Yeah, there are entire counties in Alabama that are still dry. Pretty sure that prohibition and the seedy dangers of moonshine runners has passed. Oddly enough, many NASCAR drivers (a sport I loathe) come from these counties and are now sponsored by evil, evil beer.
Minnesota still has that damn “no liquor/beer/wine sales on Sunday” law. It was much less inconvenient when I lived closer to the Wisconsin border.
26 of the 67 counties, to be exact. Jeez.
I remember interning at the little newspaper in Atmore during my last year in college, and a friend of mine who was interning in Monroeville would come over every weekend to escape the dry-ness there.
The town next to where my mother lives in MA is still dry.
They voted on allowing beer & wine sales in restaurants last year and the measure failed by TWO VOTES.
The bitching in the local paper’s letters section was great after that.
They are all leftovers from the dismantling of Prohibition. When it came to an end, it was up to individual states to set their own policies, which is why you see so many different laws. In California I could buy Vodka in the supermarket, any day of the week. In VA, I have to go to a special store and I’m not sure if I can buy it on the weekends.
People who appear younger than 35 will have their driver’s licenses scanned before entering a bar to make sure they’re 21 or older and their ID is real.
Wow, what the fuck?
Drivers licenses have had barcodes for years now, scanners for them are nothing new.
I’m pretty sure that scanning and presumably tracking your visits to restaurants and bars is.
I’m not sure if anyone is bothering to track it, but it’s possible I suppose. The scanning part is, from the perspective of the establishments doing it, a great way to no longer be culpable for failures to spot fake IDs.
Modern technology giving the government unprecedented ability to track and monitor the populace is inevitable, and not a bad thing if the proper checks and balances are in place.
Right, and how likely is that?
More likely than just clinging to outdated notions about how government should turn a blind eye to everything citizens do ever.
Yeah, because citizens can’t do anything without being watched at all times like children.
So if I’m visiting the bar that the local Muslim fellowship happens to meet at I’m on the no fly list?
All they did was make sure that I’ll NEVER drink in a Utah bar again.
I think that’s presuming a lot.
I presume because local US governments have a history of abusing this type of data when it suits them.
No fancy beers yet. :(
Damn, I knew I should have started this in the EE forum. You people with your paranoia (even if it is well-founded at times).
It would surprise (and disappoint) me if the government gets the tracking data. On the other hand, any bar that’s not keeping that data for datamining of their own is crazy. Get all sorts of information about the demographics of your patrons that’s only vaguely available otherwise. Then of course there’s the option to sell the data as a mass-marketing mailing list.
I’ve just been informed that Anti-Bunny recently visited the local country music bar and had a Smirnoff Ice. So embarrassing!!
Haha, your data mining methods suck! It was a zima.