Alcohol prohibition has got to go

Currently, while the Georgia Legislature is in session, a petition drive is underway to "Repeal Prohibition of Sunday Sales of Alcoholic Beverages at Stores in the State of Georgia."

Georgia is one of the few states that bans alcohol sales in stores on Sundays. Nowhere in Georgia can you legally buy beer, wine or spirits to take home with you on a Sunday. Some cities in metropolitan areas allow Sunday sales "by the drink" in a restaurant, but generally speaking, Georgia is one dry place on Sundays.

It's archaic, and it's time the law forbidding Sunday sales be scrapped.

Nearly 15,000 Over 26,000 37,300 42,000 Georgians have signed an online petition which will soon be submitted to the Georgia General Assembly, Georgia Lieutenant Governor and Senate President Casey Cagle, and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.

If you are a Georgia resident, I urge you to sign it, too. It matters not whether you are a user of alcohol. Banning the sale of legal products simply because the day is held "holy" by some — but certainly not all — Georgians just isn't right.

It's time Georgia joined the 21st century.

Georgia | Blue Laws | Alcohol | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Fahrenheit 55

I'm a strong advocate for freedom of choice, and for personal responsibility.

If you don't like this blog, you just don't read it. If you don't like a television program, you just don't watch it. If you don't like Harry Potter, you don't read the books. And if you don't like alcohol, you just don't drink it.

Simple, isn't it?

You don't go on a moral crusade to ban blogs, TV shows or books. You don't try to put TV producers and J.K. Rowling out of business. You just live and let live, letting people who disagree with you go on with their lives, doing what they want.

Unless you think you've got God on your side.

Alabama preacher Eddie Gooch is sure God is on his side, so he and his United Methodist Church congregation have been campaigning to have the sale of alcohol banned in his town. Voters in Athens, Alabama, a town of 22,000 at the crossroads of Interstate 65 and U.S. Highway 72, 25 miles west of Huntsville, are deciding today whether to return their town to the days of Prohibition, AP reports.

Gooch isn't worried about the town losing businesses or tax revenues if alcohol sales are banned. Normal economic growth and God will make up any difference if residents dump the bottle, he said.

"We believe that God will honor and bless our city," Gooch said.

"If it can be voted out anywhere, it will be here because so many Christians are against it," said Teresa Thomas, who works in a Christian book store.

Wonder how she'd feel if books were banned. Where would she work then?

UPDATE, Wed. August 15: The people of Athens, Alabama, overwhelming told Rev. Gooch they are keeping their hooch!

By a margin of 67.9 to 32.1 percent, the measure to return to Prohibition was rejected.

And... in the southern Alabama town of Thomasville, 57% of the voters voted to go "wet," making Thomasville the 17th city in Alabama to allow alcohol sales within a county that is otherwise dry.

Source

Alcohol | Christians | Athens, Alabama | Freedom of Choice | United Methodist Church | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Party at Masonic hall turns violent when alcohol runs out

It looks like we made it through a weekend without a stabbing or shooting at a party held at an American Masonic lodge.

But Friday night in Werribee, Victoria province, Australia, a 19-year-old's birthday party at a Masonic hall turned into a riot.

Passions were anything but subdued when the $5 for all-you-can-drink party turned violent when the alcohol ran out.

Police called to the scene were pelted with rocks and bottles. Three officers were injured, six police cars damaged, and a woman was trampled after fleeing her vehicle.

Police were so outnumbered by the unruly mob that they were forced to release the few people they were able to arrest. Even pepper spray didn't slow the crowd down.

Masons | Masonic Violence | Drunken Mayhem | Freemasonry | Australia | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com