What it is with this state and booze? Seriously, America tried Prohibition … remember from 1919 to 1933, which arguably gave rise to organized crime and bootlegging?
Anyway, according to Gov. Sonny Perdue (see Friday’s editorial page), if the General Assembly passes the Sunday sales bill, Georgia roads will become unsafe on that particular day of the week.
He throws out a bunch of numbers from a study done in New Mexico about how counties that allowed Sunday sales had higher vehicle wreck rates. Now, those numbers are difficult to dispute. But I do have one question. Do you see the words “alcohol-related crash victims” in the next paragraph?
From Perdue’s column: “The study found that legalizing Sunday packaged alcohol sales ‘exacts a significant price that is paid by crash victims and their loved ones, health care providers, insurers, law enforcement and the judicial systems.’ ”
No? Yeah, me neither. Maybe people New Mexico are just bad drivers. Who knows. Who cares. This isn’t New Mexico. And on another note, has the governor ever driven on Atlanta highways when people cross 5 lanes on traffic at 80 mph? Maybe the General Assembly should worry more about sending people to driving school, than worry about how much alcohol they drink or what day they buy it on. Or for that matter, let’s improve public transportation in this state because MARTA is the most laughable public transit in the United States.
But the fact of the matter is the Sunday sales bill doesn’t outlaw drinking on Sunday, all it would allow me to go to the store on a Sunday afternoon and buy a six-pack. There is nothing stopping me from going to the store in Saturday night, buying a case of beer, drinking it all day Sunday and then getting into my car.
And I might not have any numbers to throw at you, but I can tell you did I live in Beaufort County, S.C., for two years. And they not only have Sunday beer and wine sales there, but 24-hour beer and wine sale. Yeah I could go into Kroger at 3 a.m. and buy beer. I don’t think I ever did, but I had the option. And that is what America is all about, right?
I also worked at the Hilton Head Island newspaper, The Island Packet. For a good portion of my tenure there, I worked on Sundays and Mondays. During that time, I don’t really remember there being an extraordinary amount of alcohol-related wrecks and/or fatalities in the blotter. And this was a tourist town, which pretty much equaled drunken out-of-towners driving on dark roads and they had no idea where they were going.
So write to your representative at the state house and them to ignore the governor. He’s pretty much a lame duck anyway.
- Ann Marie Miani's blog
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I wonder how sunday sales
I wonder how sunday sales compares to increased accidents due to an increased speed limit? Why not drop the speed limit to 55 Sonny? You'd probably save far more lives, and increase fuel efficiency. But then again that might make too much sense.
Like Sammy Hagar, I can't
Like Sammy Hagar, I can't drive 55. And most Georgians seem to have trouble keeping it under 85 on the interstates.
Isn't the speed limit
Isn't the speed limit already 55 for much of the drive from here to Atlanta??
Scout's honor
Isn't the speed limit already 55 for much of the drive from here to Atlanta??
SURE it is, Ann Marie. Just like on I-285 around Atlanta.
In much of the state on the interstates, the limits are 65 and 70 MPH (I-20, from Greensboro to Augusta for example). Not that the limits make much difference.
I actually wasn't talking
I actually wasn't talking about the interstates ... I was talking about Georgia Highway 316, which incidentally is the majority of the drive from here to Atlanta. And I am fairly certain that the speed limit on that road is 55.
This is what happens when you aren't from around here-->
I actually wasn't talking the Interstates, and was talking about Georgia Highway 316 also. What a coincidence. Incidentally, the majority of US who actually DRIVE over Highway 316 know that the speed limit changes to 65 MPH at Jimmie Daniels Road (that's in Oconee County, the county to the south and west of Clarke), and stays there until US 29 (that's in Gwinnett County, the BIG county way to the west of Clarke with all the good shopping).
Then when you get back on I-85, the speed limit goes back up to 65. So for more than much, i.e. "most", of the drive to Atlanta, the speed limit is 65 MPH.
Just goes to show you the uncertain times in which we live.
As we say in the newspaper business, you can check it out.
Yeah sorry, I guess that is
Yeah sorry, I guess that is what I get for not driving to that traffic-congested, smog-filled city all that often.
I don't go to Atlanta much because frankly it's not that great of a city. Yeah they have the aquarium and the zoo, but not really all that much else. How many times can you go the the Coca-Cola museum? And paying $5 for a beer is just what I want to do. And don't even get me started on that lame thing called MARTA.
And seriously, this blog wasn't even about speed limits ... why are you hung up on that?
so you don't go to Atlanta because the price of beer is too high
You won't ride Marta because it's "lame", you don't really pay attention to speed limits, and you're mad because if you forget to buy your alcohol on Saturday, you will have to go one day without booze.
Yeah, I think you made Sonny's point for him.
Actually I won't ride MARTA
Actually I won't ride MARTA because it doesn't actually go anywhere. See I was raised near New York, you know a city with an ACTUAL subway system that can take you to places all around the city. Not just points that happen to be on a north/south or east/west axis.
I pay attention to speed limits when I am driving, but sorry if I don't have the speed limits for every highway in Northeast Georgia memorized. I am SURE that YOU have never made a mistake before.
And I don't drink on Sundays because I am at work. I can actually go several days in a row without booze ... contrary to what people might think about journalists.
Uh-oh, the secret's out
Well, Ann Marie, you've been here how long, and you've ferreted out our little secret.
