Posted on 04/26/2011 6:53:25 AM PDT by Utah Binger
Before I came to live in Utah I was mostly a law-abiding citizen.
Is say "mostly" because you have to obey a bajillion laws and statutes just to drive a car. There's plenty of opportunity to break the traffic code even in semi-innocent ignorance. So, like an average citizen I occasionally get caught violating a traffic law. I say "occasionally" because the last time I paid a fine for a traffic violation was a quarter-century ago.
So, up until 1999 I scrupulously tried to come to a full stop at stop signs, didn't run red lights, drove within the speed limit, paid the taxes various governments claimed I owed, resisted the temptation to rob banks, and committed no axe murders. I used to be pretty close to living as a model, law-abiding citizen -- but not in Utah.
Here's what happened.
My wife and I drove to the United States of America to visit our children and grandkids. Then we drove back to Utah. After we returned we described our trip to our friends, including a report about some of our shopping. There were gasps, "You know that's against the law in Utah, don't you?" No we didn't. We had unknowingly committed a Class B misdemeanor.
It seems that driving to the United States of America, filling the back of your SUV with several cases of wine, and then crossing back into Utah without looking up a Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control official to have your vino inspected and taxes paid is bootlegging.
(Excerpt) Read more at standard.net ...
Bootlegger ping!
-- Floyd Ferris
You beat me to it.
Just another of Utah’s oddities. It is against the law to be and adult in Utah. This is a State where Moral Conservatism rules - but you’d better be part of the “moral” majority or else your freedoms are seriously impeded against.
I can tell you if you ever go to the Buckskin Tavern in Fredonia Arizona do not drive back over the border into Utah as the Kanab goons have already made note of you and are laying in wait.
Speaking from experience of course.
Actually, I'd be willing to bet, that if you looked at most states, they would almost all have something limiting the amount you can bring into the state of alcohol, tobacco, and gasoline/diesel without reporting and paying taxes on it.
Every time we fly to Chicago we bring an empty suitcase or two and pick up hard stuff at Costco. what’s $46 in Seattle is $27 there. And we get the family sized bottle of Kirkland vodka (made by Grey Goose) for $27. The same amount of Grey Goose is over $60 in Seattle.
I get all my single malt there too. Too bad we don’t fly to California a lot. :)
As I recall, Massachusetts tried this with New Hampshire, and NH busted their agents and tossed them in jail. The NH liquor stores are state-owned.
Actually I just took a room in Fredonia in order to change my address and drivers license to Arizona. In that way we can order fine wines on UPS for our events without having to drive all the way to Page or Mesquite.
I can also stop getting the silly Utah letter from the DMV about whether type II Diabetes prevents me from driving a car.
Utah makes folks have to lie about a lot of things.
Tennessee sends cigarette agents into Kentucky to bust people buying low tax cigs.
That is a confusing post.
Tiny little Panguitch is where I discovered O’Douls....not bad at all for ‘near beer’.
During the upcoming July 4 periods, California “authorities” monitor the Nevada fireworks stands near the state line and then have drivers pulled over once back in CA.
We now have a Republican legislature in the Senate and House and a Republican Governor in Pennsylvania. First time this has happened in a while. One of the things they want to do is privatize all of our State Liquor Stores. I say amen to that!! The Governor is making it one of his priorities.
As we have the head of the Treasury who cannot figure out how to do his taxes and a lower than whale dung Rep who was head of the department writing the tax code and couldn't follow it. And we all seem to need lawyers to wade through various laws. And we need to have appeals to many decisions, it seems to me that IGNORANCE OF THE LAW IS THE MOST VALID OF EXCUSES
Good grief folks the frauds sitting on the bench of the USSC cannot even agree to what our laws mean, hence all the 5-4 decisions. Why on earth should we be expected to know what the heck is going on with our legal system? We do not have a justice system just a legal system.
Just how is any average citizen supposed to know what is and is not legal beyond the 10 Commandments? Hmmmm, maybe that is why the vile enemy within this country is trying to remove them from view.
Wow! Tiny little Panguitch is my hometown!
My very much beloved Grandfather Crouch would drive from Boones Creek (Johnson City area) to Gate City, Virginia once a month to buy his bourbon and my grandmother’s scotch. Every time I got to ride along as a kid he would warn me that if the police stopped us leaving Virginai or entering Tennessee to say nothing about what was in the trunk! The drive was only about forty miles, one way, but the county in Tennessee where he lived was a dry county then. Only beer was sold, no liquor ... of course anything you wanted, in pint bottles, was available through Hack Smithdeals taxi company, and Roy Faircloth’s store fronts. Real Bootleggin’ was a big money maker in those days (fifties and early sixties). Roy and Hack had themselves an old fashioned shootout at the Dutchmaid drive-in in Johnson City one evenin’, to settle whose enterprise was going to take charge don’tchaknow. Strip bars were coming to Johnson City!
Here’s to all you self-sufficient American bootleggers!
http://homedistiller.org/photos-sold.htm
Since the government is willing to sacrifice our food to make ethanol, they should be all in favor of people making their own, home ethanol.
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