Quickies: the 2011 year-end edition

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A round-up of news items, columns, article and blog posts that caught our eye this past (two) week(s)


It's our year-end edition so we may just roll with updates and make this a "Farewell to 2011" open thread sort of thing. Please feel free to chime in with your thoughts on 2011 or anything else for that matter in the comment section.






Strangely enough, troops not impressed with Biden's Taliban not our enemy comment.




Syrian dissenters apparently not huge fans of "smart power".

More O > W:

The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force.

In Yemen, for instance, the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command pursue the same adversary with nearly identical aircraft. But they alternate taking the lead on strikes to exploit their separate authorities, and they maintain separate kill lists that overlap but don’t match. CIA and military strikes this fall killed three U.S. citizens, two of whom were suspected al-Qaeda operatives.

No one, most of all, worthless Bush-hating Obamabot "civil liberties" hypocrites want to have the conversation regarding the legality and morality of whacking U.S. citizens abroad without due process.




North Koreans are completely insane.








Finally... we can put those Obama-is-a-Muslim rumors to rest.

I realize the Obamas are wealthy people, and that wealthy people have the right to drop $260 of their disposable income on chow. But if you’re going to invite Associated Press photographers along to capture your trip to Target and stage photo ops at PetSmart and Best Buy, then I’m going to write about your unpublicized excursion to Alan Wong’s.

The press pool was not invited in to take photos this time. In fact, others were discouraged from doing so too. From the pool report:

Diners have been trying to takes pictures of POTUS, only to be chased off by advance staffers.

Since when are people not allowed to take pictures?

According to the pool report, the Obamas and their friends dined on the five-course “tasting menu” that was tasty to the tune of $75 a person, $105 with wine. Among the highlights were “Sassey Salad” and bacon wrapped pork loin.

(italics, ours)



Not as much snark as you may think. Truthers, Birthers and the like really annoy us as they distract from the real issues of unhinged Muslim extremism and absolutely horrible executive branch policies, respectively.







Where's Olbermann who hasn't done a live broadcast on Current TV since Dec. 22?

“Countdown” on Current draws just a fraction of the one million viewers that Mr. Olbermann routinely had on MSNBC; his ratings are not reported on an overnight basis, but in his first months he was known to be averaging about 200,000 viewers a night. (Current is expected to start receiving overnight ratings in January, according to a person with knowledge of the ratings.)

His program also draws less media attention than it once did, though it was credited for early coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the fall.

In early December, Mr. Olbermann suddenly started to broadcast from a darkened studio, with nothing but a black backdrop behind him. The Web site Mediaite first noted the change, which was due to a series of technical difficulties at the studio that Current rents for “Countdown.”

Despite whatever snark Olbermann can be mustering for the current GOP field, who wants to reside over, nay, be the spokesperson for the progressive crack-up that Obama's second term promises to be? The man (Obama) best politically positioned to do something about the greatest domestic issue of our time (entitlement reform) will instead shrink from this responsibility and busy himself with god knows what.






Here's B-Daddy over at The Liberator Today opining upon Iran and securing your base in a tyrannical regime:

Consider the bearded ones' positions. Despite years of work, they still seem a ways off from achieving their goal of building a nuclear warhead that can be delivered at a distance. Clearly the U.S. and/or Israeli campaign of sabotage and assassination has been successful in slowing their nuclear progress. It seems that the mullahs are in a race against time; they feel the need to fulfill their nuclear ambition to secure their base and to increase their popularity before popular discontent with their failing socialist economy causes the government's collapse. This is why the threat to close the Straits of Hormuz is so telling. It is an almost credible threat, but reveals that they are nervous about the impact of economic sanctions.

Those mysterious explosions at Iran's nuclear facilities may wind up being the President's most significant foreign policy achievement when all is said and done.






2011's best local news bloopers...









Via Hot Air...

In 2008, the youth vote helped sweep Barack Obama into office. Americans 18-29 spread the word on social media, energized fundraising and went to the polls.

In 2012, the youth vote is moving on and throwing those omnipresent “Hope” bumper stickers and t-shirts in garbage bins.

Not because of apathy. Not because another candidate generates more enthusiasm. Not because of his character. Not because they think voting is pointless. The 18-29 vote is up for grabs in 2012 because youth can’t afford cars to put bumper stickers on and those t-shirts are worn out from too many days sitting on the couch unemployed.

But for those that still can afford a car, there is hope:









Sir Charles, an apparent Clinton supporter on voter fraud:

Despite my voting history a shocking phone call reaching my mother prior to the 2000 Presidential election. My mother was called to confirm that I had voted for Bill Clinton in November 1996 in the State of Indiana. Initially, we viewed the call as a prank, but now that call has been revealed as no joke.

