Bottoms Up ! If you can still afford it…..

Dude, I’m tellin ya…….

Before I even get into the pocket draining, depressing experience I just had, I want to give you a great referral on a website. A friend of mine just launched a website called www.ShareMyShot.com

He posts recipes and reviews on tasty shot concoctions and encourages others to post theirs as well. He tells you exactly how to make the shots (including for multiple people/multiple servings) and gives you an idea for the appropriate settings for the more fruity ones versus the harsher, “hair-on-your-chest” type of shots. Not all women like those forementioned varieties.

Check it out. It’s pretty cool. www.ShareMyShot.com

Now on to the eye-opening life experience I just had. I had heard this price hike was going to be taking effect. I just didn’t realize it would hit me like a Mike Tyson uppercut. You know…..back when Mike Tyson was tough. Not like now.

I just ran up to the liquor store for a fresh bottle of my favorite Kentucky whiskey. And I can tell you this right now—I’m not liking this huge Cook County tax increase that went into effect on September 1. Prior to today, the only alcohol purchase I made was a 12-pak of Rolling Rock to take with me to a recent Sunday BBQ. After all, we’re not animals over here. You can’t be rude and show up empty-handed. So I bought the twelve’r and honestly didn’t really even feel the tax punch that day. {Author note: And I’d like to point out that because it took until 9/8 for me to even go to the liquor store in September, it should help prove that I do not frequent the place every day as rumored. That is only a myth being spread by my enemies}.

But today, I needed to replenish the missing spot in my bar’s lineup. And up to this point, I had been paying $19.99 for a 1.75 of Jim Beam whiskey. Now it is $24.95 !! It basically went up $5.00 per bottle. Same with the Captain Morgan. And the Captain and I have been becoming better friends lately too. Women can’t get enough of the Captain, either. That’s all I hear them order at the bar now is Captain and Sprite. Captain and Coke. You absolutely HAVE to have a bottle of the shit behind your bar. Now a 1.75 of the Captain is $22.99 when it was just $19.99 about ten days ago. Doesn’t Todd Stroger and the gang realize that 10% of the state is out of work? Really, I don’t even know if he/they are the ones responsible. No idea. Probably are. But I have no idea. Most likely.

The bottom line though is that I like to partake in the occasional drink and I’m looking to hold someone responsible here. I had to step down to Evan Williams for Chrissakes !! I started with Knob Creek. Stepped down to Jack Daniels. Then I had to demote myself to Jimmy Beam. Now I’m supposed to drown my sorrows with Evan Williams? Who’s in charge of this fiasco?

To be 100% honest, I am all for the high taxing of our most decadent luxuries. I am a strong proponent of legalizing marijuana and taxing the hell out of it. The government will make money. Poor schmucks that shouldn’t be in jail might be let out and no further people will go in for this most-harmless of activities. Jail overcrowding will be relieved big-time. But I have no problem with outrageous taxation of the product—-purely so the US government can make money——-if they were to legalize it.

However, this particular rant is not about decriminilization or legalizing it. It is about how I actually support the heavy taxing of things like cigarettes, liquor, and legal marijuana. It’s easy for me to sit on my pedestal here and promote the heavy taxing of cigarettes. I’ve never been a regular smoker. So go ahead……tax it to death. Make it $10 per pack. Make millions of people quit or reap the profits off of that particular indulgence.

And when we get right down to it……just like I support the heavy taxing of ciggies and legal pot……they should heavily tax liquor sales too. If it makes people drink less, drive impaired less often, and spend less money on the product versus more productive purchases, then I’m not so sure it isn’t a good thing. I’m just pissed that it’s the first product they’ve attacked that I actually consume. OK……the only legal product. Woot.

If the economy was better and I was working right now, I probably wouldn’t have started this discussion. Jeez, I probably wouldn’t have even been up at the liquor store at 3pm on a Tuesday if I was working right now. Pretty sure I wouldn’t have been. But the fact is, I am off on a Tuesday. Would LOVE to be working Mr. Obama. But unfortunately, I’m not. So I found myself up at the liquor store and I’m not liking what I’m seeing. The news told me the other day that unemployment is up to a 26 year high. And you’re trying to tell me that alcohol prices are going thru the roof at this exact same time?

Sounds like a bad mixture. Go find a good one for yourself at www.ShareMyShot.com