Drinking Thread & Poll

[Ktoyou]

I was raised in a small dry town. If one wanted to drink alcohol, one had to drive out to the county line and purchase. The Police would park out there and only arrest those who had no emotional control, those who opened their booze bottles and drank while driving, or those who dashed to the county line already drunk.

There was not beer and wine sold in any stores. The town and county were dry. Now we have beer and wine sold in the grocery store, but hard liquor is sold only in state liquor stores. Now we have beer and wine sold in restaurants, and some bars too. The trouble is more the bars than beer and wine sold in restaurants.

Personally, I would rather live in a dry town.

I do not think drinking in moderation is sinful, yet I do think drunkenness is sinful.

Here are a few poll questions for your opinion on the alcohol issue. I tried to cover the main issues, so, please add in comment what I am missing.

You may make multiple choices and they are public.

 

[Ktoyou]

OK, I took the poll. I am not much for alcohol.
It seems a necessity that some towns need to be wet to stop crime, but I would rather not live around it. There, I said it.

 

[patrick jane]

OK, I took the poll. I am not much for alcohol.
It seems a necessity that some towns need to be wet to stop crime, but I would rather not live around it. There, I said it.

Can we only vote once ? For 1 thing ? never mind, I see we can pick multiple choices.

 

[Ktoyou]

Can we only vote once ? For 1 thing ? never mind, I see we can pick multiple choices.

Yes. you did it fine. I set it up so if, like me, you pick 'prefer a dry town' then no further clarification is necessary. If you prefer a 'wet town', as you do, them more choices explain what you condone and not condone.

Thanks

 

[Nihilo]

Drinking is a game. You can win the game if you're a good player, and if you're not a good player, you shouldn't play the game. There is help available if you have trouble quitting the game.

 

[chrysostom]

moderation in all things



including moderation

 

[gcthomas]

Even the Bible has wine served at meals. Alcohol tastes nice, so I want access to shops and bars selling the stuff.

:idunno:

But we need to demonstrate moderation and self control to our children. Towns centres can be awful places on a payday-Friday evening.

 

[chrysostom]

good eats
alton brown
convinced me not to brew my own beer
everything must be clean
but
I will never forget what he said about controlling the alcohol content
why is that important?
you have to keep it low
if
you want to drink all day
and
still remain functional

 

[Nick M]

I didn't select drinking in moderation is fine because if just one or two gets you drunk, then moderation is still a problem

 

[Buzzword]

I grew up in a dry county.
The nearest alcohol was forty-five minutes south or an hour and a half north.
I lost three classmates to drunk drivers before I was twenty.

Which, oddly enough, was the year my hometown went wet.

Since then, there has been a massive dropoff in the number of car accidents in general, and drunk driving incidents in particular.
With every grocery store in town selling hard liquor, and the new liquor stores strategically placed, most people in town walk to and from their alcohol source.

It also helps that the local police are more interested in getting people home safely than in enforcing outdated "drunk in public" laws, so a person walking-while-drunk is more likely to be driven home by an officer than to the police station (of course, if they're belligerently drunk it's a different story).

But that's in Texas.

Living in Oklahoma it's a different story.
Oklahoma doesn't have dry counties, as far as I know, but it does have a ludicrous set of liquor laws.
For example, nothing above 3.2% alcohol content can be sold anywhere except a liquor store.
Also, liquor stores are not allowed to have refrigeration units of any kind (this didn't become frustrating for me until I went to Missouri and got hooked on Fat Tire, but this particular law is currently up for reform in the state legislature).
Even more idiotic, liquor stores in Oklahoma are not allowed to have restrooms on premises, supposedly because it will tempt weak-willed passersby into the den of sin.

