Category: Beer

  • Shorting Everything (Part 2)

    Previously…on glibertarians.com….

     

    “Does either of you want to explain why you decided to say you had a bomb on an airplane?”

    A TSA inspector had Sugarfree and I in a small room.  It had a single table and a couple chairs with a small light fixture in the center of the ceiling.  He sat there with an unopened bag of donuts on the table.

    “I don’t recall saying anything…”  I answered.  “…other than a request for counsel as it is my right guaranteed under the Constitution.”

    “I said I had a bomb”  Sugarfree answered.

    “Shut up!”  I shouted. “You’re going to get us into more trouble.”

    “It was true.  I brought the plane down.  I warned you.”  Sugarfree continued.

    “What is the reason you travelled to Washington?” The inspector asked again.

    “I told you, we are newlyweds on our way to the Earth Capital.”  Sugarfree said, again.  In all fairness to him, most of his answers seemed to confuse the TSA Inspector.

    “You guys have been here a while.”  The inspector seemed to take a different tack.  “You want a donut?”  He broke the seal on the bag of Drake’s Cakes donuts.

    “I believe I requested counsel.”  I answered.

    “I went Keto years ago, I can’t eat that.”  Sugarfree answered.

    “You sure?”  The inspector asked again.

    “Oh hell.”  I grabbed one with both hands, being handcuffed, and began eating the semi-stale powdered donut.  “I am still not answering anything until my counsel arrives.”

    “You sure you don’t want one?”  The inspector asked Sugarfree again.  “Drakes Cakes are really good.”

    Sugarfree shook his head.

    “Cmon.  You want a donut.  You’re really hungry.  You’re going to eat one and tell me where that bomb is.”

    Sugarfree shook his head again.

    “GODDAMNIT!”  The inspector grabbed a donut and shoved Sugarfree onto the floor, stuffing the donut into Sugarfree’s mouth. “I SAID YOU WANTED A GODDAMN DONUT.”

    “What is wrong with you?  That is abuse of power.  There is no reason to do that.”  I said.

    “YOU WANT ANOTHER DONUT?”  The inspector asked me.

    “Fuck off slaver!”

    Sugarfree rose slowly from the floor.  His eyes were bloodshot with pupils dilated and a burst capillary under his left eyelid made him appear to be crying blood.  His hands were noticeably shaking, his breathing seemed to increase rapidly.  “I….told….you….” his quivering words stammered out like a meth addict.

    “I….went…..KEETTTOOOOOOO”

    He screeched loud enough the inspector covered his ears.  I tried but couldn’t because of the handcuffs.

    “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”  Sugarfree kept shouting as he snapped the chain on the handcuffs.  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”  Sugarfree picked up the stainless steel table and threw it at the inspector.

    “Stop that!!”  The inspector tried shouting over Sugarfree’s bloody screech.  He pulled his weapon and emptied the magazine at Sugarfree.

    _____

     

    …thankfully this isn’t that kind of story.

    “You’re going to have to explain how we got out of there.” Sugarfree said while we were walking through the Mall. “I kind of blacked out there.”

    “You tweaked out.  I’m not so sure I want to get into that right now.”  I replied.

    “Why am I so hungry?”  Sugarfree asked.

    “I’ll tell you what, once we find STEVE SMITH I’ll buy you a steak?”  I answered.

    “Elk?  I can totally go for elk…”  Sugarfree made a yummy sound.  “Where’s STEVE anyways?”

    “The White House is this way, I assume he’s in that crowd somewhere.  Nothing is on the twatter about a Sasquatch being shot by SS.”

    “The SS?” Sugarfree was puzzled.  “The Schutzstaffel?”

    “No the Secret Serv–yes the Schutzstaffel.”  I stopped.  “Is that STEVE?”

    Sugarfree looked onto the crowd of people in black masks gathering at the White House gates.  He fixated on a single seven foot tall figure in the crowd.  His back was turned to us and was wearing a black hood and mask like everyone else.  “Is that ANTIFA?”  He asked.

    1-2-3-fo, racist Trump has got to go. 5-6-7-8 we want someone new to hate

    “What are they chanting?”  I asked.  We began to work our way through the crowd.  They had a distinct smell of urine and spray paint; and those fucking idiots kept stepping on my shoes.

    1-2-3-fo, racist Trump has got to go. 5-6-7-8 we want someone new to hate

    The gates to the White House opened, revealing a limosine behind them.

    “He’s going to rape Trump in the limo.”  Sugarfree said. “This should be good.”

    1-2-3-fo, racist Trump has got to go. 5-6-7-8 we want someone new to hate

    “That’s not the President’s Motorcade.”  I said. I turned and looked at Sugarfree.  He emptied a glass bottle onto a convenient white girl with dreadlocks.

    “What are you doing you creep?”  The white girl asked.

    “Do you have Styrofoam peanuts?” Sugarfree asked her.

    “Actually I do, comrade.”  She pulled out a handful from her coat.

    1-2-3-fo, racist Trump has got to go. 5-6-7-8 we want someone new to hate

    The car began to slowly creep out from the open gates.  The crowd began to gather around the car.

    “They won’t run over the crowd…” I said.  I looked and Sugarfree had stuffed the Styrofoam  peanuts into the bottle.  “Too many people are watching.”

    1-2-3-fo, racist Trump has got to go. 5-6-7-8 we want someone new to hate

    STEVE SMITH GET ORANJ MAN!

    The lone figure towering over the crowd began forcing his way through the crowd and jumped on the car.  Suddenly my phone began vibrating.

    Not Junior’s real Twatter

    “Oh no, he’s confusing Trump with Trump Jr.”