I am currently investigating the extent by which I have been the victim of voter identification fraud. There is a good chance that my vote has been counted for every Democratic candidate in Indiana from 1996 to present day. My name may have helped put Barack Obama on the primary ballot in Indiana. In the coming weeks, I will get to the bottom of this and my hope is to bring attention to the theft of the American political system.

MSNBC, the Department of Justice and progressives around the country are currently waging a publicity war against Voter Fraud reduction measures. This war is being waged despite repeated examples of voter fraud by ACORN, the Indiana Democratic Party and the Black Panther Party. My hope is to gather proof and present it as widely as possible.

OK, gang. That's it for now. We hope everyone enjoys a safe and happy New Year's Eve. We'll see you all on the flip side.

Radio KBwD is on the air

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If you've been tuning into KBwD for any length of time you know we trend towards rootsier, basic North American fare (heck, even when we do some Elvis Costello, it's a cover of a George Jones classic) but we really like this song from the British electronica duo Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker that comprise Zero 7.

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(Warning: massive hook in the chorus around 1:20)

(Warning Pt. II: you can skip the commercial after 5 seconds. Sorry.)

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Here they are doing "Destiny".

Project Gunrunner/Operation Fast and Furious update

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Just getting caught up on some Fast and Furious news from over the past week or so.



First off, confirmed: Joe Lieberman is a racist.

Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman has directed the staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, which he chairs, to examine miscommunication between law enforcement agencies related to the Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious.

A spokesperson told The Daily Caller Wednesday that Lieberman “believe[s] that the lack of interagency coordination along the border merits further examination, and as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he has directed his staff to follow up with the relevant federal agencies on that topic.”

Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchase guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.

At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown.

(italics, ours)


That's an interesting choice of terms as it very much appears to be quite excellent communications amongst the agencies under the DOJ umbrella that allowed those thousands of guns to be smuggled across the border and placed into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels. Lieberman's efforts do, however, remove whatever heft of the partisanship and, umm, bigotry charges that have been levied at the House and Senate committees investigating this.

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And what has that miserable hack that runs the Justice Department been up to lately? Campaigning against illegal firearms, of course?

The number of officers killed in the line of duty jumped 13 percent in 2011 compared with the year before — and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder condemned the increase as “a devastating and unacceptable trend” that he blamed on illegal firearms.

The number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty rose to 173 this year, from 153 in 2010, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund announced Wednesday. This year’s figure is 23 percent higher than 122 killed in the line of duty in 2009.

Holder said “too many guns have fallen into the hands of those who are not legally permitted to possess them,” in explaining the increase.

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“This is a devastating and unacceptable trend. Each of these deaths is a tragic reminder of the threats that law enforcement officers face each day,” Holder in a statement. “I want to assure the family members and loved ones who have mourned the loss of these heroes that we are responding to this year’s increased violence with renewed vigilance and will do everything within our power — and use every tool at our disposal — to keep our police officers safe.”

For much of the past year, one fatality in particular has weighed heavily on Holder’s mind, that of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose December 2010 murder sparked interest and public investigations into the Justice Department’s botched Fast and Furious gun-walking program.

(italics, ours)

Again, how it is the miserable hack gets around Washington lugging those basketball-sized stones is a minor miracle in itself.

But we suppose that Holder can play it straight here as the guns ran into Mexico can hardly be considered illegal as Fast and Furious was executed under the full faith and credit of the miserable hack's own department. The DOJ and ATF are here to protect us, right?

And about the death of Agent Brian Terry: obviously not weighing heavily enough as the hack has repeatedly stonewalled and/or otherwise obfuscated and bobbed and weaved through sworn testimony against efforts to get to the bottom of this botched wildly successful American law enforcement gun-running operation.

Holder is doing everything possible to make this a campaign issue for his boss in the coming year.

Democratic establishment adopting the #OWS platform

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Here's George Will taking it to Clinton-era Labor Secretary and Porkulus theoretician, Robert Reich on ABC's This Week.

"Big government inevitably exacerbates the problem of (income) inequality".

He's right: the more the government intervention into the free market, the more the system can be lobbied and gamed by already favored and moneyed interests to their advantage.

Politics: the practice of public policy for personal advantage.

"You are a pyromanica in a field of staw men".

We'll cop to an amount of sympathy for Reich because how do you even respond to that bit of smack?



But let's call this for what it is: the template has been set and Reich ably demonstrates how Team O will adopt the #OWS meme of "income inequality" to distract the electorate from just how disastrous their economic policies have been.

Don't be mislead, folks. This is pretty much all you are going to hear out of the Obama camp for the next ten months leading up to the election in 2012.



And just so you know that the Christmas/New Year's season is not going to interfere with some much-deserved shadenfreude, let's hit the way back button to reflect upon what we wrote when Reich and Chuckie Rangel were complaining about the obstacles placed in front of them and their dream of reducing unemployment via Keynesian gimmickry because of those nasty rules and regulations:

It's interesting to note both Rangel and Reich whining about those pesky state legislators. State legislators and a dense and complex web of bureaucracies and regulations set up by the same that are blocking the money from getting to where Rangel and Reich, er... the formulas and criterias determine.

