Category Archives: Adult Beverages

Quote of the Week

(March 18th, 2003)
In a Letter to the Editor printed in yesterday's New York Times, Philadelphia native Tom Hanson took issue with guest columnist Jim Gogek's proposal for a punitive tax on alcohol. Gogek, as we told you yesterday, is heavily funded by the anti-alcohol Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Writes...

Wine Makes Deodorant Heir Whine

(March 17th, 2003)
The Washington Post ran an interesting story yesterday about Peter Mennen, the million-heir to his family's antiperspirant fortune. It seems the California tycoon is sinking his money into the Sierra Club's efforts to turn public opinion against the Napa valley's family wineries. Sierra's grape-offensive against California's wine...

Drunken Logic

(January 21st, 2003)
An editorial in yesterday’s Washington Post trumpets a “convincing link between a pattern of moderate drinking and health benefits” -- and then inexplicably urges public health officials to “stay silent until the research holds steady for a decade or two more.” Research scientists have known that

Return of the Jackbooted Teetotalers

(January 16th, 2003)
Earlier this month we told you about police in Northern Virginia bursting into bars and arresting patrons for the crime of being tipsy. Under fire from citizens and legislators, authorities are now trying to defend their tactics -- and their story reconfirms our worst fears.

...

Jackbooted Teetotalers: ‘Don’t Drink in the Bar’

(January 7th, 2003)
Talk about shooting fish in a barrel! Officers in “SWAT-like garb” are now bursting into Northern Virginia bars in search of intoxicated patrons. Anyone registering over 0.08 percent Blood Alcohol Concentration -- the legal limit for driving -- is subject to arrest. Anyone who looks...

More Inflated Than Your Airbags

(January 6th, 2003)
Thursday’s Sacramento Bee editorial page included a scathing review of the nationwide push for lowered drunk-driving arrest thresholds. So far, 17 states have resisted the federally strong-armed blood-alcohol content (BAC) limit of 0.08, despite Uncle Sam’s threat to withhold vital highway funds from any state that dares...

CSPI’s latest whine turns to vinegar

(December 16th, 2002)
The federal government has rejected a request from the misnamed Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which could have forced new, garish warning labels on all beer, wine, and liquor. CSPI actually wanted warning labels on the front of every retail alcohol...

Targeting social drinkers is simply MADD

(December 10th, 2002)
“Groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving have decided to wage war on social drinkers,” writes Fox News columnist Radley Balko in the Los Angeles Times. Balco gives voice to a sentiment we’ve been airing for five years -- that MADD is now a $45 million bureaucracy that...

Somebody Call Elliot Ness!

(November 5th, 2002)
It’s been almost 70 years since alcohol Prohibition was repealed, and you’d think nobody would want to go back to the era when sipping an adult beverage could land you in the clink.

But The Chicago Tribune reports that 10 city precincts will vote...

15 yards for hyperbole…

(September 12th, 2002)
The Ralph Nader-inspired group that “is proud of finding something wrong with practically everything” apparently wants to knock helmets with the Washington Redskins. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) criticized the ‘Skins on Tuesday for agreeing to an exclusive marketing arrangement with Diageo,...