Meanwhile, in the Show Me State

Story:

A St. Louis-area town is considering a bill that would ban swearing in bars, along with table-dancing, drinking contests and profane music. City officials contend the bill is needed to keep rowdy crowds under control because the historic downtown area gets a little too lively on some nights.

In unrelated news, did you know that St. Louis was once the fourth-largest city in the U.S., and had as many as 856,000 residents in 1950? It's lost more than a half-million people since then. (Link via Wonkette.)

Comments

[crimethink]

Paging Stevo Darkly..

[Vincent Gigante]

the sad thing is it probably will pass…

how is the christianofascist presence there?

[Episiarch]

I’d love to see them try to enforce “no profanity”. Bring it on, assholes.

[VM]

The guy was interviewed on WGN 720 this morning. What a freakin tool.

typical fucking fundie.

jerk.

[ChicagoTom]

A local Sun-Times columnist wrote about this here.

He called the councilman who proposed this. Apparently, there is already a state law about obscene language and this local law’s language was lazily copied from the state liquor laws

Veit said he had just copied the legal language straight from the state of Missouri’s liquor license regulations, which set forth lengthy rules of conduct for bars. The prohibition on “indecent, profane or obscene language” was just an obscure provision in the state regulations that he hadn’t much noticed, he said.

“I did not expect it to get this attention,” Veit admitted, explaining he was focused on other restrictions. “I thought the story was we were cracking down on underage drinking.”

So you don’t have a particular concern with swearing?

“Absolutely not,” he said.

Not that this makes it any better. In fact, if true, it tells quite a bit about the councilman and his lazy and sloppy regard for ordinances.

It’s pretty sad when the guy proposing the law “hadn’t” really noticed what the language of the ordinance is.

[J sub D]

In unrelated news, did you know that St. Louis was once the fourth-largest city in the U.S., and had as many as 856,000 residents in 1950? It’s lost more than a half-million people since then.

We’ve doubled those numbers here in Motown.
We’re not exactly proud of it.

[Lamar]

This arrangement works out perfectly. Missourians are protected from hearing my profanity, and I am protected from ever desiring to go to St. Louis ever.

[J sub D]

To think I forswore obscenity laced postings on the internet this year. Darn, this is a golden opportunity.

[gaijin]

In unrelated news, did you know that St. Louis was once the fourth-largest city in the U.S., and had as many as 856,000 residents in 1950? It’s lost more than a half-million people since then.

Unrelated? Don’t you get it…all the swearin’ and drinkin’ has driven the good folks away!

[shecky]

St Charles isn’t exactly St. Louis. Not even the same county.

MO did have some weird rules, as I recall. Believe it or not, St. Louis was something of an oasis.

[Warty]

“St. Louis…at least we’re not East St. Louis.”

[VM]

ChicagoTom-

what you cite certainly doesn’t leave that “ick” impression that he did on Spike O’Dell this morning (which might account for part of the factor, of course). Interesting! Thanks!

[Jennifer]

Serious question: even assuming you agree with the rationales for laws against obscene or scatological language, how can laws against profane language not run afoul of the first amendment stance against government-supported religion?

“Fuck that shit” is obscene (fuck) and scatological (shit), and the Supreme Court has ruled that such language can be banned because it makes children’s ears melt off or whatever. Fine. But profanity such as “Goddammit” or even “by Jove” is only a problem if you worship the god being mentioned AND think said god gets pissy when he hears his name heard in certain contexts. A law protecting said God’s feelings strikes me as unconstitutional EVEN WHEN current anti-obscenity laws are considered acceptable.

[John Payne]

I don’t know of anyone who goes to Saint Charles to party, so I don’t think this is going to have a big impact even if it passes. For those of you who don’t know the Saint Louis area, this would be like saying that NYC was banning swearing, etc. because someone in Westchester had proposed it (except Saint Charles isn’t nearly as rich).

[ChicagoTom]

what you cite certainly doesn’t leave that “ick” impression that he did on Spike O’Dell this morning (which might account for part of the factor, of course). Interesting! Thanks!

Moose,

It could be that he was more cautious with Mark Brown. The story I cited, I take with a grain of salt. Anyone who is proposing such a law is suspect in my mind, and even more so when their defense of the silliness is “well I wasn’t aware of what I was copying”.

I would imagine this guy is getting lots of negative press and he decided to take a “everyone is just blowing this out of proportion” position to make himself seem less douchey (douchetastic?).

[VM]

good point, CT. And Spike has that folksey way, too that relaxes guests.

[de stijl]

This dude?

[VM]

naughty, destijl. naughty.

[Miggs]

Do I dare click on that link here at work?

[Timon19]

In unrelated news, did you know that St. Louis was once the fourth-largest city in the U.S., and had as many as 856,000 residents in 1950? It’s lost more than a half-million people since then.

Sounds almost exactly like Cincinnati. Is it therefore merely coincidence that both cities rank in the top 5 of “most racially segregated”?

[de stijl]

Nah, it’s just a pic of James Marsden as Spike from Buffy.

[Aresen]

If fully enforced, this law would make most bars very quiet.

[ChicagoTom]

de stijl,

I believe James Marsden is the guy who played Cyclops in the X-Men movies. That is not a picture of James marsden.

I think you meant James Marsters who also played Dr. Milton Fine in Smallville.

[TDL]

“and had as many as 856,000 residents in 1950?”

In regards to this statistic, St. Louis also has a 1% income tax and it now has one of the high murder rates in the country. Maybe they are just trying to scare everyone away, I mean why share The Arch?

Regards,
TDL

[mpp]

As a former resident of both cites, Detroit has St. Louis beat on several fronts. Its income tax for residents is 3% (1% if you just work in the city), it went from 2 million to 800,000, and they let their train station and skyscrapers rot.

[SuperMike]

According to wikipedia, the metro area is huge and contains at least a couple million people, so it’s not like the population just up and left, so much as spread out.

[Tyler]

Yeah I’m from a St. Louis suburb in Illinois. The metro area is a little over 2 million people. The key thing when talking about St. Louis is that unlike Detroit and several other cities is this. When referencing St. Louis you are literally talking about the city. Long ago, because of politics of course, St. Louis city seceded from St. Louis county. So as bad as St. Louis crime stats are its technically never as bad as the other crime contenders because more often than not those cities’ statistics also factor in those cities’ counties. If St. Louis was recognizes as all of St. Louis county, its placement on crime stats would be totally unremarkable.

That said, Laclede’s landing is hardly “roudy”. It did get a brand new nice casino though… and Washington Ave is getting better by the month.

[Paul]

I seem to remember an anti-tobacco activist denying that any of this tobacco regulation wouldn’t ever extend into areas such as food, or other lifestyle choices.

Fuck ’em. And everyone who looks like ’em.

[J sub D]

Tyler, Detroit is part of Wayne County. When you read Detroit stats, it’s the city only. Wayne county stats look much rosier.

[Nate]

Great. If I ever rob a bank, I’ll be sure to do so in St. Charles, MO. The authorities will be patrolling for shits, fucks and motherfucks while I clean house.