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I’m not certain what the town if Chelmsford is trying to accomplish by refusing to grant a liquor license to the owner of “The Meat House”, Len Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter expressed surprise and puzzlement after Chelmsford’s Board of Selectmen voted 3-2 against issuing a beer and wine license.

I am equally perplexed. The Meat House is a butcher shop for foodies. These are people who not only like good food, but have an interest in food and what to pair one substance with another to enhance a nutritionally balanced and flavorful dining experience. It is the opposite of slugging down food merely to satisfy a hunger with no regard for what you are ingesting and its various contents.

Foodie does more than replace the words “epicure” and “gourmet”. It expands those terms to include common foods prepared and served in a unique and pleasing fashion. It may be a burger served with a chipotle sauce paired with beverage that brings out the richness of a good cut of beef while adding, also to the flavor of chipotle. Everyone with an interest in food can become a foodie.

The Meat House, as you will note by browsing their website, is a national chain of quality butcher shops that offers more than just meats. It is a place where anything one needs to buy for a complete, quality meal, including professional advice on pairing and recipes.

It is not a restaurant. It is not a bar. It is not a liquor store. It is a butcher shop that also offers fine wine and beer selections to fill a specialized niche’ that is now in demand, primarily because it is unique. It is a source for one-stop shopping that busy people appreciate and are willing to pay more for. There is no down side!

This is not a place where teenagers are likely to hang out, or to try to make liquor purchases. It is not a place where homeless alcoholics are likely to be found squatting or sleeping. This is a legitimate business with a right to run as it sees fit, so long as it acts responsible and conscience of the rights of others.

So, why would 3 selectmen vote against granting a limited liquor license (beer and wine only) to this franchise when they have 7 available to them to issue on the authority of the Commonwealth and none of the 7 have been issued? It used to be in America that one had to commit a crime or show a propensity for committing crime (business affiliation with known gangsters) before punishment was administered. This shop/franchise is asking to sell a legal product that pairs well with other legal products it is selling in order to educate and better serve the public, while also helping them find and experience new gustatory sensations as they move through life.

The reasons given for refusing the license are few and very flawed. One member of the Conservation Commission for Chelmsford indicated that the Chelmsford Business Association plays behind the scenes, closed-door politics to allow liquor stores a monopoly on alcohol sales. Of the explanations given for voting down the license request the most absurd comes from Selectman Dahlberg:

Dahlberg, who voted the license down, said yesterday that the liquor license vote is “probably the vote that I prepped for the most.”

His concern, he said was not public safety, but, rather, the town going on 30 years not approving so-called mixed-use licenses.

“I found the precedent argument far more compelling,” he said. “What happens to all those who came before for licenses but were denied?”

Putting the poor grammar of this last statement aside, let’s take a guess to help Selectman Dahlberg: mmm, let’s see: they were swept up by a tornado and are now running around Oz looking for a wizard to help them curse your moronic butt?

Dahlberg, who said he’s already shopped at The Meat House about a half dozen times, said he has taken some heat from residents for his vote. He said he’d like to create a subcommittee “to inventory what works and what doesn’t” that involves the public.  

“If people want to toss it, I’ll be all for it. I want what’s best for the town,” he said”.

His skill at fence-sitting, in my humble opinion, is second only to our Selectman Robert Correnti’s.

Selectman Kurland displayed the intellectual acumen in explaining his vote that parallels that of a cretin, who willingly jumps into pits filled with chickens and their droppings and rolls around as he bites the heads off of these poor animals, merely for the entertainment of the morons who paid to watch. How he ever got elected and how he holds his seat with explanations of this sort is just short of miraculous.

I have to remember this description when it comes time to assess the reasoning and verbalization skills of one announced candidate for re-election to the Billerica Board of Selectmen. Although, I feel such efforts

All of this goes to illustrate how government regulation actually creates problems of corruption by putting power into the hands of people not worthy of public trust; people who serve others only by serving the interests of those that support them. In almost all cases, they claim to be looking out for you and the public interest. They use that as the predicate for exercising force “in the public good”.

This reminds me of a quote I keep close in my memory because it skewers those who resort to the immorality of altruism as an explanation for bad behavior or unseemly judgment:

“Government “help” to business is just as disastrous as government persecution… the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.”

The other important part of this discussion is this: by what right does government restrict the right of people to buy, display and offer for sale or exchange a product that is legal to own and offer in private? By what right does the Commonwealth dictate to a town how many licenses it can issue, when there is enough evidence that more than the allotted license applications will be made; and when there is no history of law breaking by an applicant, how does a town or the Commonwealth justify refusing a license to one applicant of equal legal standing and moral character to the other who was granted approval?

“Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”

I don’t know…Chelmsford? Billerica? There really doesn’t seem to be much difference to me. Oh, well, I’m off to purchase some foodie stuff at “The Food House” to help them accrue enough cash flow to sue the pants off Chelmsford. Hopefully, they will be able to recover other damages for losses estimated since the date of the license application rejection. Wouldn’t that be nice!