Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com
I would say that generally, most of us who are swimmers probably don't drink a lot.
There are certain exceptions to this, especially in this festive season.
Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com
We must realize though that alcoholism ----I don't think that Michael is an alcoholic-------and alcohol comsumption is at an all time high.
Where are you getting this statistic from? A quick search turned up this: www.niaaa.nih.gov/.../consum01.htm
From this data it appears average alcohol consumption has been falling since its peak around 1980.
I am resurecting this forum to talk about how people responded to the news. I went through and counted the type of responses made. I tried very hard ot not count people twice. I looked at the overall tone of hte response. If peole made a negative response about Michael or about drunk driving in general, I noted that fact. If people made a supportive comment about either waiting until all of the facts are known, innocent until proven guilty, or it isn't their place to judge, I noted those responses. I realize that to label a response as negative denoted a bad impression. I'm sorry for this but in many cases, I couldn't come up with a better title for the attitude of the response. many of the negative responses were also very absolute.
Most responses were made by peole living in what is considered traditionally to be the north. Many people wrote more than three resonses. Mnay of the responses were from peole living within Maryland (which I counted as northern).
Oddly, there sidn't seem to be any differing attitudes between male and female nor age. I expected younger peole to be more tolerant.
Southerns 10 total responses. 6 made negative resposes, 4 were either supportive or wait-n-see. Also, southerners were more likely to make multipl responses. Northerners 25 total 11 were negative, 14 were supportive. Westerners 8 total responses. 2 were negative and 6 were supportive. Also, many westerners responded several tiems. For those living utside fo the US sorry, I didn't count you.
I'm not sure what this means. I would say that generally, most of us who are swimmers probably don't drink a lot. We must realize though that alcoholism ----I don't think that Michael is an alcoholic-------and alcohol comsumption is at an all time high. There are parts of the country where it has hit a true epidemic (last I heard North & South Carolina has had a trememdous increase in alcohol related car accidents).
From the Associated Press this morning:
Phelps Gets 18 Months Probation for DUI
Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps was sentenced to 18 months' probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to drunken driving.
And in a rare divergence from USMS Discussion Forum pundits, the Judge stated “We learn from our mistakes, and this was a mistake”.
Originally posted by gull80
Seriously, I thought that our society viewed a DUI differently from other moving violations. My mistake.
Considering that our president and vice-president have 3 DUIs between them, maybe not.
Maybe that's why they don't let the Pres or VP drive. Is Bush allowed to drive on his little Racherita in Crawford? Maybe he has one of those breathalyzer things on the tractor ignition switch that he has to blow into before doing some faux tree chopping.
On a completely unrelated note, did anyone read the obituary for the actor Jerry Orbach last week? He was a competitive swimmer in college apparently.