 

[Ktoyou]

"Drinking in public bars is fine" seems like a duplicate choice, I meant to differentiate it from the private cubs. I lived where there was no alcohol sold, yet there were a few private clubs. Buzzword would know about this,, as it was in Texas.
Please post. and if you have no issues with drinking, you may be in a majority, even here on TOL. For me, drinking was never condoned by the church when I was young, while today, in that denomination, with all the changes, drinking is tolerated. There are still some churches in the South who find drinking sinful.

Like nick said, fir some people, a few dinks makes one drunk

 

[Nihilo]

Drinking is a game. You can win the game if you're a good player, and if you're not a good player, you shouldn't play the game. There is help available if you have trouble quitting the game.

People don't see it as a game. They just see it as wrong, or they see it as dangerous, both of which are almost right; but it's not quite wrong, and it's not exactly dangerous. Yes, if you play the game poorly, it's wrong and it's dangerous---for you.

It's a chemical. It's a central nervous system depressant. It's a psychoactive drug, and has been used recreationally for tens of thousands of years. There are rules here. It's science. Take B vitamins to help your liver, drink plenty of water but more importantly eat lots of food---before you drink.

Drink lots of water.

Who else? There are tips and tricks to playing the game well.

 

[Ktoyou]

I do not care for drinking. Then, I do not lecture to anyone who orders a drink. Few seem to agree with me on this; I am probably old-vagabonded about drinking. Nevertheless, I do not drink.

 

[Buzzword]

As a side note, my wife and I attended an Episcopal church for a year or so before moving, and we were astonished at the church's lighthearted approach to drinking.

Mimosas in the choir room before the Easter service, an open bar at the church's 75th anniversary dinner (plus wine bottles at each table), and ten cases of hefeweizen from a local brewery for a fundraiser dinner hosted by the adjacent middle school.

Of course, this was merely one of many areas in which this particular Episcopal doesn't take itself too seriously, but there you are.

 

[Nick M]

Oklahoma doesn't have dry counties, as far as I know, but it does have a ludicrous set of liquor laws.
For example, nothing above 3.2% alcohol content can be sold anywhere except a liquor store.

Kind of like laws regarding abortion that still end with killing the baby. Inform the parents of the 14 year old, then the 14 year old can kill the baby. Wait 24 hours, then you can kill the baby.

The grocery store can't sell Jim Beam, but the liquor store can sell the Jim Beam. As if there is a difference.

 

[Nihilo]

I do not care for drinking.

I really don't care for it either. But if you want to use a drug regularly, the only legal option is ethanol. It is what it is. Our world is designed and built to deliver ethanol to ethanol users, and it's not designed to deliver any other psychoactive chemical, and to engage in the use of any other psychoactive chemical recreationally is a crime, and, separately, dangerous. So ethanol is the only option.

Drunkenness is morally offensive, it is pretty well agreed. There are laws against being drunk also, so our laws and our morals agree in many ways. Public intoxication, operating under the influence, etc.

There is zero wrong with opting against drinking personally. I've lived for long periods of time without drinking a drop, and never missed it either. It's hard work to play the drinking game well, and if you just don't feel like putting in all the work, then it's just as well that you don't drink, if you don't drink.

If you don't want to put in all the work in order to play the game well, you shouldn't play the game, because then, it will be wrong and dangerous for you to drink. And there's nothing wrong with not wanting to put in all the work either, it says nothing of your moral or personal character to think it not worth it.

Then, I do not lecture to anyone who orders a drink.

You would if you knew that somebody was not good at playing the game though.

Few seem to agree with me on this; I am probably old-vagabonded about drinking. Nevertheless, I do not drink.

:e4e:

 

[chrysostom]

I do not lecture to anyone who orders a drink.

You would if you knew that somebody was not good at playing the game though.

I don't because because I understand the game

 

[Nihilo]

I don't because because I understand the game

You don't drink, or you don't lecture?

 

[chrysostom]

You don't drink, or you don't lecture?

lecture


that should have been very clear

 

[Nihilo]

lecture


that should have been very clear

It should have been very clear but it wasn't.

'See what I did there?

:chuckle: