From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: Repost from alt.beer(Beer laws in Texas)
Organization: Texas Instruments, Inc
Distribution: tx
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 18:38:38 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.153153.3737@digi.lonestar.org> gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo) writes:
>Fred McCall writes, in part:
>
>>Prohibition was a FAILURE that increased the consumption of alcohol
>>and also increased all manner of criminal activity.  And I would hate
>>to think that a "real historian" would go into such a study with the
>>preconceived goal of "try[ing] to make the best case for the success
>>of [Prohibition]."
>
>
>Well, Fred, I guess you have spoken and there is not much more to say. It
>would be folly of me to suggest that there was anything else going on in
>the world during that era besides Prohibition and that any behavioral 
>trends could be attributable to anything besides Prohibition. Certainly 
>phenomena like World War I, 

WWI ended and the Roaring 20's came in.

>rapid urbanization and industrialization, 
>and other such developments had no influence.  The increase in all kinds 
>of crime and the increasing Badness of the American people, clearly demon-
>strable from the most casual perusal of the statistics, rests squarely 
>on the shoulders of Prohibition, which pushed millions Americans who would
>have otherwise lived productive, sober lives over the brink into a life of
>sin and self destruction.  

Well, my initial response to such 'cute' presentation is to just say
"fuck you very much", since you've obviously shown that you are not
open to even looking at the facts if they don't agree with what you
want to believe.  However, let's try one more time.  Explain the
following fact:  per capita consumption of hard liquore jumped during
Prohibition, and dropped almost immediately after its end.

>
>If prohibition was a FAILURE (your shouting upper case) that increased
>consumption of alcohol, then how do you explain the even higher rates
>of consumption and alcoholism today, now that it is freely available?
>Is it because we still have an age limit?  Maybe we should reduce the
>drinking age to five?  Or maybe it is because of the Religious Right,
>whose unconstitutional oppressive activities drive people to drink.

No, it's because such is a non-fact.

>
>As for your abhorrence of the "barn door", I look forward to your ideal
>society, where there are only blacks and whites and no shades of gray,
>and most certainly no color, in between.

And I *don't* look forward to your society, where people are taught to
wink at the laws (which only, after all, exist because somebody
thought they should, even though what they outlaw isn't a problem) and
the only 'wrong' is to GET CAUGHT.

>
>Cheers,
>Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)
>
>P.S. Fred, I really appreciate your comprehensive in-depth statistical
>analysis of human behavior during the Prohibition era.  It is really 
>what I was looking for.

Well, it overmatches your own.  At least mine was based on fact.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.