    Sugarfree was shaking the bottle to dissolve the peanuts.  I smelled gasoline. My phone vibrated again…

    “He took a photo of STEVE…we need to get him out of here.”  Sugarfree somehow found an oily rag.  My phone vibrated again…

    and again…

    and again…

    ”The voice of reason chimes in.  Do these people do anything beside sit on twatter?”  I asked.  Then it vibrated once more…

    ”STEVE SMITH has a twatter!?”

    “Do you have a light?”  Sugarfree asked.  I handed him my Zippo and tried to squeeze my way through the crowd.

    “STEVE!  You’ve been made!  Get out of here.”  I shouted.

    STEVE SMITH GET ORANJ MAN.  STEVE SMITH TAKE BACK $1.5MILLION PAPER LOSS FROM ORANJ MAN.

    ”Thanks for the light.”  Sugarfree handed me back my Zippo.  He had a lit Molotov cocktail.  “How long do we let this cook?”

    ORANJ MAN NO RUN FROM STEVE SMITH.  STEVE SMITH GET ORANJ MAN GOOD

    “Aye-ya-yie!”  Sugarfree tossed the Molotov cocktail at the crumpled limousine.  Flames erupted and spread across the car and into the crowd.

    ”The Nazis are here!  Run!”  The crowd began to disperse and panic.  A clusterfuck of hapless retards in black masks crawling over each other. I grabbed Sugarfree by the collar and moved with the crowd.

    ”Do you see Steve?”  I asked.  Sugarfree pointed at a tall figure sprinting through the crowd.

    And like that, he was gone.

    Washington was on lockdown and none of the restaurants seemed to be open.  Sugarfree didn’t seem to mind, he had a pigeon spinning on a makeshift spit over a small fire in a park.  He seemed to have spooked the homeless.  Thankfully, I found a gas station open.

    Tecate Titanium.  Its like regular Tecate, only they don’t water it down.  Its a thirst quenching, 7.5%abv Pilsner that has a needless bite of booze, which was what I wanted. Previously found only in Mexico, it is now available stateside…in tall cans.

    ”You want a breast?”  Sugarfree asked?

    “I’ll take a wing.  Well done.”  Tecate Titanium:  2.5/5

  • Shorting Everything

    While I was eating breakfast I got a bunch of alerts on my phone.  ZXY is down.  WVG is down.  ADXT is down.  All down.  Dangit.  Trump must have called somebody a cunt again.

    I got something else equally disturbing in an email.

    Oh no…I need to call Swiss, anything but calling Swiss…

    While I was scrolling in my phone for his unlisted number…I got a call.

    “This Prathiba from Swiss Corps International Industries.  Nice to see you have manual dexterity and can push the little green call button on  your phone.”

    “Hi Prathiba.  You get deported back to Hell yet?”  Two in a row.  Maybe Swiss’ outsourced executive assistant, really is good.

    “That funny, shithead.  Sit tight and stay on line.  I patching you through to Mr. Swiss.”

    “Permission to sit tight, boss?”

    “What?”

    “Sitting tight, boss.”

    “Just shut up.”

    “Permission to shut up, boss?”

    “What?”

    “Shutting up there, boss.”

    “What in hell do you think you trying to do?”

    “You told me to shut up, boss.”

    “You know what, I not have time for your failure to communicate. I fucking hate you. MAGA bitch.”

    Wow.  Note to self:  Swiss’ assistant has never seen Cool Hand Luke.

    ____

    “mex. you have a problem.”  Swiss began.

    ”Oh, have a problem?”  Let’s try to play it dumb.

    ”Yes.  Your problem is STEVE SMITH needs to get wrangled in again.  Something has him spooked, and we’re afraid he’s going to do something…um…impolite.”

    ”This sounds like a you problem.”

    ”Well he left a SCRIBBLED note with the Swiss Corps stock ticker saying, STEVE SMITH GET ORANGE MAN.  LEAVE BROWN MAN AT HOME, OR STEVE SMITH GET BROWN MAN TOO.  BY GET BROWN MAN…MEAN—“

    ”What’s he want with Trump?”

    ”I looked in to that.  Trump’s trade war been nailing him pretty hard.  This must have been the last straw.  STEVE SMITH owns 25% of Swiss Corps International.  Apparently he direct deposits his dividend to the Foundation for a Free Cascadia Foundation.  Nice little tax scam he has going for him.”

    ”So he owns a quarter of your Swiss masters—does that make him your Swiss Quartermaster?”

    *Narrowed Gaze*

    “Okay, I got it.  It still sounds like a you problem.” I said after an awkward moment when my phone became noticeably cold.

    ”Not really.”

    ”How do you figure?”

    ”We put Sugarfree on the red eye your way, you’ll meet him at the airport and head to DC to intercept STEVE SMITH, before he rapes the president.”

    ”What?  That doesn’t make any sense.  Sugarfree is flying four hours the wrong direction.”

    ”You expect any of this to make sense?  You’re being sent to intercept a  Sasquatch on his way to rape the president.”

    _____

    ”Nice to see you again mex.”. Sugarfree said as the flight attendant was going through the safety guidelines.  “I really appreciate you meeting me on the flight to our nation’s capital.  I have trouble flying.”

    ”Its cool, they have alcohol.

    “Thats a good idea.  STEWARDESS!”

    ”You …can’t call him that.”

    ”Oh I know.  STEWARDESS!”

    ”Can I help you?” The flight attendant asked.

    ”Yes.  My emotional support animal needs a drink…”  Sugarfree said.

    “You don’t have an emotional support animal.”  The flight attendant  replied.

    Sugarfree grabbed me by the wrist, and raised my hand over my head. His hand was unsettlingly clammy.

