According to an Associated Press story Ohio Cracks Down on Keggers, starting on Wednsday, if you wanted to have a party which would involve five or more kegs of beer, you have to register in advance and deal with a five day waiting period.
The article also states that “Party planners also must agree to allow liquor agents and police to enter the property to enforce state liquor laws.”
I find this to be outrageously silly. Even if we take away the arguments about if they can (or ever would) look at someone during this waiting period and decide that they can’t HAVE the party for whatever reason (unpaid traffic tickets, whatever), I find this legislation to be assuming that crimes will be commited with no reason to think so aside from the demon alcohol being present.
In the article, the police even talk about how it’s silly, and a student gives a few simple ways around the laws.
The big question around this one law, I think, is why are we passing feel-good laws which at best are unenforcable, but at worst start to infringe on our rights?
Yer pal,
Satan
[sub]I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Four months, six days, 12 hours, 53 minutes and 55 seconds.
5141 cigarettes not smoked, saving $642.68.
Life saved: 2 weeks, 3 days, 20 hours, 25 minutes.[/sub]
"Satan is not an unattractive person."-Drain Bead
[sub]Thanks for the ringing endorsement, honey![/sub]
So if you kick the fourth keg and run to Liquor Barn for another one, are you in violation of the law?
My solution would be to either get four kegs and a bunch of cans, or to claim that I’m only throwing a three-kegger, but my roommate happens to be throwing a two-kegger at the same time.
Breweries should take the opportunity to market “Ohio Kegs”, which are twice the size of normal kegs.
Laws like this are the reason that everyone should pay more attention to local elections.
You nailed it. Because they make people feel good. They make people feel all safe and cuddly. They make people feel that they’re actually making the world a better place because they handed their personal freedom over to the government. They make people happy they they can be safe and secure, which is much better that being free.
You need five days to plan a keg party in the fine state of Ohio. But it takes only 24 hours to wait for an abortion. Which seems to you to be the more difficult event?
I think it was GK Chesterton who said that the only thing worse than the modern softening of major morality was the modern hardening of minor morality.
These things happen because people get so frustrated, they feel like somebody needs to do something.
Keg parties frequently lead to noise and property destruction. That’s annoying. College students and other kids are dying from alcohol overdoses. That’s tragic.
In steps the politician/snake oil salesman, with a ridiculously simplistic law that makes everybody feel better on a superficial level, like they’re doing something. It also allows the politician/snake oil salesman the ability to say HE did something, which gets him re-elected. (The only true goal besides amassing money that politicians beyond a local level actually have. After all, getting re-elected allows you more years in which to amass more money.)
The same logic behind the Ohio kegger law is at work with many of the post-Columbine gun restrictions proposed by Democrats.
A couple of very messed up high school kids in Colorado kill a bunch of their classmates. A demented guy in California goes into an elementary school and kills a bunch of kids. That these are horrific tragedies cannot be argued. That neither tragedy would have been prevented by any of the new laws that some are squawking for cannot be argued, either.
After such incidents comes the inevitable, ineffective equation:
Tragedy = people’s outrage = need to feel like something’s being done = bad law.
And you can add “= further erosion of individual rights” to the end of that.
Oh yeah… the law is kinda lame, but I can see where people might get tired of drunks assuming they are protected by God, and have the divine right to piss on lawns and play loud music at 200 decibles until 5am. I mean, Lord forbid that people actually assert their right to sleep in peace.
But that’s a different issue, Saint Zero. I’m assuming that most places already have noise ordinances in place, and they can easily be enforced. Ask any college student who frequents parties - chances are they’ve gotten fined for disturbing the peace.
However, just because someone buys 5 kegs instead of 4 kegs doesn’t mean that the 4 keg party is going to be nice and soft and the neighbors can sleep, and the 5 keg party is going to be loud and raucous. If noise is a problem, address that issue, not the alcohol issue. I’m a quiet drunk, myself.
WAAAYYYY too little information here to debate the issue on its merits (as opposed to on the principles that are being largely discussed here). But maybe it’s just me, being ignorant.
How long does it take a measure to become enforced law in the state of Ohio?
Is the AP only making this law known three days before it goes into effect? Or was it just now passed in the State Assembly, and goes to the governor’s desk for signature on Tuesday?
Or is it a new set of rules being put in place by the state Liquor Control Commission, effective Wednesday?
Still, with the above gripes, I note that I went to a block party on July Fourth, where full community participation over a period of about eight hours succeeded in emptying three kegs. Point being that five kegs is a LOT of beer. I suppose it just shows how socially out of it I was during my college years, that I can’t imagine a private party (even a frat house bash) being physically capable of consuming that much beer over a seventy-two hour period. If somebody is in fact using a domicile as essentially a public house (within the meaning of that term as established over the generations by our friends across the pond), I don’t feel it is unreasonable for authorities to attempt to regulate that activity, as they would regulate any other tavern. That said, I don’t believe this legislation equips the authorities to do any such thing, as has been pointed out. I mean simple etiquette would demand that no individual be required to buy and bring more than one keg.
Please feel free to admonish me with “It’s an Ohio thing. You wouldn’t understand.” if, in fact my Californian-ness is keeping me in the dark. I won’t be offended. Promise.
Minor quibble (and possible technicality around to the law)- What are commonly referred to as kegs are actually half kegs. Full kegs are typically not available to the public. Anyone got the wording of the law?
I hadn’t really thought about this until kylasdad stepped in. Yeah 5 kegs is a shit of a lot. I’ve been at parties of 60 drunken college kids, and we went through three. So, my analysis is that it’s a pointless law, but won’t really affect anyone.
Alot of people will think this law is outragous, yet 99.99% of them will still go to the polls and vote for the Democrats or the Republicans. Do you think either party gives a rats ass about our 4th Amendment rights? They pass every law & loop hole they can to get around it!!!
We need to elect Libertarians, from local offices like Alderman & Mayor, all the way up to Congressmen & Senators, and yes, even the white house! Wise up my friends!!!
This law was mainly put into effect for Ohio State. I go there, so let me share my experiences.
5 kegs, at your average football Saturday frat party, is NOTHING. OSU has something like 45,000 undergrads. 500 people at a big frat blowout is not at all unheard of. I live very close to the frat houses, and I’ve seen them unloading 15 or so kegs before, no problem.
Ohio State is NOT your typical college. There’s a store about a block away from my place that sells various OSU t-shirts. Two of my favorites are “Columbus: A drinking town with a football problem” and “You can always retake a class, but you can never relive a great party.”
I don’t drink much at all, and when I do, I don’t drink beer, so this law means nothing to me. I still think it’s pretty damned stupid, though.
just a WAG, but, maybe the thinking is if there’s a 5 day notice that a biiiiiiiiiiiiiig drinking party is going to happen, maybe they can schedule appropriate resources??? (sez the person who watched the MSU riots over a drinking ban at tailgate parties) not necessarily a defense, just maybe a glimpse at the rational?
My expierence with drunken frat parties comes from Millsaps, a college here in Jackson. Private. We had the misfortune of being within 50 yards of the Pike’s frat house. We called the Police, Sherrif’s office, and anyone else who’d listen about their behavior. None of them gave a shit about our problems. Their excuse was “it’s college, give them a break.” THIS FROM THE FUCKING POLICE! We finally had to get a lawyer buddy to call the school president to have a nice heart to heart chat. Things changed quickly. Whereas once you could hear them for nearly a mile around the campus, now you can’t. They still party, but now have more strigent laws.
