My (Opinionated) Celebration of The 75th Anniversary Of Repeal
My take on the historical significance of Prohibition and repeal.
December 04, 2008
December 03, 2008
Prohibition/Repeal Website
Lew Bryson over at Seen Through A Glass alerts readers to this website hosted by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. (Who knew??)
Anyway, the folks at DISCUS (how's that for an acronym?) obviously put a lot of time into the site, so have a look.
By the way, I am not ignoring the repeal anniversary completely: I have two op-ed pieces coming out, one tomorrow (the 4th) and one on Friday the 5th. (*1) I will post links to both as they become available. (This assuming, of course, the world does not collapse between now and then. Which could happen....)
Tip o' the mug to Lew.
*1: Reminder here that last April, I wrote a slew of entries about the April 7th anniversary of the return of legal beer. You can find a link to those entries over in the left-hand index. Click the link titled "return of legal beer."
November 26, 2008
More Repeal-Related Stuff
Amy Mittelman is blogging about repeal. You can read it here.
Also, sociologist David Hanson has been writing a series of columns about the way repeal unfolded in various states. You can read his take on Texas here.
Tip o' the mug to David Fahey at the Alcohol and Drugs Society's Daily Register.
What Are Your Plans For Repeal Day?
So asks Jeffrey Morgenthaler (*1). A bunch of people have replied on his blog, so he's compiling what amounts to an ad hoc national list of places to celebrate on December 5th.
Me? I'll be at home doing my usual stay-at-home thing. But my husband and I will hoist one in honor of the day.
*1: I mentioned Jeffrey a few blog entries back. He's the guy who's promoting National Repeal Day.
November 16, 2008
Speaking Of Repeal And December 5
On December 5, the Cato Institute will hold a forum on the subject of prohibition and repeal. Yes, it will also run live on the web.
Tip o' the mug to Jacob Grier, who alerted me to this event.
"Repeal Day" As National Holiday?
Jeffrey Morganthaler (mixologist and blogger in Eugene, Oregon) argues that December 5 ought to be a national holiday. Read about it here. And here's a link to his Repeal Day site.
He may be on to something.
August 19, 2008
Detour From Beer: Lower Drinking Age? Won't Solve the Real Problem
I'm on record as supporting rational drinking. You can read my earlier posts by clicking on the index link titled "rational drinking."
So of course I was more-or-less glad to hear that 100 college presidents support lowering the drinking age to 18. (There's are lots of reports online; here's one of them.)
But let's get real. Lowering the drinking age won't solve the underlying problem. It'll make the life easier for the nation's police (fewer lawbreakers to arrest), but . . . that's about all it would do.
Because, as I've said here before, the real problem isn't the drinking age. The real problem is that Americans demonize rather than respect alcohol, and infantalize drinking. Worse yet, we ignore the fact that alcohol is an ancient and normal part of human life.
No surprise, we don't teach kids to respect alcohol. We don't teach them how to drink. So what we get are teen-agers and young adults who, ya know, don't know how to drink.
Why do we treat alcohol and drinking so differently than, say, cars and driving? We know that putting an untrained driver behind the wheel of a car is dangerous. We TEACH kids to drive before we turn them loose with the car keys.
We should treat alcohol the same way: In the hands (mouths) of the inexperienced and untrained, alcohol can be dangerous. So we should TEACH kids about alcohol's role in human life and how to use it responsibly.
Until we start doing that, lowering the drinking age ain't gonna do a bit of good.
August 07, 2008
New Heights in Dumbassness
File this under "the incessant infantalization of drinking" and "dumbass liquor laws."
Thanks, Jay, for the providing the coverage and links.
June 20, 2008
Sanity on the Subject of Drinking? I Can't Believe It!
As I've noted here before, I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to neo-temperance. I believe that the anti-alcohol people like those who belong to MADD aren't solving a problem. They ARE the problem. We Americans demonize alcohol and infantilize drinking. We have only ourselves to blame for "problems" like "underage drinking" and "binge drinking."
So I'm astounded that editors at a mainstream magazine like Time had the balls to run this article. Astounded.
Hey, maybe there's hope!
And in response to the question posed by the article's author: Yes. You SHOULD drink with your kids.
April 22, 2008
More on Taxes, Beer, and Neo-Prohibitionism
Amy Mittelman has followed up on the issues and politics of the proposed California beer tax hike. You can read her blog entry here. (I think it's one of those blog format where the entries don't have separate urls, so it's the entry for April 21 titled, appropriately enough, "Fat Taxes.")
As is often the case, tip 'o the mug to David Fahey at the Alcohol and Drugs History society website.
April 18, 2008
We're Gonna Tax That Beer Right Outta Your Mouth....
To be sung to the tune of "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair."
In the 1880s and 1890s, the prohibitionists attacked drinking in part by going after drinkers' wallets: raising tavern license fees, raising brewer' taxes, etc.
Today's prohibs are still at it.