    ”My emotional support animal is right here…”

    _____

    Sugarfree kept fidgeting.  He wouldn’t stop moving, even in the slightly larger than normal seats in the 737Maxx.

    ”mex.”  Sugarfree whispered.

    ”Yeah…”

    ”mex.”

    ”What.”

    ”mex.”

    ”WHAT?”

    ”I have a bomb”

    “Excuse me?”

    ”I have…a bomb.”

    ”Don’t say it so loud.  You’re going to get us into trouble.”

    ”…but I have a bomb…in my pants…”

  • Monopoly Money

    There is a meme going around depicting Monopoly, the classic Parker Brother’s game from the 1930s, if the board was designed in a manner to suit Kamala Harris.  I found it funny, but I also thought it was missing a couple spaces for taxes and began thought experiments on some of the other candidates and how Monopoly would look for them.  Warren for example would be nothing but spaces for Income Tax and Luxury Tax. Sanders would alternate between tax spaces, communal housing, players wouldn’t be able to purchase any of the properties, nor would they be able to land on Boardwalk and Park place as they are both Dachas, nobody gets to be the racecar, and of course Sanders himself is the banker and only pays in black bread.  Wiliamson would be a bunch of pot dispensaries, yoga studios, hipster eateries, the railroads are electric and the pieces are all different colored crystals.  Booker has the distinction of simultaneously having or not having a version of Monopoly with his name as being racist.

    The racecar token is not an option in any of these versions…

    Then I got to Yang…more tax spaces and you get $1000 when you pass go?

    This is my review of Santa Fe Brewing Co. Chicken Killer Barleywine.

    Yang’s campaign is focused on the idea of a “freedom dividend” that in a sense sounds like a UBI of $1000 per person over 18 per month.  That’s the about all anybody focuses on in the media, so I decided to look up the proposal itself and it is straightforward enough.

    This is independent of one’s work status or any other factor. This would enable all Americans to pay their bills, educate themselves, start businesses, be more creative, stay healthy, relocate for work, spend time with their children, take care of loved ones, and have a real stake in the future.

    Other than regular increases to keep up the cost of living, any change to the Freedom Dividend would require a constitutional amendment.

    It will be illegal to lend or borrow against one’s Dividend.

    A Universal Basic Income at this level would permanently grow the economy by 12.56 to 13.10 percent—or about $2.5 trillion by 2025—and it would increase the labor force by 4.5 to 4.7 million people.  Putting money into people’s hands and keeping it there would be a perpetual boost and support to job growth and the economy.

    Yang’s FAQ page states his plan does not take the place of other social programs like Veteran’s benefits or Social Security since both are either paid into or earned.  This is in contrast with Milton Friedman’s Negative Income Tax; while often portrayed as a UBI scheme it is better described as way Friedman balanced his Chicago School philosophy, Minarchism, and everyone else’s desire for welfare programs.  Not paying income taxes is a way to give low wage earners extra money without the disincentive to work.  The same FAQ page quotes Friedman out of context as a way to convince the voter UBI is not a new idea.  He even quotes Thomas Payne.

    Welcome to Alaska…here’s $1000

    Yang also goes on to compare this scheme to the dividend from the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) given to residents of Alaska as an example of how this might work on the national level.  The APF however functions much differently and is not funded through a tax, it is a state owned wealth fund and the dividend paid is based on the overall performance of the investments in that fund.  The amount paid therefore varies, and it is also subject to strict definitions of “resident”.

    There is also the part where there are what, 100 people living in Alaska?

    “Foolish Irishman, stop this at once! I’m white! Can’t you see I’m white?”

    Interestingly enough, there are not many recent arguments out there discussing the merits or demerits of the idea, other than this article from FEE that is mostly making the argument that once a government program starts it never dies and gets bigger.  While true, I was hoping for something a little more in depth and  FEE to their credit does deliver in an older article.  I expect this to change as the primary election rolls along since unlike nearly all of that field, Yang is actually likeable.

    As far as a barleywine goes this one is a bit unusual since you can almost serve it ice cold and chug it.  Not recommended for a barleywine since it should be served at the almost universal optimum temperature (50F) for beer and there it starts to feel more like what one expects from this style.  Its deep red and a bit of a sweet aftertaste but overall, a nice complex brew but I’ve had better.  Santa Fe Brewing Co. Chicken Killer Barleywine 3.5/5.

     

  • Can You Dig It?

    This entire time I thought this scene was from American Graffiti.  Totally wrong, and it took me a bit of searching to figure out it is actually from The Warriors.  Perhaps it would help if I watched either movie.

    Then I find out American Graffiti  is a George Lucas film?  That can’t be right either, he hasn’t tried to ruin it by remaking it…

    This is my review of Lic Beer Project SAMO IPA (H/T:  Iobot)

    You can probably deduce where I am going to go from looking at the can.  Graffiti is a word derived from the plural Italian word graffito, which means “to scratch.”   This makes perfect sense because even if this site wants to credit a bunch of handprints in Argentina for being first, the word itself was coined from evidence of vandalism carved into Greco-Roman monuments.  One of the earliest examples is from a walkway in the city of Ephesus, giving directions to the city’s largest brothel…

    Nowadays it is thought of as part of urban blight in some circles, but in others it has become an art form unto itself:

    …the modern form of street art and graffiti writing was undoubtedly born during themed to late 1960’s. Darryl McCray, better known as Cornbread, is the man who is often credited with being the first graffiti writer, tagging his name all over North Philadelphia. The story goes that he started graffiti writing because of a girl he had a crush on, Cynthia Custuss, which led to him writing ‘Cornbread Loves Cynthia’ all over the area, then continuing with his own tag. Cool Earl was best friend to Cornbread and also became known for his tagging exploits, the pair gaining media attention. Another Philadelphia tagger, Top Cat 126, moved to New York in 1967 and helped to spark the graffiti trend there. Watch Cornbread and Taki 183 in action in this MOCA 2011 video.

