Archive for the ‘Regulation’ Category
Your Tax Dollars at Work
March 8th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Tom Wark travels to Maryland to testify before a legislative committee considering changing Maryland’s direct shipping laws. Wark, who has testified in favor of direct shipping before, is remarkably patient when confronted with lunkheads.
The one legislator who decided to try to counter my testimony was a good looking gentleman in his late 30’s who, like [...]
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No Matter How Hard We Try, There’s Always Someone Worse
February 23rd, 2010 by Tom Johnson
When it comes to statistical indicators of achievement in social pathologies (illiteracy, unwed parenthood, trailer-based pharmaceutical manufacturing) Kentucky’s motto has always been “Thank God for Arkansas,” which commemorates that state’s perpetual status as the worst state while leaving Kentucky to feel relatively good about itself because it’s only number 49.
So it is with Kentucky’s maddening [...]
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Sometimes, I Think the French Deserve It
January 13th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Decanter reports that something called “flavescence dorée” is “threatening to become as big a problem as Phylloxera” in Bordeaux.
To put that in perspective, Bordeaux vineyards, along with the rest of the French wine industry, were basically wiped out by phylloxera in the 19th Century.
The French government has decreed that all infected vineyards have to be [...]
Tags: France, wine
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A State Even More Screwed-Up Than Kentucky
January 11th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Maine allows wineries to sell wine 365 days a year, but they may hold only 12 tastings a year. They are not allowed to charge for those tastings, which must be carried out behind drawn curtains so children can’t see them. If someone likes a wine and wants a full glass of it, they can’t [...]
Tags: wine
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All Publicity Is Good Publicity
July 31st, 2009 by Tom Johnson
After the not-at-all-backward Alcoholic Beverage Control Board of Alabama bans Cycles Gladiator wine over its supposedly pornographic label, sales of the wine skyrocket.
Bill Leigon, president of Hahn Family Wines in Soledad, Calif., said Thursday that visits to the company’s Web site have increased tenfold since news of the ban broke late last week, and callers [...]
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In Which We Establish That the Sensitivities of Alabama Liquor Regulators Are More Than 100 Years Out of Date
July 27th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
The state of Alabama has banned the sale of Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir because the label, seen at right, features a woman “posed in an immodest or sensuous manner,” a violation of Alabama liquor law.
The image regulators found overly stimulating was developed for an 1895 bicycle advertisement. The label itself won an American Graphic Design [...]
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Why You Can’t Buy Wine Over the Internet
July 23rd, 2009 by Tom Johnson
If you live in Kentucky, you can’t take part in Internet wine auctions or be a member of a wine club or buy wine from one of the hundreds of small wineries who only sell their hand-made wines via the web. The legal basis for Kentucky’s ability to restrict your personal freedom to buy an [...]
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