You may not be surprised to find that the Kochs and their right wing organization, Americans for Prosperity, don't think we South Carolinians should be funding infrastructure projects. Not that the roads and bridges don't desperately need improvement. The Kochs just don't think tax dollars should pay for it.
And their campaign to stick their nose in our business in order to prevent this increase in the gas tax is all over the place. When I googled Americans for Prosperity and SC gas tax, the first four websites were by AFP, with the very first one headed: South Carolina Opposes Proposed Gas Hike. Well, hold on a minute -- that sounds like the "Americans are against Obamacare" gambit. And it is. The article, full of lies and blazing rhetoric, states in no uncertain terms that even a five cent increase would kill "nearly 1,000 jobs," destroy investment and small businesses, and drive every one of us South Carolinians into poverty and ruin.
If only we were able to tell the truth with as much passion.
In fact, South Carolina has come together in a way that is rarely seen, in agreement that our roads and bridges need attention immediately. With the lowest gas prices in years -- and before the Kochs and their ilk are able to figure out how to get them back up over $3 a gallon -- now is the ideal time to raise the tax without doing economic damage.
But as far as the Kochs are concerned, money that goes to pay taxes is money that isn't going into their pockets.
So they have used their great brains and deep pockets to do an all-out ad campaign, far beyond the big google website manipulation.
In a well-publicized publicity stunt in Greenville and Summerville, Americans for Prosperity covered the federal and state gas tax for anyone lining up to buy tax-free gas. And line up they did. Here's a situation where people just didn't know they couldn't afford to pay tax on gas until they found out how much it cost when the taxes were deducted. Thanks to alerts from AFP, the media was all over it. Brilliant. If only they could use these great minds to educate our kids. (Wait a minute, they are: they are "generously" funding our South Carolina colleges in order to have free reign to indoctrinate students on right-wing economic dogma.)
But while all the attention is on the gas tax, let's not imagine they would forget public transportation. Lies about your tax dollars being spent frivolously, loud lies, repeated lies.
Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council (A.L.E.C. -- which calls itself "non-partisan"), State Policy Network, and who knows how many other fronts for right-wing, anti-American, pro-corporate interests, especially the richest of the rich, the Kochs and Koch Industries.
Why, we wonder, would the wealthiest pair in the world, be so focused on each and every attempt we make to improve our communities by raising a tax? For gods' sake, this isn't even an income tax, some right wingnuts might even call it a "fair" tax.
The answer has to do with strangling government. The more our infrastructure crumbles, the more our schools fail, the more we risk bankruptcy and poor health because our health care system has failed, the more secure will be the Kochs. Not because they need the money. What they need is the power. They know that if we ever figure out their game, our government will begin to regulate their enormous excesses. So keep making the government evil, by pointing out not the services we need, but that we are paying to get government services. Cut those taxes, make the services suffer, and then tell us how bad government really is.
They are expert in engendering fear, but also holding the carrot out in front of us, as they did with the tax-free gas gimmick.
But here in Charleston, and I'm sure in other communities, our progressive leaders are working just as hard to educate the public by pointing out the lies.
You can help by getting on social media and spreading the truth. Share and retweet articles that point out the fallacies and the damage being done by Americans for Prosperity. Lies that assert that we all will suffer if gas goes up a nickel a gallon, that CARTA is spending your tax dollars frivolously, that all of South Carolina is against a gas tax. Call bullshit on these creeps.
Showing posts with label A.L.E.C.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.L.E.C.. Show all posts
Friday, May 1, 2015
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Just a Night's Escape
I know someone who has worked at Wal-Mart for some 18 years. She works hard; along with back and knee pain she has recently been suffering from a heel spur. She refuses to get a cortisone shot because the doctor refuses to write her an excuse to get three days off work so that she can stay off her feet while the shot is taking effect.
After 18 years, she makes about $17 an hour. She will never make a penny more. Her pay is capped, so that regardless of glowing evaluations, on which pay raises are based, she is not eligible for a raise. Rather, she figures they are waiting for her to retire so that someone will do her job for much lower pay.
My friend doesn't live big. She doesn't go away on vacation, she and her husband do their own home and car repairs when possible, and they live well within their means. But every few months, they head out to Foxwoods Casino and spend a little money on the slots. They budget how much they are going to spend and assume they will play and mostly lose, but they enjoy the night out.
This time at Foxwoods, they had an amazing night. Early on, she won $400 and he won $800. An hour later, she had won another $100 and he had won $400 more. As they cashed in, they looked like two cats that had both swallowed canaries.
