Separation Between Beer and State

Soooooo… I am not on Facebook so you have to endure this.  We have a lot of people in our country who fetishize our constitution and our founding fathers like it was a holy book and like they were holy men.  That is of course a misguided reinvention of the brilliant men who started our country.  They were rebels, they were elite, they were poor, they were rich, they came from all walks of white,  male life but the one thing they were united on was the principal of the separation between beer and state.  But now we have... this.

You know I am not a Bud drinker but it is an iconic brand.  Not just and iconic American Brand but primarily that but… but…

This just makes me so very, very sad.  I know that no publicity is bad publicity but this is just a bastardization of a brand and the fact that it is accomplished by a Brazil/Belgium run operation makes it even cheaper and dumber.  Where does pandering like this stop? I don't see them changing the name of SKOL to BRAZIL!

 

Perhaps they pay 100 Million dollar licensing fee to “The Donald” so they can really grab the media until November with, “TRUMP” and replace “E PLURBUS UNUM” with “MAKE BEER GREAT AGAIN”. 

 

Maybe InBev has plans for Stella Artois to have a black, yellow and red label and rename the beer WALLOON for some period!

 

“E PLUBUS UNUM”?  Out of many, one.  WTF? What does it have to do with Beer?  Is it a comment on the times?

 

Maybe, maybe, this would be cute to release for a week on July 4^th each year. 

 

This label does so many offensive things all at once.

 

“Indivisible since 1776”.  Really.  Tell that to the South which would desperately love to rise again.

 

“From the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters this land was made for you and me”.  Woody Guthrie would have a gun in his mouth if he knew his revolutionary response to “God Bless America” was being bastardized for the sake a “Merica” beer campaign.

 

“Liberty and Justice For All”… I cannot even begin to start my rant against putting this on a beer label.  Never have we been closer to ignoring the “For All” portion and changing it to “For the Few”.

 

It just seems so wrong.  We do have a great country.  Budweiser is an iconic beer but I am only voting for politicians in the future who support the separation between beer and state.  Well, at least they have not tried to wrap their beer in the flag.


Never mind.

 

Binge Watching! Beware, It Could Happen To You!

Soooooo…. I know this is yet another trend I am woefully behind on but recently I have become a partaker (victim) of….”Binge Watching”.  I had never really heard the term until fairly recently.  Certainly 2013 at the earliest, not before that though.  I am certain some trend setting Millennials with their oodles of free time and total lack of Protestant Work Ethic (no offense intended to my Catholic and Jewish friends and sadly, to the best of my knowledge I have no Muslim friends or even acquaintances although FOX News assures me that “America” is being inundated by them AND THEY MEAN ME HARM!).  But I digress… Binge Watching.

Wikipedia, the preeminent source for all information on the planet traces the term back to the 90’s but it’s entry also credits the internet and of course NetFlix for making this…. a thing.  They also cite “Breaking Bad” as a frequently binge watched show.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge-watching

Anyway, for an old man but a veteran TV watcher it is kind of an odd experience.  You get to see the story arc unfold so quickly and there is no waiting till next week or forgetting what characters were doing what to whom.  I have experimented a little with this bingwatching thing when my wife insisted (and I turned in the shredded piece of cardboard that was once my man card and acquiesced) and we caught up on two previous seasons of “Downton Abbey”.  Go ahead, make fun of me.  I can live with it.  I also had ignored “Breaking Bad” and then spent several days tuning in and out of the AMC Marathon leading up to the series finale. We had also had minor experiences with DVR and having three shows stacked up all at once to watch of “Modern Family” but nothing like this particularly addictive adventure.

For the past Month and a half, I been watching “The Wire”.  Everyone raved about it when it was on HBO but there really is not time to set aside to watch and keep track of these great dramas on Cable.  HBO really started this whole genre of quality programming with “The Sopranos” but “The Wire” started shortly thereafter and ran for five seasons.  My evil friend Mogerman told me I needed to watch them after he had consumed them all over some period on the treadmill.  This was St. Louis columnist Bill Mcclellan's favorite show because they “got it right” whether it was city police or city government or the newspapers.  The show is set in Baltimore and season one focuses on a special unit of cops set up to investigate and prosecute a string of murders by one particularly successful and vicious gang.  They develop 8-9 characters on the police side and do the same on the gang side throughout the season until they wrap up season one putting the bad guys in jail… but not all the bad guys...and for not all that long… and at a pretty great personal price to a lot of the cops.

