8.2.07 @ 4:59PM|#

MADD will have to pry my booze from my cold dead hands!

|8.2.07 @ 5:13PM|#

Why should we care what MADD says? This thread is far more attention then they deserve.

e|8.2.07 @ 5:40PM|#

Why not follow the standard libertarian policy on Amtrak and eliminate it altogether? Cato predicts that "Many money-losing routes would probably be abandoned." That makes MADD happy, airline and oil companies' profits increase due to lack of competition from Amtrak, and another threat from Big Government eliminated. Everyone wins!

|8.3.07 @ 9:12AM|#

Minions Against Dudes Doingstuff