OK, Carrie, drop the mask
   I’m mad at MADD. The organization of justifiably angry moms that began as Mothers Against Drunk Driving has morphed into a mob of Mrs Grundys denouncing all alcohol consumption. By anyone. Ever.
   I’ve always accused the Women’s Christian Temperance Union of sailing under false colours by not calling itself the Women’s Christian Abstinence Union when what it really wants is a return to Prohibition. In the same way, I argue that MADD should admit its full agenda and simply call itself Militants Against Demon Drink.
   I’m all for combatting drunk driving, and for that matter drunkenness itself, but the sale of alcohol doesn’t automatically promote inebriation any more than the sale of food promotes obesity.
   It’s true there are people physically unable to tolerate alcohol. There are people physically unable to tolerate peanut butter. For some, Skreech can be as deadly as Skippy. But for most people peanuts are a highly nutritional food source just as alcohol, in moderation, is a useful social lubricant with modest health benefits — red wine’s good for your heart, etc.
   So while I’m happy to go along for the RIDE, I’m agin MADD turning into a League of Carrie Nations.
   I’m mad at it at the moment because its powerful publicity machine is opposing calls to allow the sale of beer and wine in Ontario grocery stores, calls which I heartily endorse — and which, having taken a vow of brevity in these rants, I’ll have to take up another time.