Imagine that: the statists' dream of "stimulating" a recessed economy via demand-side Keynesian economics completely choked off by a bureacratic and regulatory regime built-up over the years by the very same statists.

Just sayin'...

MAXED OUT: the best beer I ever drank

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It's Max's last blog post of the year so that means it's time for the great unveiling!

Huzzah! We made it through our first year together, y'all! We laughed. We cried. We bitched and moaned. And best of all, we DRANK GOOD BEER! Thanks for stickin' it out with me.


And now, without further ado, my FAVORITE BEER OF ALL TIME!!! Wait, no. I'm going to further ado for a moment and recap my previous 9. Which ones have you tried out of my top 9?


Ok, so we started the year off with Jolly Pumpkin's Oro de Calabaza, remember that one? The 'breakfast beer' that I'd love to drink every morning when I wake up. Who needs OJ? I'm not sure, but I think the next one was Hitachino XH, a sour brown ale from Japan. Delirium Tremmens was next, and is oft voted the "best beer in the world" by beer geeks. I had two IPAs on the list, my favorite of which is Pizza Port OB's Cho Saiko which is unfortunately rarely available. The other IPA being Ballast Point's Sculpin, which is just my go-to beer that is typically available year round. We also had the mouth-puckeringly sour St. Louis Geuze Fond Tradition that I had for my birthday at Toronado. FYI, we have that in bottle at Hoffer's as well. Moonlight Brewing's Reality Czech made the cut as my favorite pilsner, so next time you're in the Bay Area keep your eyes open. And the final of the best of the rest is actually the most similar to my numero uno which is Ballast Point's Victory at Sea, a huge Imperial Porter that tastes of coffee and vanilla and rainbows and magic. OK, maybe not rainbows, but magic for sure. Alright, that's it, my top 9.

And now! Now it is time to unveil. Gosh, seems like I've been building up to this moment for so long. I guess I kinda have, haven't I? You know, this one time that I was... Ok! Ok! I'll get on with it. Geez!


My absolutely most favoritest beer in the history of all things fermented is Stone's home brew collaboration winner from 2009. Ken Schmidt is a local home brewer and in Stone's first home brew contest he created a recipe that combined coconut, coffee and macadamia. Stone took it one step further and paired up with Maui Brewing Company out of... uh duh!... Hawaii. And used their kitchen to toast thousands of pounds of coconut. The elicited Kona Coffee Company for their freshy fresh freshest coffee beans, and threw in several hundred pounds of macadamia nuts. The result? Well, it's the best beer I've ever had. That's the result.


I was working at K&B Wine Cellars in Del Cerro when this beer first hit the market. The word of mouth was soooo huge that we had to limit the customers to 2 bottles a piece. But I worked there! HAHAHAHAH! Between my roommate and I, we racked up about 15 bottles. Maybe 20. Oh, and it gets better. About 6 months ago they released their Bourbon Barrel Aged version of this beer. They raffled off a few hundred bottles at $1 per ticket, all of the proceeds going to some Escondido cause of sorts, then sold the bottles at $25 each. Oh, and one of my best friends, one Joseph Ornelas happened to win! BBOOOOOOOYYYAAAAAA BBAAAAABBBBBBAAAAYYYYYY!!!!


I could go on about how limited it was and how you now have to spend some $75 on ebay to find one of the original 12oz bottles, but instead I am going to describe this little taste of heaven in a glass.


So, the thing that is most amazing about this beer is that it changes COMPLETELY with each passing moment. There are certain beers that gain complexity the more they warm up, and this one absolutely takes the cake. As it warms you start off with strong coffee notes with a little back end of coconut. All of the sudden the macadamia slowly drifts in, but never takes control of your tongue but simply adds a beautiful, slightly oily mouth feel. Towards the end of the bottle (which took me 45 minutes to drink the first time I had one at home) the toasted coconut, macadamia and fresh coffee seem to harmonize into a perfect rift that makes you want to some how ring the bottle out for the very last drops available. I really don't know how to describe the last sip of this beer when I first had it. It's like having really good sex for the first time. It's like the first time you catch a perfect wave. It was like.... MAGIC!!!!!!!! And a couple of Saturdays ago I had it side by side with the Bourbon Barrel Aged version. My head exploded. EXPLODED!!!


Oh, and just so you know, it's technically an 8.5% American Porter. Or as I call it THE BEST BEER THAT I HAVE EVER HAD!!!!


So there you have it, kiddos. My Top 10 favorite beers of all time, so far. But next year is another year with more beers to try and more blog posts to tell you about them. I'm going to take a couple weeks off so I can regroup and organize my thoughts but please, join me in 2012 for another amazing year of hops, grain and water! And a little teaser for this year to come: Oktoberfest in Munich. My favorite beer of the week. And much, much more! I'm working on it, guys.


