Letter: It’s time for blue laws to go!

I know I am kind of late, but I just found out that we are, once again, trying to change the blue laws in East Baton Rouge Parish. I think this is a great idea for a number of reasons.

The first reason is that this would be great for our local businesses. Think about it, there are 52 weeks in the year. That means there are 52 Sundays in a year. That is almost two months of lost revenue for a small business in our community. And it is just because they are in our parish.

The second reason is a little more selfish, and it goes something like this: I am tired of driving to other parishes to watch the Saints game. It makes no sense to me that I have to do that because of some old law on the books that is really, really out of date.

I’m not sure how some of you do math, but to me the formula goes like this:

Hundreds of bars times 52 extra days of sales equal more sales tax than we are making now. That has got to be good for the parish.

I heard that someone put in a second amendment to change the closing hours to 4 a.m. instead of 2 a.m. While I don’t really care and don’t think many bars would do it often, I like the idea because it allows the owner to decide and not the big government.

And lastly, come on, conservatives! Let’s not allow those big government liberals to tell us how to live. Haven’t we had enough of them always in our personal business? If this isn’t big government then, I don’t know what is, and it is right here in our own backyard! It is way past time for it to stop.

In summary, it’s the 21st century, so let’s get this done already.

Caroline Wells

state employee

Baton Rouge


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Comments (33)


1) Comment by DMJ - 16/10/2012

Sorry. It's hard to distinguish sarcasm from what conservatives actually think sometimes. (i.e. Obama's destroying America...)

2) Comment by Old Man Kensey - 15/10/2012

I know Being_Stupid is just being stupid, but he is actually right. The current laws mandate for a restaurant to being open on Sunday's they have to have sales of 60/40 (I think that is the ratio) of food/alcohol. That has got to be a paperwork nightmare and really, how do the owners control this? Sorry dear customer, I can't sell you another drink because it will effect my food/alcohol ratio? Get rid of the law, get rid of the stupid unnecessary paperwork.

3) Comment by InPVille - 15/10/2012

@Being_Stupid: "Blue laws are bad for the restaurant business." Add to that the Wrecker Businesses and the Automobile Body Shops.

4) Comment by Being_Stupid - 15/10/2012

Blue laws are bad for the restaurant business.

5) Comment by Old Man Kensey - 15/10/2012

DMJ , I think you may have missed the sarcasim of the last paragraph. I took it as an ironic way to point out the double standards of the conservatices always blaming liberals for big government.

6) Comment by DMJ - 15/10/2012

"Haven’t we had enough of them always in our personal business?" What?!??! First of all, abortion rights, contraceptive rights, gay marriage, drug law reform....Hello!! The nerve of this lady telling her fellow patriots that liberals are the ones butting into everyone's personal lives! Ha!!! Secondly, this issue isn't even liberal vs. conservative. It's social/religious conservative vs. everyone else. Mike Walker favors the blue laws....so does Tara Wicker. Both are social conservatives. Aside from Caroline's insane, nonsensical and hypocritical cheap shot at liberals....she's absolutely right. The fact that I would agree with someone so out of touch with reality should be proof enough that blue laws have to go.

7) Comment by 1ryben - 14/10/2012

Lets legislate "moderation" on more things. On more days! Soda, causes diabetes,melts ban the sale of soda on Mondays, hate to start the week in a diabetic coma. Oh, but you can still order a soda with a meal at a restaurant, that's fine, the food will slow the sugars.m

8) Comment by Chucky - 14/10/2012

I would post something but it is Sunday, and am not sure of the law.

9) Comment by potkcalb - 14/10/2012

You guys are wasting your time responding to anything Phil says. I admit I've been guilty of it myself. Phil's slipperier than an eel. When you challenge him or provide refuting evidence to some of his nonsense he changes the subject. He knows that and is just vying for attention.

10) Comment by gofigger - 14/10/2012

@ABayouBoy-not enough of a good thing is also bad!

11) Comment by ABayouBoy - 14/10/2012

Let's just keep on lowering society's standards. I drink and go to bars sometimes, but, leave one day for "moderation". Too much of a good thing can be bad for you....

12) Comment by HerbF - 14/10/2012

Phil, social values, such as morals, do NOT come from the bible. They come from common sense. We are social animals, and we have programing to deal with that. And, we have those values of that fact. That's where the guys who wrote the bible got them. We don't have to read in a book that killing other people is wrong. That's absurd.

