24 November 2007

At 18 - Access to Elections and Pornography

My son Blake's buddy turned 18 today. Blake was telling me, "Now Chris can go to x-rated movies and vote."


In its wisdom, the government has decided that young adults should have access to these two milestones - pornography and elections - at the same time. It's one of the rare occasions when government policy leaves me feeling nothing but admiration. How fitting that they should be lumped together.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Well said, Ron. Of course, 18-year-olds are also eligible for being drafted (if that system ever returns) and, in most states, to being sued as adults. It’s an absurd world!

LET'S TALK said...

I am waiting for my 15 almost 16 in January to reach the age of 18 and prepare for College.

This I find to be the years when a lots of mistakes take place and there's not much control we as parents have anymore.

I'll say congratulations and happy birthday to your sons friend Blake.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, but with divine wisdom, the government has decided that while our 18 year olds are surely able to vote and buy porn and cigarettes and ship off to foreign soil to fight questionable wars, they should have to wait another 3 years before tasting alcohol. Wouldn't want a bunch of teenage drunks making blurry decisions in the voting booths or in the back of the video store or while toting semi-automatic rifles and wearing military fatigues. That would just be taking things too far!

Life Hiker said...

Pornograpy and politics. In the first, you see exactly what you get. In the second, you see little of what you get. Seems like pornography is the more honest occupation.

Anonymous said...

My parents told me I couldn't watch X-movies legally until I was 35! Dang it...I've been missing out this whole time!

PS: Life Hiker: That was funny!

Ron Davison said...

Saint Nick,
to be fair to Blake, he did list the draft and gambling as well - it's just that the coupling of pornography and politics had never before registered with me.

LT,
There is a lot at stake at this age - fortunately much of it can be recovered from.

cce,
drunk 18 year-olds with weaponry. Hm. Yeah. I can see where that might be a problem. So, either put off the draft age or drinking age, but you can't bring them both in. No wonder the government gave enlistment age a priority.

LH,
a perfectly quotable quip. Thanks for the laugh.

Anon,
Your parents are probably just trying to keep your record clean before your run for the presidency.

Dave said...

Back when I was that young, the drinking age was 18, booze, porn, gambling, gambling and the lottery draft which was a nail biting event because we still had Vietnam.

I'm officially old, I'm doing comments about how "when I was young we walked a mile to school in the frozen snow...," wait, I did that for real to.

Ron Davison said...

What is that awesome line of Argus Hamilton's
"ABC News says Americans spend $300 billion every year on games of chance, and that doesn’t include weddings and elections."
It makes as much sense that a person can gamble and vote at the same age.
And yes, you're getting old. Sadly, it's at the same rate as all the rest of us.

David said...

Great picture. Lt Gen "Chesty" Puller, USMC (deceased), a first cousin of Gen George Patton, wanted to additionally give them beer and prostitutes if they were Marines. Semper Fi.