It was just fascinating because it was so well done.  Well paced, well written and well filmed and in season one the great alt country rocker Steve Earle makes an appearance as an AA mentor and recovering junkie (which arguably was easier for him to play, since he is). Then he comes back in the later seasons and that is one of the brilliant things about the series.  Everyone comes back and they keep building season on season until you have a whole city.  A whole well constructed world.  A well written world.  A brilliantly written world.  

They do kill off the characters though and it get’s heartbreaking as the series progresses.  In Season 4 they knock of my favorite character Proposition Joe.  Joe was “The Good Drug Dealer” with good connections, the good dope and a good head on his shoulders.  He was always around to ask for a deal or to suggest a compromise or just to make a head smart play.  He was the classic…”It is nothing personal, it is just business” type character.  He takes the young evil drug dealer under his wing and teaches him all about the business and ultimately… it ends poorly for Prop Joe… and it broke my heart! Seriously…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW5K8E1Wkew

The character development was flawless and the characters were compelling.  Michael was street kid who had a drug addict mom and was raising his half brother and became a contract killer working with the creepily perfect female killer, Snoop.  Until they decided they needed to kill him...buuuuut…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHT-VOLVFzQ

But it was not all cold blooded murders.  There was the politician Clay Davis….Sheeeeeeeit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU5IoHf3xdg

But the series had a 100 classic moments like Snoop, at the Hardware Barn… buying a nail gun in order to… well you would need to watch the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE-uY7P3pe4

And there was Omar Little.  He robbed the drug dealers.  A tragic/comic figure without equal.  Shakespearian…. and he loved Honey Nut Cheerios.  Who doesnt?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YcsXd1ZQHA

There were white people too.  A lot of them.  There characters were also richly drawn.  The homicide unit.  The Port Authority Teamsters. The Politicians.  The Schools and finally the Newsroom.

I just finished the whole five seasons and I was pretty much spellbound by the entire thing.  It was unbelievably enveloping and it was hard to get done work or communicate with people or read any books or eat, or sleep or blink or… anything.  And tonight it ended… and I feel very empty.  Kind of like what I imagine the ending of a serious drug addiction probably feels like.

Binge Watching.

This series was so good that I fear I may fall prey to more.  Perhaps really immerse myself in “Breaking Bad”.  Even worse I might have to watch Kevin Spacey and “House of Cards”.  The good news there is that there are only two seasons to catch up on.  Maybe this “Game of Thrones” show that everyone is talking about.  I don’t know.  Bing Watching… it could be the death of me.  But it might be a very intriguing ride.  But for God’s sake don't let it happen to you!

A Modest Proposal For January 2014

Soooo…. the news.  The NEWS?  The gnu’s? The newz?

I am reasonably well read.  I take the St. Louis Post Dispatch out of sympathy and sense of obligation.  I read the Wall Street Journal Every Day.  I get the New Yorker Weekly.  I listen to NPR almost incessantly in my car and in a vain effort to understand my brother I listen Glenn Beck several hours a week.  I watch “Meet The Press” every Sunday and follow it up with Fox’s weekly news show.  Sometimes I scramble home from work to watch the national news at 5:30.  Historically, I try and stay away from the freestanding silos of cable news but there was a dark period during the last election where I would watch FOX or MSNBC as I got dressed but that was too depressing on all counts.  The point is, historically, I  like the news.

But that seems to be changing.  I really enjoy the local NPR station, The provide a lot of news and although they are not “Fair and Balanced” they provide different voices and often illustrate that there are two sides to issues and that some have “nuances’. I do not find them particularly liberal but understand myself well enough to realize I have become indoctrinated.  I generally believe that:

1.  Everyone should have health care

2.  Immigration, even illegal immigration has made our country great and we need to let this latest group of criminals in.

3.  Government holds the potential of improving peoples lives in some limited situations.

4.  I do not believe that corporations have constitutional rights or that the founders intended same.

5.  I do not believe that money is “speech” or that the founders intended same.

6.  I think I live in the greatest country in the world at the best possible time to be alive.

7.  I think my children’s future and the countries future is what we, and they make it.

So I guess that makes me a pinko but as I said, I have some awareness of my socialist/communist/progressive/Christian leanings.  The Post Dispatch I am told is a liberal publication but I just think of it as a shitty publication.  Their own editorials are all liberal, some stupidly so but they publish Krautheimer and George Will and David Brooks as well as the liberal columnists.  Almost every day they publish a letter from a reader  going off on the President so, they try and show some other sides but more than anything, it is just a bad paper with a lot of Associated Press stories, no analysis and trivial local coverage.  As I have stated in the past…”you can wrap fish in it.”

