When you're going on a float trip, for example, and make that last stop at the grocery store before hitting the highway, is cold beer on your list? Sure, you're getting ice for the cooler, too, and it's a certainty that several hours later when you start setting up camp, your beer will be frosty and drinkable, no matter what (unless your cooler leaked and now there's an unnavigable puddle in the car).
Of course, there are those, whose names I'm not gonna mention without permission, who do start the party hundreds of miles away from the campsite. Cold beer is involved, but I've seen warm beer get equal billing, not to mention the any-temp-will-do swigs from the Jack Daniels. . . .
But what about when you are on your way to a house party? That beer you bring better be chilly!
That's why I'm "so glad" that a 10-year-old southwest of St. Louis tugged the attention of Sen. Bill Alter. Yes, that's right, the senator got his idea from a fifth-grader "learning about government."
Sen. Alter's bill bill, read Wednesday in the Missouri General Assembly, makes it illegal for stores to sell beer that's colder than 60ºF.
Having been a cop for 20+ years, Alter was quoted by the AP: “The only reason why beer would need to be cold is so that it can be consumed right away.”
What about in 20 minutes? I love it when law enforcement officials make sweeping presumptions based on the yahoots they've encountered. This law seems best for rural and subsuburban places. It's no city-friendly thing.
Alter is from High Ridge, Mo.
Some of my relatives live there.
Should the Missouri Senate and House agree on SB763 and Gov. Matt Blunt signs it into a law, don't worry unless your float trip plans were for Labor Day weekend. The law would go into effect August 28.
How true is it that "people who want to drink and drive are going to do it anyway?" I think it's quite so. So, yeah, we don't "need" this new law.
It will save convenience and grocery stores electricity, perhaps. And boost business for liquor-only stores? It is unclear to a non-lawyer what Missouri Revised Statute 311.050 really means.
2 comments:
does this man need something else to do with his time? i have clothes that need to be washed, diapers that need to be changed, and oh yes, some paint on the wall that could use an AUDIENCE WHILE IT DRIES!
Seriously, though, what the hell is a 10 year old asking about this for? Are 10 year olds buying alcohol at convenience stores? going on float trips? or are they doing a homework assignment about how a bill becomes a law and in the process, bothering a congressman about something completely unnecessary for running the state.
they could just watch "i'm just a bill and i'm sitting here on capitol hill" (thank you Sat. morn. cartoons for my government lessons) to learn about how a bill becomes a law. a lot more interesting and entertaining, and a lot less....
oh hell, i forgot what i was going to say. i haven't had a complete thought in months.
i think we were involved once in writing some letter to some elected official. the thing is, what senator (state level and a veteran police officer in the white and "we drive american trucks" subsuburbs) admits that he mines fifth graders' letters for legislative ideas?
other ideas that might be less "easy" to pass: measures to address medicaid cuts to children's health care, care programs for meth-orphaned children, reform to a crooked and child-killing foster care program, the disintegration of cross-state I-70, your favorite non-vice-related, non-morally-dictative cause here: ____.
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