13) Comment by gofigger - 14/10/2012

@Straight Shooter - Great comment. It should not be up to big brother to decide, for us, our basic morals.

14) Comment by Grumpy - 14/10/2012

@ Straight Shooter - VERY well said! I wish more Christians were as intelligent as you appear to be. /// @ Phil - Most laws are not based in religion. Many fundamental rules for social living are common to just about all known societies that have inhabited the earth whether they were religious or not. Meanwhile, here in what some people call a "Christian nation" the first amendment to our bill of rights specifically protects my right to violate at least three of the ten commandments. I am free to have many gods before the god of Abraham (or no god at all), am free to make graven images or likenesses of thing above and below and am free to speak blasphemously and/or use god's name in vain.

15) Comment by 1ryben - 13/10/2012

Lets not stop there. Lets ban the wearing of mixed fibers. Deuteronomy 22:11. Those wrinkle free pants, BANNED! (Don't laugh at me, at least my proposal comes straight from the Bible) This has to be something Phil would be on board with...right?

16) Comment by 1ryben - 13/10/2012

Honestly ask yourself a few questions. Do you support the current blue laws because you'd like to protect the sanctity of Sunday? If so, you are imposing one religious belief on all. Don't dare balk when the Muslims wish to impose Shahira laws. If you do, you are a hippocrate. Your Christian laws are just as offensive to me as Shahira is to you. Do you support blue laws as a means of health and safety? Ok, why limit it to just a one day ban? Why Sunday, a day of low alcohol consumption anyways. I say ban it on Friday or Saturday, both. If you don't support the Friday/Saturday ban, hippocrate. Do you dislike government intrusion into your personal life? Then you can't be for these blue laws. I go weeks or months without purchasing alcoholic beverages so these laws have little to no effect on my life. What I despise more than anything is hippocrital religious nut jobs dictating to me what I can or can not do based solely on their beliefs.

17) Comment by Straight Shooter - 13/10/2012

I am a Christian and I attend church on Sunday mornings. I usually don’t have to time to drink an alcoholic beverage until after 11:00 A.M. because of busy Sunday mornings. If I do drink on Sundays, it is usually one beer (or two at the most) to go along with lunch or dinner. This consumption is not based on the alcoholic content, but rather the enjoyable taste of a quality beer. I would more than likely already have a beer in my fridge before 11:00 A.M. on a Sunday. Accordingly, the current Blue Laws don’t affect me. However, I find the Blue Laws unjustifiable. First, repealing the Blue Laws is not about greed. It is simply telling the government that we are not a nanny state, and that we want fair application of our laws across the board. If you were a gas station owner, would you be agreeable to restrictions of gas sales on one day versus all other days? If you were an owner of a business that produced signs for businesses, would you be agreeable to the government imposing a law that said that you could not work on the design of a sign on Monday, Tuesday or any other day of the week? If you want government intrusion over selling and consuming a legal product, I would suggest that you move to New York City where Mayor Bloomberg has imposed restrictions on soda drinks. Second, repealing the Blue Laws has absolutely nothing to do with keeping your religious beliefs out of anyone’s life. No one is telling you that you have to buy alcohol on Sunday, or that you can’t attend your church of choice on any day of the week. If you can justify the existence of Blue Laws based on religious beliefs, you are asking for a government imposed religion, which is offensive to me as a citizen of a country founded on religious freedom. The bottom line is that we should have a choice of what we want to do on Sunday or any other day of the week. I find it crazy that such a simple concept without any reasonable opposing view has drawn so much attention. Further, I find it hypocritical that the so-called limited government guys/gals at the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge and the Baton Rouge Tea Party are not beating down the doors of their council members asking for the lifting of a government restriction on small business owners.

18) Comment by Chucky - 13/10/2012

@phil- i would point out that some interpretations are "you shall not murder" a big deference, so what religious interpretation should we base our laws on ? The Druid and old Irish drew up laws that explained what two or three chariots should do when meeting at an across road, and what the compensation was for injury to anther's property, type of property, and life and limb. Most laws and most moral law comes from the need to keep society functioning.

19) Comment by Bighug - 13/10/2012

Ditto, Old Man! Thanks for saving me the trouble of repeating what you said. As for that God thing, think of all the lives lost during the Crusades, 9/11, wars in the Middle East, the Inquisitions, etc., because of that God thing. Mankind would be far better off without it. The idea that morals and laws are based on religion is a myth spread by priests for their own purposes.