You see a couple of dying whales, the pandas and some old Coke bottles, and you've completely exhausted the entertainment, educational and recreational opportunities in Atlanta.
Certainly there's nothing there that compares with pub crawling, drinking cheap beer and listening to bad bands playing too loudly in Athens.
And seriously, you expect blogs to stay on topic?
Seen the whales, seen the
Seen the whales, seen the pandas and seen the Coke bottles.
I don't like big arena concerts. And any bands that play smaller venues in Atlanta will play in Athens ... only it will be cheaper.
I'm not a fan of professional sports, so wouldn't go to any of those.
I work nights and weekends, so any kind of seminars or "educational opportunities" are pretty much a no go.
And I have been in Athens for three years. And would rather spend the day here than in that city any day of the week.
P.S.
Oh by the way, if you are so intent on ripping apart everything that Blake, Jason and I say, why don't you own up use your real name?
Testy, testy, testy-- we're not having a Midol moment are we?
Just as you haven't observed the local speed limits, you haven't observed that I agree with Blake and Jason (and James in his infrequent forays) much more than than I disagree with them, and even in disagreeing with them, I hardly "rip" them apart. In fact, in terms of the universe of the "blogosphere", the discussions here by all parties tend to be very reasoned and fact based; a significant reason for this being that most of the people who comment here have significant community connections and involvement, and most of the people here either know their facts from first hand knowledge or check them out before stating them.
More specifically, other than addressing some factual inaccuracies in some rather condescending statements which you gratuitously offered (and then challenged me on the basis that they were "off topic") to support your original statements of personal prejudice, I haven't begun to rip what you said apart.
I didn't challenge your factually incorrect, biased, and prejudicial comments on the basis of being "more bloviations from another ignorant, thick headed Yankee, who has come south with a closed mind and an open mouth, has to explain all the shortcomings of the the culture that now puts bread on her table." I didn't point out the depth of your ignorance, and apparent satisfaction with it by referring to a person of "limited education, and even more limited life experience, intent on imposing her insular and self centered values on the rest of the world, apparently bitter at having grown up in the media center of the world, but who now finds herself in a second tier job at a second tier newspaper in our backwater state."
Those are things I would have said if I were going to "rip you apart", but I didn't. I was a gentleman all the way.
Actually no, not a Midol
Actually no, not a Midol moment, but an I-have-been-reading-community-section-pages-all-day moment.
And your first comment, Mr. I am too afraid to use my real name, was condescending.
And like a told the other guy who commented, I am sure YOU have NEVER EVER made a mistake in you life. So I am oh so sorry that I was off by 10 bloody miles.
You left out the really big
You left out the really big Civil War painting. That's another solid 20 to 25 minutes of fun.
There is something that compares with pub crawling, drinking cheap beer and listening to bad bands play loudly in Atlanta. It's pub crawling, drinking moderately-priced beer and listening to bad bands play loudly.
Shall we pray facing North?
Please exalted Northeasterner, teach us.
Teach us which places in Atlanta matter and which places don’t and we'll burn those Marta stops that you don't like.
Help us to look past our paltry interest in our own culture and teach us to love and worship the truly important places like New York and places near New York.
Lambaste our inability to drive in the snow.
How will this community ever survive if we don’t have enlightened ones such as you to tell us which laws we need to get rid and how our strong religious heritage is primitive.
Shall we gather at the River, the beautiful beautiful river--
Amen brother, preach it.
It was years ago, after hearing the Gospel of New York, delivered in that nasal tone, dropping every other syllable, for the hundredth time that I became inured to the whiny condemnation of everything that was essentially "Southern".
I guess I'm hard headed because I just never could be convinced that cream soda was better than ice tea, pastrami sandwich better than a bbq one, and that "driving in the snow" was an essential skill when you had snow 3 days a year, and a 120 day deer season.
I have never received a satisfactory answer to the question of "if everything is so wonderful there, why are you here?"
Maybe at long last, Ann Marie will answer that.
Did you know that the
Did you know that the alcohol laws in Connecticut where I grew up are actually stricter than in Georgia? When I lived there 10 years ago, you couldn't buy alcohol on Sundays OR after 8 p.m. during the week. Hell, you couldn't even LOOK at wine or beer after 8 p.m. at the store. They would cover it up with the plastic yellow sheets. This might have changed in the past decade, SO I AM PROCLAIMING RIGHT NOW THAT I MIGHT BE WRONG.
So honestly, my views has nothing to do with religion. I am from an area that is like 90 percent Catholic. What's more primitive than a religion that says don't use any kind of birth control (even if it's just to stop the spread of AIDS), but don't get abortions either.
And seriously, every state has dumb laws. Go visit it and I am sure you will have a giggle.
Vocabularly rocks
I give you triple word score on the usage of "inured" and "insular." Well written as usual, Ghost.
I give Ann Marie props for posting topics that elicit such poetic responses. I offer no answers, other than my own example. No one will ever win the second War of Northern Aggression, as my very Southern Grandmother once told me. She is buried in Oakland Cemetery, and I challenge all of you to donate some money for this jewel's renaissance post tornado:
http://www.oaklandcemetery.com/
I had a relative once say "Just 'cause a cat has kittens in the oven, it don't make them biscuits."
I come from seven generations of Druid Hills property owners, yet had the unfortunate luck of being born in Chicago. I was smart enough to come Southward a few decades back.
Dan Matthews