Interesting ping.
bfl
-—pass the salt , please, my fries with the hamburger are toobland——
The most interesting thing about that article is that women through the prohibition movement gave rise to NASCAR! LOL. If that’s true then I thank them at least for that.
In the name of "good" they will take your liberty.
/mark
But don’t worry, the prohibition of the currently illegal drugs is both necessary and good with no unintended consequences.
If I were writing this article, I could not have helped myself from asking the question, if not for prohibition the Godfather of the Kennedy crime family, Joe Kennedy, would not have made his fortune as a bootlegger.
And without that bootlegging fortune, it is unlikely that the Kennedy brothers would have had much effect on the American political scene.
Thanks, interesting book referenced by Mr. Will. I’ll have to read it. Sounds like an Amity Shlaes uncovering of the historical truth that otherwise is buried under the sense that we already know something we actually don’t.
However, I am bugged at the first read of Will’s column and the linked book review about the consumption figure pre-prohibition. For I suspect that by the year of the referenced consumption rate most states already had state prohibitions.
What I have thought for about a dozen years now is that the prohibition did in fact break America’s near drunken daily life in the age of walking and horse drawn local transit. Horses will carry a drunk home, but a drunk in an automobile will cause deadly havoc.
In other words, we HAD to stop drinking so we could drive. The national prohibition was in that regard an act of Providence.
I also wonder as to the Kennedy rum-running legend. Was it really debunked in whole? I wonder ...
good article, I’ll have to hunt down that book. last line from the WaPost article:
Americans then were, and let us hope still are, magnificently ungovernable by elected nuisances.
btt
Old prohibition joke:
It’s mid-summer, a hot and sweathy day, and a man gives his son a nickle and says:”Little Johnny, grab that there bucket and go buy a bucket of beer.”
Johnny goes outside and looks up and down the street scratching his head about where to go.
Johnny’s friend Tommy comes along. “Hey, Johnny, whatcha doin?”
Johnny says, “Well, pop gave me a nickle and a bucket and told me to buy him some beer, but I don’t know where to go.”
Tommy says, “Well, look down the street. See all those houses with smoke pouring out of the chimney?”
Johnny looks. “Yeh, they all got smoke pouring out the chimney. Except that one at the end of the block.”
Tommy says, “Yeh, don’t go to that one.”
James Madison drank a pint of whiskey daily
Wow — and wasn’t he about 4’11” and 100 pounds?
I want to add, a lot of these do-gooders are prevalent especially in the liberal democrat camp. What are the recent micromanagement intrusions have they done ?
1. The 55 mph speed limit, fortunately repealed but for how long ?
2. The National drinking age of 21
3. Seatbelt and helmet laws
4. Food
5. Fast cars and motorcycles
6. Overall - political correctness !
No Clintons, Boxers, Snowes, Pelosis, Obamas, etc.
I like the idea of male propery owners being able to vote and run for office, as was originally intended.
Think about how much better life would be.