Dangerous Times

   There has been much upheaval in the construct of corruption in our society these past few years, and with that has come an unsettling amongst those who were impacted the most. I refer mainly to changes that have come about with both internet sophistication and awareness by the FCC, as well as to the internet savvy which the IRS apppeared to implement a couple years ago. These two forces alone have the ability to bring most of the ongoing criminal enterprise to a halt, but especially when it came to online gaming conducted under guise of non-profit websites. The monies interrupted there are committed to better purposes and deserve the respect these agencies provide.
   There are many criminal minds who depend on making their lucre regardless of the laws of either FCC or IRS, and no doubt these same minds will adapt soon enough, but for a period of time now there has had to be more cutthroat competition for the lucre which exists within our state. You may have noticed, as I did, that many of your gaming friends have moved out of state in the recent years. They can't manage to hide here any longer and the competition for lucre is now too great for them.
   What this does mean for the rest of us? Our money may be a bit safer for the moment, however our personal safety may be at risk even more, for now there are a lot more broke and irritated persons of criminal mindset in our midst.

"licensed premises"

   For those of you not familiar with the concept of "licensed premises" as it pertains to alcohol in the state of Alaska, let me give you some basics here. Licensed premise means any or all designated portions of a building or structure, rooms or enclosures in the building or structure, or real estate leased, used, controlled, or operated by a licensee in the conduct of business for which the licensee is licensed by the board at the specific address for which the license is issued. 

   In this state, where laws against public intoxication are practically non-existant, it is illegal to be intoxicated on a licensed premise. Tricky, right? You can see that the burden is placed on proprietors to serve responsibly, for there is no burden on the public to drink responsibly. The business owner has chosen this burden because it is lucrative. However, there is now the burden of a possibly intoxicated person being placed on the unsuspecting; be it another guest at the time, a driver on the road, or as we have seen too often, a family waiting at home. This unsuspecting public never chooses the burden that is so often thrust on them when things go wrong with alcohol.

   The public knows that a license is in place because it is posted prominently (along with all the other licenses, permits, and public notices that are required to be posted) where the business is conducted with the public. That is the little assurance provided to the general walk-in public of who is conducting the business at that premise. It assures us that the governing bodies are aware of and endorse the operation of that business at that site by that entity.

Big Brother

   My peers and I have spent many moments of our youth in great wonder and worry over the future of Big Brother and just what that would look like in our communities. Here's a glimpse of what it looks like in my neck of the woods.
   It was not many years ago that a prominent business person in my community was the victim of a lying in wait assault on a commercial property I owned at the time. There was an investigator assigned to the case and in speaking with him I advised that I had cameras both inside and outside the building, but he never made any attempt to view the footage. I had installed the cameras for reasons of safety and security of both employees and patrons. Since this was outside of any city limits, law enforcement was and is nonexistent. We can put cameras up all day long, and of course that is good for the economy, but we can't force anyone to pay attention.
   However, I did see in the news that our Mat-Su Borough has taken the initiative to install cameras on some local contractor's worksite. This occurred only after they had both been cited by OSHA.
   Who's afraid of Big Brother now?

Conservative Irony

   The irony of some people calling themselves conservative is laughable to a truly conservative person like myself. In my decades as a bartender in Alaska I have often been the most conservative one in the room, you can imagine. But my conservativism made it easier for me to apply the rules of liquor service in a beverage dispensary setting. I've often wondered why it was that, throughout my career, I was told, after I had discontinued service to an individual, that I was the only bartender who had ever cut them off. I had heard it from so many guests, sometimes quite elderly, that I was left with one nagging question. Am I the only one that ever refuses to sell someone a drink?
   That question was practically answered for me a few years ago, by the offspring of a guest of mine from the past. This adult child explained that their parent had finally ended up sober, in prison for vehicular manslaughter. At that point, they began to identify me to their family as the only friend they ever had, for I was the only one in their life that had ever refused to sell them a drink.
   Now, I am just one conservative person with my own conservative thoughts, but it would seem to me that if there had been one good conservative lawyer in the business of alcohol representation, I might not have had this experience. Bartenders all over this state would have been refusing service to many guests. I imagine, also, that the people of my great state would not be nearly as oppressed, as so many are, by their life experiences with this legal drug.
   The biggest irony is that the lawyer who had had the most input, dare I say the "go to" lawyer in our alcohol industry, now claims to be a conservative running for mayor of Anchorage, complete with the endorsements of both current and past mayors support. I haven't checked the records, but I'm pretty certain some of those endorsers have a stake in a liquor license here and there.

Confidence Games

   Many people alive today are not familiar with the fact that much of our personal security measures mandated in federal law were in part based on the existence of 'con men' as they were called then, short for confidence men. The reference relates to the actions of gaining a persons confidence long enough to gather the information they require to operate their game. In the last century of American culture they had begun to make 'marks' out of much of the disabled and disadvantaged of our society, because their friendship and confidence were so easily gained. Progressive people have sought ways, through law and legislation, to protect those whom needed it the most. These con's operate a criminal life on the backs of some of the neediest of our neighbors and loved ones and they continue today.

   However, there is a side to the con game that some are not aware of that affects our culture as much or sometimes even more, in this information age. That is the withholding of information from the general public who could benefit, while making sure that those they want to have the information are provided it in a timely manner. The information is now the confidence that is kept. We complain, at times, about lousy news reporting, for we know that there are always lots of things going on, but no media reports all the information for delivery to the public. More and more information is being held close to the vest, as they say. Confidence games are alive and well, especially with some of our politicians. 