They made their way up to their room, trying very hard not to let others see their excitement, but when they got to their room, they burst into giggles, took pictures, exclaimed over and over how this had never happened before.
Then they hid the winnings.
Not too long after that, they became serious. They began to talk about what they would do with the windfall. They decided they were going to do a long awaited car repair and fix the floor in the kitchen.
This is the way it goes for most of us. Those windfalls these days don't go towards a vacation or even a new car. We plan to pay down the mortgage, to get that dental work done, to stash the money in a college account for the kids (and hope we don't need to take it out for an emergency). People who spend too much money gambling or on the lottery are mostly dreaming of a life without burdensome bills and the fear of financial crisis, a life they will never have otherwise.
While the wealthy are stashing money offshore or on Wall Street where they don't have to pay the same taxes we do on our earnings, most of us are just trying to handle our financial obligations. Our entertainments are modest, as are our plans for the next week, the next month, the next year.
It's just insulting to hear the wealthy and their paid representatives in Congress, most of whom have wealth and job guarantees that we will never dream of having, talk about how we need to pull in our belts. The taxes they don't pay, that would turn our country around from what has thus far been an inexorable plunge to third world status, the profits they hoard, these fortunes are intended for their own children. Who don't live by the same standards they expect our children to live by -- it's understood that they should not in their lives have to worry or even work to get by.
And here we are, in the twenty-first century, bad roads, mediocre education, being told we are lucky to live in this great country, with all this opportunity. Where Exxon can hike the price of gas as high as it likes, but the government won't raise taxes for roads. Where we are made to believe that we have to choose between jobs and environment. Where big business controls us with groups like A.L.E.C. while they systematically get rid of our own unions. And where those big corporate groups and politicians keep us fighting among ourselves over our right to medical privacy and religious freedom while they rape and plunder our country.
And all our hard work leaves us little time, energy or desire to fight for our rights. So much to lose, and yet so little.
After 18 years, she makes about $17 an hour. She will never make a penny more. Her pay is capped, so that regardless of glowing evaluations, on which pay raises are based, she is not eligible for a raise. Rather, she figures they are waiting for her to retire so that someone will do her job for much lower pay.
My friend doesn't live big. She doesn't go away on vacation, she and her husband do their own home and car repairs when possible, and they live well within their means. But every few months, they head out to Foxwoods Casino and spend a little money on the slots. They budget how much they are going to spend and assume they will play and mostly lose, but they enjoy the night out.
This time at Foxwoods, they had an amazing night. Early on, she won $400 and he won $800. An hour later, she had won another $100 and he had won $400 more. As they cashed in, they looked like two cats that had both swallowed canaries.
They made their way up to their room, trying very hard not to let others see their excitement, but when they got to their room, they burst into giggles, took pictures, exclaimed over and over how this had never happened before.
Then they hid the winnings.
Not too long after that, they became serious. They began to talk about what they would do with the windfall. They decided they were going to do a long awaited car repair and fix the floor in the kitchen.
This is the way it goes for most of us. Those windfalls these days don't go towards a vacation or even a new car. We plan to pay down the mortgage, to get that dental work done, to stash the money in a college account for the kids (and hope we don't need to take it out for an emergency). People who spend too much money gambling or on the lottery are mostly dreaming of a life without burdensome bills and the fear of financial crisis, a life they will never have otherwise.
While the wealthy are stashing money offshore or on Wall Street where they don't have to pay the same taxes we do on our earnings, most of us are just trying to handle our financial obligations. Our entertainments are modest, as are our plans for the next week, the next month, the next year.
It's just insulting to hear the wealthy and their paid representatives in Congress, most of whom have wealth and job guarantees that we will never dream of having, talk about how we need to pull in our belts. The taxes they don't pay, that would turn our country around from what has thus far been an inexorable plunge to third world status, the profits they hoard, these fortunes are intended for their own children. Who don't live by the same standards they expect our children to live by -- it's understood that they should not in their lives have to worry or even work to get by.
And here we are, in the twenty-first century, bad roads, mediocre education, being told we are lucky to live in this great country, with all this opportunity. Where Exxon can hike the price of gas as high as it likes, but the government won't raise taxes for roads. Where we are made to believe that we have to choose between jobs and environment. Where big business controls us with groups like A.L.E.C. while they systematically get rid of our own unions. And where those big corporate groups and politicians keep us fighting among ourselves over our right to medical privacy and religious freedom while they rape and plunder our country.
