Fascism right at home
Even if you do live in the DC/VA/MD metro area, it's unlikely that you knew about the District's uber-strict "drunk"-driving laws. I put that word in quotes to illustrate what happened to a lawyer recently after she had a glass of wine with dinner:

Debra Bolton had a glass of red wine with dinner. That's what she told the police officer who pulled her over. That's what the Intoxilyzer 5000 breath test indicated -- .03, comfortably below the legal limit.

She had been pulled over in Georgetown about 12:30 a.m. for driving without headlights. She apologized and explained that the parking attendant must have turned off her vehicle's automatic-light feature.

Bolton thought she might get a ticket. Instead, she was handcuffed, searched, arrested, put in a jail cell until 4:30 a.m. and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

The arresting officer's words are even more chilling:

As D.C. police officer Dennis Fair, who arrested Bolton on May 15, put it in an interview recently: "If you get behind the wheel of a car with any measurable amount of alcohol, you will be dealt with in D.C. We have zero tolerance. . . . Anything above .01, we can arrest."

Yes, folks, thanks to a DC council decision years back, our police force in DC giddily enforces the letter of the law against Ms. Bolton, charging a sober driver with drunk driving. The comical aspects aside, this police policy actually encourages people to lie when pulled over. Seriously, why would you ever confess to a single beer or glass of wine if you knew they could take you to jail just based on that? Welcome to the nation's capital of zero tolerance.