Powdered alcohol?! Think of the children!

I can remember one year for Christmas my stepmother asked my 12-or-so-year-old niece what she wanted, and one of the things she said was a laser pointer.

My stepmother asked me about it later. I said “yeah, just go to Amazon and pick one out. There’s not a lot to them.”

Then she said “well, do you think she’ll shine it at airplanes?”

That’s what I thought of when I read that one of the foremost planks in the powdered alcohol hysteria is that “kids will sprinkle it on cereal.” Some of us think, with our (ostensibly) adult minds, of some messed up thing that could happen, and then decide that children are going to do that. One of the very first pieces I wrote at Rocket City Mom discusses then phenomenon.

I would say kids are about as likely to sprinkle powdered vodka on their cereal as they are to pour liquid vodka on their cereal. If the latter isn’t a problem, the former won’t be either.

I would say my niece is about as likely to shine a laser pointer at an aircraft as she is to violate any other federal aviation regulation. If the latter isn’t a problem, the former won’t be either.

The jihad against powdered alcohol is also emblematic of something else. Anytime something is explicitly, up front and center, “for the children,” then find the hidden agenda. Policies and agendas that really are for the children are obviously so and need not be labeled as such.

If it says to think of “the children,” look for the threat to liberty, your pocketbook, or both.

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