PDA

View Full Version : Good Morning...Party like it's 1933!



Okla-homey
12/5/2006, 07:51 AM
Dec. 5, 1933: Prohibition ends

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/887/pppppppppppppppassetuplpl6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

73 years ago, on this day in 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the disastrous era of national prohibition of alcohol in America.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/5325/pppppppppppppppppppppprkm1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states' approval. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day.

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/4976/pppppppppppppppppppppppxc3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Well intentioned women urged prohibition in the first place. They niavely believed if alcohol were banned, people wouldn't drink. Kinda silly, but that's what they thought.

The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for national liquor abstinence. Several states outlawed the manufacture or sale of alcohol within their own borders.

In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. On January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment achieved the necessary three-fourths majority of state ratification. Prohibition essentially began in June of that year, but the amendment did not officially take effect until January 29, 1920.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/1848/pppppppppppppppppppppppnk1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Almost as soon as Prohibition became the law, people began to urge it's repeal

In the meantime, Congress passed the Volstead Act on October 28, 1919, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of Prohibition, including the creation of a special Prohibition unit of the Treasury Department.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/3860/ppppppppppppppppppprohieg3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

In its first six months, the unit destroyed thousands of illicit stills run by bootleggers. However, federal agents and police did little more than slow the flow of booze, and organized crime flourished in America.

Large-scale bootleggers like Al Capone of Chicago built criminal empires out of illegal distribution efforts, and federal and state governments lost billions in tax revenue. In most urban areas, the individual consumption of alcohol was largely tolerated and drinkers gathered at "speakeasies," the Prohibition-era term for saloons.

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/2858/ppppppppppppppppppppprojg2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Prohibition, failing fully to enforce sobriety and costing billions, rapidly lost popular support in the early 1930s. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment on this day in 1933, some states continued Prohibition by maintaining statewide temperance laws. Mississippi, the last dry state in the Union, ended Prohibition thirty-three years later in 1966.


Twenty-First Amendment

Section 1.
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use there in of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. [This means individual states could keep prohibition or regulation of alcohol in force. IOW, the only thing that changed was there was now no federal law banning its manufacture, distribution or consumption.]

Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/6238/insane7zocn2.jpg

Jerk
12/5/2006, 08:02 AM
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/4976/pppppppppppppppppppppppxc3.jpg

Whoooooooo! You couldn't wash any one of those hags down with all the beer in Milwaukee.

As an addendum to Homey's report, the "well intentioned women" who brought us Prohibition and all of its wonderful consequences, would later (by some miracle) reproduce and have daughters and granddaughters. These offspring now make up the ranks of the Million Mom March, who would like to see if history really does repeat itself.

Gotta ban something!

It's for the children!

slickdawg
12/5/2006, 08:07 AM
Mississippi, the last dry state in the Union, ended Prohibition thirty-three years later in 1966.

Yes, and to confuse people even more, until the early 1980's, it was illegal to
sell milk in Mississippi on Sunday's, but beer was ok. The good 'ol Blue Laws.

mrowl
12/5/2006, 08:33 AM
Mississippi, the last dry state in the Union, ended Prohibition thirty-three years later in 1966.


wow. I had no idea.

TUSooner
12/5/2006, 09:22 AM
I understand Prohibition still exists in some rural counties and has the vigorous support of baptists and bootleggers.

In case it hasn't been mentioned in the last five minutes or so: The War on Drugs is just as stupid as Prohibition.

GottaHavePride
12/5/2006, 09:46 AM
I understand Prohibition still exists in some rural counties and has the vigorous support of baptists and bootleggers.

You mean like in Texas?

tbl
12/5/2006, 09:55 AM
In case it hasn't been mentioned in the last five minutes or so: The War on Drugs is just as stupid as Prohibition.
It's the same thing. Crime has flourished. Nothing has been done to slow it down. The States & Federal govts' are losing billions in tax revenue (not to mention spending billions trying to fight it).

It's insane that this is still going on... Seriously. It's insane.

Okla-homey
12/5/2006, 10:35 AM
In case it hasn't been mentioned in the last five minutes or so: The War on Drugs is just as stupid as Prohibition.

As you know, I quite agree, however, lots of folks tend to consider folks who believe as we do to be drug-addled, criminal coddling, anarchists.

Don't even get me started on civil forfeiture. I did some research on it for a prof who recently delivered a paper to the CATO Institute.

I made an analogy that I believe works pretty well: It's pretty accepted that people universally loathe "speed traps" set-up by municipalities to finance their police force. Therefore, why don't people also loathe the notion of "drug task forces" which take folks property they allege was acquired through "drug-gotten" gains (based on probable cause) and get to keep based on a preponderance of evidence standard? Particularly when the "drug task force" is financed almost exclusively by civil forfeitures! It is the proverbial "self-licking ice cream cone" just like the Hooterville speed trap out on Route 237 in Muleskin Parish, LA.

Thanks for allowing me to vent. Now I feel better.

TUSooner
12/5/2006, 11:10 AM
As you know, I quite agree, however, lots of folks tend to consider folks who believe as we do to be drug-addled, criminal coddling, anarchists.

Don't even get me started on civil forfeiture. I did some research on it for a prof who recently delivered a paper to the CATO Institute.

I made an analogy that I believe works pretty well: It's pretty accepted that people universally loathe "speed traps" set-up by municipalities to finance their police force. Therefore, why don't people also loathe the notion of "drug task forces" which take folks property they allege was acquired through "drug-gotten" gains (based on probable cause) and get to keep based on a preponderance of evidence standard? Particularly when the "drug task force" is financed almost exclusively by civil forfeitures! It is the proverbial "self-licking ice cream cone" just like the Hooterville speed trap out on Route 237 in Muleskin Parish, LA.

Thanks for allowing me to vent. Now I feel better.

Pfffft! You're just another drug-addled, criminal coddling, anarchist. <shakes head>

:D