Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

[kimo55]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Why do you think they put all those warning labels on everything these days?

Miulang

the over-proliferation of two things littering the american landscape:

lawyers

sue happy citizens looking to evade and/or avoid responisibility and / or get a free luch.

[kimo55]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

"And I think if the guy was drinking at home, if he injured or killed someone, the courts would go after the people he was partying with.
"
I think the implication is, if you drive drunk and you cause harm, then you and the people who might have helped you get to that condition will be liable too. Miulang

The implication also is:
You are shot, screwed, powderburnt & snakebitten if you had any contact, to any degree, with someone who later that night was arrested for drunk driving and caused any harm.
a frightening scenario. Not one to be seen in a "free america"

[scrivener]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Yeah, yeah, I know, a weak "slippery slope" argument. What can I say... I have a libertarian streak, too, believe it or not. My main point is, balance is key, not anarchy nor totalitarianism. Of course, that's what makes defining laws the minefield that it is.

I'm not sure I agree. "Balance" is difficult to define, and of course it seems almost impossible to achieve. All I know is this: My parents and your parents told us (a) to make intelligent choices and (b) to take responsibility for the consequences of those choices, good or bad. We know each other well enough to know that we didn't always learn (a) well enough, but (b) is pretty strongly engraved upon our hearts, wouldn't you say?

It wasn't the law. It wasn't the elite. It was mom and dad. It was also society, for my own values differ from my parents' (in some ways more admirably; in others less so) where society has helped me to redefine them my own way.

In the long run, I think we'd all agree that influencing the people around us is a far more effective way to maintain safety in society than creating a government to do it for us. Where protecting us from the deviants and allowing us our freedomes collide, I say we need to err on the side of freedom if we're going to be true to who we are.

Your example of liquor purchases on Sunday in parts of the South is a great example. Look: I respect people's opinions that it's wrong to drink on Sunday, but if I disagree, it should be within my rights to purchase a drink on Sunday if I'm not going to do anything to interfere with anyone's right not to. We agree on this. The drinking laws in this state are only a small step away from that. You say we need to strive for balance, but I don't see how what we have resembles balance in any way.

The bar that sold Clyde Arakawa his last drink was deemed liable for the death of an innocent driver. Why is it the bar's LEGAL responsibility to deny a man the drink that makes him so drunk that he kills a girl? If Arakawa had had a heart-attack, would it have been Burger King's responsibility if BK had sold him his last Double Whopper?

One person was responsible for that poor young woman's death: Clyde Arakawa. If you want to put some kind of blame on anyone else, you don't start with the bar that sold him the drink; you start with the friends and family members who perhaps didn't instill strongly enough in him the value for human life he should have had. But even then, there's only so much anyone can do when it comes to a human being making a decision for himself.

Let's say that bar tells Clyde he can't have that last couple of drinks, then calls Clyde a cab and even pays for it. Does the woman who gets home safely that night owe the bar money for saving her life? Of course not.

As far as regulating liquor sales, of course the system is a crock. Safety is the excuse. Tax revenues is the real motive.

If this is true, it makes more sense for liquor sales to continue 'round the clock at bars and at stores. More tax-money for us all (which, as I said above, I am completely in favor of).

[Miulang]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

If Arakawa had had a heart-attack, would it have been Burger King's responsibility if BK had sold him his last Double Whopper?

This ruse was already tried in court. A really obese guy with heart problems was trying to sue McD saying it's because of their food that he had the heart problems. The court told him that McD wasn't forcing to eat his food and it's his own damn fault that he is sick now. I don't know if this case is under appeal or not.

But this is what happens when people are conditioned not to take full responsibility for their own actions. If something goes wrong, it's "why me?" or "it's not my fault. So I'm going to sue the person I think is responsible for me being in this mess." That's why everything has a disclaimer on it, even really obvious things, like this one on a roll of Bounty towels: "Warning: to avoid danger of suffocation, keep this bag away from babies and children." And this right below it: "Any paper product can burn if used improperly in microwave or conventional ovens. .."

And I believe that's why drinking establishments post signs saying they have the right to refuse to serve customers.

I think Aunty Lynn is right, though. If the agents were women, there would probably be less temptation to offer bribes by the bars owned by women. They'd have to come up with "other incentives". Dancing men, maybe??



Miulang

[kimo55]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

This ruse was already tried in court. A really obese guy with heart problems was trying to sue McD saying it's because of their food that he had the heart problems. The court told him that McD wasn't forcing to eat his food and it's his own damn fault that he is sick now. I don't know if this case is under appeal or not.

well, here's some noose along those lines...

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar.../bz/bz14p.html

And I believe that's why drinking establishments post signs saying they have the right to refuse to serve customers.

