Athens-Clarke County

This story came to my attention today. Can't believe I didn't catch it earlier.

The legislation that Athens-Clarke County has put in place to affect the downtown bars over the years has traditionally been nothing short of ridiculous. They want to have their cake (tax revenue) and they want to eat it, too. They cut back the closing time until 2am years ago, did away with any after-hours bars even though they weren't serving alcohol to anyone, so now we have to empty the place by 2:45am, they legislated the time of day that a person could smoke in a bar, then eventually did away with smoking anywhere indoors altogether, and now this?

So now I'm going to have to be "certified" in order to work the door? Is there something that the Athens-Clarke County government, in its infinite wisdom, can share with me about my job that they know, and I don't?

Who, in the wonderful ACC government, has stood at a door for 3-4 nights a week for the past X amount of years, dealt with the issues I have, and would like to share with me their extensive knowledge about properly maintaining order among Athens, Georgia's nightlife customers? Hell, have the ACC commissioners ever even bothered to go downtown after 10pm? Ever? So how in the fuck do they know what legislation will be best for downtown?

So now "drink specials" or "happy hours" will be done with, if this legislation is proposed and approved. Absofuckinglutely ridiculous. Gosh, that'll prevent college kids from binge drinking! Automatically make them much more responsible, productive adults during their college years in Athens.

Oh, wait....wait just one second. Gee, something just occured to me, and I'm wondering if....no....that just couldn't be the case. Athens-Clarke county wouldn't force bar owners to fix their prices at a certain level because the government would be making more money, would they? No way. Their real concern is about college kids, their health, being responsible, and not drinking too much. Right? Not revenue.

HA! Hilarious. Yet not suprising.

UGA raised its entrance requirements years ago, and I tell you what, that's the goddamn best thing that ever happened to downtown, at least when keeping the ACC commissioners goals in mind. Downtown isn't what it was 5 years ago, and I attribute that directly to the quality of students that UGA is attracting these days. Higher quality students = less partying. Plain and simple.

But anyhow, this really isn't an issue that I should really give a flying fuck about. I don't have a vested interest in how busy or dead the place I work at is. Even if the bar is dead, I'm still pulling a decent paycheck, regardless of my tips. Of course, it would eventually close if that were the case for an extended period of time, but by then I would be long gone.

I guess I'm just really fucking sick and tired that the government - not just the local one here - but all government in this country, can't keep their sticky fingers out of my pocket, and wants to tell us what to do all the fucking time. This is yet another example of them wanting to tell us what's best for us, because we're too damn thick to figure it out for ourselves.

Land of the free? HA!