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Last updated on March 5th, 2018 at 01:33 pm
I wish to formally disassociate myself from the views of a certain Lewisville, Texas, councilman who opposes a vote to allow the sale of alcohol:
Councilman Tim Blair said he was not happy to be making the call and that he is concerned for the city and its citizens. He said he believes that city has done fine without alcohol and that it should continue as it has for the last 75 years.
Rev. Ben Smith is another alcohol opponent:
Smith expressed his concern over what he fears the sale of beer and wine would do to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Old Town. He said he thinks alcohol sales would tempt bums and drunken migrant workers to linger in the area.
“What do liquor stores and bums have in common? They both will destroy your neighborhoods,” Smith said.
The Dallas Morning News, possibly confusing the local Baptist with a representative of Hamas, slightly misinterpreted Smith’s remark:
Mr. Smith said Keep Lewisville Safe will launch a campaign to persuade residents to kill the initiatives at the polls. “What do liquor stores and bombs have in common?” he asked. “Both will destroy the area where you live.”
Bombs notwithstanding, residents will vote on the matter February 5. Tim Blair must be defeated.
I never knew I was born in a dry city. Bah… I wish to formally disassociate myself with the entirity of Lewisville, Texas. I am disgraced.
Posted by Mike in AR on 2004 12 12 at 10:28 PM • permalink
Actually, there are a lot of dry counties scattered about the country, mainly in the southern states. And there is something to be said for the idea that excess consumption of alcohol can ruin lives and communities. On the other hand, I am sure that the citizens of this town have no trouble doing what everyone else who lives in a dry county does: 1. driving to a “wet” county and buying liquor to take back home and drink, and 2. making and buying illegal booze. In fact, a lot of these counties are “dry” because the town leaders can make more money selling moonshine.
Anyway, I could never figure out what the deal was with the Footloose plot. The dancing ban came about (as I recall) because the minister’s son was killed in a car accident driving home from an out-of-town party. So why didn’t they simply ban driving?
But there, that’s why I don’t write screenplays.
Posted by Andrea Harris on 2004 12 12 at 11:15 PM • permalink
He said he thinks alcohol sales would tempt bums and drunken migrant workers to linger in the area
As opposed to having them behind the wheel of a junker car, driving to the beerjoint just across the countyline and driving back with a skinful.
I’m well acquainted with Texas’ patchwork of dry and wet counties. In Ohio, they do it by township, which are smaller municipal entities than even counties, and I happen to live in a dry one now. The idea is stupid. And expensive, since the next township over is raking in the revenues from our drinkers.
As for the ban on dancing, that used to be fairly commonplace in southern states, born of the belief in certain strict religious circles that dancing was a sin, forbidden by the Bible. The people who extracted that bit of Biblical wisdom are the same ones who believe counties and townships should be dry.
And you could usually find those people on Saturday night in the next “wet” town over, drinking and dancing and whoring until dawn.
Posted by Andrea Harris on 2004 12 13 at 03:14 PM • permalink
And that was a test to see if the offset time changed. It’s 11:14pm here in Orlando, Florida (US Eastern time). Whoops, looks like it needs one more hour ahead.
Posted by Andrea Harris on 2004 12 13 at 03:15 PM • permalink
If I had all the money I’ve spent on drink, I’d spend it all on bombs.
Posted by harry hutton on 2004 12 13 at 04:25 PM • permalink
The eastern suburbs of Melbourne had some dry municipalities up to at least the 80’s. I grew up in the western suburbs and it seemed very weird that there was whole suburbs without pubs.
Of course Queensland where I live now has several dry indigenous communities where the only person who is (seemingly)allowed to bring alcohol in is the State Indigenous affairs minister.
- Posted by harry hutton on 2004 12 13 at 04:53 PM • permalink
A real, world-class, head-of-a-dick.
Posted by harry hutton on 2004 12 13 at 04:53 PM • permalink
Harry, the cuteness factor of your “trollery” is wearing thin.
Posted by Andrea Harris on 2004 12 13 at 05:15 PM • permalink
Who’s trolling? I was talking about Tim Blair the councilman.
Posted by harry hutton on 2004 12 13 at 05:22 PM • permalink
- Posted by harry hutton on 2004 12 13 at 05:27 PM • permalink
Yes we all got the joke Harry. You’ve been teaching English to foreigners too long – there’s no need to explain everything here.
Posted by Pig Head Sucker on 2004 12 13 at 05:34 PM • permalink
At least its not the Toyota Camry of blogs…
Posted by Quentin George on 2004 12 13 at 06:18 PM • permalink
Who’s the Toyota Tiara of blogs, then? I nominate John Quiggin.
Sorry if I sounded patronising, Pig Head Sucker. I’ll have to watch that. I often make jokes at work, then have to explain them because no one speaks English. Pearls before swine. (We’re not too big in pearls in my office, but there’s certainly no shortage of swine.)
