On the Right - Jenna and Barbara, Honorary J.D.'s.(behavior of George W. Bush's daughters draws criticism of drinking age laws)(Brief Article)

NEW YORK, JUNE 5

We took one of those oaths not to write about the Bush ladies, but one aspect of their drinking affair is underplayed, which is the sheer idiocy of the law.

We all know that up until the counter-Woodstock anti-alcohol putsch of a generation ago, drinking was permitted in most states at age 18. Simultaneously, our lawmakers resolved a) to forbid drinking until age 21, and b) to permit voting at age 18.

Begin by acknowledging that alcoholism is the worst of our national curses. About 20 percent of Americans who drink, drink too much, and about 5 percent become alcoholics. They destroy family life, run over people while driving automobiles, aim pistols at their wives' lovers or at their wives, and commit suicide, sometimes belatedly. But those projections are not airtight, so that the most that can be said is that it pays to postpone alcoholic intake until a little supplementary seniority is there to contribute a better perspective than you have at the earlier age. Certainly the perspective of Jenna and Barbara was off. To have slipped a drink when, it turns out, AP, Larry King, MGM, 60 Minutes, and Jim Lehrer were all staring at them from the corner of the restaurant shows an immature perspective.

But attempts to legislate on the basis of a prudent projection of the incidence of alcoholism are themselves misplaced acts of legislative/moral energy, because to choose one is glaringly to ignore that which you did not choose, which is, of course, tobacco. The statistics here are very firm. If you don't smoke until age 21, the chances are 90 percent that you will not smoke ever. And nicotine addiction, though it doesn't cause ...