And all our hard work leaves us little time, energy or desire to fight for our rights. So much to lose, and yet so little.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
U.S. Economy's Worst Kept Secret
I just learned that America is no longer a democracy, but an oligarchy, wherein the country is controlled by a few. Well, you could have blown me over with a feather. In fact, Paul Krugman warns us of this very thing. What is amazing is that he warned us of this in 2011. So why are we surprised?
Not only that, we've become a plutocracy, which is government by the wealthy. I know, this is another shocker.
Day after day, as the rich get richer and even more of a controlling interest in the United States of America, we continued to be astonished that this could happen -- in a democracy!
I'm looking at this as a kind of a snowball in hell: the more wealth and power, the greater the wealthy and powerful become. And the greater they become the faster they become more wealthy and powerful.
Unlike the rest of us, the wealthy and powerful know how to form a union and then they know how to strategize to get what they want (more wealth and power). They don't really care whether or not you get an abortion just as long as the folks they elect to office keep us distracted by fighting about it while also, that's right, legislating greater wealth and power for the wealthy and powerful. And as long as they can keep us fighting amongst each other over whether to feed the hungry they figure we aren't going to much notice that they are growing the national debt by: giving more to the wealthy and powerful.
I'm not much into history; after all, I am an American. But of late I am learning an awful lot about the Gilded Age, wherein the cruelty and excesses of the wealthy and powerful actually led to the great reforms of the Progressive Era.
And I am being told that we are in the midst of a new gilded age. One of the things that concerns me though is that we seem to be unable to move ourselves into the new progressive era that, according to history, should follow. Are we that much better off? Are perhaps not enough poor children dying? Will Obamacare and food stamps cause us to survive just enough to keep those billionaires going while not giving us the strength to fight for more? Are we like the frog who is put in a pot of water at room temperature and then the heat is turned up so we die so gradually we don't even notice?
I'm not suggesting that things should get worse so that we can decide we need to fight to make it better. But it seems that that is the way it's going. The gains are too small, too few, too far apart. By the time we get an increase in the minimum wage, it will already have been shrunk by the increases in the cost of living. Hail Obamacare, but the insurance industry has made sure that it's the middle class and the government that are getting gouged with rate increases, and the poor will still have to struggle with co-pays, deductibles, and all those other economic creations that have made health care in the U.S. unattainable by so many. The insurance industry will continue to be, that's right, wealthy and powerful.
My father was a tool-and-die maker. I never really knew what that was, but he earned a living. He had job security. And the rise of the unions was recent enough that he understood their importance. That generation would have gone on strike, picketed, and risked imprisonment or worse if there was a threat to their livelihoods, because they were close enough to know what it would be like if they did not.
But my generation lacked that knowledge. We had always known job security, a living wage, benefits, overtime, health care coverage, sick pay, retirement benefits. We grumbled about having to pay dues. And I believe this is why, when the economy hit that big rough patch in the 70's and the big businesses began to ask unions for concessions, they began to concede. And it hasn't stopped yet. We first caved because we thought if we were reasonable, our employers would as they promised, make the concessions temporary. Blue skies ahead. Then we caved because we could lose our jobs. Then we caved because some of us had already lost their jobs. Then our employers screwed us anyway.
And like a bully who is angry that nobody likes him, capitalists continue to have tantrums because their great profits are not great enough, that they are expected to contribute to the society without which they would not have that wealth. And they are angry because anger works. We are intimidated. Afraid of losing what little we have. And those of us who are still making it are terrified of the time when they might join those long-term unemployed, the uninsured, the homeless. And terror has made us powerless to fight the bullies, so we fight those with even less than us.
Unions? We gave ours up while corporate America was growing theirs. They have PhRMA making sure drug prices stay high while government regulation shrinks. Then there is the agricultural lobby, that this year assured that big farms would continue to receive subsidies (although they are apparently calling it crop insurance now) while cutting food stamps for the poor. The oil industry has been strangling us with increased gas prices, and the environment with its careless drilling practices. And then there are the "pan-unions," like American Legislative Exchange Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Enterprise Institute, and Americans for Prosperity. The latter is owned and operated by those uber-plutocrats, Charles and David Koch, whose father was one of the original members of the John Birch Society, and whose oily hands are into every aspect of our lives.
And all the while all these big fat capitalists who rise in fury at the thought of a mandated living wage are spending fortunes in advertising and in political campaign funding to convince us that all those things that are good for the country will take food out of our own mouths. That the price hikes since Obamacare are not just more of the same profit game but are caused by those deadbeats who don't pay for insurance.