    […]

    The world of street art and graffiti has changed dramatically since the days of Cornbread, who incidentally, now works with The Mural Arts Program that helps to prevent illegal tagging, with the two movements becoming accepted in the wider art market. Edward Seymour could have had no idea just how much his paint in a spray can invention would change the face of our urban landscapes It is the ultimate guide to the world’s most remarkable pieces of graffiti and street art. This book is the definitive survey of the international movement, focusing on the world’s most influential urban artists and artworks. Since the lives and works of urban artists are inextricably linked to specific locations and places, this beautifully illustrated volume features specially commissioned “city artworks” that provide an intimate understanding of these metropolitan landscapes. Organized geographically by country and city, more than 100 of today’s most important artists—including Espo in New York, Shepard Fairey in Los Angeles, Os Gêmeos in Brazil, and Anthony Lister in Australia—are profiled alongside key examples of their work.

    It is a sentiment I am inclined to believe, given what might have been running through the artist’s mind while this was painted on the Belfast “Peace Wall”.  I pondered whether Swiss Servator’s series on the Catalan Separatist movement was the main driver; I pondered it enough to take a photo while at a red light on my way out of Belfast.  While some look at it as the harbinger for urban decay and avoid such neighborhoods at all costs, it seems that it only harms the owner of the structure–assuming he or she has a problem with graffiti.  A problem easily solved by setting up a couple cameras, or at the very least a big dog wandering around.

    I will admit this wasn’t too bad for an IPA.  It has a blend of four hops, which are common by themselves but not always together.  It is unfiltered and has plenty of body.  It results in something pleasant in texture, bitter upfront, and fruity in the back.  Overall, its a solid build and I can dig it. Lic Beer Project SAMO IPA:  3.5/5

     

  • Lights Out

    A recent event in New York made me think of one of those times I played tourist in New York.

    This is my review of Barrier Brewing Riprap Baltic Porter (H/T Iobot)

    Why was I wandering around Manhattan when I was 19?  To be honest it was a family vacation and we were passing through.  It was one of those things we sort of decided on the fly because we were on our way to Maine.  Lower Manhattan experienced a small outage that particular day which prompted us to leave and seek refuge in Connecticut.  But about a year later….

    Fifteen years ago today, at about 4:10 p.m., New York City was suddenly powerless, as all electricity disappeared when an overgrown tree branch hit a power line in Cleveland (and a utility company’s alarm system failed). Eight northeast states, plus Ontario—in total more than 50 million people—were plunged into darkness.

    While they had to endure about 30 hours without electricity, New Yorkers turned the blackout into a moment of urban solidarity: Citizens started to direct traffic since traffic lights were out; they helped each other out of trapped subway cars; welcomed in stranded colleagues who couldn’t get home; restaurants held impromptu cookouts, sharing their food and beer with neighbors.

    It wasn’t all fun: 413 subway trains and 400,000 passengers were stopped and all needed to be evacuated. That process took almost three hours, and a federal report noted, “Unfortunately, the passengers flowing into the streets from underground met a massive amount of congestion in the streets and on the sidewalks due to the volume of vehicles and pedestrians.”

    Now high voltage troubleshooting is similar to troubleshooting any circuit.  You start at the affected point, test for voltage to phase to phase, phase to ground, phase to neutral, and neutral to ground.  Each test has an “normal” reading, the actual reading provides a clue to the problem.  The hart part is accessing the circuit since its suspended on poles or underground.  Thankfully the circuit is big and easy to see, especially if it is overhead.

    So why did this outage last for as long as it did?  According to the Electrical Schoolhouse at the 366 Training Squadron, Sheppard AFB, TX:  this was a “really, really, really big circuit.”  One of the civilian instructors had this satellite photo made into a poster.

    The Department of Energy had this to say:

    Transmission lines are designed with the expectation that they will sag lower when they become hotter. The transmission line gets hotter with heavier line loading and under higher ambient temperatures, so towers and conductors are designed to be tall enough and conductors pulled tightly enough to accommodate expected sagging and still meet safety requirements. On a summer day, conductor temperatures can rise from 60°C on mornings with average wind to 100°C with hot air temperatures and low wind conditions.

    A short-circuit occurred on the Harding-Chamberlin 345-kV line due to a contact between the line conductor and a tree. This line failed with power flow at only 44% of its normal and emergency line rating. Incremental line current and temperature increases, escalated by the loss of Harding-Chamberlin, caused more sag on the Hanna-Juniper line, which contacted a tree and failed with power flow at 88% of its normal and emergency line rating. Star-South Canton contacted a tree three times between 14:27:15 EDT and 15:41:33 EDT, opening and reclosing each time before finally locking out while loaded at 93% of its emergency rating at 15:41:35 EDT. Each of these three lines tripped not because of excessive sag due to overloading or high conductor temperature, but because it hit an overgrown, untrimmed tree.22

    Pole mounted recloser

    A recloser is a device, as the name implies, designed to immediately close the circuit in the presence of a temporary fault, within the device’s safe capacity.  Ever notice the lights flicker once, twice, three times, and then go out?  That is a recloser in action.  Phase to phase voltage on a standard 7,200v circuit should read around 12,470v; as a idea of what the fault voltage could theoretically be.  The immediate fault voltage should be high enough to either burn the branch shorting it, or at least bump it off, and continue providing uninterrupted distribution.

