VANITY: Sunday Alcohol Sales....Blue laws good or bad?

Georgia Dawg

[GeorgiaDawg]

Hi all....

FReepers have been very helpful in the past and I wanted to touch base to see if you could help again.

Our city council is debating putting Sunday alcohol sales on the ballot, yet again. The matter has been defeated twice in the past few years, but they are considering the referendum again.

While I am a believer of seperation of church and state, I also believe in keeping the Sabbath holy....can this be reconciled? I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments on any experience any of you have had with this issue...

Georgia Dawg

[Froufrou]

At the risk of AGAIN being called a 'statist' [whatever that is] I wish to point out that selling of sexual favors is legal in Las Vegas. I don't know if there's anywhere else that it is...

[MEGoody]

If alcohol is sold on other days of the week, then the gains (from an alcohol-disliking perspective) of banning the sale on Sunday are merely symbolic.

Exactly. I've never understood these laws. People just stock up on Saturday or go somewhere close by where 'blue laws' are not in place.

[Froufrou]

stop denying that you're a statist.

How can you accuse me of denying that which you have just now called me? I have no idea what you are talking about, but to pretend that the laws don't differ from state to state is, I dunno, what would you call it, statist?

Do you call me that because you assume if I lived in Massachusetts I would leave, since I don't approve of same-sex marriage?

[Froufrou]

I'm guessing you meant this as a rhetorical question? And that you infer that laws don't make people safer?

[Protagoras]

Is there any point, at all, where the actions of the person who imbibed are anyone else's business,

It would not be the business of government.

or would that be only if s/he did something that involved/harmed another PERSON?

"Involvement/Harm" is not the standard. If a person's rights have been violated by another, it becomes government's legitimate business. Not unless or until.

[RobRoy]

>>Is there any point, at all, where the actions of the person who imbibed are anyone else's business, or would that be only if s/he did something that involved/harmed another PERSON?<<

You mean on Sunday, as opposed to any other day? ;)

[RobRoy]

>>At the risk of AGAIN being called a 'statist' [whatever that is] I wish to point out that selling of sexual favors is legal in Las Vegas. I don't know if there's anywhere else that it is...<<
It's illegal here in the Seattle area as well.

[elkfersupper]

I have no idea what you are talking about

Definition of statism:

Statism (or Etatism) is a very loose and often derogatory term that is used to describe:

Specific instances of state intervention in personal, social or economic matters.

A form of government or economic system that involves significant state intervention in personal, social or economic matters.

There is no precise definition of how much state intervention represents statism. Thus, at one extreme, some anarchists consider that the mere existence of a state is enough to make a country statist, while at the other extreme it is argued that only the most rigid totalitarian systems are truly statist. Usually, however, the term "statism" is used with a negative or derogatory connotation, in reference to something that the speaker considers to be an example of too much state intervention.

Statism

[RobRoy]

Prohibition didn't make people safer. It boosted organized crime. The same can be said for the WOD.

[Washi]

Even Massachusetts has repealed its alcohol-related Blue Laws.

Even Massachusetts?

I would expect the most liberal (read: anti-Christian) state in the Union, with Ted Kennedy (Hic!) as its senior senator to be the first state to do so.

[Auntie Toots]

....I think they helped make life more civil. I cried when large stores opened on Sundays. It changed the entire tenor of the state.

.....and so our commandment "Keep holy the Sabbath Day" has already been breached and is a commonly accepted practice almost everywhere. Therefore I see nothing odd about selling alcoholic beverages on Sunday.

[Tax-chick]

The laws against alcohol on Sunday are a survival from the days when everything was closed on Sunday. At least that made sense, from a religious perspective: The Bible says you take a day of rest, so businesses should be closed.

Eventually the Sunday-rest concept faded, but anti-alcohol sentiment was strong, so "No alcohol sales on Sunday" is a hybrid of Sabbath-keeping and Prohibition.

I've lived a couple of places where alcohol wasn't sold from midnight to noon Sunday. I'm not sure what the expected outcome of that is! They can't really think many people are going to get up on a Sunday morning and make a decision between going to church or buying booze!

[Andonius_99]

While it may be "unseemly" to most, we must take into account the views of Senator Kennedy...

[Froufrou]

I stand corrected. I had been told prostitution is legal in Las Vegas. I have found that I was misinformed:

http://www.sexwork.com/coalition/whatcountrieslegal.html

[Froufrou]

I'd like to know your take on the Gay Pride Day indident in Philadelphia, when charges were brought against some 13 anti-gay marchers...?

[RobRoy]

I won't go to a link that has the word "sex" in it's address (especially from work) but I was under the impression that it is legal in parts of Nevada, but not in Las Vegas specifically.

[Conservababe]

I wish to point out that selling of sexual favors is legal in Las Vegas.

Prostitution is NOT legal in Las Vegas.

[Conservababe]

My daughter and son-in-law's jaws dropped open in Breaux Bridge, La this spring when they saw the big barrel of iced single beers for sale at the Seven Eleven and the drive thru mixed drink stores. The only law that I can recall being on the books for alcohol sales is the one that every bar has to close for one hour in twenty-four.

People are too uptight about others drinking. We'd be better off if we let anyone of age buy alcohol at any time on any day.

[Protagoras]

I am unfamiliar with the incident and fail to see why you would want my personal opinion about it.