I don't know what it will take for us to look out and see who the real bad guys are. I don't know if I will see a new Progressive Era in my lifetime. I do know that things change, they have before and they can change again. Against all odds. Because we have done it before.
Not only that, we've become a plutocracy, which is government by the wealthy. I know, this is another shocker.
Day after day, as the rich get richer and even more of a controlling interest in the United States of America, we continued to be astonished that this could happen -- in a democracy!
I'm looking at this as a kind of a snowball in hell: the more wealth and power, the greater the wealthy and powerful become. And the greater they become the faster they become more wealthy and powerful.
Unlike the rest of us, the wealthy and powerful know how to form a union and then they know how to strategize to get what they want (more wealth and power). They don't really care whether or not you get an abortion just as long as the folks they elect to office keep us distracted by fighting about it while also, that's right, legislating greater wealth and power for the wealthy and powerful. And as long as they can keep us fighting amongst each other over whether to feed the hungry they figure we aren't going to much notice that they are growing the national debt by: giving more to the wealthy and powerful.
I'm not much into history; after all, I am an American. But of late I am learning an awful lot about the Gilded Age, wherein the cruelty and excesses of the wealthy and powerful actually led to the great reforms of the Progressive Era.
And I am being told that we are in the midst of a new gilded age. One of the things that concerns me though is that we seem to be unable to move ourselves into the new progressive era that, according to history, should follow. Are we that much better off? Are perhaps not enough poor children dying? Will Obamacare and food stamps cause us to survive just enough to keep those billionaires going while not giving us the strength to fight for more? Are we like the frog who is put in a pot of water at room temperature and then the heat is turned up so we die so gradually we don't even notice?
I'm not suggesting that things should get worse so that we can decide we need to fight to make it better. But it seems that that is the way it's going. The gains are too small, too few, too far apart. By the time we get an increase in the minimum wage, it will already have been shrunk by the increases in the cost of living. Hail Obamacare, but the insurance industry has made sure that it's the middle class and the government that are getting gouged with rate increases, and the poor will still have to struggle with co-pays, deductibles, and all those other economic creations that have made health care in the U.S. unattainable by so many. The insurance industry will continue to be, that's right, wealthy and powerful.
My father was a tool-and-die maker. I never really knew what that was, but he earned a living. He had job security. And the rise of the unions was recent enough that he understood their importance. That generation would have gone on strike, picketed, and risked imprisonment or worse if there was a threat to their livelihoods, because they were close enough to know what it would be like if they did not.
But my generation lacked that knowledge. We had always known job security, a living wage, benefits, overtime, health care coverage, sick pay, retirement benefits. We grumbled about having to pay dues. And I believe this is why, when the economy hit that big rough patch in the 70's and the big businesses began to ask unions for concessions, they began to concede. And it hasn't stopped yet. We first caved because we thought if we were reasonable, our employers would as they promised, make the concessions temporary. Blue skies ahead. Then we caved because we could lose our jobs. Then we caved because some of us had already lost their jobs. Then our employers screwed us anyway.
And like a bully who is angry that nobody likes him, capitalists continue to have tantrums because their great profits are not great enough, that they are expected to contribute to the society without which they would not have that wealth. And they are angry because anger works. We are intimidated. Afraid of losing what little we have. And those of us who are still making it are terrified of the time when they might join those long-term unemployed, the uninsured, the homeless. And terror has made us powerless to fight the bullies, so we fight those with even less than us.
Unions? We gave ours up while corporate America was growing theirs. They have PhRMA making sure drug prices stay high while government regulation shrinks. Then there is the agricultural lobby, that this year assured that big farms would continue to receive subsidies (although they are apparently calling it crop insurance now) while cutting food stamps for the poor. The oil industry has been strangling us with increased gas prices, and the environment with its careless drilling practices. And then there are the "pan-unions," like American Legislative Exchange Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Enterprise Institute, and Americans for Prosperity. The latter is owned and operated by those uber-plutocrats, Charles and David Koch, whose father was one of the original members of the John Birch Society, and whose oily hands are into every aspect of our lives.
And all the while all these big fat capitalists who rise in fury at the thought of a mandated living wage are spending fortunes in advertising and in political campaign funding to convince us that all those things that are good for the country will take food out of our own mouths. That the price hikes since Obamacare are not just more of the same profit game but are caused by those deadbeats who don't pay for insurance.
