January 20, 2005
Cracking Down on Beer?
By Karl-Thomas Musselman
There will be a few bills filed this session dealing with Underage drinking in Texas, all to be opposed by the Beer Industry of course, but this time, I feel like I might have their backs.
The Statesman gives us a preview...
A House bill filed this week would require Texans who buy kegs of beer to fill out a state registration swearing they are 21 years old and promising not to serve the beer to minors...
Another bill would limit the amount of alcohol that may be served in any one drink by licensed retailers to a half-ounce of pure alcohol or the equivalent. A police investigation into Wagener's death confirmed that he had been served eight or nine 4-ounce shots of liquor in 30 to 45 minutes, roughly the amount of a one-liter bottle of liquor...
And then the what seems to be the silliest one...
A second Eissler bill would punish vendors who sell alcohol to people during the early morning hours of their 21st birthdays...
From what I have heard about this last bill, it would supposedly make it illegal for the vender or bar owner to sell alcohol to those who have just turned the legal age 21 on the first day. Meaning, you are gonna party like it's your birthday, but you can't until noon of that day, or if it is Sunday, then not until 8 pm. (Considering that as it is now, the day you turn 21, you can legally drink at 12:01 am of that day.
Sounds like a lot of paperwork and hassel to me that isn't going to cut down on drinking but simply delay it for half a day, frustrating businesses and young people.
Posted by Karl-Thomas Musselman at January 20, 2005 03:48 PM
| TrackBack
It's gotta suck being the only BORer not 21 yet...
Well, Zach turns 21 February 8, but you've still got some time, no?
So long as Eissler's bill fails, 12:01 October 13th, 2005 we'll have to celebrate...
That is your b-day, right? Day before mine? Or somewhere around there, I remember.
God the fianl Eisser bill is just retarded. Part of the fun of turning 21 is waiting for midnight to hit and having your friends take you downtown to gets shots at every bar on 6th street and telling everyone that you just turned 21...
But on a practical note, why does it matter? I don't support the first bill that requires registration for buying beer kegs, but I understand the point of it. It's well-intentioned... to reduce underage drinking, but it's one of those it-looks-good-on-paper things that I doubt would have much of an effect in practice.
But the final bill... I just don't get. What is its purpose?? I mean if they really want to get technical about it, why don't they just require you to present your birth certificate in order to get served on your birthday, and only allow you to drink after the minute in which you were born. What a waste of time...
That's right Dobbs. 10-13-05 and I'm 21. The baby of BOR.
School Finance problems, leftover debaucles of CHIPs & tuition deregulation from the last session, a worker's comp system that is up for sunset review, and members are filing bills over crap like this.
Kind of like the story of Nero fiddling when Rome burned. Will this deluded guy's epitaph read like Nero's too: "Qualis artifex pereo?"
You guys are going to make me feel old soon, I just turned 22 two weeks ago.
Anyway, when it comes to alcohol in Texas, the laws are very screwy anyway. At the moment, I'm busy supporting an initiative to make the sale of alcohol legal in my home town. The law making McGregor "dry" was passed in 1958 after my maternal grandmother was killed by a drunk driver. So we enacted a law that made you drive 20 miles to the nearest other town to buy alcohol and drive back without drinking it. Suffice it to say, not a smart plan.
But morality and logic don't always play well together. Sometimes logic has to point out that a greater good is served by not being on the moral high horse.
