Another sign of how backwards the state I live in is:

Less than two years ago it looked as if Gov. Sonny Perdue would veto a bill that banned smoking in most public buildings.  He said he feared the government was becoming a “nanny state” where politicians tell Georgians how to run their lives. Perdue ultimately signed the bill, but said, “We don’t want or need government to mandate for us what we eat or drink or how much exercise we get or whether we engage in dangerous activities, from skydiving to smoking.”

Two years later, some Georgians say the governor has done an about-face. Perdue recently signaled his opposition to a bill that would allow voters to decide whether to allow Sunday beer and wine sales in stores. He remarked that the Sunday prohibition teaches Georgians “time management” by forcing them to purchase alcohol earlier in the week. (emphasis mine)

If that were the case then there wouldn’t have been so many job interviews when I first got here that I showed up early for only to find out the person I was supposed to talk to wasn’t even there yet — or in some cases didn’t know I was coming.  Hah!

You know the real reason for this though.   It’s not “time management”, but rather a leftover nugget of religious nuttery, a view that the act of drinking liquor offends god (conveniently forgetting that part about Jesus turning water into wine…).  Observe:

Democrats, who controlled state government until 2002, have also been accused of being nannies — outlawing gay marriage and sodomy, backing smoking bans and approving the blue laws prohibiting Sunday alcohol sales in the first place, long before Republicans took power.

But Republicans could be bigger targets since many ran for office promising less government interference.

House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) has been a leading proponents of a smaller, less intrusive government. But he calls the Sunday sales ban a “time-honored tradition.”

“As a general rule, most people go to church of whatever faith on Sunday,” he said. “And we don’t sell beer on Sundays. It’s just one of those traditions. And I don’t think Republicans are doing anything other than trying to very carefully measure if we want to put that out there and let the citizens end that tradition.”

Nonsense.  If it were a tradition to not sell liquor on sunday then it wouldn’t need a law.  If it needs a law, then that’s a sign the people could care less about the tradition, therefore it should die.  Period.