<story><title>Girl buys water, spends night in jail</title><url>http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/uva-girl-water-beer-jail-181104442.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aidos</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m always a little amazed that the age for buying booze in the states is 21.&lt;p&gt;Wait, am I understanding this correctly? At the age of 20 she&amp;#x27;s not allowed to buy alcohol but could have already owned a gun for 2 years?&lt;p&gt;The world is a funny old place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>InclinedPlane</author><text>You can pretty much blame MADD for that. Originally it started out as an organization with the best intentions but over time it&amp;#x27;s turned into more or less a modern temperance movement.&lt;p&gt;The key was figuring out that if you pressure the federal government enough you can get states to fall in line. The federal government doesn&amp;#x27;t have the ability to set a blanket drinking age for every state. But it does have the ability to withhold federal highway funds from states that refuse to set their minimum drinking age at 21.</text></comment>
<story><title>Girl buys water, spends night in jail</title><url>http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/uva-girl-water-beer-jail-181104442.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aidos</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m always a little amazed that the age for buying booze in the states is 21.&lt;p&gt;Wait, am I understanding this correctly? At the age of 20 she&amp;#x27;s not allowed to buy alcohol but could have already owned a gun for 2 years?&lt;p&gt;The world is a funny old place.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aray</author><text>The biggest thing for me has been that you&amp;#x27;re old enough to die for your country -- required enlistment for the armed forces selective service (&amp;quot;the draft&amp;quot;) -- but not old enough to buy a beer.</text></comment>