The Wall Street Journal is awesome for international coverage and runs a steady drumbeat of “the colored boy is ruining the country” in it’s domestic reporting and editorials.  But I like it as far as providing a more intellectual right wing point of view as well as the best international coverage.  Better than the Times.  I do not agree with their editorial page much but it is well  written and often well argued.  I believe that The Hoover Institution at Stanford exists solely for the purpose of turning out Wall Street Journal Editorial page fodder.  But I like it.  It challenges me.  This is good.  Rupert Murdoch and Fox own the Journal but it still has a modicum of journalistic integrity. Murdoch's ownership and his influence has compromised that as any owners politically leaning effect the editors who have their paychecks signed by them.  I can live with that.

Fox is less than useless.  A drum beat of pretty and angry woman and spluttering, overcompensating, self important, effeminate, angry men.  They are fair and balanced like a lynch mob and their “We Report, You Decide” along with “Fair and Balanced” provide the best example of Orwellian NewSpeak, other than “The Affordable Care Act” and “Operation Freedom”.

Glenn Beck is a demagogue and an entertainer who makes money by making people frightened.  I guess in a free country that is acceptable but as a Christian American I abhor the politics of fear that he spreads.  It is not a source of news and his “Blaze” web site and TV channel are more than shameful but… it is a free country.  The “fat man on the radio” Rush Limbaugh is no different.  They set up false narratives that support their agendas but never be confused, their agenda is to make money by feeding the people in their silo.  A false narrative is something along the lines of citing a school in Omaha sending a kid home for waving around a picture of a gun as evidence of the FACT that America has become irrationally intolerant of guns and violence.  

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/18/the-power-of-false-narratives/

But lately I have been suffering fatigue.  It has been building since 2008 but the 2012 election capped it and since then it has been once again a steady drumbeat and it is starting to fill me with anxiety… and a little dread.

Obamacare

Debt Crisis

Shut Down

Sustainable Energy

Iraq

Benghazi

Nuclear Option

North Korea

Climate Change (go ahead and argue it’s made up...I dare you)

The next debt ceiling increase

Fill in the blank

_____________________________

Everything is a pile of shit.  Government has failed, the Fed has failed, big banks have failed, “Mainstream Media”...FAILED, FOX...failed, our schools have failed, curtailing gun violence, FAILED, Mid Eastern Policy, FAILED… it goes on and on with everyone attacking everyone else and no one listening or working with anyone who disagrees with them because listening and compromise are SIGNS OF WEAKNESS! The idea that all of these problems are complex and do not allow simple solutions are an anathema to the way all these media/news/entertainers make their livings.  

It is starting to make me mentally ill and all who know me would say MORE mentally ill and no one needs that.  It literally makes me jittery to turn on NPR and when I switch over to FOX it is worse.  Everyone is so earnest and so genuine and everything is not just a disaster for me and my family but is a disaster for our grandchildren AND OUR IMMORTAL SOULS!  

Really?  Can anything be that important?  More to the point, is EVERYTHING so important?  Can EVERYTHING be threatening our democracy, our environment, our morals and of course OUR CHILDREN!?!?  The answer is obvious and the answer is no.  I like being informed but these guys have screwed the pooch.  I am a Christian.  My hope is for the future and my faith is in God and his plan.  I cannot continue to be thrashed by this litany of “EVERYTHING IS HOPELESS AND WE NEED TO BUY GOLD, STORE FOOD AND BUY GUNS”!  It seems wrong to me but it also seems wrong to rail against the people who believe this.  There a time when we just ignored crazy people in our country.  Now we elect them, give them microphones and we read their blogs and often give them money.

