Gosh what a smooth little number. I’ve found it especially good to loosen up me larynx for a bit o’ t’ croonin’.

At least in rehearsal.

Wish me luck for the stage trial - man I love venues with their own drumset. Turn up half tanked, leave full, punch a few DavidGs, get paid. What’s not to like?

*Drinks the dregs of the Laphroiag*

Helps the Cat finish it….opens next bottle

That’s a political issue, the settlement of which entails the active participation of Jane and John Citizen. It won’t be resolved through an unelected conference of their betters.

Rundle

“Doesn’t anyone deserve a government that works?” is the tagline of Lou Dobbs, one of the most irritatingly self-satisfied of all these goons, the rhetoric flattering the viewer with the suggestion that he could do a lot better, if only he didn’t have these jumbo Doritos to finish, and this couch to get off.

At least Sparrow knows how to stay on message.

*Drinks the dregs of the Laphroiag*

You also couldn’t buy alcohol legally on a Sunday unless you were a bona fide traveller.

Oh yeah and that too was a hoot. Men (mostly) driving past the 30 mile limit, filling up, then driving home and totalling their cars.

Or, as was common round the Hunter Valley, a line of cars sitting outside pubs, Mum and the kids in the cars, Dad in the pub having a few in the public bar.

Neville Wran’s comprehensive reform of the archaic drinking laws did not change the foibles of the problem drinkers, but it went a long way to making NSW more civilised.

Yes, alcohol abuse is a problem, but it is not the number of outlets that is the problem. The background culture and the type of place makes much more difference. After all, how many bars are there in those outback communities mentioned above? The worst alcohol related behaviour I have witnessed has always been the result of either “all inclusive” functions, or people drinking at home.

And a note to Kevin Rudd and friends, if you in any way go about screwing things up now that Queensland is finally going to amend backwards liquor laws to allow more bars, you will not be getting my vote again.

Since then, maybe 100,000 people have come to live in the CBD grid and immediate surrounds.

I’d guess most of these folks are young.

I’d hazard a guess that over the medium term assault rates etc in the CBD area haven’t kept pace with the growth of the local population.

Well how about fetal alcoholy syndrome? Ive seen a bit of it outback.

Strokey needs to be treated urgently for fetal alcoholy syndrome as well as foetal alcohol syndrome and must stop using mirrors.

Does his FAS account for both heads being small, shrivelled and pointy?

Alcohol abuse is causing congenital deformities amongst young women

Strokey must stop seeing hallucinations of deformed multi-headed women while he is drunk

When I was a wee undergraduate 20 years ago

Strokey was a bore even while a foetus in vitro

interesting that you can perceive better than I that I’m a devotee of “post-modern liberalism�. I had no idea!

Perhaps you should consider a quiet period of inner contemplation.

You continue to celebrate drinking culture because it is somehow “cool”. That example illustrates the key difference between modern liberals and post-modern liberals. The former was concerned with social progress of the populace. The latter is concerned with social status of the elites.

As Jason said, you’re a clown, Jack.

(2) The most significant shift has been increased drinking and binge drinking among women and girls. As Helen suggested, that’s actually not associated with violence, but as Jack Strocchi demonstrates, some people apparently don’t think it’s properly demure and ladylike. That’s their problem, I’d suggest.

Well how about fetal alcoholy syndrome? Ive seen a bit of it outback. Its not ladylike alright, but it is also everyones problem, especially the innocent childs.

Alcohol abuse is causing congenital deformities amongst young women who are partying wildly and getting stuck into the grog whilst they are pregnant.

MORE than half of pregnant women may be damaging their unborn child’s development by drinking alcohol.

More worryingly, the study - based on a survey of 4839 randomly selected non-indigenous West Australian mothers - also found that 80per cent of the women drank in the three months before pregnancy.

If they were pregnant, this would be enough to risk causing fetal alcohol syndrome, which results in abnormal facial features, growth deficiencies and central nervous system problems such as difficulties with learning, memory, attention span, communication, vision and hearing.

But even drinking as little as one drink a week may cause lesser problems including deficient verbal and social skills, according to evidence cited in the study, published in the February edition of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Needless to say the alcohol abuse problem is about an order of magnitude worse amongst indigenes, with predictable results in child sexual abuse.

Is this your approach as an “empirical social scientist” or whatever you call yourself?

As to the stats, they prove nothing. Different people may be presenting to the Youth Substance Abuse Service than were in 2002. None of those police figures correlate the assaults with alcohol. It’s well known to criminologists that you can tell little or nothing from raw crime figures. The increase in assaults in the Melbourne CBD may simply be a function of more intense policing.

I note you completely ignored the ABS stats. Typical of your approach. Cherry pick whatever piffle has already been spun in the press to support your prejudices.

So much for evidence-based policies.

The evidence that unhealthy levels of alcohol abuse, especially in public, and associated violence are on the increase.

ONE of the state’s most senior youth workers has backed Dr Nieuwenhuysen’s criticism of booze barns.

VICHEALTH CEO Todd Harper called for a moratorium on liquor licences amid concern about the availability of alcohol.

MENTAL Health Minister Liz Neville said there was no quick fix for the alcohol problem, warning of deep cultural ties with grog.

THE former head of the premier’s drug prevention council wants greater curbs on liquor outlets.

Youth Substance Abuse Service CEO David Murray said that in 2002 the proportion of clients presenting with alcohol as a primary problem was 7 per cent. It had since jumped to 26 per cent.

“Our population is a bit like the canary down the mine,” he said. It’s telling us something’s going on around this issue.”

The Age investigation into alchohol fuelled violence backs this up:

data obtained by the Victorian Coalition through freedom of information reveals that crimes against individuals jumped by more than 100% in 12 Victorian outer-suburban and regional municipalities.

According to police figures, during the past financial year there were more than 2000 assaults on Melbourne’s streets, a 17% increase on the previous year and a 24% rise since 2003-04.

Is that enough evidence basing for ya, or do you want me to take you down to the gutter?

A civilized drink is fine. Getting drunk in public is disgusting and disgraceful.

The comments on gambling are ignorant in the extreme. Bring on a separate post on that.