http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/drinking/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/working-women-need-to-escape-the-grog-bog/ Can you hear a faint sort of teeth-grindy sound? No it’s not the rats in the roof gnawing the wires again, it’s just those thousands of lady drivers with the windows down as they motor past the bottle shop. Even just four days into Febfast, the annual excruciating month of alcohol abstinence, the novelty will have well and truly worn off and we’re already down to the bare bones of resentment and “I know it’s for charity and all but what the feck was I thinking”. All around Australia there are mild-mannered ladies cursing the leap year, too, as were it not for that stupid spare day, there would only be 24 grogless ones left. For many of us talented drinkers, when it comes to one’s consumption of alcohol there is the comfort of denial and “look over there, is that a rare orange-bellied parrot? (Yes waiter top me up)” for 11 months of the year, and then there is the long, hard look in the mirror that is horrendous February. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/working-women-need-to-escape-the-grog-bog/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/working-women-need-to-escape-the-grog-bog/#item7667 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stripped-of-civil-liberties-for-a-night-on-the-town/ Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stripped-of-civil-liberties-for-a-night-on-the-town/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stripped-of-civil-liberties-for-a-night-on-the-town/#item7562 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/heres-to-drinking-songs-theyre-true-blue/ It was when the Captain Matchbox Whoopie Band let fly with its dated fart joke interlude that I started thinking about drinking. Overcome by nostalgia, I went to see the Captain and his mates (they had amused many of us back in the 70s) in a far-flung tent at this year’s Byron Bay Bluesfest, which is now held on an old Tea Tree farm at Tyagarah near Mullumbimby. It had been a very good Bluesfest, although a few standout disappointments (a clearly past it B.B. King, a headed towards past it Blind Boys of Alabama and Bob Dylan and his band sounding like week-old soup) took some shine off the event. But there was enough really great music – hunt down Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and his band, Avenue Orleans for starters – to make the five day a revelation and confirmation of the power of music. Back to drinking. Sad Song Junkie, a new album by Boston singer-songwriter Dan Baker is a delight, bringing together a superb collection of tunes, including a love song to the martini – “When I was young/Just a boy/I’d eat my cereal/Juts for the toy/Not much has changed/For my little treat’s the olive/Way down at the bottom/Of my favourite drink”. It’s such a louche, sweet surrender that I found it hard to stop playing it, despite the power and beauty of the other sad and sorry songs. Drinking has been a constant theme of song writing, sitting proudly next to love, lust and loss. So, with this new entrant at hand, let’s dive in and nominate the top 25 drinking/drunk songs. 25: Little Old Wine Drinker, Me by Dean Martin is for the devotee of wine (“I’m praying for rain in California/So the grapes can grow and they can make more wine”) by a man with a big reputation as a drinking enthusiast – helped no doubt by his vanity number plate DRUNKY. Martin also had a fabulous crooning voice. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/heres-to-drinking-songs-theyre-true-blue/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/heres-to-drinking-songs-theyre-true-blue/#item5773 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/should-clarke-pay-a-price-for-melbourne-test-bar-session/ News today from The Daily Telegraph today that Australian cricket vice-Captain Michael Clarke and sometime opener Phillip Hughes were out at Crown Casino the night before the disastrous fourth day of the Melbourne Ashes Test. I am rather comforted by this news. Hopefully Clarke and Hughes were hungover throughout the Melbourne Test as it could go some way to explaining their rubbish batting. Perhaps it would help the country if a picture emerged of the entire squad downing shots tequila and snorting lines ketamine in an Oxford Street club the night before the Sydney Test. We would be reassured as a nation that Australia’s awful performances this summer did not just look drug induced. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/should-clarke-pay-a-price-for-melbourne-test-bar-session/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/should-clarke-pay-a-price-for-melbourne-test-bar-session/#item4918 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Doling-out-drinks-to-the-100m-long-queue/ There was a single sentence in the news coverage of this weekend’s Byron Bay schoolies brawl which was buried at the bottom of the story, but could have been a story in its own right. “The schoolies congregated in the park because the lines to get into Byron’s four main pubs and clubs were 100m-plus long.” The decision to get drunk and act like a jerk is a personal decision. But without excising personal responsibility from the debate, it is also worth examining the environment in which young people make the sort of choices which end up with them sleeping in their own spew in a park, sleeping with someone for the first time while bordering on comatose, sleeping in a police cell because they’ve punched someone for looking at them the wrong way. It’s an environment which has been created by adults who have a massive commercial interest in Australia’s youth drinking culture. