Alabama Homebrewing still Illegal

My apologies for posting something political, I just thought the nation should hear how ridiculous the anti-home brewing argument is down here! I live in Mississippi and it's illegal here too, but now I want audio of my senate to see what they are saying!



Thank You Northern Brewer and Brewing TV for letting us hear this!

 

I think that's fairly old audio. Still amazing, as it can't be more than a year or so.

"I think we should ban something because we don't' understand it."

Instead of learning about it and making an informed decision.

 

April 26th, 2011 audio...

Scary isn't it?

 

BrewingTV started a thread about this earlier today:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/have-you-seen-video-about-alabama-homebrewing-249779/

 

Wow. I'm not sure what is scarier....the content or the accents....

 

My bad. I thought it was last years, or the year before. That was some crazy audio back then too.

Yep, just ignorant people voting on superstitions and assumptions, without any informed thought process.

And we all know that Mountain Dew is much healthier than a glass of beer each day...

 

How can these people be allowed to vote on something they have no knowledge about? If your opposing argument is asking what it is your arguing about, you need to sit down and shut up.

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is how legislatures operate. Uninformed constituencies do not magically produce informed representatives.

 

If it wasn't so sad for AL homebrewers, it would be hilarious.

 

Look up some of the audio on Alvin Holmes... and not just the stuff on beer. It sincerely frightens me that people like him were elected by a majority somewhere.

 

"...he can brew 100 gallons of mead, whatever that is..."

Ridiculous.

 

I thought you guys had already moved onto medical pot laws.

 

If I lived in AL, I would pack up and move.

 

Good Lord! I listened to about 1/2 of it, and I immediately started thinking about the movie "O Brother where art thou", in the PART where the black kid said he sold his to the devil to play guitar.

"I have it from safe sources that this boy sold is SOUL to the DEHHH-VUUULL!"

M_C

 

Found the actual script:

(Censored for your protection)

M_C

 

that's a pretty fair generalization of how politics works down here.

OP, i feel your pain as i live in the "great" state of mississippi too. the last two years, i wrote a very well-crafted letter to my representatives and all the members of the two committees. I GOT 1 RESPONSE! it was from the bill sponsor.

 

holy balls... i think that really sums it up... but wow, this is why voting is important... once again alabama proving every stereotype about it is correct...

 

Regardless of the letters after their names (R or D) I think they show what is truly frightening about govt today:

It's not OK to do it because WE didn't tell them it's OK. There's no one WATCHING them.

Scary stuff...

 

Remind me never to move to Alabama.

 

I've got a friend that suggested it's begging to be remixed, and autotuned, to make a viral video of. I wish I had skills in that area.

 

There is one out there already...

 

Move away from there. Best thing you will ever do or if you don't live there just never move there. Simples.

 

Simple. Many of the constituents are against drinking in any way, and will defend their belief against common sense to the end. Simple facts be damned.

if they would take 10 minutes of their time and do a quick question and answer, it would start to become obvious that there is not real threat to their lifestyle, their children, and their tax money.

 

I like how their argument as to why people shouldn't be allowed to homebrew is because there would be no government entity watching the people brew...just sad.

I don't think any homebrewers do it solely to get drunk...brewing beer takes alot of time and effort. All the "wine-ohs" are just going to continue going down to the cornerstore and buying 40s and MD20/20 if the bill gets passed.

"Mead....whatever that is" LOL

Politicians are like diapers, they are all full of sh*t and should be changed regularly.

 

Why should that matter, apparently one legislature knows of the biggest bootlegger in the State and he's in his district, but he hasn't done anything to him to stop him...

So you know of someone breaking the law. He's the most valid point in your argument, yet he's not in jail, fined or stopped.

Regulation, for the sake of Regulation! Why don't they all just give themselves titles like Duke of Montgomery and Earl of Birmingham? Make themselves feel important and that way they can just continue to ignore everyone else?

 

Wow. Just wow.

That was the epitome of uneducated southern politics.

Move to the North. It's better here.

 

Sadly homebrewing got caught up in this baloney...

Someone from Party A sponsors a completely harmless and largely symbolic bill...
Everyone from Party B suddenly hates the idea with a passion, just because it would be bad for their careers to agree with someone from the other party.

 

ignorant politicians make baby jesus cry

 

I can't believe how stupid these people are. "Mead, whatever that is..."

 

Can't... 1. the job market stinks, 2. I've lived away from the Gulf Coast before and to wake up and smell the salt in the air is truly a way of life... and finally, 3. The food! We have stuff down here that we just can't get anywhere else.

 

As terrible and uninformed as those politicians are, your statement is equally uneducated.

 

I agree. That is still not the epitome of "uneducated southern politics".

 

The opposition looked pretty bipartisan to me...

 

Go find the Forbes list of the most educated cities in America.

However, with that said, I think the issue, at the core, is that were dealing with the historical issue.

Coming from Boston I saw this first hand. The "Blue Laws" that banned liquor stores to be open on Sunday were just recently appealed, or at least relaxed. Getting there took a major battle. Tattooing was banned up until about a decade ago; it originally was outlawed as the result of a Hep outbreak in the 1920's I believe.

But these politicians are, in great part, a reflection of their constituents.

One of the biggest concerns that was brought up was moonshine, and the risk of potentially giving some leeway or loophole to brew it. Look at one of the historical concerns of moonshine; blindness from additives to increase the alcohol content. These additives like methanol and lye are nasty stuff...adding them into something you drink doesn't equate being terribly bright.

But on top of that, moonshine was brewed as a solid flipped finger to the government when it went ahead and taxed and regulated Whiskey.

This is what mindset they're coming from....the kind of fundamentally religious folks that made a logical conclusion; it was two preachers that founded the American Temperance Society that lead to Prohibition.

 

Agreed. I know nothing about southern politics, and wish to keep it that way.

All I know is, I can make 200 gallons. And since they don't audit, I can basically make whatever I want.

Our politicians up here are too busy with collapsing bridges and squeezing money out of state budgets to bother with petty crap like what AL is dealing with, apparently.

Woot!

 

/facepalm

I'm not even going to try....keep your deluded sense of superiority.

I dont have to look at the Forbes list by the way. All it is based on is how many people own a degree ages 25 and up. This alone is not an accurate indication of a city's level of intelligence.

I have lived in both the north and south, they harbor different forms of stupidity. You are showing the north's in this thread.

 

Ugh. And I thought OUR politicians were idiots.

 

The only credence I'll give to the "MoonShine" or "Bootlegger" argument is the lack of understanding that there is a difference between those two and home brewing (Beer, Cider, Wine or Mead... "Whatever that is!" LOL).

We are not trying to SELL our beer! Therefore there is no reason to Tax it. Moonshiners and bootleggers are! There is a difference that the legislators are not seeing.

The lack of education is completely in the lack of understanding or willingness to understand the nature of homebrewing beer.

We are not Wino's!

 

This is gold.

I'll agree I'm showing northern stupidity, if you agree you're showing the southern form. At least northern stupidity requires a college degree.

 

California, San Diego great beer great food and great women.