I am not going to create the answer but as a news junky I am going to try 30 days without news.  No Post, No Wall Street Journal, Music in my car and perhaps some time alone with the Bible on Sunday mornings before church.  Maybe some books on tape or TED talks or something...anything.  I do not know if I can do this.  Also, if there is news on in my vicinity I will try not to listen.  I will be happy to discuss things with people who are tuned in but I really am going to try to read some of the books that have stacked up on my shelf and spend a little bit more time in contemplation. It is going to take some planning and I am inviting you to do the same thing.  Opt out.  30 days.  We can encourage one another if you're brave enough.  Let’s reclaim our anxiety and breathe deeply and avoid these earnest, well intentioned new sources predicting our doom. Just for a month.  Unless it feels too good to stop.  If you are of a mind join me.  

I would like to say, “See you in the funny papers” but I think I am going to duck those too.

Peace.

This is the day....

Sooooo... the election is over. Democrats are still talking like idiots about a mandate they don’t have in a divided country. Some Republicans are soul searching like Austin Powers looking for his mojo but many have made up their minds that the “takers” won and that it is all about Republicans (makers) and Democrats (takers). The facts unfortunately do not bear this out as the solid Republican South (minus the great nation of Texas) represent the biggest block of “takers” from the Federal Government. This election, surprisingly was not “about the economy stupid”. If it was in our weak recovery, likely soon to slide back into recession, would have tanked Obama and the Democrats. This election was about tolderance. Tolerance of immigrants (illegals too), tolerance of gays (we dont know that we need same sex marriage but we do not believe in a homosexual agenda to undermine our values) and an ackowledgment that for most of us, even if we believe life begins at conception, that abortion is a very difficult, heartbreaking, soul wrenching problem which does not lend itself to simple answers in a broken world. Economically our country might be swirling in the toilet (although I don’t think that is a foregone conclusion) but this time, tolerance won. Individual rights won. Arguably America won because it stepped back from demonization of those we dont agree with and sent a message...a “mandate” to our leaders to get their shit together and walk us back from the precipice. If it can be done.

Right now they are again failing us miserably. Obama has doubled down on increased taxes for those who make over 250k. Although this makes sense to me I think we all forget that we still live in aprogressive tax system. We will not tax everything they make at that higher rate, just the amounts they are making over 250k. Republicans demand entitlement cuts but there is no one who believes we can cut our way out of this defecit. The main thing they cannot do is give ANY ground. The main thing we need out of Washington is certainty. If we are going to be taxed more, TELL US! If we are going to not get social security till we are 70...TELL US! It will all suck but at least we can plan for it and try and do our best. But they won’t. They will not do it becaus we have a broken political class that we have made scred of their own shadows. These margianalized people who we have elected do not have the courage of their convictions and the ones that do are frankly so crazy on the right or the left that I wish they did not.. So what is going to happen is another round of can kicking. Debt cieling raised. Sequester delayed, each side getting a bone of compromise out of the other with a promise to do something way out in the future and we will remain uncertain and continue to have to find our way in the darkness.

Which we can do. If we have the courage of our convictions. If we work hard. We can take care of our families and ourselves. Meet our needs. Take care of those who God throws into our poath who need our care, worship as we please and speak as we please and be blessed even as these idiots drive the ship into the rocks. I decry the Republican visage of “the exceptional American”. I decry it, not because I don’t believe it in my arrogant heart, but because these people who trumpet American Exceptionalism are the ones that are so afraid. they cannnot do anything because the government. they are uncertain because of the government. they cannot sleep at night because of the government. they are worried for their childrens futures BECAUSE OF THE GOVERNMENT! What is exceptional about fear? What I see on FOX news are “Exceptionally Afraid” Americans. What I hear when I listen to Glenn Beck is a man who makes money off of that fear. It sickens me.

 

We are all blessed to live in the greatest country God has put on earth at the greatest time ever to be an American. We are the most powerful Country with the most natural resources in the world. The best combination of soil, water, timber, oil and gas on the planet. We can leave a legacy for our children and granchildren of peace, stability, wealth, strength and kindness if we all just work and take care of ourselves, our families, our churches, synagogues and masques. If we take care of people like we are all taught to do it. We will be great, our children will thrive.

We are responsible for our families and out values. Not the government. We are responsable for our finances. Not the government. If they take more of our bread, exceptional Americans figure out a way to bake more bread. Who are we? We are going to find out. It is going to be hard and it is going to be great. Who are we? Get to work and stop bitching. Who are we? Stop pointing the fingers at other. Who are we? Bake the bread. Enjoy your family and love your neighbor and get to work.

 

Psalm 118: 24 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”