On Saturday, August 10, 2019 at 6:37:21 AM UTC-7, Sepp Ruf wrote:
James wrote:

About moderation of what people do and say, in Australia the authorities
like to moderate whenever and where ever possible, without addressing
the root cause of a problem.

Australians seem to have a reputation for liking to binge drink alcohol..
In some areas this has been linked to "alcohol fuelled violence". So
to combat the problem, the authorities decided to enact "lockout laws",
effectively closing the nightclubs and pubs earlier, in certain areas.
This appears to have helped, however it hasn't addressed the root cause
of the problem - why people want to drink to excess and start fighting.
Some argue that the laws have moved the problem elsewhere.

In Italy by contrast, beer is available at supermarkets, sandwich bars
and fuel stations, and it is pretty cheap by comparison. Given the
availability of alcohol, and that no one would bat an eyelid if you sat
outside at lunchtime and drank a bottle of beer in public, you would
expect there to be drunk people all over and fights left and right.

You could try taxing beer higher than wine,
https://vinepair.com/articles/italian-craft-beer/

We did not see one single drunk person or any violence of any kind
during a recent visit to Italy.

Bravo, see how nicely the mafia keeps British holidaymakers out of the eyes
of proper tourists?

But walk into a liberal lawyer conference to see the worst of the worst,
some even drinking beer from stacked! plastic! containers:
https://www.thelocal.it/20190614/amanda-knox-back-in-italy-as-an-advocate-for-the-wrongfully-convicted

Unlikely they're drinking beer with ice cubes. Putting ice cubes in beer is a criminal offense in Portland. And why drink beer in the land of wine?

We have a brew-pub under every rock, and the only beer related violence I can remember is some people rudely taking cuts in line to get some Pliny the Younger before the keg ran dry. https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/863/21690/ We got there early and beat the crowd because we had a friend, who had a friend who knew somebody who got a tip from a reliable source that the pub would have a keg.

That Australians could control the masses by reducing the alcohol content. We were just in Salt Lake where draft beer cannot exceed 4% ABV, which is what us Oregonians use for laundry and bathing. You get bloated before you get buzzed. By the time you get drunk on four-o beer, your belly is like a giant bota bag and you're in no condition to do anything but urinate.

The craft brewing scene in SLC is kind of funny because you have all the same glitz and snobbery, but what comes out of the tap is like near-beer. If you want a decent IPA, you have to buy it in a bottle. They do have some pretty good bottled craft beers.

-- Jay Beattie.