To me, this law says, “We do not believe that warm beer contains enough alcohol to pose a danger.” 
I’m pretty sure Utah has (or used to have) this same law - no cold beer. Bloody annoying when you hike all day and want to hit the store for some beer to bring back to your tent to find you can’t buy it cold. Of course, it didn’t stop us at all. If I recall, we just opted for a bottle of wine instead.
It’s right up there with the other great Utah alcohol-control laws, like the one that says that only “private clubs” can sell hard alcohol. The first time I wandered into a bar, oops, I mean, private club, and wanted a drink, the bartender told me I’d need to be a member. He pulled out a little card that I needed readn and sign. The card said I needed a sponsor who was already a member. I told the bartender I was just visiting town and didn’t know any members. He pointed to a couple of regulars playing pool and said “One of them will sponsor you.”
Nothing like really effective laws… of course, this was around Moab, maybe in less liberal parts of Utah they’re taken more seriously.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe this law will encourage MO stores to stock beers that don’t need to be frozen to be drinkable.
Just as long as they don’t ban CO2 fire extinguishers cold beer is just a spray away.
Cold enough anyway.
I’m having a hard time following that logic. Were fifth-graders involved in that law, too?
We-e-e-ell, given the mentality of some of our legislators . . .
Actually, that laws been on the books for at least 20 years. Pennsylvania’s liquor laws have actually loosened up a bit recently – in fact, we can even by wine and hard liquor at state liquor store in certain special locations on Sundays now – so I assume that law dates back to shortly after the repeal of Prohibition. By the way, despite some dire predictions, allowing people to buy wine on Sunday has not made us a state full of alcoholics yet.
CJ
Pah! Decadent Yankee imperialist wusses! Here in the People’s Republic Of NZ, we have long mastered the technology of the jet-powered beer cooler! {Last I heard of this guy, he was building his own cruise missile with off-the-shelf parts. Really.}
Pah. I read the title and assumed you actually had a Senator Asshat.
I would vote for Senator Asshat.
It’s a pretty idiotic proposal, all right. But realistically speaking, is there even the tiniest chance this proposal will pass?
As I understand it, being a state legislator is a pretty boring job, and one of the highlights is getting to propose ridiculous laws, as a sop to your constituents. That’s what this looks like to me.
The fifth grade lobby may be cute, but the beer lobby (and the convenience-store lobby, as quoted in the article) have money, and the beer-drinker lobby has votes. If I had to bet money on this, I’d bet the bill gets quietly shelved without a hearing. If there is a hearing, I’d give great odds that someone at the hearing will point out that beer spoils if unrefrigerated, and that the proposal is only marginally less stupid by curbing obesity by serving ice cream at room temperature.
It’s fun to mock, but it’s no danger to the beerguts of Missouri, IMO.
Daniel
Here in Indiana, most of our odd alco-laws result from lobbying done by a competing group of dealers. You can buy cold beer here, but only in a liquor store. Most bars sell booze to go, including cold beer. If you take in your cooler, they’ll fill it with ice, too. Grocery stores can sell beer and wine, but not cold. Because of some prohibition-era link between drugstores and medicinal liquor, you can buy any kind of booze in a drugstore, warm. Groceries which have a pharmacy can also sell liquor.
There was a hubbub in last year’s session about prohibiting alco-sales in any place that also sold gasoline. That failed.
Cellar temperature, not room temperature.
Hey! How 'bout a federal mandatory waiting period for beer? Just like the one we used to have for handgun purchases.