When Whispers Are The Loudest

   If there is one thing I've certainly learned in my life, it is that the whispers are the loudest voices in our subconscious. Why is it that a person can be subjected to many people with many voices throughout the day, yet, when the day gets quiet again, the voices that linger are the whispers you heard throughout the day, rather than those who were yelling at you? Maybe it's just me, but working with the public has taught me to listen closely for the whispers, for there lie the things some people want to keep to themselves, when the same information could be advantageous to all, if they were to hear it.

Name Recognition

   I understand some people are spending a lot of money to make sure their favorite candidate names are recognized in the upcoming mayoral election in Anchorage. I say names because, for some people, that's all they are. We, especially in the Mat-Su Valley really don't know you personally. For those of you who don't travel in the circles it would take to know these people, let me give you some free advice.

   The one they call Dan Coffey has made his name in alcohol litigation, typically on the corporate side of things. What that translates to, by definition, is that he has most often stood against the good people of this state in courtrooms for decades. If he had wanted to make a better impact on society and the status of crime that Anchorage experiences now, he has not shown that in his works of the past. He was even the attorney of record back when Rumrunner's was found to be building another bar downstairs without securing a permit first. That event alone, which was prior to the famous assault on premise that eventually led to the closing of Rumrunner's, seemed like a no-go for Alcohol 101. Seeing as how they haven't quite given corporations a vote in Anchorage yet, it is still up to the voters to help themselves and their neighbors by doing the right thing when casting their ballots. 

   Speaking of your neighbors, for those who wonder about the newfound support in the valley for rival Amy Demboski, I myself was foolish enough to think I was the only one in the valley getting the prank campaign calls being made in her name. I thought perhaps I should contact her campaign team to alert them, but I didn't. I wonder if APOC knows.

Opening Acts

   From the outside looking inward to Anchorage, many rural people get a good laugh out of what goes on within that municipality. For many years now I have heard the adulterated slang Anchuragua used to describe it, especially out in the Mat-Su Valley. It seemed to me at the time that most of it was payback for being called valley trash. However, I would then caution people not to laugh, my experience has been that whatever happened in Anchorage, unlike Vegas, soon enough spreads throughout this entire state. Now, most of the folks in this valley live rural because they like it that way, but you can be sure that living rural presents different challenges that residents in a first class city like Anchorage could not imagine. I also know that many valley residents shy away from the public processes that go on around them. We must stop looking at everything as politics and look at it as you are stepping up for your friends that can't do so for themselves. It is up to us, as a borough, to fight for ourselves to bring our rural perspectives to the forefront of the discussions that will eventually affect all Alaskans.

   I might add, that if you think you know state politics because you closely keep up with the Legislative sessions, you know not. It was not in Juneau that I learned that the building they gutted for the new Legislative Information Office in Anchorage had been available for sale only two years earlier for a million and change. If you truly care for this state, keep an close eye on Anchorage. There lie the opening acts of whatever politics are to come for the rest of us, scattered throughout this great state as we are.

 

The Price of Free Drinks

   Why is it that what society recognizes so readily in one industry it refuses to see in another? Many good people are aware that the street drug dealers often give away product to entice new or reluctant clients to those habits. We see this for what it is and consider it to be one of the ills of their trade. It's a form of preying on the the addicted in our neighborhoods, especially when they are vulnerable and often trying hard to stay clean. For this reason, if we were to assess a sin tax to drugs it would be wiser to tax the product at wholesale rather than at retail, for that is where most of the actual sin is taking place. The drug dealer is not ill, as is the addict. The dealer is greedy and makes his money taking advantage of the ill.

   By the same token, it seems that a sin tax on alcohol would work better at the wholesale level rather than the retail. Alaska is reported at some of the highest tax rates on alcohol in the country, yet we see little evidence of the money helping the peoples situation. Many alcoholics work in the industry for their access to alcohol, just as a drug addict may work for the dealer. If licensees were taxed at wholesale instead of at retail, in my opinion, it would eliminate a lot of loose or free alcohol in between. However we have been taxing has not helped the people of this state, only the wholesalers.

Best and Worse of Years in One

   It's been decades since I've seen my country in this much social turmoil.
   Like a lot of others, I had those high hopes for change several years ago, but those hopes have long since been dashed. This man of such Nobel peace that I thought he had the potential of bringing all our nation together abandoned the ideology of forward thinking that, in my opinion, brought him to office. He let valuable time pass without addressing himself to the upcoming youth of our country. Had he been as aggressive in that area as I had hoped at the time, I like to imagine he may well have inspired many of todays young men in such a timely fashion that a particular child of yesterday did not grow to the age he did, only to be shot down in the streets of Ferguson, MO in the manner he did this past year.
   Despite that, my own state appears to have made some great strides towards the respect we would think all peoples garnered. My once choice for Governor is instead the Lt. Governor, with a position to make a difference in all our lives. Our new Governor has made some key appointments in departments that have an enormous effect on the quality of life of so many Alaskans, like Health and Social Services and Corrections. Last year also saw a new Director appointed to the Alcohol Beverage Control agency that seems not to be a mere figurehead. She apparently understands that documentation is not enforcement. Documentation does not save lives, enforcement does. Between that agency and the aforementioned two departments alone, what an impact these appointments have on our society. For starters, perhaps we can stop treating "those people" worse than we treat "those animals" in our society.