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Doling-out-drinks-to-the-100m-long-queue/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Doling-out-drinks-to-the-100m-long-queue/#item4532 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-tax-you-wont-hear-the-government-wine-about/ It being Melbourne Cup day yesterday you probably started drinking at about 10 am and missed this story, but in another shock horror study researchers have found that we as Australians are drinking more than ever. Contrary to some studies that began to indicate a decline in our habit, the National Drug Research Institute has found we’re apparently putting it away like Brendan Fevola at Brownlow night. This increase has been attributed to the amount of wine that we’re drinking, because apparently we’ve just worked out how much alcohol the stuff has in it. One might think that such a finding would elicit some kind of response from the Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon. Like an abusive PE teacher she frequently reminds us that we’ve been drinking too much, eating too much and we’re slob of a nation who will never make the athletics squad. It might even be an opportunity to look a bit further into something that every major health body in the nation and the Henry Review has championed: that is a volumetric tax on alcohol. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-tax-you-wont-hear-the-government-wine-about/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-tax-you-wont-hear-the-government-wine-about/#item4388 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sorry-officer-but-im-drinking-for-australia/ That’s it. We’ve arrived at what is officially termed the Dizzy Limit. NSW Police, warming to their recent self-appointment as a freelance social policy think tank, trustee of public morality and holy rolling temperance society, have announced that Australia Day should be as dry as the Nullarbor Plain. Starting now. They have reasonable cause. Shockingly, some people treat such occasions as an opportunity to get on the squirt and a small minority of those consequently get stupid and some proportion of those play up and a fraction of those become violent and commit felonies. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sorry-officer-but-im-drinking-for-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sorry-officer-but-im-drinking-for-australia/#item2161 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-perils-of-fat-tax/ If the legislation for the Orwellian­-sounding Australian National Preventive Health Agency passes, then expect an avalanche of make­-work exercises by the Agency all for the cause of making us healthier. Armed with a budget of $133 million of your money over four years, the agency would get to work advising commonwealth and state health ministers about health issues surrounding alcohol and tobacco consumption and obesity. It will look to create new policies about interventions in settings such as schools, workplaces and communities. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-perils-of-fat-tax/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-perils-of-fat-tax/#item1847 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/targeting-drivers-is-one-thing-what-about-drinkers/ Well another day and yet another useless decision on alcohol. Victoria Police will today continue their blitz on drunks at races with the running of the Oaks at Flemington. Now it’s great that police are targeting these people to stop alcohol fuelled violence, but I personally don’t believe it’s the right course of action. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/targeting-drivers-is-one-thing-what-about-drinkers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/targeting-drivers-is-one-thing-what-about-drinkers/#item1654 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer! http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Counterpunch-the-nanny-state-will-nag-you-to-death/ This week parliament will debate a bill to establish a national Preventive Health Agency, reminding of that classic Mark Twain observation: nobody is safe while the legislature is in session. On The Punch Federal health minister Nicola Roxon insisted that she was no nanny statist, and that the purpose of the Agency was about saving lives and reducing health costs. Most modern governments understand the follies of outright bans, such as the failed US Prohibition movement from 1919 to 1933. However, the Agency plans what it sees as the next best thing. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Counterpunch-the-nanny-state-will-nag-you-to-death/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Counterpunch-the-nanny-state-will-nag-you-to-death/#item1522 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Stepping out for a fun night and a few drinks sure isn’t as simple as it used to be. In case you hadn’t noticed, an increasing number of Australian bars and clubs are introducing security technology that would be more fittingly encountered in a Police state than a casual night out for a drink in one of Australia ‘s cities. In a dystopian display of modern surveillance technologies overtaking common sense, nowadays if you feel inclined to venture out for a dance in one of Melbourne or Sydney ‘s bars or clubs, you can expect to have your ID scanned into a computer. And in extreme cases, be prepared to have your irises scanned as a pre-requisite for entry. Talk about a party killer!