Booze Clues on I-1100 and I-1105 (a nod to Chilidog Dennison)

Washington State is broke. We have a deficit for social services which include Police and Fire Departments. Our public education system progresses, but teeters. Voters keep saying "No Taxes" yet forget that Taxes are what keep potholes filled, crosswalks lit, and school programs open long enough for them to go to work and make money to pay to the OTHER F'ed-up Washington.

If you own a bar, drink a fair amount, enjoy alcohol, enjoy sanity, worry about DUIs, and want to see how you'd be affected YOU MUST CHECK OUT THESE 2 LINKS!!!

There are 2 initiatives (I-1100, I-1105) we have coming up for Vote in November in WA State regarding Alcohol. While we can all agree with Homer J. Simpson that booze is the "Cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." It was actually a great writer, not Homer, but I digress...
These initiatives are intended to deregulate and free-up the current state of liquor sales in the state. They are relatively arcane and do need an overhaul. Currently, you can only purchase hard liquor/spirits through a state-run store. It provides tens to hundreds of millions of dollars each year into the quickly-emptying coffers of our state. Distribution isn't real slick to the bars and restaurants, either.

I-1100 (PRIVATIZE) states, per the WA Secretary Of State:
This measure would direct the liquor control board to close all state liquor stores; terminate contracts with private stores selling liquor; and authorize the state to issue licenses that allow spirits (hard liquor) to be sold, distributed, and imported by private parties. It would repeal uniform pricing and certain other requirements governing business operations for distributors and producers of beer and wine. Stores that held contracts to sell spirits could convert to liquor retailer licenses.

I-1105 (REVISE) states, per the WA Secretary Of State:
This measure would direct the liquor control board to close all state liquor stores and to license qualified private parties as spirits retailers or distributors. It would require licensees to pay the state a percentage of their first five years of gross spirits sales; repeal certain taxes on retail spirits sales; and direct the board to recommend to the legislature a tax to be paid by spirits distributors. It would revise other laws concerning spirits.

So, 1100 removes the State as the gatekeeper to booze.
1105 revises the rules to allow private sellers (Costco, Safeway, Bartells, etc.) to get licenses to sell booze, give a portion back to the state for 5 years and repeal other taxes.

Here's my take as a mid-30's married man whose work as a Comedian happens in bars and clubs with most people drinking a'cahaul:
1) Our state's too broke to give up the nearly $500M we'd lose over the next 5 years if these pass. We're too broke to give up ANY money.
2) To make up the shortfall, booze would have to be taxed so heavily that it basically would revert to the same bottom line it's at now, or people would have to start drinking they way they REALLY want to instead of responsibly enjoying it, and then there's a whole other barfpool to wade through.
3) We need new regulations and we need new distribution allowances; it's too costly and too clunky for bars and eateries to get what they need. These are not the way to do it. Too vague.
4) I don't want booze available in grocery stores, which already have kids stealing Energy Drinks!!! for crying out loud. A minor drinking alcohol should be up to the parents. (wink)
5) California sells booze in grocery stores. How are THEY doing?
6) These don't help small businesses. Costco, Safeway, and other big stores could undercut prices to other retailers, including bars and restaurants. It's not "Free Market," it's "Dominate Market." It favors big chains and high volumes.
7) I like shopping for booze with adults. I don't want to buy booze at a grocery store while I'm silently crying and my son stares up at me from the cart.
7a) Similarly, I don't want liquor available in gas stations and KwikMarts until 2am.

I am voting No on each one. I think there should be reform on the sale and distribution to Businesses that sell/resell alcohol, but the complete Slash & Burn of the State's involvement strips tax money we need, makes it more visible to children, and allows it to get into places with fewer restrictions and regulatory incentives to not sell to minors.

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Customer Disservice - DirecTV Again

Like the title says, DirecTV has again proven itself to hold the highest standards of minimal effort in handling customer issues. Please get rid of DirecTV if you have it, or at least don't ever get it at your love bunker.

First it was the issue where a guy with almost an entire month of a court-mandated trade school course in Screwdriver Management put the dish practically in my neighbor's shower. Then, to have it moved, I would have to pay $50 (AMERICAN) because I "approved" the install by not supervising the installer's "work." Then I made the horrific mistake of - from what was implied in my call to their customer "care" office - not leg-sweeping and triangle-choking said installer to show my displeasure. So, hey, that was all my fault I guess.

Tonight we tried to order the Sandra Bullock-led movie for which she won an Oscar, "The Blind Side." DirecTV has a limited catalog of PayPerViews at any given time. TONS of movies that will show you the pink parts of people from bad families, but as for decent films? Yeah. No.