Posted by harry hutton on 2004 12 13 at 06:40 PM • permalink
It’s the clash of the Tims! Good Tim Blair versus evil Tim Blair.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2004 12 13 at 11:59 PM • permalink
The Texan Tim Blair is a *gasp* SOCCER coach.
He must be prevented from spreading his poison.
Think of The Children.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2004 12 14 at 12:41 AM • permalink
I lived in Lewisville, which is an unattractive little suburb about 20 miles north of Dallas. You can get booze in Lewisville at one of the many chain restaurants that line I-35 through the middle of town, you just can’t get it to go. To buy a bottle of wine or six-pack of beer I had to drive about seven miles away to Flower Mound, TX where they had huge liquor stores to handle the Lewisville business. The silliest part was that the restaurants made you pretend to buy a “membership” like you were joining a private club if you wanted to buy a drink at the TGI Fridays. Your membership cost nothing and was valid for as long as you managed to hold onto the little scrap of paper they gave you when you walked in. If it’s that easy to get around the dry laws what the hell is the point?
Think of it multiculturally… this is yin Tim versus yang Tim. Or think of it pop-culturally… This Issue… The Coming of… DARK TIM!
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2004 12 14 at 02:42 PM • permalink
Reminds me of a trip to the States a few years back. We had a bit of time to kill on a Sunday arvo in Savannah GA, so we headed to the local Ralph’s(?) and loaded up a trolley full of beer.
I began to feel uneasy as everybody was looking at us as if we were freaks. It was only when we got the checkout that the young lass behind the counter informed us that we were “not allowed to purchase alcoholic beverages from a grocery store in the state of Georgia on a Sunday”.
Bugger!
Actually, RebeccaH, the “option” is by Commissioner’s district. Usually all the districts vote together, but not always—the little town in east Texas I grew up in has five districts, three dry, two wet. And where I live now is odd even for Texas: one may buy beer and related, but no “hard” liquor, and no, repeat no, fruit of the vine. Even the bottled “coolers” sold at the stop&robs are based on beer. (And are even viler than the standard ones.)
Tim won’t care for my hijacking his comments section for the story, but the effect results from a combination of history, conviction, and hypocracy, with a large dollop of profit motive. I’ve gotten old enough to think it’s fun.
Regards,
Ric
Augh! Trapped by a Georgia blue law! Actually, that used to drive my dad, a six-pack-a-day kind of guy, crazy whenever we’d travel around the southern states. Especially as each state—nay, each county in each state, and sometimes varying between townships as well—had slightly different laws governing the time and place where one could buy beer. There is no rhyme or reason to any of this—it’s all “cuz we always done it that way” so if you are in a town that shuts the liquor store on Jefferson Davis’ maiden aunt’s birthday and you don’t happen to realize that the day you decided you needed a new bottle of scotch was this august personnage’s natal anniversary because you had gone through this vale of tears called life neither knowing nor caring that Jefferson Davis even had a maiden aunt, you’re just shit out of luck. We don’t do it just to drive the Yankees* crazy, honest. We are crazy ourselves.
*That’s meant to refer to “folk from the northern United States,” not the baseball team nor Americans in general.
Posted by Andrea Harris on 2004 12 14 at 05:16 PM • permalink
Actually I should probably that we had to travel north to get to the southern states as we lived in Miami, Florida.
Posted by Andrea Harris on 2004 12 14 at 05:21 PM • permalink
What kind of conservatives are you? This is federalism in action, man! See how capitalism comes into play through the giant liquor stores in the neighboring counties? This is exactly how all of the non-essential (life or property-threatening) legal statutes should be enforced; on a local-community by local-community basis.
Ronald Reagan would support Blair’s candidacy, and so should you.
Posted by The Mighty Claw on 2004 12 14 at 11:30 PM • permalink
Ronald Reagan would support a councilman who opposes people even voting on whether to allow the sale of alcohol? I don’t think so Claw. If the people of Lewisville vote no on allowing liquor and the losers take the issue to court to overturn the vote then I’d say you’re right. But the opponents don’t even want the issue voted on out of fear that they’ll lose.
That is just great! He want to keep alcohol out of the city to keep the city safer. Well what happens when someone wants beer? They drive all the way across Lewisville, through countless intersections to Flower Mound to buy their booze. But if they want hard liquor, they drive even further across Lewisville to get to Highland Village to buy whiskey and vodka. That makes lots of sense. Instead of just running up to the local corner store, they must navigate the streets of Lewisville, which nearly half seem to be under construction.
Highland Village is a more affluent town. So much for the booze destroys a city thesis. I guess I am also missing the council’s grief over having an election. Shouldn’t the people be deciding anyway?
Posted by billrob458 on 2004 12 15 at 11:11 AM • permalink
I went to Kentucky on business last year. As usual, I went looking for brewskis, and drove by countless churches but no liquor stores or beer-selling grocery stores. It was a dry county! WTF! Now that’s what you call Jesusland!