Keep your hands off my booze
So as I sit here sipping my Bicardi and cola, I have to wonder at the absurdity and–not to put too fine a point on it–wholesale injustice of the fact that the “great” state of North Carolina controls my natural human right to purchase liquor and does so with an iron fist one would expect to be reserved for the most heinous of inhuman acts. How, in the 21st century, do we stand idly by and allow ourselves to be strong-armed by the state in our enjoyment of our spirituous refreshments?
Under the regime of the state of North Carolina, I could be thrown in jail (or killed, if I resist) just for distilling my own special brand of whiskey and attempting to sell it to my neighbors, who are willing buyers. Why do we permit a group of people lacking natural authority over our actions (but claiming for themselves some arbitrary authority granted by nonsensical democracy and social contract theory) to tell us what beverages we can or cannot buy and sell? And why do we (now speaking for the polity as represented by the organized crime cartel known as the government) insist on initiating force against our neighbors for their choice of livelihood? What right have we to assault and kill our fellow man for creating and selling a particular kind of drink that is in demand by others?
I say enough is enough. It’s time we learned to grow up and behave in a civilized fashion. All state alcohol control authorities, including my own state’s despicable Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, must be fought and ultimately abolished without delay. Write letters to the editor of your local paper, call and write your state elected officials, be creative! Above all, don’t ever–ever–accept the notion that the state has legitimate authority over you. Your only authority is you. Now, in the spirit of my Irish heritage, let’s drink and fight!
[Update: I have submitted concatenated versions of this post as letters to the editor of both the Herald Sun of Durham and the News & Observer of Raleigh. Both papers are already familiar with my work. He he he. ]
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
Comment from Darren
Time: July 22, 2008, 9:17 pm
Hey, you know we don’t disagree on EVERYTHING. Of course, I do disagree about alcohol and tobacco being vices as I don’t believe in the concept of vice outside of the framework of a person or group initiating force against someone else (which of course makes taxation and socialized medicine rather unforgivable vices in my book).
And yes, drive-through liquor stores would be sweet.
Comment from Darren
Time: July 23, 2008, 5:06 am
A reader e-mailed me the following in response to this post:
Isn’t it amazing what we have stopped questioning?! Perhaps, so elated to have the right to legally drink alcohol after the repeal of prohibition, we accepted any circumstances or cost put to us and let them just keep taking more and more of our rights. Sure, we’ll pay those extra taxes oh great state, as long as we can still buy our booze…
And now for our restaurants and event halls like mine to resell the alcohol in a profitable way the price has to be marked up so high so as to allow us to pay those extra fees to the ABC, the taxes and the insurance premiums, that it is ridiculous!
Good point! I didn’t even talk about the issue of the destruction of wealth, which accompanies every government action.
Comment from Darren
Time: July 23, 2008, 7:09 am
Update: I have submitted concatenated versions of this post as letters to the editor of both the Herald Sun of Durham and the News & Observer of Raleigh. Both papers are already familiar with my work. He he he.
Comment from Kelly
Time: July 22, 2008, 7:45 am
I wholeheartedly AGREE with this, Darren, which is just odd. I don’t believe any government should have the audacity to regulate the foods and beverages that I wish to enjoy as an adult. That being said, I do think that alcohol and tabacco are vices and to support programs inacted to assist people who cannot control themselves because of addition, I do not mind paying a tax on these products. I think Canada has it right in that regard as that is how they pay for their socialized medicine.
Regardless, I don’t like the ABC stores (although the people who work there are quite nice). I think they definitely need to eliminate them and go to the other extreme (like in AZ): drive through liquor stores.