I'll drink to that

It is time to celebrate. No, not that the Dow was up around 380 points today. Although that is a good thing, be prepared for a sell off tomorrow now that the Senate passed the $410 Billion spending package and Nancy "deer in the headlights" Pelosi is hinting at a second massive spendulus package. How's that for throwing a wet blanket on good news?

"What good news?", you ask. Utah has given up its ridiculous Private Club law covering what you in the rest of the modern world refer to as Bars. Barring an Oktoberfest surprise, the Governor will sign the bill in to law very soon. That's right, no longer will we citizens living behind the Zion Curtain be made to feel like scofflaws to the Volstead Act as we stagger up to our favorite speakeasy in search of some hooch by being forced to sign up for a membership in order to get a drink. The term "membership" in the Beehive State has a connotation that doesn't usually jive with alcohol consumption and tends to last more than the typical two-weeks one is granted access to a club.

The move to normalize the arcane and downright stupid liquor laws that were drafted by people who were never fortunate enough to wake up with a hangover as a reminder of the previous night's enjoyment is driven mainly by tourism. As one who has many times had to explain to a visiting skier how to get an apres-ski drink, I can't wait to just say "go over there" without any further instructions, qualifications, diagrams, gesticulations or secret decoder rings needed.

There remain a few oddities in the liquor laws. These, most likely, remain as a consideration for the roughly 30% of the state's population that throw a temperance tantrum any time a relaxation of consumption encumbrances is discussed. There is also a new requirement for gin joints to use an electronic scanner to verify the ID of anyone entering a den of iniquity who appears to be under 35 years old. No word has been given on what a youthful Benjamin Button will be required to do. I've a few concerns regarding this ID scan but officials have stated there will be no central database kept of drunks, lushes, booze hounds or the occasional martini sipper for use at the time of the Rapture to determine what bus everyone gets on.

True conservatives and the more libertine of the state have long considered the Republicans in our state government as nothing more than Democrats who have jobs and don't drink. This move, passed by a unanimous vote in the Senate, is one toward less government intrusion into the seedy places it doesn't belong at a time when our national elected officials are guzzling up every freedom they can and spending like, excuse the easy analogy, drunken sailors.

To Governor Huntsman who pushed this initiative and the sober minds who followed, I say "Three Cheers" and raise an equal number of glasses in toast to them.

S2