My argument is a simple one: In advancing or promoting or opposing any alcohol-related policy, you should tell the truth. The corollary to this position is equally simple: Don’t lie. I focus on this position today in response to a common lie that has been resurrected in opposing the proposal to allow the U.S. Postal Service to ship alcohol and augment their revenue in doing so. Below is the #1 argument put forward by a former alcohol regulator from Oregon…
While I’m sure it exists somewhere, I can’t think of a more intrusive regulatory bureaucracy than the one that governs alcohol in the United States. Since its inception in the 1930’s following Repeal, it has only grown and grown. I think what has grown with it is the tolerance for intrusion by the regulated. Part of the problem with the outsized alcohol regulatory structure is that with the states being given the burden of regulating alcohol inside their borders with…
It was difficult to find any non-mocking coverage of the claim made last week by University of Connecticut professor Mathilde Cohen that “French eating habits reinforced the ‘dominance’ of white people over ethnic minorities.” These mocking reactions came in response to a talk she gave in France on the subject that, in turn, was based on a paper she wrote on the subject. Her paper, entitled “The Whiteness of French Food,” purports to “identify a form of French food Whiteness…
What if at the end of 2022 it turns out wine sales have dipped below the pre-pandemic 2019 level? What if wealth inequality is unchecked and reaches levels higher than we’ve ever seen? What if more fires impact American wine-growing regions by the end of 2022 and test our industry’s ability (and the consumers’) to confront smoke taint? What if the reaction to greater online sales results in fewer wine club memberships? We are still very much in a state…
Of late I’ve been re-perusing the books on my shelves that explore Western Civilization. The volumes are many and varied. They range from biographies of notable historians and explorations into 18th Century European commerce to straight histories of regions and peoples as well as momentous events in Western Civilization. It is perhaps due to my profession, but as I look over these works, it becomes clear that if Western Civilization has produced a thing that more efficiently and accurately serves…