Like other times, I tried to order the movie on-line with a few button-pushes. Nothing. Tried it at another timeslot, and again, SQUAT. Went on-line to order and still got an e-quivalent of being slapped in the face with a turd-covered hand. Still NOTHING. So I had to call to tell 'em I NO LONGER WANT TO WATCH SANDRA BULLOCK PUT ON THE SOUTHERN ACCENT AND EMOTE, AND MY BILL WAS ALREADY CHARGED AND THE CAPITAL LETTERS ARE WHAT MY BRAIN IS FEELING WHEN I HAD TO CALL...

1) The bill was charged before the movie was active.
2) The phone number to talk whomever was gonna want to quit after I called was hard to find.
3) The system "was updating key records and was unavailable until tomorrow morning"

So to get the charges reversed... it was up to ME to call back. They couldn't write anything down, make a log of ways to HELP THE CUSTOMERS AND AGAIN MY BRAIN FEELS HOT.

So I told Megan at DirecTV... "Okay Megan, I'll reschedule my life because your supervisors haven't come up with a way to make a list of work items you can handle when the system comes back on-line as a courtesy to the people paying the bills there. Sound good? Oookaaaay byyy-eeeeeeeCLICK."

I know it's not Megan's fault. But unless Megan gets a verbal fart-slapping every once in a while, she'll never get her ass to mechanic's school and run her own diesel engine-rebuild shop the way she told her high school couns'lors.

DirecTV is NOT the bag of farts. It is the half-bag of Oreos & a half-pound of buttered broccoli-fueled farts themselves.

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Obama's Message Failed Us All

President Obama's message to the nation's youth and school children - but NOT the Home-Schooled Children - missed on few key points yesterday. The children, who some believe are our future, of this nation have a daunting task ahead of them when considering the changes needed in Health Care, Reality TV programming, Stand-Up Comedy, and Organic Farming. The President's moment had arrived to speak to the children, directly, and to the parents of those children IN-directly, and to the baby-daddies of many of those children unintentionally. And the ball was dropped.

In such a large forum it was surely important to address education, personal responsibility, mandatory birth control, FaceBook pictures, and not getting a neck tattoo of a basketball before the age of 20, no matter how much of your ass shows above your long shorts, you clown. Those tatts only make it easier to identify you, which the police, and the coroner, will appreciate.











How did President Obama fail?
He had the opportunity to say anything to these kids... ANYTHING... and here's a list of what he should have, and did NOT, tell them...

1. "It is in your best interest at all times to RETURN YOUR EMPTY SHOPPING CART TO THE CORRAL, instead of the empty parking spot or half-way into a planter near your car. And call your mom & dad on this monumental laziness at all times."
2. "Your family pet is a pet, not a tool. Unless you are one of our nation's sight-challenged youth who uses a service animal to help you navigate public areas, DON'T BRING YOUR DOG INTO THE STORE, ever. If it can't survive in the car or the living room, it's probably going to die in Frozen Foods. No matter how cute, eventually, somebody will bring a larger and larger and larger dog until the local grocer aisles are roamed by pumas handled by illegitimate owners. NO. DOGS. IN. STORES."
3. "Your music sucks. Your brains are absorbing a ton of over-emotional drivel from the likes of Rihanna, One Republic, Hinder, Linkin Park, Beyonce, and yes, even Lil Wayne. The list goes on and on. The louder you music has to be in order to sound good, the less intelligent you will be for listening to it. Do what you like with that."
4. "Deadwood should be wrapped up with a movie. Demand it now."
5. "In closing, regardless of the color of your skin, the ancestry of your bloodlines, or the behavior of your friends, nobody likes loud, rude, crass, unintelligent, boorish, mush-mouthed jabber. If you can't say something nicely, keep it at yo' self."

Of course, there's far more to have been covered, but I think we all know what's-what here. In an era of Me First, My Phone, My Face, look at ME ME ME ME... and then ME is very unimpressive... at some point SOMEBODY has to step up and say "ENOUGH."

Don't leave it to the kids. Educate them on how to act with class, tact, manners, and courtesy. We don't need kids acting like prim & proper little dorks, but using the words "F*** Yeah, I gots a HEEYOOJ bowlzak fuh yo mama!" almost NEVER ends with getting invited to the pool party.

As for the Healthcare message, you CANNOT put a price-tag on human life.
They're not all worth the same.

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A Drug Test

Most places you work will require you to take a test to see if you have any drugs in your system. Not sure if that's because you look like you prob'ly do, they like seeing you hoop-jump, they be lookin' fo' somebody to smoke wit', or to see if you break the law or not.

BUT, if you work a job that taxes are taken out of the paycheck from, YOUR PAYCHECKUS...
AND, some of that money goes into the public coffers to be doled out to people on public assistance, welfare, or in line for the Gubment's teet...
THEN, it should be required of the second-hand recipient of your effort's wages to take a drug test in order to pick up a check.

Or am I high?

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