March 22, 2006

• Texas
• Yeah, but how drunk were they? Even if you're not going anywhere, I'd be behind arresting people who were start-a-brawl, wreck-the-place drunk. To me, the kind of people that go out simply to get drunk usually wind up becoming obnoxious, bothering people who are there to socialize and have a good time. If you just want to get shit-face wasted, stay home and do it.
• Folk often like to go pubbing, but that's not the way, as I seem to recall, they do it -- or used-to-do-such-thangs in Tay-yucks-uz. Where ye used to have to sign up at a 'club' in order to drink from a brown paper bag of hooch someone in your party brought with them -- it all seemed mad to me, but very much in charcter for wheeler-dealer doings in The Lone Steer State. Acquainted with a number of Tay-yuck-sons, and they are NOT LIKE OTHERS! And proud of it! (And can go on the prod about it.) Some are even rumoured to be part human. /folks, don't take this too seriously -- need to be swallow it with several grains of salt of the earth
• It looks like their detectives finally figured out where the drunk peoplehave been hiding.
• In that section of Texas you often find a jig-saw map of "wet" locations and "dry" locations. You have to know where to drive to get your drink. It seems that the Baptists still have not reconciled themselves to the fact that some folks enjoy a drink-or-two. I plan my weekly grocery shopping trip in order to not get caught up in the "No wine or beer sold before noon on Sunday" rule.
• Pffft! Cain't buy wine or beer even after noon in Nova Scotia on a Sunday. Or get your hair cut. It's a dismal place to be a shaggy, alcohol-lovin' atheist.
• (Not to ever, ever contemplate competing with Takes-us in anything.) /derail /derail
• This very same TABC blocked the sale of "Blackened Voodoo" Ale, from Louisiana, some years ago, on the grounds that the rules forbid the mixture of religion and alcohol. They also try to hassle home-brew beer competitions. But, home made wine is fine. Bless their hearts!
• Fuckers. If they were really interested in curbing drunk driving, why not hang out in the parking lot and issue their field sobriety tests to the souses jangling car keys?
• Don't you guys get it? It was PRE-EMPTIVE! We're all about pre-emption now. Who's gonna drink and drive? Drunk people! And who's gonna steal some shit? POOR PEOPLE! Stands to reason! Up next: arresting poor people BEFORE they steal some shit.
• Sounds like morals squad promotion-fishing. In my neck of the woods it takes the form of major 'decency' or 'porn' raids every few years that turn out to be straight up harassment. That after-story never seems to make the major media, of course. It works too. Arguably got one local police captain the job as chief.
• Ha! If THIS doesn't finally get the revolution ignited, well, nothing will.
• Fish in a barrel (snakes on a plane) Was this the same Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission that served a "knock warrant" to the Branch Davidians with automatic weapons fire? Oh, wait - different Alcohol group.
• In NZ, pub owners can be fined up to $10,000 for serving someone who is obviously intoxicated. Coming from a small town, I support this wholeheartedly because I've seen firsthand the damage people can do to themselves and each other when drunk. I've been witness to street brawls, fights between groups of twenty or more people and even a shooting, all after drinking sessions at the local. The police made a mistake in saying it was to prevent drunk driving only and left themselves wide open to criticism.
• However, I doubt that the legal limit of intoxication is 0.08 in NZ either. On TV they show people being served proper pints there, not this 12oz puritan crap. I agree, if you're a drooling, cussing, fist-swinging mess then slap those cuffs on. But this just sounds preposterous and extremely clenched-anus. -y. And I wouldn't be surprised if the bar owners weren't a little chagrinned. Plus, I've never, ever, ever heard of this being done before. Shit, if you can't get drunk or smoke in a bar . . . umm . . well just - fuck!
• They need to step this caper up a notch. Arrest sober people near bars incase they go in, get drunk, then drive. It's the only way to be sure.
• Damned preverts prolly got them sex toyz in they car too!
• [In NZ]...if you're an adult the legal blood alcohol limit for driving is no more than 80 milligrams of alcohol for every 100mls of blood. Sorry, I had to look it up as much out of curiosity as anything. The current government here has a pretty serious agenda against what they consider to be antisocial behaviour (which is why smoking in bars was recently banned).
• So... .o8, right?
• ...I think so. :\
• 0.05 here.
• Well... if they were locking up people who were very visibly drunk, i.e. total lack of balance/slurred speech, I guess that's one thing... I still don't agree with it if the person is not being disruptive, but hey, the law's the law... However, you can definitely be above .08, without making an ass out of yourself. It's one thing to acknowledge that you are no longer capable of operating a motor vehicle, quite another to simply be out in public. If they randomly gave people sobriety tests and made arrests based upon that... well fuck me silly... If that's the case, I think some Texan citizens should show up to their local cop bar on a Friday night, or to their PBA's annual BBQ with a Breathalyzer. That would learn 'em.... As a side note, I frequent a cop bar in NYC. (Strangely enough there is NEVER a fight in the bar, or a stolen jacket/purse/etc. gee... I wonder why?) but cops leave ALL the time visibly smashed... The PD is stressful, and is a breeding ground for alchoholism... I bet half the cops involved in this raid are "over the limit" when they go out drinking... fucking hypocrites...
• I love the use of the law to make illegal things that are harmless in and of themselves but might lead to things that are themselves illegal outright. See, brawling is illegal. Being drunk enough to brawl should not be since brawling is illegal. Likewise drunk driving. Welcome to 1984 where because your mental state was such that you might possible do something bad you can be arrested. Why not wait until they guy gets into his car and starts the engine, and then arrest him? Cops drinking WITH people smacks of entrapment. Hey, lets be chums, why don't you buy another round. ZING! Social behavior could easily lead to feeling more comfortable in the bar and therefor more alcohol. Also, bars in Texas are now public property in the same vein as state parks and city streets? In dry counties of Texas they are considered "private clubs" in order that they can serve liquor in the first place, so how this can be construed as public intoxication is a stretch. Bars occupy that strange nether zone where sometimes they are actually owned by somebody and other times they are open to the public. I guess it would come as news to the owners, who pay the bouncers, and can evict people with impunity that their bar is public property.
• MonkeyFilter: Cuff 'em boyz! They's trouble MonkeyFilter: It's a dismal place to be a shaggy, alcohol-lovin' atheist. MonkeyFilter: If THIS doesn't finally get the revolution ignited, well, nothing will. MonkeyFilter: A drooling, cussing, fist-swinging mess... MonkeyFilter: Damned preverts prolly got them sex toyz in they car too! Oh, and just for you, Debaser... MonkeyFilter: fucking hypocrites...
• thanks Blue! :)
• This happened a few years back in Virginia too. This country is batshit insane.
• underage raids are most common in my area (NYC, Long Island) drunk driving checks are done fairly regularly on major east-west drags on Long Island. I went to a crazy ass 4th of July party and an NYPD cop was in attendence, sitting acros the table from me, pounding Nattie Ices while I was doing a J. He thought my expression was pretty funny when he told me he was cop after I put the joint out.
• fucking hypocrites Hey now boAH! This here's Texas,'n we don't 'llow no fuckin' no hypocrites here. Okay, I admit that comes very close to messing with Texas. But it wasn't!
• Texas halts arrests of drunks in bars
• Meanwhile, in California...
• damn those activist judges . . .