Board votes to let Brighton McDonald's stay open until 2 a.m., over neighborhood, city objections

You're right Swirly. It's the result of a moralist attitude problem that refuses to accept that it is wrong. Call it Puritanism, stubbornness, parochialism or whatever.

I bet a large amount of the problems come because of the extreme approach Boston takes towards late night activity. Common sense says that flushing a large number of people out of what they were doing and onto the street is going to create problems. Trying to herd them like cattle back home is quixotic.

But instead you see the typical boneheaded responses from the police and other apologists: "DURRR - DRINKING IS BAD MMKAY." Or they try to act like a bunch of tough motherfuckers "hey it's rough out there what the police have to deal with."

Yeah, it's a problem created by their own response.

Instead of using brains to try and think of subtle solutions which actually resolve the problems between neighbors and noise, they flail around pretending like they're accomplishing anything by "acting tough on bars" and chest-thumping a lot. And nobody's happy as a result.

Here's a simple suggestion: if noise is a problem then go after noise! Bars that keep their patrons indoors aren't a problem. Bars that keep things orderly aren't a problem. Let's take advantage of that. And if the bars do cause a problem then get the police involved, get the board involved.

That means giving up this ridiculous 2 a.m. law that's based in nothing but empty rhetoric. I'd much rather have people hanging out at bars -- a well-monitored environment -- and filtering out as they get tired, rather than dumping them all on the street at once.

People eating food is not a problem, it's a good thing. Whether it's night shift workers, or people who were at a bar, they're filling their stomachs with food. What could be bad about that? Plus, a restaurant is a monitored environment.

The police don't have enough resources to deal with late night activity? Well maybe if the stakes weren't so fucked up at 2 a.m. it wouldn't be so stressful. That's a policy mistake. And secondly, we have this system for ensuring that police and safety workers have the resources that they need, it's called taxes and licensing fees. Use em.

Licenses shouldn't be a commodity which you pay some shady fuck hundreds of thousands of dollars for. They should be a certificate from the licensing board, non-transferable, that certifies that the holder follows the laws AND pays the external costs of keeping their business running. That means the police and emergency services get funded from revenue generated by the bars and restaurants in their district. Then more bars equals more police and emergency service resources. Simple and effective!

So simple and effective that I'm sure the only thing keeping the currently fucked up system in place is a bunch of corrupt fucking politicos, police and other elites who benefit from it. And they're helped along by a bunch of religious extremists by which our country is cursed, who hate freedom, and who hate alcohol and anything that might involve fun of any kind.