Why is the Treasury Department concerned about the number of calories in my mojito? Shouldn’t ‘Treasury’ be concerned about how much they cost?

The Treasury Dept. ‘regulates’ alcohol, beer, wine and spirits and say companies can use labels that include serving size, servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat per serving.

Yeah, after downing a few it’s hard to keep track of how many carbs are in the mint leaves because I don’t want to go over my minimum daily requirement. Mint and lime is so fattening.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the Treasury Dept. seeks to reduce alcohol smuggling and my waistline. It’s good to know the government is thinking of social drinkers. Let them not tinker with social security.

They lost us on that ‘food pyramid’ thing, now they want a drink pyramid?

Liquor companies want to advertise low calories and low carbohydrates in their products, but protein and fat? What’s the fat content of a vodka martini? I don’t think an olive is harmful unless you swallow the pit. Olives are on the Mediterranean diet and as long as we’re counting, that drink should count as salad.

Restaurants and clubs also add fruit to specialty drinks. Let a thirsty Senator wait for their drink while the bar staff counts up the calories in a Blueberry-lemon-raspberry-mango fizz. How long will those regulations last?

Consumer groups want alcoholic drinks to have the same transparency as packaged foods. Look, in moderation there’s nothing harmful about a drink unless you strain your eyes trying to read the label. Are they going to legislate better lighting in bars so you can do that?

To their credit, the alcohol industry has opposed the idea of defining serving size by fluid ounces of pure alcohol on the grounds that you may get more than 1.5 ounces of liquor in a cocktail depending on what else is in the drink and how much you’ve tipped the bartender.

Just show a beer drinker a can that says ‘serving size’ and see how loud they laugh.

12 ounces of beer is considered a ‘serving size’ in what country? I want the ‘World’s Most Interesting man’ on the ‘Beer Committee’ of the ATF. Stay thirsty my friends.