Like most moderately healthy Americans with a consistent BAC above .08, I enjoy I good beer or six. But Tennessee’s Neo-Prohibitionist Left is determined to deny my right to party: (stein hoist to the Silent “Closet Conservative”)

NASHVILLE – Comer Wilson hasn’t had to show his ID to buy beer in a while. Maybe it’s the long white beard; maybe it’s because he’s 66 years old. Starting Sunday, gray hair won’t be good enough. Wilson and everyone else will be required to show identification before buying beer in Tennessee stores no matter how old the buyer appears.

Are zero tolerance policies like this anything less than 100% intolerance?

Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen said it’s a good way to address the problems of underage drinking. And the 63-year-old governor said he personally won’t mind the extra effort to buy beer. “I’ll be very pleased when I’m carded, and in my mind I’ll just imagine it’s because I look so young,” he said.

Confirming my suspicions that Bredesen has the temperament of a 29 year-old woman desperately in need of confirmation that we can’t see her crow’s feet. And that any inconvenience is worth it if we swaddle the argument for Big Brotherism in terms of looking out for the chirren.

Mind you, these laws don’t apply to restaurants and bars for some reason. I can down a pitcher of margaritas at Las Palmas or have six pints of Sam Adams and a Jager bomb at O’Charleys and hit the road without hassle from the staff, but buying beer at a store, presumably to “drink responsibly” at home and I’ve got my evening plans subjected to the tyranny of a minimum-wage making cashier with a god complex.

“It’s a set, consistent standard across the entire state.” Richard Rollins, who owns a convenience store in Nashville, is already using a computerized system to scan everyone’s driver’s licenses when they buy beer _ even though he knows it annoys some customers. “We just say we’re trying to keep our beer permit, and this is the safest way,” Rollins said. Jeff Campbell said he stopped shopping at Rollins’ market because he didn’t like the idea of having his license scanned. “I don’t mind them asking for my ID, but they don’t need my driver’s license number,” said the 43-year-old. “I’m just buying a six-pack. All they need to know is how old I am.”

I ran into this last night. The clerk thought my driver’s license was expired (which it wasn’t) and was going to deny my purchase of ice cold Blue Moon Belgian White on that basis. As if, my date of birth on the license was inaccurate.

The purpose of ID laws for buying beer is to determine whether or not you’re old enough to drink and not whether my license needs to be renewed. Or that Methuselah can’t buy a tall boy of Natty Light because he lost his Birth Certificate on the night of the Sumerian Drunken Barn Dance.

But hey, maybe Governor Gutierrez Bredesen wouldn’t mind applying this stringent standard to illegal immigrants driving motor vehicles rather than law abiding Americans looking to relieve a little stress after a long week of fending off his advances on my wallet.

If an illegal gets pulled over without proper ID, why can’t he/she be subjected to the same level of scrutiny I will get as a US citizen for buying a beer?

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