    This was 345,000v line.  Next time you are around one of the towers, consider how tall the towers is, how low the lines sag, and how tall that tree had to be.  Then consider why there are never any birds on that wire (induction).

    The massive recloser in Ohio worked as designed, it closed three times and locked open.  This caused a voltage drop on that circuit, and every other circuit it was back feeding.  Affecting distribution in the most densely populated part of North America, on a warm summer afternoon.  That had to suck.

    What does not suck is this beer; it is a Baltic Porter.  It has a high abv of around 10%.  It is somewhat heavy in body but unlike a stout it is not an overwhelming coffee or chocolate, the high alcohol content certainly drowns a lot of spices and flavors out.  Definitely not one to chug, especially on summer day.  Nice call Iobot.  Barrier Brewing Riprap Baltic Porter:  4.3/5

     

     

     

     

  • A Better Tribute to Urophilliacs than the Gender Fluid…and That’s OK

    This is all part of one big conspiracy to turn men into women and women into men.

    This is my review of Boulder Beer Company Gender Fluid Lager.

    No…not really.  At least according to this article, this one, and this one, was made in recognition of Pride Month…or at least drag queen bingo.  What is truly interesting about it, when I looked it up on Beer Advocate I found it had an average score of 0/5 due to there being absolutely zero reviews for it.  Odd given the number of links telling the wild and wacky world of beer drinking it exists.

    With regards to Pride Month, why does this need to be controversial?  What difference does it make that people want to march because they are gay?  Certainly, it provides an opportunity for trolls to provide a practical example of why somebody might want to participate in a gay pride parade.  Which seems to demonstrate a lack of self-awareness given the reaction the trolls are intent on receiving.  I can’t necessarily say there is no reason for Pride Parades, even if the number of countries legalizing gay marriages are becoming the norm.  After all, Black History month is still celebrated and last I checked the Civil Rights Act was signed into law 55 years ago, and the 14th Amendment became law 151 years ago and neither was immediately accepted either.  A victory is a victory, so celebrate it.  Hell, World War 1 ended a century ago, and we still celebrate that (we just call it Veteran’s Day).  It’s harmless, just know what streets to avoid if you’re driving and let them be.

    As for gender fluid people and their potential choice in beer:  it tastes like Heineken.

    This may be more appropriate than I previously anticipated.  I can sit here and morally justify my opinions on this beer’s flavor profile, its magnificent can, and assume that because my opinions on beer, the can, gender-fluidty, and the Venn Diagram of communities this beer hopes to encompasses will ultimately have no impact on my life.  I can say that because I am a cis-heteronormative male married to a cis-heteronormative female, living in a world seemingly built around such normativities.  Upon reflection, it seems my frame of reference caused me to miss the point entirely.  Gender identity and yellow lagers are two prominent constructs that go hand in hand and one that I casually dismissed. Yet for others this is not so simple.  If one lives in say, the Netherlands–or as pointed out to me, Thailand–one does not always have the option to display such privilege in beer preference because one’s experience in gender does not line up in a way to conform to biologically or socially accepted gender roles–and this beer reflects that.

    To which I say, BRAVO.  For identifying the disparity and putting it on display for those that are most likely to recognize this disparity for what it is, and subjecting it to their subtle mockery.  In this light, mimicking the flavor profile of Heineken makes perfect sense.  I therefore will leave the reader with this selection of ladies for perusal as penance for my word salad, as well as some music for which to celebrate while they do.  Boulder Beer Company Gender Fluid Lager 1.5/5

  • Hot Stuff

    “Big ass knife”. Were you expecting a poop knife?

    I received my BIF package a couple weeks back, and this was certainly a good one.  (H/T to that magnificent bastard:  IoBot).  Extra props for the packing, I had to get the “big ass” knife out to get these out of the packaging.  I will eventually go through all but wanted to focus on one in particular.

    This is my review of Rockaway Brewing Company “Bungalow Nights” Habanero Imperial Stout.

    This shoudn’t go together, should it?  Maybe.

    Chilies are believed to be first cultivated in Mexico or Central America and were eventually cultivated and incorporated into various cuisines around the world due to the Columbian Exchange.  The Columbian Exchange in this case is not drug related, other than perhaps tobacco or if you happen to be one of those freaks that eats chillies to polish their rocks.

    These people do exist, and there are a variety of reasons for doing it:  people get pleasure out of pain which results in an endorphin rush, they might simply like the taste, the health benefit, or just for the challenge between friends.  In my case it was typically for bragging rights between me and several cousins as to who could drink the most hot sauce.  A custom recently alluded with regard to a certain fake Mexican.  Unfortunately, that tended to leave us devoid of hot sauce and left the adults in a precarious position. Due to my grandmother’s  allergy to chillies (it closes her airway) if anybody wanted a hot taco at a family gathering it could only come in the form of hot sauce added after the fact.

    There are two ways to determine how hot a chilli pepper can be.  The first are Scoville units, which is an objective measurement of the amount of capsicum in the pepper.  The other?  Eat it and find out if one is hotter than another.  For reference, the common jalapeño is around 3500 Scoville units, while a bell pepper is 0–an habanero is a rather intimidating 100,000…

    Classic.

    On that scale we find this pepper isn’t the highest or even particularly high.  That honor goes to the Carolina Reaper, which is a hybrid of the ghost pepper and the Red Habanero.  While it may sound like weapons grade pepper spray at 1-2 million Scoville units, the cops spray people with 5 million.

