BURKARD'S BLOG
I searched on the Internet, and found no one keeping a blog about events in Columbus, Georgia. (Well, other than a 15-year-old high school student, and who knows how much he pays attention to the news?) So being the hip web-savvy guy that I am, I decided to start a blog of my own - chronicling happenings in the town I've called home for some six years, as
well as my experiences in it.
But be warned.... I used to have a humor service called LaughLine.Com, so my views may be a bit amusing. And the views are my own; no one has paid me to present theirs. Pressured, yes - but paid, no.
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15 JUL 03: THE VICE PRECEDENT
Phenix City's Council voted today to legalize Sunday liquor sales -- as the Columbus Mayor announced the "vice squad" is coming back. Hmmmmm. Maybe for the next few Sundays, we should avoid the Oglethorpe bridge.
Phenix City's Council voted three-to-two to allow Sunday liquor sales. So if the Baptist church services seem to drag on longer and longer from now on, it's probably not a coincidence.
Several Phenix City ministers urged the council to vote against Sunday liquor sales. Of course, their churches could always try to compete with the alcohol sellers - by serving real wine in the communion tray.
Phenix City Mayor Sonny Coulter explained Sunday liquor sales will help bring nice new restaurants to town. What he didn't mention is that the Sunday economic boost will go away, when some of those restaurants close on Monday nights.
Meanwhile, Columbus Mayor Bob Poydasheff has decided to bring back the police "vice squad." The chances of Bobby Brown and big-name rap acts ever performing at the Civic Center just dropped to about zero.
(Something doesn't seem quite right about this - since Columbus doesn't officially have a "Vice Mayor.")
One goal of the newly-revived Columbus Vice Squad is to crack down on prostitution. Maybe that woman who complained about the "low-life military" yesterday called the Mayor's office, too.
If you think about it, a new Columbus Vice Squad is a "win-win" situation. If only a few arrests are made, it shows we're in a civilized city. If a lot of arrests are made, some TV network will want to shoot a crime series here.
Of course, other places have tried to cut down on vice over the years -- with varying degrees of success. For instance, you don't hear much now about "Viceroy" cigarettes compared with the 1960's.
The puzzling thing is, Republican governments sometimes oppose efforts like this. Remember the country with a committee for "Preservation of Virtue and the Elimination of Vice?" The Taliban in Afghanistan wound up bombed out of power.
Which reminds me: they're fuming at Fort Stewart, because homecoming plans for the Third Infantry Division's First and Second Brigade have been put off indefinitely. How many Third Brigade soldiers at Fort Benning want to volunteer to go back to Iraq, and replace them?
(This news apparently shows the Army practices LIFO accounting - last in, first out.)