IAIN MURRAY WRITES THAT THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IS BACK. I think he’s right.

What convinced me was a really stupid commercial from MADD last year about alcohol and date rape. “Excuse me?” I thought. “What does date rape have to do with drunk driving?”

The answer is nothing — but it’s ironclad proof, if any is needed, that MADD has morphed from an anti-drunk-driving organization to an anti-alcohol organization. The pitch has gradually shifted from “don’t drive drunk,” (utterly correct and reasonable), to “don’t drink and drive” (not really the same as “don’t drive drunk,” but perhaps within the zone of reason) to, essentially, “don’t drink” — which is fluorescent idiocy. I hope that more people will start pointing this out, particularly as the evidence — long suppressed — of the health benefits provided by alcohol gets more attention.

What’s more, as Murray points out, most of the anti-alcohol claims being peddled in the media are, to put it bluntly, lies. Journalists need to start checking these claims, rather than mindlessly repeating them. The fact that claims come from a group that styles itself “non profit” doesn’t make them trustworthy.