As always, thanks for joining and COMMENT!!!


Until next time my beer loving brethren, have a beer for me.

(ed. note: We wanted to chime in with what we thought was our favorite beer of all time. We believe it was a one-off because they, unfortunately, do not brew it anymore (at least, that's what we think) but Speakeasy Ales and Lagers concocted a couple of years ago their Prohibition Amber Ale. It's classified as an American Amber/Red Ale but because of the amount of hops in it, it drank like an IPA. (And a quick check of Tap Hunter.com just now did not reveal any locales where it was being served). Don't ask us for any Max-like deets on flavor, notes, noses, sessionability or any of that faldoral... all we remember was that it was amazing and that we would walk a few miles if it meant wrapping our taste buds around one again.

Alright, gang. As Max said, he'll be taking a few weeks off here over New Year's and into January to re-charge the batteries. We sincerely hope you've enjoyed this regular feature of the Beers with Demo franchise.)

Your Arab Spring update

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Ah well, who said the slide into an Islamist third-world state was not going to be rough on a few people?

This year, mobs have looted and attacked Coptic churches, homes and shops throughout Egypt. Churches have been burned down, and one Copt had his ear cut off by a Muslim cleric invoking Islamic law.

Strong gains by Islamist parties in the recent elections have further raised fears among the Christian minority that they won't have a place in the new Egypt.

The plight of the nation's roughly eight million Copts poses a quandary for the U.S. The pivotal Middle East ally receives $1.3 billion annually in military aid, and the administration has riled some critics who say it has failed to strongly rebuke the transitional rulers amid recent violence against women, Copts and other minorities.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal advisory agency, asked the State Department to place Egypt on its list of "countries of particular concern"—egregious violators of religious freedoms. The department declined, saying that its goal is to work with the Egyptian government to improve conditions for Christians.

Kathleen Fitzpatrick, a deputy assistant secretary of state, says her department has been "very concerned with the attacks on the Copts in Egypt in recent months," and has shared its views with "the highest levels of the Egyptian government."

(italics, ours)

Glad we're sharing.

Quandry: $1.3 billion/year in tax-payer money in return for rubbing out Copts. We'd say someone is getting quite the sweet deal.

As we've noted previously, some persecuted minority groups are just a little more equal than others.



Bonus round: Leslie at Temple of Mut has her thoughts on the fire at one of Egypt's most important library.

Got stickers?

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Legal Insurrection has their top bumper stickers of 2011.





The winner and a perfect response to the #OWS set:

Some other faves and more can be found at the link.




Speaking truth to power.

Getting out the Hispanic vote in Tejas.

Wonder if they have a Facebook group?

Video clip of the day

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Reason.tv announces their Nanny of the Year.

Given the nature of the of the legislation being proposed, file this year's nominees under "Solutions to non-existent problems."





Exit question: With Nanny-dom running amok in this country to the degree that it is and with a few more days remaining on the calender, did Reason.tv perhaps announce their winner too early?

Federal judge: Blacks need to be told who the Democrats are on the ballot

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The plantation mentality is alive and well in the South, after all.

A U.S. District Court judge has rejected a challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — filled when the Department of Justice barred the city of Kinston, N.C. from holding nonpartisan elections — reasoning that lack of access to party affiliation would discriminate against minority voters who otherwise wouldn’t know how to find Democratic candidates on a ballot.

The challenge was initiated after the Justice Department rejected a 2008 referendum vote in which the city of Kinston voted to stop listing candidates’ party affiliations on ballots.

Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department must approve changes to election law in regions with a history, however distant, of racial discrimination.

The Justice Department prevented the 2008 referendum change, arguing in part that “the elimination of party affiliation on the ballot will likely reduce the ability of blacks to elect candidates of choice.”

Advocates for nonpartisan elections including Republican state representative Stephen LaRoque and several other Kinston residents subsequently sued the Justice Department, challenging the constitutionality of Section 5.

If there is a better example of institutional bigotry with respect to voting rights in this country, we'd like to see it.

The statist desire to see minorities as wards of the state now extends to that of a single political party as well.

The assumptive reasoning behind this is rather absurd as local elections, particularly in smaller towns across the country are absent party affiliation and how does the flip side of this sound?: Republicans will be required to be identified on the ballot so that white voters will be better able to select their candidate of choice.



The Holder Justice Department: enforcing the soft bigotry of low expectations for minorities in America since 2009.

Video clip of the day

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The hypocrisy of these supposed "Patriotic Millionaires" is exposed when asked to give voluntarily to the Department of the Treasury in this 3 minute clip from the Daily Caller.

"It would be of no impact whatsoever"

You said it, champ: Quite similar to the effect on the national debt it would have if they raised taxes on you people.

