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.
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.
I often think that someone could devote an entire blog to the topic of Stupid Liquor Laws, said laws being a good indicator of this country's screwball attitudes toward alcohol. (Well, okay, now that I think about it, Jay comes pretty close to doing just that.)
Anyway, file this under Stupid Liquor Laws:
Today's Wall Street Journal features a piece about a guy named Ralph Erenzo. (I can't provide a link to the piece because the WSJ doesn't provide free content.) Erenzo lives in upstate New York, a mostly rural area with a mostly depressed economy.
He's doing his bit for creating a locally based, "green" economy by operating a small distillery, where he makes vodka, bourbon, rye, rum, and other spirits. He hires local labor, and relies as much as possible on local crops.
So what's the problem? New York laws forbid him from selling his stuff directly to customers. So he can't operate a California-type tasting room where you can sip the goods and then buy a case. A hundred people a day might drive by during summer tourist season, but they can't buy his goods.
Erenzo and his business partner lobbied the state legislature to change the law, much as micro-brewers did in California twenty-five years ago so that they could operate brewpubs and sell their beer to consumers.
After four years of lobbying, the legislature finally passed and the governor finally signed a law that created a new category of liquor license.
So where's the dumbass part? The law requires such small distillers to use ONLY ingredients found in New York. Nothing else.
Sooooooooo, as the columnist at the Journal (Brendan Miniter) points out, that lets out rum (sugar cane doesn't grow in New York), and Erenzo uses Candian rye. Which means he can't sell the stuff direct to customers.
So here's a guy who's trying to revive New York agriculture and support the local economy -- stymied by yet another example of dumbass liquor laws.
There's no moral to this story. Just more head-shaking and eye-rolling on my part.
When when when are we Americans gonna grow up and stop infantilzing the making and consuming of alcohol?
Blogs filled with clutter but lacking essential information.
You know what I mean: the pages where you canNOT tell who owns the damn thing or what he/she does or is.
Blog pages where the blogger rambles on and on and on in loooooooooooooooooooong paragraphs, which of course are single-spaced so they're incredibly hard to read on a screen.
Plus there's usually fifty-five kinds of shit running down both sides: Links to other bloggers. Links to this. Links to that. Links to other sites.
None of which I give a rat's ass about because I don't know anything about the whys and wherefores of the blog itself!
Ugh. I cannot be bothered.
Not naming names, although I'd love to. But being a polite midwesterner, I'll keep my mouth shut. Plus, why generate traffic for ungainly, poorly designed and conceived bytes o' nuthin'?