We reserve the right...

Via Fark comes the link to this short article:

Court Rules Against Brewski In The Buff

NEW ORLEANS -- A brewski in the buff doesn't justify an all male bar.

The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled a Shreveport country club must let women into its sit-down restaurant and bar.

The Southern Trace Country Club has three restaurants, but only the Men's Grille is open on Sundays. Women were barred from the grill.

The court rejected claims that members sometimes dine there in the nude.

On the surface, it sounds reasonable, right? Equal rights for women and all. But the problem here is that giving women the right to enter this restaurant is a rejection of the right of the business owner to determine who he allows onto his property. It may be considered a "public dining area" but it's actually private property. Now, if it were owned by the federal government (or state or local government) then I could see this ruling as valid as it really would be "public property."

It's my belief that business owners should be given very broad lattitude when it comes to who they hire and who they allow in their establishments. If I want to hire only beautiful women, then I should have that right. Here are a few factors that would then come into play which would act to dissuade me from this policy:

• If some potential customers disagree with that policy, then they will vote with their wallets and go somewhere else.


• The same is true of potential employees. If someone is desparate for a job, she might overlook this chauvinistic policy but I'm willing to bet that many women would refuse to work for me.


• Other than the above, having such narrow criteria makes it harder to find qualified people and more likely that I'll either have unfilled positions, or positions filled with people that are not qualified. And this is regardless of whatever criteria I use. I'm in no way saying that I couldn't find a qualified and beautiful woman to fill every position (who may or may not be willing to), just that it would be more difficult. The same would be true, for example, if I wanted to hire only white men born in this country.

Folks, it's called the market. Time and time again we see that heavy-handed government meddling tends to backfire or have other unintended consequences. Left alone, the market tends to be self-regulating. This is not an absolute rule, of course, but it's true in general and we should err on the side of caution rather than automatically turn to government to fix everything with legislation.

Back during the middle of the last century, we of course had a problem with widespread and institutionalized discrimination against black people. The key word here is "institutionalized." The civil rights movement was born and, in conjunction with certain legislation, was able to significantly reduce or eliminate the institution of discrimination. It will never be able to stamp out prejudice; the only way to do that is to hook up bigots to the Attitude Adjustment Machines and turn on the power. You can't legislate beliefs, nor should you. To do so is to create the reality of thought crimes and that way lay the true Orwellian future.

One final comment about the story that started this whole thing. Ever notice how it's almost always a case of women wanting into exclusive men's establishments and not the other way around? Why is that? I think it's due to a fundamental difference in attitude about such things between men and women. If so, I don't know how much is genetic, if any, or how much is cultural. Note that this is not intended as a criticism of women, just an observation.