Sideways Busted

The local government fucks with the bar scene yet again. While I think the prohibition against "drink and drown" and "all you can drink" specials is ridiculous, it's a fairly well known rule downtown among bar owners/employees. Did Sideways really think they could get away with it? Other bars do it too, so I can imagine it's only a matter of time before the local police direct their efforts towards busting other bars.

Luckily, Sideways probably won't lose their liquor license, if history has shown us anything. A big fat fine is probably in store for Clarke County to pocket and an example has been made to other bars, not surprisingly at the beginning of the school year. Strangely, that's when most of these ridiculous kinds of things tend to happen. I'd bet that in the coming month or so we'll see a surge in underaged arrests that will be well documented by the Athens Banner Herald and the Red & Black, and a few sobriety checkpoints on the Athens roadways which will surely net some arrests of college kids. A few bars might be busted for serving underagers without any kind of real punishment and then the rest of the semester will be the usual hum drum of downtown Athens, if there's anything normal about downtown at all.

Again, I think it's a misguided effort by the local government to put on a big show to the local taxpayers. But if you've read my blog at all in the past, you'll know my feelings on that particular subject.