We're going to have to assume that these "patriots" inherited or otherwise fell into their fortunes unwittingly as taking this stance demostrates an economic illiteracy that suggests they did not make all that jack by their wits, alone.

And what is particularly galling is this notion that they think of themselves as being so noble as to quantify a level of patriotism commensurate with the amount of money they give to the government. That is patently absurd on its face.

Perhaps these jackasses would like to visit Balboa Hospital here in San Diego and the wounded warriors convalescing and re-habbing there to get a much needed recalibration with respect to the term.

Here's hoping that more than a few Christians living in the Arab world are gay as well

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Alternate headline: All minorities are equal. Some just more equal than others.



News from earlier this month:

The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy, including the potent enticement of foreign aid, to promote gay rights around the world.

In a memorandum issued by President Obama in Washington and in a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton here, the administration vowed to actively combat efforts by other nations that criminalize homosexual conduct, abuse gay men, lesbians, bisexuals or transgendered people, or ignore abuse against them.

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And in what is apparently totally unrelated news and unless you've been living under a rock, what follows is entirely far from being an isolated incident.

At a Nigerian Catholic church where a terror attack killed 35 people on Christmas, women tried to clean the sanctuary ahead of Mass on Monday while one man wept uncontrollably amid the debris.

Outside St. Theresa Catholic Church, crowds gathered among the burned-out cars in the dirt parking lot, angry over the attack claimed by a radical Muslim sect and fearful that the group will target more churches.

Rev. Father Christopher Jataudarde told The Associated Press that Sunday's blast happened as church officials gave parishioners white powder as part of a tradition celebrating the birth of Christ.

Some already had left the church at the time of the bombing, causing the massive casualties. In the chaos after the bombing, Jataudarde said one mortally wounded man, cradling his shredded stomach, begged him for religious atonement.

"Father, pray for me, I will not survive," the man said, according to the priest.

At least 52 people were wounded in the attack, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. Victims filled the cement floors of a nearby government hospital, some crying in pools of their own blood.

On Christmas, attacks by the radical Muslim sect left 39 dead across Africa's most populous nation. A bomb also exploded amid gunfire in the central Nigeria city of Jos and a suicide car bomber attacked the military in the nation's northeast.

After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria's Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with public.

"There will never be peace until our demands are met," the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying. "We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released; we want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended."

We applaude the President for using his bully pulpit as the most powerful man on the planet to defend specific minority groups from persecution. However, considering this muscle-flexing does not appear to be extended on behalf of another minority group that is being systematically erased from the Arab world, it pains us to come to the conclusion that this gesture from the great post-partisan uniter is merely a cynical and shameless sop to his base.

Some not so random thoughts

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What greater symbol of the moral bankruptcy of the United Nations than that the General Assembly last week honored a moment of silence for Kim Jong Il and not deceased Czech freedom fighter, Vaclev Havel.

One might have thought that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet empire might have been a cue to the apologists, the anti-anti-communists and the whole of the left of the West to give up the ghost and realize that liberal democracy beat the snot out of authoritarian command-and-control collectivism in the battle for the 20th century. However, 20 years on, amaziningly enough, they're still out there bleating away in the darkness.


Here's Pejman Yousefzadeh on this highly dubious and curious phenomena:

One would think that the deaths of Vaclav Havel and Kim Jong Il would prompt universal condemnation for the dictatorial communist regimes the former so bravely fought against, and the latter used for self-aggrandizement at the expense of his own citizens. One would be wrong; the condemnation of dictatorial communist regimes is blessedly widespread, but it is by no means universal.

Consider first Neil Clark, who informs us of the following regarding Havel’s struggle:

No one questions that Havel, who went to prison twice, was a brave man who had the courage to stand up for his views. Yet the question which needs to be asked is whether his political campaigning made his country, and the world, a better place. Havel’s anti-communist critique contained little if any acknowledgement of the positive achievements of the regimes of eastern Europe in the fields of employment, welfare provision, education and women’s rights. Or the fact that communism, for all its faults, was still a system which put the economic needs of the majority first.

(more of this non-sense can be found at the link)


Who could ever forget those economic-needs-of-the-majority-first programs like Stalin's forced starvation of the Kulaks or Mao's Great Leap forward or Pol Pot's killing fields or even today's one-child (or else ) policy in China? Who indeed!

Honestly, who needs antiquated old documents like the constitutions and silly notions like the rule of law and obviously bourgeois concepts like property rights when you're busying yourself with putting the economic needs of the majority first.

And speaking of symbols of disparity: This...

... is not the result of North Korea gaining admittance into the Dark Sky Society.




Dear Lefties, You lost. You got your hats handed to you. Get over it. Take off that Che' t-shirt and quit making stone-cold asses of yourself because anytime you have to start off your defense with, "For all its faults...", you know you've already lost the argument as if the tens of millions of dead at the hands of the socio-economic system you champion wasn't the first clue.

