How do libertarians view drunk driving?

[jimprofitanon]

Yes, some people might not be much different intoxicated as opposed to sober. But I don't remember Ayn Rand ever addressing it...

If someone is intoxicated, they've lowered their ability to rationalize presumably, they are also in a several thousand pound vehicle going atleast thirty miles per hour. This is a weapon at this point, and thus, a

Comments

[jimheem]

when you operate intoxicated on a public highway, you are a hazard to public safety, therefore it's not even a libertarian issue - no sane person would argue that it's ok to shoot your gun willy nilly while walking around down town, it's the same thing, and I really don't think even the strongest libertarians would disagree. However, don't f- with me if I want to be an idiot, get hammered and drive my jeep around my own property.

Firing a gun around willy-nilly...

[montecristo]

There are lots of places in this world where such is commonplace, such as at celebrations. Note, this does not constitute endorsement of firearms irresponsibility; it is just to note that some places have a more relaxed attitude about firearms discharge when nobody has been injured.

[anne_keckler]

But many libertarians *do* disagree with what you have said here. How is there a crime without a victim? And how do we determine if someone is too impaired to drive? Is it by how much alcohol they've consumed? What about cold medicine? What if they are simply too tired? Why is it only alcohol that we have laws against

[joshua_2415]

Or how about this:
YOU get to decide what you can handle and whether or not you are ok to drive.
However, if you get into an accident while impaired, even just a little bit, no matter what it is causing the impairment, cough syrup, weed, vodka, whatever... and it's your fault, you lose the privilege to drive... forever. And they take your car.
That would leave the choice completely up to each individual to decide whether or not it's worth taking the chance of having a few beers, twenty beers or no beers. There is really no way to know if the beer was the cause.

I wonder how many accidents have been reported as "alcohol related" that were not the drinker's fault?
If I'm sitting at a red light, drunk as hell, waiting for the light to change and some sober guy plows into me from behind, doesn't that get reported as an alcohol related incident? I know if I happen to be on a cell phone when that happens, it would be reported as cell-phone related. (not caused, but related).

Okay, your post might merit some discussion, if you can tone down the pugnacious buffoonery

[montecristo]

1) Get over yourself. Go eject yourself. Federalism is a perfectly valid approach to the problems brought about by federal meddling and it certainly is how the country was founded to operate

Re: Okay, your post might merit some discussion, if you can tone down the pugnacious buffoonery

[bertro]

in the case of private roads, it could be regarded as a contract violation if, as a condition for driving on an owner's road, the motorist previously specifically agrees not to do so in an inebriated state as a condition for being allowed access.

This is no different for roads owned by the public.

Re: Okay, your post might merit some discussion, if you can tone down the pugnacious buffoonery

[inibo]

Except for the lack of a contract.

Re: Okay, your post might merit some discussion, if you can tone down the pugnacious buffoonery

[bertro]

You've agreed to the terms by using the road. Like with all that computer software and stuff. It's not like the fact you'll get fined and possibly stripped of your license is some secret hidden in the small print.

[bertro]

Drunk drivers are why libertarians can't have nice things. Also children.

[gharbad_cf]

Too true to be funny.

Acid Bath

[wojtesticles]

that's what drunk drivers should get, dipped in a vat of Acid.
-the career of the band Acid Bath was cut short by a drunk driver-

I have had a lot of experience this year as a designated driver and dealing with way too many friends who think it's bad-ass to drive drunk. It's totally bad ass that you don't have your license anymore and such. When organizing events make sure to have something interesting for your designated driver to do, a billiards table should suffice. also make sure to bet money on billiards games to see if being drunk makes you lose money to your designated driver at pool, if you lose money playing pool while drunk, you shouldn't make bets on getting your car home in one piece.

Re: Acid Bath

[inibo]

That's actually the closest thing to making sense I've seen out of you so far.

Re: Acid Bath

[wojtesticles]

you should listen to acid bath, the song -cheap vodka, hmm, let me see if I can warp the dimensions of the player-

Re: Acid Bath

[inibo]

I can only hope the drunk driver killed all of them.

[inibo]

If you say "the states should decide", I'm immideatly[sic] ejecting you from this conversation as a bullshit troll". The south lost the civil war. Get over it.

The United States lost the war in Vietnam thereby validating Hồ Chí Minh's particular brand of Communism. Get over it.

[lordtwinkie]

that wasn't a war!

[inibo]

It was, I suppose, an ice cream social?

The war between the the central government and the Confederacy wasn't a civil war, that implies two entities vying to control the same government, it was a war of secession.

Definitions are not the issue. Whether that ice cream social was declared or not is not the issue. The original poster implied that because the central government triumphed federalism was discredited. It wasn't, it was merely beaten into submission.

By the original poster's reasoning Communism demonstrated superiority over liberal democracy by driving us away from the picnic. It didn't, we just gave up and went home (and not a minute too soon in my opinion).