I do. I wont, but I think I can.
Anyone else?
I think I can every time. Hence the problem with having .1 BAC. Impaired Judgement.
When sober, I’m not really thinking about it. But I know I can’t do it while operating a cell phone, eating a burger, fighting with the wife and/or kid, with a freaking lap-dog on me, reading the paper, applying make-up or any number of other horrible situations I witness everyday.
Do I have a point? No, not really.
Car and Driver magazine did a drunk test a bunch of years ago. They found that by .04 none of the drivers could hit the floor with their hats. The conclusion? Point zero eight was too high a standard.
ETA: no way in hell can you drive safely at .010
I don’t know how to translate the UK alcohol driving limit to US BAC, but the legal limit here is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood. Not sure how that compares in terms of intoxication.
Anyway, last weekend I was at a friend’s house. We’d been drinking at a barbecue all afternoon, then went back to his house and drank more beer.
He’d recently acquired a well-calibrated breathalyzer. Consumer reviews had found it as accurate as the ones the cops use. So we had a go on it.
He, after two beers, an entire bottle of wine, then another beer, over the course of 7 hours, blew .73. I, after 6 or 7 pints of beer in the same timescale, blew 0.71.
Both of us agreed that we felt very intoxicated, and there was no damn way either of us would get behind the wheel of a car, despite being just within the legal limit. So if the US limit is similar to the UK limit, the answer is “no, I don’t think you can drive safely”.
(I also learned that my car speedo reads 10% under. So generally the weekend taught me that I can drink way more than I thought, and drive faster than I thought, and still be within the law. I won’t though.)
I would love to see this because I don’t believe this at ALL! A .04 BAC is essentially 1.25 beers in an hour based on the info taught at driving schools across the nation. I’m sorry, but anything that claims that no one could “hit the floor with their hat” after less than a beer and a half in a hour is seriously flawed.
Some years ago, I took part in a study of drunk driving. We had to drive a modified car around a track and the car measured how well we kept the line, steered through corners, etc. We had to do it with a BAC of 0.02, 0.05 and 0.08. We were given straight alcohol mixed with peppermint oil, so we didn’t know how much we’d drunk. The study found that a lot of people were still OK at 0.05, but everyone was significantly impaired at 0.08. The researchers did find that some of the fit, young males could consume more alcohol than the recommendation without getting to 0.08. But based on that study I would never drive if I thought I was above 0.05. In fact, I try not to drink and drive at all, even after one drink. But I don’t drink much.
I remember the time that Dr Johnny Fever took that BAC test.
I don’t know but I wouldn’t be willing to test it. Driving around L.A. can sometimes be nerve-wracking even sober.
My problem with these studies is: Who are their test subjects?
If you take someone who doesn’t drink very often and submit them to these tests as you describe; then no, I can’t imagine they would do all that well.
But OTOH, if you take a seasoned veteran who gets buzzed on a weekly basis; I think THAT test subject would do much better.
That would entirely depend on the size of the beer one is serving. The standard 12 ounce beer is 1.5 servings of beer.
That’s not true. One beer, one glass of wine or one shot of spirits are all “one drink”. cite and cite
Ugh, I was thinking of a pounder versus a 12 ounce beer and then somehow turned retarded. Thanks for pointing that out. 
Small amounts of alcohol do “improve” driving, as alcohol’s depressive effect can calm nerves and reduce stress leading to fewer mistakes behind the wheel.
I believe the study showed it was about 1 shot equivalent (not sure what that translates to in BAC terms though).
It’s the same reason alcohol is banned from olympic shooting events - it does steady the hand and provide a benefit.
However, the line between “not stressed” and “too pissed to drive” is a fine one, and not consistent across individuals which makes it hard to codify an objective standard in law.
It could have nothing to do with giving people who are armed alcohol, huh? I mean, that doesn’t sound like a policy to my mind so much so that where I live it’s illegal to carry a deadly weapon and be drinking.
No, that’s just silly. A trained olympian who, if they were going to use alcohol as a shooting aid, would have trained hudreds of times after consuming a small amount of alcohol is not going to suddenly go nuts with one shot. Shooting and drinking are a bad combination generally - but we’re not talking about some rednecks knocking back a 12 pack while hunting.
It’s banned because it’s a performance enhancing drug in this case.
As to the OP, I can’t answer this question as I don’t have a good intuitive feel for what different BAC levels feel like. Sometimes you see those brethalyzers at bars - are those accurate enough to give a good indication of your actual BAC level?
No worries. I almost mentioned that a pint is closer to 1.5 servings. And of course it depends on what kind of beer you drink, too.
On the rifle team in college it was pretty well established that a mild hangover would help your score. 
I know my local Olympiad is a redneck and she competed in this very event. Define “small” amount. Is it a drink to performance level kind of thing? Or would it be a set amount? Or a set percentage?
Is there a cite where the Powers That Be have ruled that booze in an performance enhancer and is thus banned? Or do you think it’s possible they understand there’s some liability there if one of the competitors gets a little too happy and puts out someone’s eye?
My understanding is that we’re talking probably around one shot or less.
And no, I don’t have a cite as to why that’s an officially banned practice. But practically it’s obvious. An olympian who has trained doing this activity hundreds of times isn’t going to become so impaired by 1 drink that he randomly starts shooting people.
Well, so long as it’s obvious.
I’m under the impression that they also ban drugs such as benzodiazepine (Xanax) from competitive shooting events, drugs that steady your hands and help you remain calm (remember the “diazepam” item in Metal Gear Solid that you were supposed to use before the Sniper Wolf boss fight?) I think they might even ban the use of nicotine prior to the shooting event.
About those drunk-driving tests, are those administered with actual cars or with “simulators” (cars equipped with monitor screens or virtual-reality goggles that run a driving simulator program which allows you to modify the “blood alcohol content” and its resulting effects on your driving within the simulator)? Because the latter is complete bullshit. I know because they brought one to the IU campus and I volunteered to try it. It is in no way comparable to driving an actual car.