I don't know what it will take for us to look out and see who the real bad guys are. I don't know if I will see a new Progressive Era in my lifetime. I do know that things change, they have before and they can change again. Against all odds. Because we have done it before.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Guns, Bars, Stupidity and Lies
As a result of the horrific shooting of children in Newtown, Connecticut in December, 2012, our SC legislators got right on it with a slew of bills to -- you got it -- allow more guns into more potentially dangerous places, like for example, bars. We had to laugh when Rep. Mike Pitts sponsored the bill in 2013, and then watched with much less glee when the bill passed in the House.
Even I did a double take when I read his claim that "44 states are having no issues with people that do carry in" (which is shorthand for those of us who don't speak gun for bringing your gun into an establishment).
After having listened to quite a bit of NRA newspeak over the years, I decided to investigate this statement. In fact, not having "issues" means states with no laws addressing bringing guns into bars. Many of which don't allow guns to get as far as the parking lot, making carrying into a bar irrelevant. They don't have laws because up to now it's been OBVIOUS that guns and bars are a bad idea. So. Let's go ahead and NOT assume that 44 states are inviting gun-toting folks into bars.
The rationalizations surrounding this bill are cretinous. A gun is more dangerous locked in a car. Well, I guess that assumes that some idiot is going to leave the weapon on the seat in full view, maybe with the window open a generous crack, or fully expects that the car is going to get broken into on a regular basis.
What I have to say to that is, you maybe should leave the damned gun at home. Or if you don't have the common sense to hide the gun and lock the vehicle, you maybe shouldn't own a gun.
Here's another gem. The gun-slinging citizenry would feel safer bringing that gun into that restaurant. I don't know about you, but I haven't had the occasion -- yet -- to have to face down someone with a gun in a restaurant. But I have to assume that a diner paranoid enough to need to carry a gun into a restaurant is NOT a person I'd want to imagine enjoying a meal in the same establishment as I, much less enjoy a meal with.
Now, our less smart brother to our west, Georgia, has already passed such a law. Over there in Georgia, Jerry Henry of Georgia Carry ("The No-Compromise Voice for Gun Owners") contends,
“We have had zero incidents of law abiding citizens being in any ‘O.K. Corral shootouts,’ as predicted by the gun prohibitionists.”
If by zero, Mr. Henry means several, I guess that would be accurate. Any idiot, including Mr. Henry, could google Georgia bar shootings and come up with data contrary to his claim. Okay, to be fair, they might not have taken place in the bar. So these jackasses went into a bar, did some drinking, had a fight, and then had the good sense to go out in the parking lot to shoot it out. And fortunately did not have to walk all the way to their cars to get their guns.
Which brings me to another point, besides the ones on our legislators pointy heads. Not only do bartenders and restaurateurs now have the responsibility to card drinkers and monitor their behavior, requiring them to stop serving people who are drunk, often being blamed for allowing drunks to get in a car and drive. Now they bear the responsibility for posting when weapons are not allowed AND making sure that if allowed, those carrying don't drink. Except that some of our clever legislators who can't seem to draw a line without wanting to cross it, think it's just uncivil to not allow someone to walk into a bar or restaurant with a gun and not have one itty bitty drink.
And how about this: the assumption through all this is that someone who is carrying is going to be trustworthy enough not to drink with his buddies, and if he's allowed to drink, will know when to stop, and if he doesn't stop when he should, will have the good judgment to not get in a fight, and if he gets in a fight, will not pull out his gun. Until he gets to the parking lot.
To sum it up: if I don't want to be drinking with Yosemite Sam, I should not frequent bars or restaurants that do not have signs posted prohibiting weapons. If I do see a sign, I have to assume that the barkeep is going to be making sure nobody's tempted to carry. And when people carry and drink, I will have to take it as a given that they will show good judgment and self restraint.
We all know good judgment and self restraint are characteristic of drinkers, and I'm just going to assume even more so if they feel the need to carry a weapon in when they stop for a burger and beer.
You know what the whole entire problem is with stupid laws like this? The problem is that our legislators bear absolutely no responsibility for the consequences. They cannot be sued, they won't lose their jobs, they don't even have to question their faulty judgment. And with groups like A.L.E.C. and the NRA keeping their purses fat, they are quite likely to get re-elected.
If this is important to you, and if you walk the streets and shop and eat in the establishments here in South Carolina and are a rational person, it probably is, talk back.
