I Can Make This Choice On My Own, Thanks ...

Well kids, once again some people here in Redneckville have decided to try and defeat the prohibitionists and turn our small, rural county wet.  As I have mentioned here many times before, the sale of alcohol is prohibited here.  We do have a few private clubs who have been given licenses to sell alcohol though.  Both the Elks Lodge and the Country Club have full bars.  There is another golf club up near the lake and a tennis club here in town that both still have a license for full bars, but those places are closed and for sale.  If anyone buys them and reopens them, the licenses are still good. 

And we have two restaurants in town that have a beer and wine license.  The most recent place to get a beer and wine license is Colton's Steakhouse.  Their initial application was denied, but they appealed.  At the appeal all the holy rollers and the county sheriff showed up to argue against the license.  Then the state beverage control board voted unanimously to deny the license.  Luckily though the board's director ignored their recommendation and granted the license anyway.  Nice system huh? Anyway, you can get a beer or glass of wine with your steak there now. 

A lot of people love to claim that the democratic party is the party of the "Nanny State."  And it certainly is in many ways.  But, the fact of the matter is, the desire to tell people what to do and control their lives cuts across party lines.  When was the last time you saw the republicans take control of a city, state or county government and repeal anti-smoking laws?  Almost never. My city and county are republican controlled and they are committed to making sure that I can't smoke anywhere in public (not that I smoke, but if I wanted to I couldn't do so anywhere other than in my own apartment) or run out and buy some beer if I want some without having to drive to another county or even to Missouri.  They also make sure that I don't run the risk of seeing any naked chicks in person or a dirty movie, or accidentally read something controversial either. They're just looking out for my well being, ya know.

Prohibition laws always bring out my libertarian streak.  I get into all kinds of arguments with people over my opposition to smoking laws.  "Why should the gov't be allowed to tell a person that he can't allow smoking in HIS OWN restaurant? He owns it!" I'll ask.  Invariably I'll get some mumbo-jumbo about public health and the health of the employees. "But, nobody is REQUIRED to go there or work there!" And then I get the "Well, I'm allergic to smoke/don't want to expose my kids to smoke and if they allowing smoking in that place I won't be able to go and I like there food" line.  The "It isn't fair TO ME!" Bullshit.

But, YOU don't have a God-given right to eat at that restaurant.  If the person who took the financial risk to open the place wants to allow smoking, he should be allowed to.  If, by allowing people to smoke, he can't find people to work there, or his business is so slow that he can't make money, then maybe he will have to go smoke free.  But, it will be the owner's decision and not forced on him by the gov't.  That's the free market in action.

Anyway, as you can imagine I fully support the county going wet.  Not only that, I think that beer and wine at least, if not liquor should be sold at convenience stores and even at Walmart.  And it should be sold on Sundays too!  That's another one of my pet peeves.  Allowing alcohol sales, but then limiting it to only a couple of stores that essentially engage in price fixing because of the lack of competition and then use the profits to buy off the local politicians to keep control over the liquor trade. Which is exactly what the bootleggers used to do back in the day.

Hell, we might as well go wet anyway now that there's a state lottery and we're all hardcore gambling addicts and our towns have been overrun with homeless and prostitutes.  Well, not yet, but it will happen. They promised us it would if we voted in that lottery.  Maybe if we go wet it will accelerate this a bit.  I'm not looking forward to dealing with the homeless, but the prostitutes will be a lot of fun.


Now don't be stupid people.  I'm not saying that I should be able to sit on a park bench by the lake and drink a fifth of vodka, talk to my bookie about what games I'm betting, smoke a pack of cigs (and maybe smoke a joint) all while having sex with a prostitute as I do in my dreams.
 

I'm just saying that I don't really need the government to protect me from myself.  And, for those of you who don't drink or smoke or gamble do anything "bad" ever? Good for you. Now shut the fuck up and quit trying to tell me how to live my life.