This day in history: American gangster and businessman Al Capone was born on this day in 1899.
Also on this day in history: Alcohol Prohibition began in the United States on this day in 1920 as the Volstead Act went into effect.
These two events would become intertwined. As people were denied what they wanted, Al Capone saw an opportunity to provide alcohol to the people and he filled the void that the government had created. "Federal authorities estimated that in 1927, Al Capone’s illegal liquor operations were generating about $60 million in total revenue a year—about $873 million today." Source
Capone eventually went to prison for tax evasion, but he may not the villain in his story. His captor, Eliot Ness, "represented the state. He was enforcing an unjust law - Prohibition - and using another unjust law - the income tax - to do it. Capone stood for our freedom to drink." Source
This Day in History: American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer, William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W. C. Fields, was born on this day (January 29) in 1880. Fields's comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathetic character despite his supposed contempt for children and dogs.
Among his trademarks were his raspy drawl and grandiloquent vocabulary. Field's was also known for his wit and humor. Some of his quotes are:
I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally.
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.
Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.
Fell in love with a beautiful blonde once. Drove me to drink. And I never had the decency to thank her.
I like children. If they're properly cooked.
A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.
Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.
Never try to impress a woman, because if you do she'll expect you to keep up the standard for the rest of your life.
Marry an outdoors woman. That way, if you have to throw her out into the yard for the night, she can still survive.
I always keep some whiskey handy in case I see a snake...which I also keep handy.
I once spent a year in Philadelphia, I think it was on a Sunday.
Fields had a substantial library in his home. Although a staunch atheist—or perhaps because of it—he studied theology and collected books on the subject. According to a popular story, according to biographer James Curtis), actor Thomas Mitchell caught Fields reading a Bible. Mitchell asked what he was doing, and Fields replied, "Looking for loopholes."
Today in History: Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States on this day in 1912. Wilson is by any metric, the worst president on US history. He dragged America into World War I despite promising not to. He gave us the much-hated income tax. He gave us the Federal Reserve and alcohol prohibition happened under his watch.
"Woodrow Wilson has been elevated as one of the better presidents but I think if you go back and look at it, the war was avoidable...and of course Woodrow Wilson helped bring Hitler to power by insisting on the abdication of the Kaiser after World War I - which was totally unnecessary." Ivan Eland
"Wilson criticized the diffuseness of government power in the US in most famous book Congressional Government. In this work he confessed, 'I cannot imagine power as a thing negative and not positive.' His love and worship of power was a prime characteristic of fascism. 'If any trait bubbles up in all one reads about Wilson it is this: he loved, craved, and in a sense glorified power,' writes historian Walter McDougall. It should not surprise us that his idols were Abraham Lincoln and Otto von Bismarck.
'No doubt a lot of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual, and a great deal that was mere sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle,' wrote Wilson, attacking the very individual rights that have made America great.
He rejected the principles of 'separation of powers' and 'checks and balances' that are the foundation of American government: 'Government does now whatever experience permits or the times demand….' wrote Wilson in The State.
No fan of democracy or constitutional government, he wrote the following in Constitutional Government in the United States: 'The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can. His capacity will set the limit….' Sounds like a devotee of the imperial presidency.
Indeed, in a disturbing 1890 essay entitled Leaders of Men, Wilson said that a 'true leader' uses the masses of people like 'tools.' He writes, “The competent leader of men cares little for the internal niceties of other people’s characters: he cares much–everything–for the external uses to which they may be put…. He supplies the power; others supply only the materials upon which that power operates…. It is the power which dictates, dominates; the materials yield. Men are as clay in the hands of the consummate leader.” So much for the dignity of each person!
'Woe be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand in our way,' said Wilson in June 1917 to counter protests to the fascist regime that he created upon entering WW I.
Wilson took over the US economy, infringed on American civil liberties especially by suppressing dissent, oppressed the “unpatriotic,” and purposefully sought to drag the US into war. This Marxist, totalitarian, jingoistic, and militaristic Democrat president was a fascist. He worshiped the power of the state, and such statolatry is exactly what fascism is." Source
This Day in History: On this day (June 1) in 1495, a monk named John Tor introduced Scotch Whisky for the first time. Catholic monks have for centuries blessed the world with different varieties of the so-called "demon alcohol." They gave us champagne (Dom Pérignon was the name of a monk), Chartreuse, Brandy, Rompope and they started the California wine industry. Though beer had been around for thousands of years, it was monks that perfected beer to the quality we enjoy today. Propino tibi.