20) Comment by Old Man Kensey - 13/10/2012

One more thing Phil concerning your first comment. Isn't it nice that you get to CHOOSE the things you do on Sunday? I would like to CHOOSE the things I do on Sunday, but I don't have the right to do that in the current situation.

21) Comment by Old Man Kensey - 13/10/2012

Phil, while some laws in a secular society may mimic the laws of the bible does not mean all our laws are based on the bible. Murder is against the law because it takes a life away (or you could say it takes their right to live away). Murder is not a crime solely because it is in the bible.>>>>>>>>>> Blue laws are not based on the bible. They are not about morality. They are forcing one groups religious beliefs onto the another. There is no room for that in the country.

22) Comment by phil - 13/10/2012

Most modern laws are actually based on religious beliefs and many can be tied back to the 10 commandments, Let's just do away with religion and our entire value system, which has its roots in religious beliefs? Is that the overall plan for atheists here? All laws discriminate against someone. If someone wants to rob and kill, should that be allowed so the law will not discriminate against that person? After all, "You shall not kill" comes straight from the Old Testament of the Bible. I think maybe some here have a new religion - the religion of greed and the love of money..

23) Comment by jdk944 - 13/10/2012

Let's just have the bars open 24 hours a day. I mean the all mighty dollar is EVERYTHING!! And yes, by all mean we can't have ANYTHING that has to do with any religious connotation because we are so much "beyond" that nonsense. Because Mankind is doing such a fine job with his human behavior WITHOUT that "GOD" thing.

24) Comment by Spudaroonski - 13/10/2012

@CountryBoysCanSurvive Holy Smokes, that is some scary stuff.

25) Comment by 1ryben - 13/10/2012

Either sell any day, or not at all. Why does Sunday get special treatment? Lets sell it on Sundays, but not Tuesdays. I think Tuesdays should be set aside as a special day. I hate smokers, that stuff stinks. Plus, it's bad for you. Lets ban the sale of cigarettes on Wednesdays that way doctors can get a break on heart disease and cancer treatments on that day. Is Blue Law stuff is malarkey. You people bemoan big government, intrusion upon your freedoms....oh wait....no you don't. You only care about those things when it is someone else forcing their belief systems on you, but you don't mind forcing yours on them. I get it. Hippocrates.

26) Comment by CountryBoysCanSurvive - 13/10/2012

@ Spudaroonski this is the first thing that we have ever agreed on,scary huh?

27) Comment by Spudaroonski - 13/10/2012

There is absolutely no reason for having blue laws other than to placate the religious contingent. End of story. Now get rid of them.

28) Comment by chem - 13/10/2012

Don't ask for the conservatives to help. They are typically the religious types that like blue laws.

29) Comment by unevahno - 13/10/2012

I don't drink any alcoholic beverages but the revenue the sunday crowd would bring in would, or should more than pay for extra patrols for an extra day. If the keepers of the city coffers don't understand how to use the money or they let too much stick to their fingers, then that's a problem that has nothing to do with blue laws.

30) Comment by chem - 12/10/2012

Blue laws are based on religious doctrine. If not, then I would like to here the reason for them. I am an atheist and so that is a discriminatory law for those who are not religious or if your particular religion does not see Sunday as a "religious" day. Just for the record, I do not drink alcoholic beverages.

31) Comment by Gnat1966 - 12/10/2012

Get rid of blue laws completely! There are no laws saying when you can go to church so why are there laws sayings when you can go to a bar??? The government should not be in the religion business!

32) Comment by Chucky - 12/10/2012

I belie Ethics are good in government and morality good in your personal behavior. The Blue Laws are morality laws and have no place in a society that includes Hindus, Muslims, Pagans, Atheist Baptist Born Again, and God is a UFO ( sorry if did not mention your calling) Stop telling people you can not sale Liqueur on the day YOU worship and yes it is 2012 so start a commune or when you leave your property realize it is a secular world . And yes to all who have said the Tea Party should be for this.

33) Comment by phil - 12/10/2012

Sounds like the 21 st Century is all about making money and not having to drive to go see a Saint's game. My TV works fine so I do not have to go any where to see a football game - I just stay home on Sunday. Also my refrigerator keeps some beer cold if I want it. Isn't 21st century technology great ! Also those workers who work in the bars get to rest and maybe go to Church on Sunday instead of working all day. Sounds like a winner to me.