    While I have reviewed a chilli beer before, this one is quite a bit different.  Unlike the Sriracha beer, this one has a heavier stout to back it, and much as I found out when I experimented with habaneros in salsa, a little bit goes a long way.  The imperial stout is heavily roasted with a lot of chocolate and and notes of dark fruit.  The peppers give it an interesting mouthfeel with a tingling sensation on the tongue followed an overwhelming stout.  Even though it may not be my first choice, I might even go so far as to say I enjoyed drinking it but beware—this is not for everyone. Rockaway Brewing Company “Bungalow Nights” Habanero Imperial Stout:  3.5/5.

  • So crypto, much Coin, how Money, WOW!

    Recently, I noticed something about my Robinhood account–I had $54 that wasn’t being invested!  Its like the episode of Seinfeld where Jerry intentionally loses $20, only to find a $20 in his jacket from last spring.

    This is my review of Erdinger Heffeweizen.

    Not my kitchen

    Some of you may not know what Robinhood is–its a stock trading app that lets you trade certain stocks, options, and cryptocurrency on their platform.  They cannot trade everything, and unless you have an account valued over $25,000 they will not allow you to day trade, but they let the user make trades for free.  Its popular with Millennials that want to ruin everything.  The app makes money by putting the user’s un-invested balance towards their own securities the proceeds of which they will collect, a common practice among low cost trading platforms.  I have a few investments that is money I didn’t spend that I would rather accrue value instead of sitting in a checking account.  It serves mostly as a form of entertainment; my retirement is handled by paid professional, cigar chomping assholes.  Since I began investing about 18 months ago I have a 19%ROI but that may level off at some point.

    Speculating on Bitcoin is very much out of the price range of many but there are others to look at.  Quite frankly I am no expert but other Glibs such as Richard and SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr did the deep dive here, here, and here.

    “Paid Professionals”

    Recently, Facebook got in on the action by creating their own version of cryptocurrency, Libra, meant to assist people in countries that have difficulty accessing banks.  This strikes me as odd, because if somebody lives in a country so poor that finding a bank to store money and process transactions for personal business is problematic, how is it that person has access to the internet with strong enough signal to process such a transaction?  Then there is this….

    While true public blockchains are much more decentralized than permissioned blockchains, they also tend to have lower transactions volumes. Bitcoin processes about seven transactions per second, compared to the 1,000 transactions Libra expects to need for its users. Which leads to another difference between Libra and more traditional public blockchains: It has to accommodate Facebook’s 2.7 billion users, as well as the users of the other 27 association members.

    Among the public blockchain features being designed into Libra, the transactions won’t have names but will instead rely on a string of numbers and letters that will be visible to the general public. Which means that while the identities of the transactions might be known to the manufacturers of some wallets in which users store their libra coins, the public can see only the public key— or address—owned by each transaction counterparty.

    While Facebook’s new cryptocurrency wallet subsidiary, Calibra, will require users to go through an intensive anti-money-laundering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC) process, and will be reporting suspicious activity to the authorities, other wallet providers are not required to do so. Given concerns about how Facebook monetizes its users personal data, the company promises not to mingle transaction data collected by Calibra with Facebook’s user data.

    I totally believe that last little bit.

    There’s also the part where a ‘Facebook Sanctioned” currency sounds an awful lot like mining companies that once paid their employees in tokens that can be used at the company store… Then there is the part where Facebook is the central authority in the use of this currency.  I thought the point of cryptocurrency was a decentralized currency with value derived from Adam Smith’s invisible hand, rather than a cabal at a central bank.

    I decided to keep it modest.  I will simply dabble in speculating with speculating cryptocurrencies while I check out patters on one that might actually be worth investing in.  So for now, I own 12,195 Dogecoin.  No I am not joking, but the currency began from what is essentially a joke.

    Erdinger like every other beer made in Germany is fully compliant with the Reinheitsgebot.  This is the beer purity law that has been in effect since the 1500s. It might be the only practical argument for a successful attempt at centralized control  of industry, but I’m not about to entertain that given that I can make perfectly safe beer in my closet.  This is made in the traditional German style with the slight citrus bite, and heavy dose of banana.  Highly recommended at the German place in my neighborhood that has it on tap.  Erdinger Hefeweizen 3.2/5

  • I Want to Tell You About Heshi Socks: A Review of The New Right, by Michael Malice

    First thing first:  About the socks. I bought a couple pairs of these in response to Michael Malice’s book and his delightful podcast (Promo Code: Welcome30).  They are indeed nice.  I am not going to say these socks will change your life when you buy them.  If a pair of socks changes your life, chances are pretty good you are homeless or your life otherwise sucks.  So grab a pair of these socks, and if they change your life, please consider reevaluating the choices you made to get to this point.

     

     

    This is my review of Anchorage Brewing Co Easy Evil Black Raspberry Saison

    As a quick primer on the author:  his Wikipedia page can be found at this link.  For those refusing I enact their labor, Malice is an anarchist is the purest sense.  He is best known for his appearances on Kennedy or his previous book, Dear Reader:  The Unauthorized Biography of Kim Jung Il.  He is has a fairly well-known presence on Twitter; essentially as a troll with a large following.  Ever wonder where the reply of “Your*” in response to the proper use of the word, “you’re” (or vice versa) came from?  That started with him, and is meant to generate an indignant response from the person who made the mistake of making a statement using the second person, is incapable of arguing the merits of the idea, and instead focuses on grammar.  That is what trolling is after all, an attempt to manipulate the emotional response of a half-wit to the troll’s delight.  His latest book The New Right:  A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics, is available here on Amazon.  It is a treatise if sorts, on how culture is derived from the fringe of society and how that fringe is made up of various factions on “the right”.

    He has certain definitions and views that should first be identified before this book is further discussed.

