I enjoyed watching Ken Burns' new "Prohibition" documentary on PBS last week. Burns is a fine storyteller and useful fount of useless information (such as the derivation of the terms "bootlegger" and "teetotaler"). What entertained me most about "Prohibition" was watching progressives label earlier progressives reactionaries. Read my column @ Human Events on prohibition's progressive origins.

This was a great documentary.

A couple of interesting points I thought were that, at the time before Prohibition, 70% of federal revenue was derived from the transport and sale of alcohol and during Prohibition the government struggled to get creative in it's taxation to make up the differences in loss of that revenue. And how an onslaught of rules followed repeal where during prohibition, when there were no standards to drinking, the end saw time limits and more laws regarding alcohol sale and consumption than ever.

Oh, and during the Roaring 20's, when for the first times that men and women drank together, there was a sexual revolution.

Funny, I thought WE invented that in the 60's and 70's!