43 years ago last night

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A series of photos from the Apollo 8 mission crewed by Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders plus the famous reading of Genesis from the crew on Christmas Eve, 1968.

At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever.





"Thank you Apollo 8. You saved 1968."


While driving in to work this past week, radio host Chip Franklin talked about the trepidation felt by a lot of people as the space craft went around the dark side of the moon thus being cut off from communication with Earth as orbiting the moon had never been accomplished before.

If you are old enough to remember, we would love to hear what the significance of this mission was to this country given the violent and tumultuous year that was 1968.

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Christmas 2011

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The staff here at Beers with Demo wishes everyone a safe and joyous Christmas that is spent with family, friends and loved ones.


Pax

New York Times doing it's best to push jobs stimulus on 19th century technology

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Because AmTrak has been such a huge success over the years.


Slow-speed choo-choos!

Water flows uphill.

A city turns down $8.5 million in federal grant money.

In what could be a new high water mark of anti-Washington sentiment, the city of Troy, Mich., is rejecting a long-planned transportation center whose construction would have been fully financed with federal stimulus money.

The terminal, which would help Troy become a transportation node on an upgraded Detroit-to-Chicago Amtrak line, was hailed by supporters as a way to create jobs and to spur economic development. But federal money is federal money, so with the urging of the new mayor, who helped found the local Tea Party chapter, the City Council cast a 4-to-3 vote this week against granting a crucial contract, sending the project into limbo.

“There’s nothing free about government money,” Mayor Janice Daniels said in an interview. “It’s never free, and it’s crippling our way of life.”

Other Republican officeholders have said “Thanks, but no thanks” to federal money for high-speed rail: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin rejected an $810 million federal grant to extend passenger rail from Milwaukee to Madison; Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey killed a project to dig a new commuter rail tunnel under the Hudson River. But those actions have generally involved criticism of the underlying logic of the projects, or projections of enormous costs to be borne down the line by state and local governments.

The Troy transit center’s construction, by comparison, required no local contribution, and its predicted annual maintenance cost of $31,000 was, in the context of the city’s $50 million budget, “de minimis,” said Mark Miller, the assistant city manager.

The federal government’s largess is no reason to build the transit center when the national debt stands at $15 trillion, Mayor Daniels said.

Yet if the money does not go to Troy, it will not be used to pay down the national debt; it will be redirected to other projects around the country.

Taking Tea Party reasoning to the local level has outraged supporters of the transit center, which has been in the works for a decade. Michele Hodges, the president of the Troy Chamber of Commerce, which supports the transit project, said that her organization “will be a pit bull for what’s best for this community.”

David A. Kotwicki, a local lawyer, noted that members of Congress might talk tough on spending, but that they still bring projects home to their districts. The vote against the transit center, he said, looks like “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”

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A few things jumped out at us while reading this: a) the general snotty tone with respect to what they perceive as tea party logic rejecting all money merely because it comes from Washington D.C. b) the author never makes the case for the long-term viability of the transportation center... nor does it make the case for the most obvious question: is this transportation center even needed? c) appears to champion taking federal money merely on the grounds that it will just go to another pork barrel project elsewhere and not pay down the national debt if rejected.


The over-arching logic employed by the Times in this article is precisely the logic that has made us the brokest nation on the planet. To the Times, pork is a fungible asset and just the natural order of things so you might as well take advantage of it.

Taking a principled stand against further dependence on the federal government and stemming the tide against the Keynesian make-work philosophy of the statist political class in our counrty is, however, something that is derided in the pages of the New York Times.

Radio KBwD is on the air

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One of the most surreal moments in television history: the personification of American comfort food, Bing Crosby getting together with David Bowie in all his crucifix-bearing androgynous glory singing a mash-up of "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth".

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#OWS: Succeeding where the tea party could not...

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...though succeeding in ways they did not anticipate.

The City of Los Angeles reportedly faces millions of dollars in expenses brought about by the Occupy LA movement.

City agencies have been ordered to calculate what was spent on the Occupy LA protests.

Repairs to City Hall’s lawn where the Occupy group set up camp on Oct. 1 will require an estimated $400,000. The police action to clear out the encampment on Nov. 30 cost more than $700,000.

Additional expenses are attributed to hauling away debris from the camp, and cleaning up graffiti that defaced City Hall marble walls and trees.

Mayor Villaraigosa says more budget cuts will be necessary to offset the costs.

(emphasis, ours)






This is just too rich: Statist Occupiers are the cause of budget cuts to statist big government, ultimately succeeding in curtailing the very thing for which they are occupying: the expansion of government power.

/taking a second look at the Occupy movement?

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MAXED OUT: Riehm Family Values Tour

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Max and the Riehm clan Occupy Stone Brewery:

Sup chillins, how goes it? I know we are all deep in the holidays and you all have last minute Christmas shopping to do so I thank you for taking the time to join me on this, the second to last post of the year. I'm going to keep you all in anxious anticipation of my final submission of the BEST BEERS OF ALL TIME one more week, but let me just tease you a bit more. I just tried it again. Wow! But this week I'm here to talk about one of my favorite traditions that I have so humbly been invited to the past couple years: The Riehm Family Values Tour!