    Conservatism vs. Progressivism:  There is no functional difference between the two, aside from acceptance of the pace and direction culture moves.  He consistently defines a conservative as, “a progressive driving the speed limit”.

    The New Right:

    A loosely connected group of individuals united by their opposition to progressivism, which they perceive to be a thinly veiled fundamentalist religion dedicated to egalitarian principles and intent on totalitarian world domination via globalist hegemony.

    The Cathedral:  An oversimplified definition may be the “Evangelical Left”; universities, the media, and expansive government.  He cites Mencius Moldbug for the concept but a more convenient quote (for me) is from Jim Goad:

    […]cultural progressivism, egalitarianism, social justice, or whatever the fuck you’re calling it these days–is simply Christianity with God removed.  Your “God”–your untouchable premise–is the naively childish and entirely unscientific notion of innate human equality.

    A way to think of this book, is a comparison he makes on his interview with Michael Malice on his podcast to the classic, Dante’s Inferno.  In this book, with assistance of a Roman poet/philosopher Virgil, Dante descends into Hell to witness the eternal punishment of sinners.  One discovers with Dante, the further along the book, the further removed from grace the sin, the further he must descend into Hell, thus the harsher the punishment.  Here the further along the reader goes, he or she descends further from “safe” and “respectable” cultural and political thought.

    Safe and respectable according to whom?  The Cathedral.  This choice in metaphors is not made lightly.

    This book otherwise takes a long look at the intersection of various subgroups that make up the right as Malice sees it.  He begins where many at this site presently are:  the convergence of Murray Rothbard/Pat Buchannan (Anachro-capitalist/Paleo-conservative) wings that came about in the early 1990’s.  This is prescient for me, because this is several years prior to my coming of age and any explanation I was ever given to this philosophy was framed negatively.  He then presents others such as Milo Yionopo… Yoiunoppo…  He presents others such as infamous homosexual agent-provocateur Milo and how The Cathedral, with some success, attempted to take him down a few years ago.  We see this today with Steven Crowder, though his forays with the Cathedral are far too recent, and probably too blasé to be discussed by Malice in this book.  In later chapters he discusses other figures such as Mike Cernivoch, Gavin McGinnes, Anne Coulter, Jared Taylor, Pax Dickinson…and beyond.  It is thorough exposé across a wide spectrum of free thinking people, united only in their opposition to progressives.

    One can look at this book, and the comparison to Dante’s Inferno and view it is as a bit of a warning.  To whom is this warning directed?  At the risk of being declared a heretic around here…youYES, YOU.  THE READER.

    OBEY

    An analogy he constantly uses, in spite of it being a cliché, is the red pill.  This of course is a reference to the 1999 movie The Matrix and essentially means one is exposed to the existence of the lie that is Wonderland, and taking the red pill means remaining in Wonderland and following the White Rabbit where it takes you.  In this case the lie is the Cathedral, and the pillars that hold it up.  Once one takes the red pill, he or she becomes acquainted with the symbols and the methods the Cathedral uses to keep the population under control.  The problem of course, is in The Matrix, Morpheus only gives Neo a single red pill.  This is important as only one is needed.  Don’t take the entire bottle.  Another way perhaps to look at this is the movie They Live.  Here it is not a red pill but a pair of sunglasses that allows the wearer to see people as they truly are.  The problem is continually wearing the sunglasses will eventually become painful to look through.

    The analogy of the sunglasses however has several limitations, hence Malice chooses the red pill.  To begin, one first takes the red pill and discovers the truth:  there is no functional difference between progressivism, and conservatism; only the speed at which one is traveling on the road to serfdom.  The problem he finds, is once one discovers this, and immerse oneself in the literature, one begins to question everything.  One sees the media is not to be trusted, then then seeks news and opinion “elsewhere” (ALTERNATIVE FACTS!!).  Once others point out inconsistencies, and that the opinions one seeks “elsewhere” are also to not to be trusted, one descends further into the inferno, and finds oneself making unnecessary if/then connections, or connections that are dangerous to make.  i.e. George Stephanopoulos worked for the Clinton administration and expects to be taken seriously as an objective journalist (red pill), then Nick Gillespie is a cosmopolitan cuck that simply wants to be accepted by his establishment colleagues in the media (two pills), which becomes John Podesta being a tool of a secret society of child molesters (too many red pills), then escalates into taking “race realism” seriously because (((They))) are behind it and casually using racial slurs is okay if the context allows (empty bottle).  “Blood and soil” is all that remains, cowboy….

    Slow down, and think about what you are doing.  Yes, this has occurred here in a site comprised of people that identify themselves as libertarian.  Who remembers PapayaSF?

    Here is a fun example.  SpongeBob Squarepants…is gay.  No seriously, here is an article that makes a rather poor case why SpongeBob is a homosexual.  The rationalist after taking the red pill will say, “C’mon, he’s a Sponge.  Sponges reproduce asexually and its a kids show.”  Too many red pills results in coming across sites like that, and thinking there is a “gay agenda” that is putting subtle messages into children’s programing in an effort to create acceptance of homosexuality, and even make children homosexuals themselves.  After all, the show’s creators said this was certainly not the case but they said it through establishment media and they can’t be trusted…

    …anyways, this beer pours in a manner that I can only describe as “Carbonated Merlot”.  If you are the type that likes sours, or saisons, there is nothing traditional about this beer to make you think it is either, so I have no idea if you will be into it.  The tartness of the black raspberries blasts its way into everything, and it immediately turned me off at first.  You have to let it warm up slightly to get anything else past that.  There is a hint of citrus fruitiness, as it is still a saison, that you might find after letting it sit for a bit.  This is not one to chug, because you probably won’t be able to from the tartness.  Sip it, and enjoy it with a book.

