Posted on 04/05/2004 9:23:56 PM PDT by Quick1
Forgetting about wine, hard liquor sales went through the roof.
Total Expenditure on Distilled Spirts as a Percentage of Total Alcohol Sales (1890-1960)
Back to wine. Sales of sacremental wine, which was allowed due to freedom of religion, shot up a large percentage when prohibition started.
What you accept as evil and what I may accept as evil and what Joe Blow that lives down the street thinks is evil are probably different, at least in degree.
A good example - adultery. I consider it very evil. Society doesn't and accepts it - witness how many of our elected leaders (both democrat and Republican), as well as "role models" for our youth, are adulterers.
Because I feel adultery is very evil, does that mean we should toss everybody in jail that has cheated on their spouse (and by proxy God), or had pre-marital sex or sex with somebody they weren't married to? No, of course not, for two reasons. Reason #1 - I don't want the government to have that kind of power needed to seek out adulterers (and who's going to police the police). Reason #2 - It's a religious belief that not everybody shares with me. I do not believe in forcing my religious beliefs upon others - it's un-American and I know God will deal with those who do so.
We even make laws against not wearing seatbelts.
and I don't agree with these laws. It's not the government's job to protect people from themselves. Unfortunately laws are pushed through by people or industries with money, not because of any kind of common sense.
Ofcourse. Can't you see why?
But, why is it so hard to imagine the easy and cost effectiveness of simply saying that all hard core porn is now illegal. It wouldn't take much money at all to police it, only to incercerate, for some amount of time, people who willfully blow off the law. Corporate america would quickly get out of it and so would ma and pa. It would go underground and become much more scarce.
Why is this thought so repulsive to people who are not porn users? I suspect we have a lot of monkey spankers here who are waxing elloquent, or something, on the issue. But I have to wonder why people would argue against such a simple thing except for an irrational fear that making porn illegal would lead to the Taliban.
You and woman-hating fundamentalist Muslims have something in common. In Islam, a woman should conform to the dress code, including head coverings. However, it is the woman's choice whether to do so, as her decision is an issue purely between her and her god. Even her husband cannot force her to wear that stuff, although trying to convince her is allowed. However, you have these theocratic fundies who believe they have the right to declare not wearing proper attire is a sin that can be punished in this world.
They are usurping God's/Allah's role in punishing sin. So are you.
Don't Libertarians also believe that a woman has the right to butcher another human being because the child is still in her womb?
Libertarians have absolutely no credibillity! They are simply the holdovers from the 60's "whatever makes me happy and to ##ll with the rest of humanity" crowd!
No, they're not ... where are the Christian stormtroopers busting perverts' heads for Jesus?
Yes. While wine and beer were still available, the bit of a high you could get off those wasn't worth the danger of getting caught. Distilled spirits were much more effective for the same amount of danger. Plus, from a production standpoint, producers could ship more money's worth of alcohol high in the same shipment, meaning a successful shipment of liquor gave more profit than one of beer or wine.
None but the most tyrannical of laws can argue with basic economics and human nature.
First as I've said the underground aspect would let organized crime run the business and result of vastly higher instances of abuse for porn produced in this country. Second, because there will still be a demand, cutting the legal supply would not make it in the least bit scarce. Basic economics shows this with the failure of the War on Drugs. It would be even more so since porn could be sent from foreign locations to consumers in the U.S. over the Internet.
Because enforcement would be incredibly expensive and intrusive. First, it would be much easier to import bootleg porn from other parts of the world, than it was to import bootleg alcohol. Second, the only way to enforce such a ban would be for government to have the power to read your e-mail or keep track of what websites your surf.
It would go underground and become much more scarce.
Like alcohol was scarce during Prohibiton, or drugs are scarce today?
Why is this thought so repulsive to people who are not porn users?
Porn or not, I for one am very uncomfortable with giving the government the power to tell me what I can and cannot read or view in the privacy of my own home.
That is definitely a comment fit for a sig!
I have honestly never heard that term. Is it what I think it means?
Glad we're homeschooling.
No need for that (unless someone comes to my front door dressed in a g-string, then you will see some butt kicking). The proper course for this is government authorities according to the Bible.
Vengeance is inherently good. God said, "Vengeance is Mine." Individuals, however, are not to avenge themselves, but are to allow God to avenge in His way: Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Rom. 12:19 (see also Lev. 19:18) While Paul instructs people not to seek their own revenge, but to "give place to wrath." Paul then explains that the proper channel for wrath is the "governing authorities." The government is the "place" for wrath and vengeance: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities... For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Rom. 13:1, 3 Godly rulers are a terror to evil doers. Note that God’s two witnesses in Revelation "tormented those who dwell on the earth" (Rev. 11:10). God through Paul specifically commands earthly governments to execute criminals with the sword: For [the governing authority] is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Rom. 13:4
Q: What's the difference between a politician and a whore?
A: When the whore takes your money and screws you, you leave with a smile on your face. When a politician takes your money and screws you, he leaves with a smile on his face.
Enforcing my personal morality on others is repulsive to me. (The public morality that says no violating others' rights is another story.)
an irrational fear that making porn illegal would lead to the Taliban.
How do you know this fear is irrational?
And then there was the majority of the population, which got it's alcohol from moonshiners. Speak-easys were quite expensive.
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