Miulang

or like da sign at a bar/restaurant I was at recently:

"We reserve the right to serve refuse to anyone"

[Miulang]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

ROFL! Wonder if the person who made the sign maybe had one too many, too. I LOVE catching those little errors; part of one of my previous lives as a copywriter.

Miulang

Or maybe the sign was telling the truth: Maybe all their drinks taste like garbage!

[kimo55]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

ROFL! Wonder if the person who made the sign maybe had one too many, too. I LOVE catching those little errors; part of one of my previous lives as a copywriter.

Miulang

lost in translation:
here are a few more actual signs from bars and otherwise that i remember from my... uh... " international travels"..


On a menu in a Swiss restaurant:
Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.

On a menu of a Polish hotel:
Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beer soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion.

In a Tokyo hotel:
Please take advantage of the chambermaids.

In a Hong Kong supermarket:
For your convenience we recommend courteous, efficient self-service.


In a Vienna hotel:
In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the porter.

In Germany's Black Forest:
It is strictly forbidden on our Black Forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men & women, live together in one tent unless they are married for that purpose.

An ad by a Hong Kong dentist:
Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.

In the window of a Swedish furrier:
Fur coats made for the ladies from their own skin.

On a box of a clockwork toy in Hong Kong:
Guaranteed to work throughout its useful life.

Detour sign in Kyushu, Japan:
Stop---Drive sideways.

Swiss mountain inn:
Special today--no ice cream.

Copenhagen airline ticket office:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.

Moscow hotel room:
If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.

Norwegian lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.

Budapest zoo:
Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.

A notice in a Japanese hotel:
Please not to steal towels. If you are not person to do such, please not to read notice.

Office of a Roman doctor:
Specialist in women and other diseases.

Acapulco hotel:
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.

Tokyo shop:
Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find that they are best in the long run.

Japanese instructions on an air conditioner:
Cooles & Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.

Car rental brochure in Tokyo:
When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.

Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
English well talking. Here speeching American.

A sign on the lion cage at a zoo in the Czech Republic:
No smoothen the lion

A Finnish hotel's instructions in case of fire:
If you are unable to leave your room, expose yourself in the window.

[1stwahine]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Wow! Ya Went All Dem Places? I'm Impressed! Das Why You Know Anykine Stuff. (clap,clap,clap)

[1stwahine]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Firing of the Liqour Commission? Start all brand new?...heheheh

Auntie Lynn

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Oh the horror stories of the Liquor Commission...my neighbor (we shared the same lot and my house was behind his, was a former liquor deputy attorney and before that he was a staunch democratic senator for the State of Hawaii.

One night I arrived home and couldn't park my car in my stall because my neighbor had parked his car cockeyed and somewhat in my space. He was still in his car passed out with the driver's door open and the car chiming away.

I woke him up from a drunken stupor and when he awoke he couldn't remember how he got home from the bar.

Okay A former Democratic state senator now liquor commission deputy attorney drunk at the wheel of his parked car can't remember how he got home from THE BAR!!! I told him, "you're lucky we're neighbors and I like you because my boss would have a field day if I told him what happened tonight.

Ummm my boss was Rick Hamada at KHVH radio...yeah...but I couldn't do it to my friend and neighbor. He's really a nice guy despite being a democrat.

[Miulang]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Ya kinda know something's up when the former Head of the Liquor Commission requests that his agents be allowed to carry firearms to protect themselves on the job (heh. I think training those guys not to accept bribes would be better, but I can see where a firearm might come in handy if the agents refused bribes from "certain" establishments. Right, Tita Lynn? )

Miulang

[1stwahine]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Ya kinda know something's up when the former Head of the Liquor Commission requests that his agents be allowed to carry firearms to protect themselves on the job (heh. I think training those guys not to accept bribes would be better, but I can see where a firearm might come in handy if the agents refused bribes from "certain" establishments. Right, Tita Lynn? )

Miulang

Right, Tita Miulang!!! My friend and "sometimes" drinking partner wrote the book, "Buy me Drinkie:. A must read for any man in the islands. Fire arms is not needed...all they got to do is be trained by me! LOL

Auntie Lynn

I'll be back...got to go see Dr. Do!

[1stwahine]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Good Morning! heheheh

In the The StarBulletin http://starbulletin.com/2006/04/15/news/story03.html

"Liquor law extortion plot charged
Federal takeover of the liquor board is threatened with this latest indictment"

Aiya!

...they wen get da Feds MAD! First HPD. Now dis? Ahanakokolele, betta watch out before we go unda Martial Law!

(Worried Kane @ Honolulu Hale?)

aUNTIE pUpule

btw: Read this Thread from the Start.

[kimo55]

Re: Liquor Commission Under Investigation...again!

Good Morning! sheshesheh

[Walkoff Balk]

Honolulu liquor enforcement a mess, report finds | Honolulu Star-Advertiser (staradvertiser.com)

The job description of being on The Liquor Commission is to take a lot of something something under the table.