The past couple of years the Riehm brothers have gotten together at Stone Brew Co. up in Escondido in the middle of December with sons, nephews, friends, and, yes, last year an appearance by Papa Riehm, himself. I have infiltrated their family with my beer knowledge and unbridled charisma, and have been lucky enough to have been invited both years. This year Uncle Dean, Kent, B-Daddy, Nate, Orange County's Own Flying Tomato, Chris, Mr. Baugh, Toey, Justin and yours truly all made a man-date, crushed beers, grubbed on some deliciousness, some took a tour, and all had a great time (except for maybe Nate who was forced to Tebow several times throughout the afternoon.)

This is NOT a Stone bash. I'd like to start this next paragraph off by stating this emphatically. But now I am going to bash Stone. I've said it before and I'll say it again: $14.50 for Mac-n-Queso? You must be high! $15 for a BBQ Pork Sammy that barely has any BBQ, and the pork is dry? Shame on me. Duck Tacos where the meat could have just as easily have been chicken? Poo poo on you, Stone! I am grateful for the contributions that Stone has given to the community up there in Escondido but they are gougers. I just hope that when they open their brewery in Germany in a couple of years they don't destroy a schnitzel and charge 30 euros. That would look bad for all of us.

Their tap list was pretty good, not great. Oh, and once again they failed to offer any good Stone beers. Why is it that every time I go to the Stone Brewery I find myself drinking beers from every other brewery than Stone? That's like going to Alesmith and drinking a Pliny the Elder! Someone shoot me, now. No. Seriously. Shoot me.
Highlight: St. Bernardus Noel. St. Bernardus is a Belgian brewery and as with most Belgian breweries they call their winter beer a Noel.

After our time at the brewery Dean-o, Mr. Baugh, The Flying Tomato and I met up with a couple of our friends, Loren "Happy Hanukah"
Brent, and Cute Kimi at Churchill's up in San Marcos. This is known as one of the better beer bars in Southern California, and with their 50 taps, wasn't terrible. But I have to admit that I was expecting much more. I didn't find a single beer up there that I can't get at Toronado, and few that I can't get at my own bar, Hoffer's. Typically mediocre English style pub fare. The one highlight at Churchill's was the fooseball table! Yes. I am good at fooseball, and am glad that I played against Mr. Baugh before betting. He was ready to lay money down that he could beat me before we even played. Let's just say that first to 5 goals came quickly, and he wasn't the one to score 5 goals.
Not never. Now way. No how. Like I said, I'm good.

But all-in-all this is a tradition that I have been looking forward to since the last one. It was a bummer that younger brother Matty, bro-in-law Mark, and Papa Riehm couldn't make it out, but they had prior obligations, and hopefully they can make it to the next one.
Also missed Wayne and Jesse, but they were in Hawaii, so screw them.
I kid (kinda.)

A quick side note: It is the Christmas season which means Christmas beers are out there. They tend to have strong spices and woody (oak) characteristics. Belgian Noels will be sweeter, and typically higher in ABV. Notable XMAS BEERS! As mentioned before, the St. Bernardus Noel is great. As is the Delirium Noel. For American breweries I recommend looking for the Anchor Christmas. Also Winter's Folly by Green Flash is a slight change-up to the Christmas style, as it does what Green Flash does and throws a hoppy element to a Christmas beer, which I had never seen before.

Ok, I'm done. Join me next week when I round out my TOP TEN BEST BEERS OF AAAAAAALLLL TIIIIIIIMMEEEE!!!!!

Until next time my beer loving brethren, have a beer for me.

(ed. Note: We'll be perfectly honest: given our position as editor-in-chief of this blog, we have no idea what beer will be unveiled by Max next Thursday... And, yes, our love/hate relationship with the Stone brand continues: pretty mediocre tap line-up considering the Escondido locale is the mothership of the Stone empire and the prices they charge for their middling boutique-y fare is kind of a joke. So, why do we keep going back? Probably for similar reasons why we keep tuning in to ESPN. As much heartache as we have for a lot of their editorial slants and on-air talent, they're easy, accessible and we know what we're getting. There's something to be said for known quantities. Fancy that: Stone is the comfort food of the microbrew universe. Heh.)

The Chevy Volt story just keeps getting better and better

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A study by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, has shown that between direct subsidies to GM and indirect ones to GM subcontractors and parts providers, there may be as much as $250,000 worth of subsidies in each $41,000 Chevy Volt.

Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Hohman looked at total state and federal assistance offered for the development and production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors’ plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. His analysis included 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government.

