Let's raise a glass - while we can still have one - to the Utah Legislature, for their annual effort to add a few more turns in the state's already-labyrinthine liquor laws.

This year's efforts start off with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s desire to do away with the private-club law - that fig-leaf notion that we don't actually have bars in Utah, but you can pay extra for a "membership" to a "club" that serves booze. It's a great idea whose time has come, and has the support of the public - 51 percent, according to a recent Salt Lake Tribune poll, compared to 31 percent who favored keeping the private clubs and 18 percent who were undecided.

But to get Republican legislators to go along with the idea, according to the Tribune's Robert Gehrke, the bars may have to put in electronic scanners that will read patrons' driver's licences - and keep a database that law enforcement could refer to when investigating DUIs or other crimes.

Can you say "Big Brother is watching you"?

"Do you think any rational individual would not think that's intrusive?" asked Tom Guinney, the owner of the Gastronomy restaurants. "That's intrusive. There's no question about it."

Meanwhile, the battle over the "Zion Curtain" - the glass partitions that keep booze bottles separated from restaurant patrons - is bouncing around again, as the Tribune's Dawn House writes. Commissioners for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said they could not write new rules to enforce the "Zion Curtain" restrictions, and sent the problem back to the Legislature.

Commissioner Gordon Strachan put it best: "Our current regulatory system makes Utah look silly." I'll drink to that.

(Photo: Unidentified bartender at Lumpy's Downtown.)