Well there is a new governor in the Peach State and so far it has been...hmmm...not very different. That is to be expected when you have a term-limited governor of one party is replaced by a new man from the same party. Considering our options, we came out better than we could have. So, no complaints so far.
The only thing making the news since the transfer of power, besides the silly amounts of snow, is the unprecedented attempt by government to, and you'll have to make sure you are sitting down on this one, try to let local governments govern themselves.
The decision is setting off protests, drawing more than a share of negative attention as Atlanta tries to trust places like Marietta, Rome, Augusta, Sycamore and Folkston with a referendum that would grant these same places to hold local referendums to decide on the most controversial of subjects - whether free adults should be allowed to purchase a legal product (a good bit of which is manufactured by Georgians in Georgia) every day of the week.
Why is this so controversial? Because the product is good ol' Demon Rum.
Georgia has long held on to a blue law, archaic and silly, that states that the sale of alcohol in stores is against illegal on Sunday. There are only two groups of people that still support this law. "Bootleggers" - people that sell on Sunday illegally, gaining sales as people travel from other locales to buy the stuff. The other group is a certain large religious organization that shall remain nameless so as to prevent the threats of bodily harm I receive when I mention them. I don't think it is a military secret but I'll go so far as to say it isn't the Methodists.
I'm still dumbfounded by the claims that have left us in this outdated quagmire for so long. There is no evidence that God disapproves of the consumption of alcohol. He even went so far as to include it in one of the holiest of Old Testament rituals, one that has carried over to this day in a different form. When Jesus passed the Passover cup to that first disciple, it was not full of Welch's or Juicy Juice.
I think what baffles me the most is that, in the locations that are going to pass Sunday sales, it is already legal to buy alcohol by the drink, just not in a package. What this means is that at 12 noon (the magic hour when the group ends their meetings) a person can commence drinking at a sports bar, taking in a ball game. A few hours later this person can leave their glass and get in their car to go home. But this same person is not allowed to buy a package of beverages and go home and drink. Does that make sense to anyone?
The thing in Georgia this year is that Nathan Deal has decided that free adults should be allowed to make decisions about this on a local level where Sonny Purdue believes that all Georgians should be held to his religious standards every Sunday. So we have Constitutional individual liberty replacing the equivalent of Sharia Law in Georgia. There is hope for our future.
There are many people who would wonder how someone who loves Southern culture and tradition is so excited about the ending of an era that is labeled as "Southern". I would answer that distilling and brewing have been a part pf southern Culture since before there was such a thing as Southern Culture. The fact that the region was settled by immigrants from places like Scotland that brought rich traditions with them, including whiskey, further stamps this in our culture. And nothing could be more Southern than local control.
So raise a glass to the referendum on referendums!
