Jul 28, 2008
I finally had a chance to give serious face time to Tyler (Dr. Vino) Colman’s newest book: WINE POLITICS: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. A book of this sort is so long overdue and I had been looking forward to it with such great anticipation that I nearly wet my pants when it finally arrived at my door. I cracked it open somewhere over Nevada on my way to the National Conference of State…
Jul 22, 2008
" ‘Sunday is God’s day’, he said. ‘We shouldn’t be out sipping on wine and whiskey.’—What a bunch of BS. Why should I have to suffer because a handful of bible-thumpers decide on a lark that drinking on Sunday is bad. You know what Jesus would do? He’d drive over to the next county with me and that way we could split a twelve pack." This semi-lucid statement comes from the comment section of the Louisville-Courier that reports Sheperdsville Rejects…
Jul 21, 2008
I head out Wednesday for a few days in my favorite American city: New Orleans. The National Conference of State Legislatures is having its annual Legislative Summit and Direct Shipment of Wine is on the agenda. While the majority of my time will be spent at the Ernest Morial Convention Center and in meetings with colleagues, I will have some time to re-explore a city I’ve never been able to get enough of. In the numerous times I’ve been to…
Jul 17, 2008
News out Sacramento is that the State Legislature has passed a law banning Trans Fats in Restaurants by 2010. I feel blessed to live in a state where someone is watching out that I don’t enjoy my food too much. Oddly, the morning paper somehow missed picking up this other bit of news out of Sacramento: BAN AGAINST SUGAR IN ALCOHOL PASSED (Sacramento, CALIF)—California is posed to become the first state in the union and first political entity in the…
Jul 7, 2008
Coloradoans may now purchase wine from retailers on Sunday. I wonder if God is pissed off about this? I think it unlikely that we’ll ever know the answer to that question, but I can be pretty sure that the recently repealed law that banned liquor sales on Sundays in Colorado was a result of Prohibition-era concern that government respect the Sabbath. There does appear to be a trend across the country to peel back many of the "blue laws" the…