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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Safe Laws?
Posted By Tom Barberi on April 1, 2009, 2:57 PM
I don't know if Lee Benson is pandering for job security, actually believes the swill in his column this morning or it is a poorly written April Fools joke. The headline is a dead giveaway, "Arcane liquor laws kept us sober".
I have always liked Lee and enjoyed him over the years. However, now that the Deseret Mormon News, their new name even it is not on the masthead of the front page, is going to write columns about booze, they better get their facts straight.
Lee quotes me in his column as longtime liquor law critic proclaiming "adulthood" has come to Utah. He goes on to say that lost in all the praise of the liquor law reform was any recognition of what the now defunct liquor policies were able to accomplish. Lee's assertions that the old laws kept people more sober and saver than any other state in the union! That is pure hogwash. He goes into a litany of stats of other states and their per capita consumption and DUI numbers and booze-related deaths—which are meaningless without any context.
He shoots himself in the inkwell in his reluctant admission that Utah is populated by a large number of citizens who don't drink. The old laws never stopped me from getting a drink. Rather, they just pissed me off—along with anybody who ever visited Utah for business or pleasure.
I have always liked Lee and enjoyed him over the years. However, now that the Deseret Mormon News, their new name even it is not on the masthead of the front page, is going to write columns about booze, they better get their facts straight.
Lee quotes me in his column as longtime liquor law critic proclaiming "adulthood" has come to Utah. He goes on to say that lost in all the praise of the liquor law reform was any recognition of what the now defunct liquor policies were able to accomplish. Lee's assertions that the old laws kept people more sober and saver than any other state in the union! That is pure hogwash. He goes into a litany of stats of other states and their per capita consumption and DUI numbers and booze-related deaths—which are meaningless without any context.
He shoots himself in the inkwell in his reluctant admission that Utah is populated by a large number of citizens who don't drink. The old laws never stopped me from getting a drink. Rather, they just pissed me off—along with anybody who ever visited Utah for business or pleasure.
More by Tom Barberi
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"It's A Dog Eat Cat World"
- Jan 8, 2010
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It's official....THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON!
- Jan 7, 2010
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GOD Speaks Tuber
- Jan 6, 2010
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