    So the bottom line?  I highly recommend this book, but tread carefully out there, Heshi socks are quite nice, and Anchorage Brewing Co Easy Evil Black Raspberry Saison rates a very respectable  3.8/5.

  • This is Fake. All of it.

    Today’s focus of ire is this piece originally published in NY Times but thankfully republished on elsewhere (so no paywall.)  The author is arguing that we need fully automated…luxury communism?

    This is my review of Council Brewing Beattitude Guava  Tart Saison

    He starts in an odd place and seems to forget how economies of scale are a tenet of capitalism:

    It starts with a burger.

    In 2008 a Dutch professor named Mark Post presented the proof of concept for what he called “cultured meat.” Five years later, in a London TV studio, Mr. Post and his colleagues ate a burger they had grown from animal cells in a laboratory. Secretly funded by Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, the journey from petri dish to plate had cost $325,000 — making theirs the most expensive meal in history. Fortunately, the results were promising: Hanni Rützler, a nutrition scientist, concluded that the patty was “close to meat but not as juicy.” The next question was whether this breakthrough could be made cheaper. Much cheaper.

    The first “cultured beef” burgers are likely to enter the market next year, at approximately $50 each. But that won’t last long. Within a decade they will probably be more affordable than even the cheapest barbecue staples of today — all for a product that uses fewer resources, produces negligible greenhouse gases and, remarkably, requires no animals to die.

    It’s not just barbecues and burgers. Last year Just, a leader in cellular agriculture, cut a deal to start producing one of the world’s tastiest steaks, Wagyu. A company called Endless West, which also makes grapeless wine, has started to produce Glyph, the world’s first “molecular whiskey.” Luxury could be coming to all.

    The case of cultured food and drink, far from a curiosity, is a template for a better, freer and more affluent world, a world where we provide for the needs of everyone — in style.

    But how do we get there?

    Thus far, each example he gave was capitalism.  Somebody identified a need or a niche in the market that was currently missing:  meat products for people that for whatever reason cannot eat meat (personal ethics, religion, medical issues).  Whether or not other examples such as “molecular whiskey” may or may not have market demand, remains to be seen.  There is however, demand for lab grown meat, give the existence of Beyond Burgers, and the Impossible Burger, but both of these are plant based, therefore not really meat.  One thing to point out, these alternatives were also developed for the same reasons, a market niche was unfilled, so each company produced a product to fill it.  Beyond in particular uses pea protein but is put through a few processes that mimic the protein structures of meat.  It is an elegant solution really, because most meatless meats fail at tasting like meat.  More on this later.

    The problem of course, is even if they do manage to make something to replace meat, there is still going to be markets for actual meat.  Unless of course this guy somehow gets elected dictator and forces his worldview on everyone, which is thankfully unlikely.

    Later in the article he goes on to say that resource scarcity and how it will become a thing of the past once we are able to mine all the resources we would ever need from the heavens.  Of course, he goes on to describe his misunderstanding of thermodynamics:

    What’s more, renewable energy, which has been experiencing steep annual falls in cost for half a century, could meet global energy needs and make possible the vital shift away from fossil fuels. More speculatively, asteroid mining — whose technical barriers are presently being surmounted — could provide us with not only more energy than we can ever imagine but also more iron, gold, platinum and nickel. Resource scarcity would be a thing of the past.

    The consequences are far-reaching and potentially transformative. For the crises that confront our world today — technological unemployment, global poverty, societal aging, climate change, resource scarcity — we can already glimpse the remedy.

    But there’s a catch. It’s called capitalism. It has created the newly emerging abundance, but it is unable to share round the fruits of technological development. A system where things are produced only for profit, capitalism seeks to ration resources to ensure returns. Just like today’s, companies of the future will form monopolies and seek rents. The result will be imposed scarcity — where there’s not enough food, health care or energy to go around.

    Well, I guess that’s one point of view.  I kind of doubt we can run our spaceships on wind turbines, and last I checked rationing for healthcare occurs in socialized systems.  I would know, I used to work for one of them.  You know what, screw it.  I’m hungry and I am not paid enough to argue against crazy.  I’m getting a burger…

    I have tried Beyond products before, due to weird religious rules that I still follow and really don’t care what others here think of that regard.  I also considered investing when they went public but instead thought a robotics ETF was a better long term investment (thus far I am wrong…so very wrong).  I am unaware of anybody discussing this here, so I am going to find out if somebody else can make a better fake burger than I.  But where to find one?

     

    Upfront, I will say it doesn’t really look or smell any different.  The one time I tried it at home, it smelled awful out of the package, but that goes away immediately after cooking.  I am definitely not happy with how it was prepared, they seem to have burned one side of it, but its fast food.  They added mayo, which I am okay with.  Just a basic burger thus far.

    The fries suck.

    My overall opinion is it works well as a hamburger patty.  A feature of hamburgers are the toppings you put on it, as such it works in combination with everything on it.  Other Beyond products I find have the texture right, but don’t quite taste like chicken.  This made perfect sense to me, as it is processed legumes and not chicken.  About an hour or two later, I was hungry again.  The sausage is slightly better and all of these products are expensive; Carl’s Jr. charged $2 extra for it.  But then again, economies of scale will likely drop the price down in the next few years, and it will only come down to personal preference whether or not people will want to eat meat.  For now, I will take that over waxing poetic over a show better described as “communists in space” (TW TOS).

    This beer is terrible due to the use of guava.  Depending on the type of guava you have it can be sweet or sour. This is sour, much more than a garden variety saison. If you are into sour you will probably like this.  I however did not, but will give them points for trying.  Council Brewing Beattitude Guava  Tart Saison 2.0/5