"Equally impressive is the religious contribution to distilled spirits. Whiskey was invented by medieval Irish monks, who probably shared their knowledge with the Scots during their missions. Chartreuse is widely considered the world’s best liqueur because of its extraordinary spectrum of distinct flavors and even medicinal benefits. Perfected by the Carthusian order almost 300 years ago, the recipe is known by only two monks at a time. The herbal liqueur Bénédictine D.O.M. is reputed to have been invented in 1510 by an Italian Benedictine named Dom Bernardo Vincelli to fortify and restore weary monks. And the cherry brandy known as Maraska liqueur was invented by Dominican apothecaries in the early 16th century." Source
This day in history: George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, was executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine on this day 1478, a death of his own choosing once he accepted he was to be killed.
The Duke of Clarence, was convicted of “crimes" against his brother, King Edward IV, and the punishment was automatically the death penalty. The method of death was left up to the King, who asked his brother, probably thru an intermediary how he wanted to die. George, the habitual drunkard, joked that he wanted to he drowned in a cask of his favorite Malmsey wine.
"Drowning was a form of execution used in Scotland until the 18th century, and some cultures were concerned about shedding royal blood." Source
I suppose there are worse ways to go, such as winemaker Bernard Rouanet back in 2017 who had his head crushed in the wine press on his vineyard.
Also, did you know that champagne corks kill more people than sharks? 24 people die annually from being hit by champagne corks, usually in the face at weddings.
This day in history: The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on this day in 1933. The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment. However, to this day there are still 83 counties in the United States where the sale of alcohol is completely prohibited.
My state of North Carolina does not allow alcohol sales between 2am and 7am Monday through Saturday or before 12pm on Sundays, though you can now buy beer after 10am now on Sundays.
There are many strange liquor laws across America (hello Utah) and even in Canada, and they can all be traced back to Prohibition. "You look at any regulatory structure in North America and if it was examined in a global perspective, you’d look at it in stunned disbelief, like ‘What is going on here?’ It really does go back to the Prohibition mentality of control, and the slow loosening of control over the years." ~Wine lawyer Mark Hicken
Alcohol prohibition also gave us a powerful mob and Las Vegas. "Prohibition built The Mob. The Mob built Vegas. Without organized crime, there would be no Las Vegas Strip, casinos probably wouldn’t run nearly as efficiently, and it’s likely that the city never would have become a glamorous tourist destination at all." Source
Prohibition was also responsible for the major expansion of the Ku Klux Klan. The law “provided a way for the Klan to legitimize its 100% Americanist mission — it could target the drinking of those they perceived to be their enemies...One notorious example occurred in 1923-24 in southern Illinois’ Williamson County, where the Klan mobilized hundreds of volunteers to raid saloons and roadhouses. Hundreds of people were arrested and more than a dozen killed." Source
Prohibition showed us that Government is more interested in out compliance than our health. To prevent bootleggers from using industrial ethyl alcohol to produce illegal beverages, the federal government ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols. In response, bootleggers hired chemists who successfully renatured the alcohol to make it drinkable. As a response, the Treasury Department required manufacturers to add more deadly poisons, including the particularly deadly methyl alcohol, consisting of 4 parts methanol, 2.25 parts pyridine base, and 0.5 parts benzene per 100 parts ethyl alcohol. New York City medical examiners prominently opposed these policies because of the danger to human life. As many as 10,000 people died from drinking denatured alcohol before Prohibition ended. New York City medical examiner Charles Norris believed the government took responsibility for murder when they knew the poison was not deterring consumption and they continued to poison industrial alcohol (which would be used in drinking alcohol) anyway. Norris remarked: "The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol ... [Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible."
There are 14 countries where alcohol consumption is illegal: Yemen, United Arab Emirates (In Sharja), Sudan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Mauritania, Maldives, Libya, Kuwait, Iran, some states in India, Brunei and Bangladesh.
