News of the Day, Friday, January 19, 2007

A couple of drunk driving stories that raise a key issue that we're all going to have to address. This one is about a guy getting the max sentence in MA for his TENTH DUI. And this one is about efforts in AZ to deal with "extreme" DUI offenders with tougher penalties. The first one raises the point of whether the second is just blowing in the wind. The latter has a great idiotic quote from a legislator tired of people who raise the cost issue of imprisonment when the state can make up the money from not having to deal with drunk driving accidents. . . uh-huh. And this guy got a majority of votes. What's that saying, you think this representative is bad, you should see his constituents. Anyway, the cost issue is real and make-believe solutions and Tinker Bell clapping won't get rid of it. But the frustration is justifiable, too, as the guy in MA shows. Which gets me to the point. What's a possible solution out there right now that offers, as yet unproven, opportunities to deal with the problem in a clearly cost-effective way? Could it be . . . technocorrections? All three areas of techno--surveillance, pharmaceuticals, and genetic reengineering--have prospects for handling the MA guy. But they are and will be hyped beyond our abilities to keep ahead of it. . . . Another good article on the CO situation and the policymakers there getting proactive after a decade basically of neglect to try ways more cost-effective for public safety. . . . A British study indicates that "Highly educated British women are more likely to binge drink in their 20s but curb the habit by the time they reach 40," but that "the reverse is true for women with fewer qualifications who make up the bulk of female binge drinkers in middle-age." Lower socio-economic males win the trophy for binge drinking at all stages of their lives, though. Do I need to say the "t"-word again?