Our legislators do their best to ignore opposing (less remunerative) opinions, but they have email addresses that you can access at scstatehouse.gov. Even better, they have Facebook pages. Leave a public comment, or send a private message, or both. Send out a tweet. Write a letter to the editor, which I believe gets you the best bang for your buck.
And after all, aren't we really talking about the best bang for the buck?
Even I did a double take when I read his claim that "44 states are having no issues with people that do carry in" (which is shorthand for those of us who don't speak gun for bringing your gun into an establishment).
After having listened to quite a bit of NRA newspeak over the years, I decided to investigate this statement. In fact, not having "issues" means states with no laws addressing bringing guns into bars. Many of which don't allow guns to get as far as the parking lot, making carrying into a bar irrelevant. They don't have laws because up to now it's been OBVIOUS that guns and bars are a bad idea. So. Let's go ahead and NOT assume that 44 states are inviting gun-toting folks into bars.
The rationalizations surrounding this bill are cretinous. A gun is more dangerous locked in a car. Well, I guess that assumes that some idiot is going to leave the weapon on the seat in full view, maybe with the window open a generous crack, or fully expects that the car is going to get broken into on a regular basis.
What I have to say to that is, you maybe should leave the damned gun at home. Or if you don't have the common sense to hide the gun and lock the vehicle, you maybe shouldn't own a gun.
Here's another gem. The gun-slinging citizenry would feel safer bringing that gun into that restaurant. I don't know about you, but I haven't had the occasion -- yet -- to have to face down someone with a gun in a restaurant. But I have to assume that a diner paranoid enough to need to carry a gun into a restaurant is NOT a person I'd want to imagine enjoying a meal in the same establishment as I, much less enjoy a meal with.
Now, our less smart brother to our west, Georgia, has already passed such a law. Over there in Georgia, Jerry Henry of Georgia Carry ("The No-Compromise Voice for Gun Owners") contends,
“We have had zero incidents of law abiding citizens being in any ‘O.K. Corral shootouts,’ as predicted by the gun prohibitionists.”
If by zero, Mr. Henry means several, I guess that would be accurate. Any idiot, including Mr. Henry, could google Georgia bar shootings and come up with data contrary to his claim. Okay, to be fair, they might not have taken place in the bar. So these jackasses went into a bar, did some drinking, had a fight, and then had the good sense to go out in the parking lot to shoot it out. And fortunately did not have to walk all the way to their cars to get their guns.
Which brings me to another point, besides the ones on our legislators pointy heads. Not only do bartenders and restaurateurs now have the responsibility to card drinkers and monitor their behavior, requiring them to stop serving people who are drunk, often being blamed for allowing drunks to get in a car and drive. Now they bear the responsibility for posting when weapons are not allowed AND making sure that if allowed, those carrying don't drink. Except that some of our clever legislators who can't seem to draw a line without wanting to cross it, think it's just uncivil to not allow someone to walk into a bar or restaurant with a gun and not have one itty bitty drink.
And how about this: the assumption through all this is that someone who is carrying is going to be trustworthy enough not to drink with his buddies, and if he's allowed to drink, will know when to stop, and if he doesn't stop when he should, will have the good judgment to not get in a fight, and if he gets in a fight, will not pull out his gun. Until he gets to the parking lot.
To sum it up: if I don't want to be drinking with Yosemite Sam, I should not frequent bars or restaurants that do not have signs posted prohibiting weapons. If I do see a sign, I have to assume that the barkeep is going to be making sure nobody's tempted to carry. And when people carry and drink, I will have to take it as a given that they will show good judgment and self restraint.
We all know good judgment and self restraint are characteristic of drinkers, and I'm just going to assume even more so if they feel the need to carry a weapon in when they stop for a burger and beer.
You know what the whole entire problem is with stupid laws like this? The problem is that our legislators bear absolutely no responsibility for the consequences. They cannot be sued, they won't lose their jobs, they don't even have to question their faulty judgment. And with groups like A.L.E.C. and the NRA keeping their purses fat, they are quite likely to get re-elected.
If this is important to you, and if you walk the streets and shop and eat in the establishments here in South Carolina and are a rational person, it probably is, talk back.
Our legislators do their best to ignore opposing (less remunerative) opinions, but they have email addresses that you can access at scstatehouse.gov. Even better, they have Facebook pages. Leave a public comment, or send a private message, or both. Send out a tweet. Write a letter to the editor, which I believe gets you the best bang for your buck.
And after all, aren't we really talking about the best bang for the buck?
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