Alabama tries to criminalize beer drinking

One of my pet peeves with conservatism is that - although they fail to regulate Big Business - they lapse into Allowed Cloud mode to control what individuals can do.

Thankfully, a bill signed into law by President Carter removed the federal prohibition against homebrewing beer. However, the states can still be Allowed Clouds by banning homebrewing. Some of the toughest laws against beer are found in Alabama.

In most states, you can make beer that's as homebrewed as this blog (in contrast to the blog that the Washington Post gave to some Bush cultist that lasted about 2 days because most of it was plagiarized). But Alabama outlaws homebrewing completely. Homebrewing carries up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. As for brewery-made beers that are sold to the public, 85 of BeerAdvocate.com's 100 top-rated beers are banned in Alabama because of their higher alcohol content.

Beer enthusiasts and homebrewers are fighting to ease the state's labyrinthine laws. But they're up against a powerful prohibitionist lobby - which quotes the Bible in an attempt to back up its stance. Joe Bob Mizzell of the Alabama Baptist State Convention says the state's tough laws on alcohol should remain because Paul the Apostle once said, "Be not drunk with wine but filled with the spirit."

So that's the prohibitionists' argument? It sounds like something to quote for a sermon, not like something you'd present to lawmakers in a democratic republic that supposedly has separation of religion and state.

Homebrewing isn't what I call a public safety threat. Beer buffs imbibe the high-alcohol and homemade brews for flavor - not to get drunk.

Some states are probably worse than Alabama in other regards. In the mid-'90s, Texas tried to ban the Encyclopaedia Britannica because it included a recipe for beer.

Why do the states have so many laws against private consumption of alcohol, but so few laws against corporations dumping mercury in rivers?

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-beer10mar10,1,785594.story?ctrack=1&cset=true)