131–140 of 163 posts
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Requiring citizens to keep arms was actually quite common up until the 1800s, with some municipalities actually purchasing firearms for residents, with the expectation that they would be paid back as was manageable.
In which countries?
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Why would preventing alcoholism be bad for average iq?
Brain needs challenges and stimulation to develop; when people are taken care of, average IQ of society decreased over time. If you check the numbers there are several metrics where we regressed in the past hundreds of years, including reaction time, testosterones production, fertility etc. Good times create mediocre people and the times were better and better in the past centuries, while people got more and more med…
The testosterone effect is not true (it went down in Finland and then went back up), and might've been positive (getting married causes both low testosterone and more children). Less children is due to being less religious.
Remember, eugenics isn't real!
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Maybe that the quotas are very low 24 bottles of liquor, 6 bottles of fortified wines, nearly 300 cans of beer, and unlimited wine annually is low? I'd hate to be the liver of anybody drinking that much.
Annually? Everything sounds high when you say it annually! Looking at the numbers on a smaller scale, if you don't count the unlimited wine, the monthly quota works out to be about 2.2 drinks / night - about 1.5 shouts of liquor and less than 1 light beer a night. Thats a pretty resonable amount of alcohol to consume - just slightly higher than the 14 drinks / week maximum that many health authorities recommend. How…
One reason this would be bad is there is actually very little evidence that salt is bad for you. It's entirely possible most people don't get enough salt.
Anyone know the reasoning? I'm assuming its attempting to prevent alcoholism? I know Greenland and Iceland (to a lesser extent) suffer somewhat perhaps due to the light and isolation being contributing factors.
You are mostly right, it is to prevent alcoholism like other attempts are still made in different countries to limit or ban soda and sweet drinks, cigarettes, some drugs, some or all guns. It is in general good for public health and bad for average IQ.
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> I find the law that requires you to carry a firearm more interesting That's not quite what it says. Firearms are only a recommendation. > Due to the polar bear threat in Svalbard, anyone travelling outside the settlements must be equipped with appropriate means of frightening and chasing off polar bears. > The Governor of Svalbard also recommends having firearms with you.
Interesting. When I visited a few years ago I was told that you were required to carry a rifle outside of town to protect from the bears and that a handgun wouldn't be sufficient to protect from a mature polar bear. I guess the guide exaggerated.
A handgun may well not have the stopping power. But something like pepper spray (bear mace) might.
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Pennsylvania has monopoly state stores for liquor too. When weddings used to last for days, the mine bosses here would go to the beer and liquor stores and tell them to stop selling to that group of people. Then when the drinks ran out, the wedding would end and the miners would go back to work.
More recently, the PA state-run liquor stores shut down for weeks during the covid scare and when they did open up, they only took a very limited number of orders online and over the phone. It was basically impossible to buy hard alcohol here for over a month. People were driving to other states to get it.
I guess technically it's not a full monopoly since they do allow distillers in the state to sell thier own product on premise. The place near me was selling some premixed handles for $60-80. Talk about price gouging.
Norwegian here. The reason for the quotas is historical and were put in place to limit miners' consumption of beer and liquor. Interestingly there's practically no quota on wine, presumably because miners didn't care much for that. You can't buy wine and liquor at local stores in Norway Svalbard, but there is a great selection in the state run monopoly stores (Vinmonopolet). In Longyearbyen there's one called Nordpol…
Pennsylvania has monopoly state stores for liquor too. When weddings used to last for days, the mine bosses here would go to the beer and liquor stores and tell them to stop selling to that group of people. Then when the drinks ran out, the wedding would end and the miners would go back to work.
Many states have government run stores, some states allow beer and wine at grocery stores, but liquor must be sold in a separate store. Some states have laws that ban sales after 8pm, some 2am.
Utah is the worst because they limit the alcohol percentage in beer (Mormons don't drink and pushed for these laws) so the companies have to make special shittier Utah beers.
In some states you're not allowed to see the drink being made (maybe also Utah - can't remember) so they make it out of sight and bring it out.
Some counties are dry and you have to drive to the one over (usually lots of stores at the county line). I think some southern states have drive through liquor stores.
One reason I was happy to move to California is the lack of these 'blue laws' [0]. California may have a lot of signs warning you that everything causes cancer (and make it really hard to order a new shower head), but their alcohol laws are pretty permissive.
I don't know if there are any states that don't have open container laws - which is too bad, drinking PIMs in the park in the UK was great fun, and beers outside talking to people is a nice part of the London pub culture that would go well in American cities.
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Pennsylvania has monopoly state stores for liquor too. When weddings used to last for days, the mine bosses here would go to the beer and liquor stores and tell them to stop selling to that group of people. Then when the drinks ran out, the wedding would end and the miners would go back to work.
The US has a wild variety of drink laws that vary by state. Many states have government run stores, some states allow beer and wine at grocery stores, but liquor must be sold in a separate store. Some states have laws that ban sales after 8pm, some 2am. Utah is the worst because they limit the alcohol percentage in beer (Mormons don't drink and pushed for these laws) so the companies have to make special shittier Uta…
Bars still close at 2am, though, which is lame.