"Here's a stab at a legalization FAQ. Please just take these and use them as you see fit ... it's just a draft to get things started.

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Keep in mind that the intended audience is people who know little or nothing about our hobby (the guy on the street, or a politician). So it's important to keep things simple so they understand. Also, we should never be grandstanding or complaining, or aggressive ... just reasonable and open folks that would like permission to do something safe, fun, and recreational.

There are some simple guidelines that I used when preparing this draft. I'm not suggesting that these must be followed ... I'm just explaining my choice of words and style in the draft:

1. Never use the word ""illegal"" when referring to our hobby. That will cause some folks to become wary or suspicious. Use a phrase like ""not allowed"" or ""not permitted.""

2. Never use slang when referring to our activities, especially the words that have negative connotations. For example, don't use words like: hooch, or moonshine.

3. Avoid words like: liquor and booze. These may be more mainstream, but they still carry negative connotations. Instead, use: spirit, distilled spirit.

4. If it's appropriate to mention a particular class of spirt use brandy. Based on some (very informal and limited) polling I did, ""brandy"" seems to be the one class of spirit that is squeaky clean. All the rest can create negative images. E.g. - gin (backwoods gin joint), whiskey (drunk, boozer), vodka (violent, aggressive, uneducated), rum (pirates, rumrunners). Sorry folks, I'm not trying to be insulting ... just mentioning the kind of things that might enter a reader's mind. As for brandy, well this special class of spirit seems to be associated with sophistication, intelligence, quality, refinement -- again it's strictly about impressions.

5. Avoid mentioning the word ""still."" Stick with the process: distillation, distill, distilled.

6. Use the term ""moonshiner"" (if appropriate) as a negative. The show did us a great disservice ... we need to move as far away from Tim and Tickle as possible. <Sigh> Basically, moonshiine and moonshiners are bad ... hobbyists are good.

Regards,
--JB"