A thoughtful look at a Wisconsin attempt to control/reduce drinking by raising taxes is here at Amy Mittelman's blog. Amy wrote about the late 19th century relationship between the alcohol industry and federal tax policy in a terrific dissertation titled "The Politics of Alcohol Production." She's also the author of a book titled Brewing Battles.
And that reminded me of Jay Brooks's blog on the subject of beer and taxes a few days back. As always, he's got much to say on the subject, he being one of the staunchest defenders of our right to drink. To read Jay's piece, scroll down to the entry for April 11.
Thanks and a tip 'o the mug to David Fahey for alerting me to Amy's blog.
March 26, 2008
The Solution Begins At Home
I'm on record as supporting the idea of parents teaching their children to drink at home. (See especially my blog entry for November 1, 2007, titled "Thinking About Drinking -- and Kids.")
My belief is that when we demonize alcohol, we teach kids to fear rather than respect it. And then we end up with an "underage drinking problem." We end up with, in other words, a drinking problem of our own making.
Anyway, there's a thoughtful piece about this topic by Eric Asimov in today's New York Times.
Instead of resorting to the usual kneejerk "booze is bad, period," he actually did some digging to find out if there's any evidence that kids' attitudes toward alcohol can be shaped by parents at home.
Worth reading.
December 12, 2007
Mothers for Social Drinking
Coming out of the cave for a moment to affirm my support for Mothers For Social Drinking. (Thanks to Jay Brooks for his blog about this. It's his entry for December 8, 2007.)
November 06, 2007
Damn the Neo-Prohibitionists. Full Speed Ahead -- For Common Sense
I support ANYONE who is willing to stand up to the lunacy of the neo-prohibitionists (who, in my opinion, aren't solving a problem. They ARE the problem.)
Problem is, few people are willing to, especially politicians. That's one of the most unnerving of the similarities between the anti-saloon campaign of a century ago and the prohibitionist crusade of today: Most Americans have been so brainwashed on the subject that they toss reason out the window and react with jerking knees instead of open minds.
As a result, it's tough for the voices of reason to be heard. I've written several op-ed pieces on the topic -- but none have made it to print. When I submitted one of them to the Des Moines Register's "Iowa View" column a few years back, the editors took a grand total of five minutes to reject it by email. Too incendiary - -or so I assume.
But hey, I've got this blog instead. And once in awhile, someone does break through the barricade of unreason. There's a terrific piece by David Harsanyi in this month's online issue of Reason Magazine.
Here's his website/blog. His new book is Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America Into A Nation of Children.
Right on, brother, right on.
ADDENDUM (posted about an hour after the original entry): Yikes! Someone's webcrawler is busy. I'm already getting spam from the L*iber*tar*ians (to which I add asterisks only as a way to slow the google-crawl).
So just to clarify: I am not a L*iber*tar*ian. Indeed, I think government is one of the best ideas human beings have had since they learned to walk upright.
Laws are good. Taxes are fine. Dumbass ideas about "protecting" me from alcohol (and pate and butter and frency fries....) are not.
November 01, 2007
Thinking About Drinking -- and Kids
A few months back, an acquaintance told me that she was visiting New York City for the first time.
She wondered about how to spend her time there, so I offered up some ideas. Walk through Central Park and its zoo. Enjoy the Met.
And stop at Gramercy Tavern for a drink. Gramercy boasts the nation's finest bar, I told her. The selection of imbibeables is astounding, and the bartenders possess an extraordinary depth and breadth of knowledge about spirits, wine, and beer. (In my opinion, Gramercy's bar ought to be declared a national treasure.)
"Oh," she replied. "I'll be visiting a friend and her 14-year-old son. I wouldn't want to have a drink in front of him. It would set a bad example."
A mere heartbeat elapse before I seized the moment to spread my particular gospel.
"That's precisely why you SHOULD stop at Gramercy for a drink. It's a civilized and pleasant setting. The bar is full of comfortable chairs and there will be all kinds of people there, including families, enjoying time together. You and your friend can enjoy a fabulous drink and chat with each other and her son. It'll be the perfect opportunity for him to get a positive message about alcohol and drinking."
I pointed out to her that right now, the only message the boy gets is a negative one, and mostly from his peers. They all know about alcohol, right? It's that evil, demonic, forbidden stuff that they have to lie and steal to obtain. And when they do have some, they slug it down without thinking about what it is, what they're doing, or the consequences.
That's all that young man knows -- because no one wants to provide an alternative view.
But if she and her friend took him to Gramercy Tavern, he'd see and experience an alternative. He could sit down with two adults, watch them talk and enjoy their drinks, sharing each other's company and his.
He'd see that adults can drink without getting drunk (there's no rule that says imbibing equals intoxication or that drinking inevitably leads to drunkenness). He'd experience a place where alcohol is treated with respect and dignity.
He'd have the chance, in other words, to see the other side of alcohol, the one he's not learning with his buddies at school.
End of lecture. Spread the word.