The Volt subsidies flow through multiple companies involved in production. The analysis includes adding up the amount of government subsidies via tax credits and direct funding for not only General Motors, but other companies supplying parts for the vehicle. For example, the Department of Energy awarded a $105.9 million grant to the GM Brownstown plant that assembles the batteries. The company was also awarded approximately $106 million for its Hamtramck assembly plant in state credits to retain jobs. The company that supplies the Volt’s batteries, Compact Power, was awarded up to $100 million in refundable battery credits (combination tax breaks and cash subsidies). These are among many of the subsidies and tax credits for the vehicle.

And how exactly are those Chevy Volt sales coming along? Eh, not so hot as Neal Cavuto chats with Mark Modica, an Associate Fellow of the National Legal and Policy Center.





6,000... 4,000 short of General Government Motors goal of 10 grand. And those numbers would appear to be padded by fleet sales to government agencies and others in the regime's crony circle like, General Electric.


It should be noted that we are not opposed to electric cars, per se. What we are opposed to is the subsidization of technology that is clearly not market-ready. Giving the evil rich a $7,500 break on the sticker price is ridiculous enough (are you listening #OWS?). However, and for the sake of argument, let's say that $250,000/unit subsidy figure is high... way high. Let's say its merely a third of that. So, now you have the Chevy Volt being subsidized to the tune of around $85,000 which is still over twice the sticker price! All that money dumped into it and still no one wants to buy it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is patently absurd and there is just no other way to look at it.

We forgot where we saw it, but there is apparently legislation pending in the house that would get rid of the purchase rebate. That's a good start but Congress needs to gut this entire crony charade from top to bottom.

Your mid-week, martini-worthy photo image

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Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell singing "Your Precious Love"

Video smack of the day

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Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary addresses runs some epic smack at an EU confab.


(It's long: 17 minutes so we extracted the best smack from the beginning of the video below the clip)





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“This is the first time I think that I or Ryanair have ever been invited to a conference by the European Union. Because as most of you know, the European Union spends most of its time suing me, torturing me, criticizing me or condemning me for lowering the cost of air travel…and making life so really difficult for their favorite airlines, which as we all know like high-fare airlines…who must be protected at all costs because they’re the ‘future of Europe,’"

"If you look at the mess Europe is in, if you look at the mess that the European economy is in, there’s only one way out of it.

And it’s not going to be a summit of European politicians. It’s certainly not going to be a conference held in Brussels, where the last innovative idea came in 1922, I think.

Innovation is going to be the way for the European economy to grow, to develop, to create new jobs and that‘s why I think it’s so important we have four young people."

Smack.



There he is, folks. An evil 1%-er who provides a service people want at a price they can afford while employing thousands of people without the help of and apparently in spite of excessive bureaucratic harassment.

This is a concept completely foreign to the economic illiterates who dominate this country's political class.

Chart of the day... and quiz

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Just a one question quiz and it shouldn't be that difficult at that:

Question: Which country is the totalitarian police state and which is the constitutional liberal democracy that respects property rights and the rule of law?



Yeah. So easy we're not even going to give you the answer.


What's that you say? How can a country have a prosperous economy when that country is embargoed against by virtually the rest of the civilized world? Good point, perhaps. Maybe the leaders of this Stalinist gulag-nation should be asking themselves that question whilst pondering why it is they have no trading partners.


The same rule applies with respect to what we learned in kindergarten as it does to geo-politics and the global economy: Don't be a dick.


H/T: Big Government

Video clip of the day

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It's never too early to look back with fond remembrances some of the critical steps along the path that brought us to the passage of ObamaCare.

As we are approaching the two-year anniversary of the Christmas Eve vote in the Senate on ObamaCare, it's important that we recognize also the two-year anniversary of what made that all possible.

Of course, we are talking about the buy-off that let Nebraska off the hook their share of their Medicaid contribution to the tune of $100 million dollars known popularly as the Cornhusker Kickback.

Oh, that was by no means the only backroom deal that got ObamaCare shoved through sideways but it would be unseemly to detract from what Senator Ben Nelson graced upon our great Republic.

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H/T: Hot Air

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Sarah sez

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One in a series that takes a look at some of the wild, zany and madcap things said by the former governor of Alaska.





Here's Palin on our relationship with the ummm, Taliban:

"Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy. That's critical," Palin said. "There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy, because it threatens U.S. interests. If, in fact, the Taliban is able to collapse the existing government, which is cooperating with us in keeping the bad guys from being able to do damage to us, then that becomes a problem for us."

Ha! You know the drill. Not Palin. Not Palin at all. Something that absurd could only fall from the lips of our first in succession, one Joey B., Vice President, Joe Biden.

So, it's official: we went into Afghanistan 10 years ago merely to upgrade the Taliban to frenemy status... per se.

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In other totally related news:

The Twitter war began in earnest Sept. 14, in the midst of a sustained attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the adjacent headquarters of the U.S.-led international military force.

Until then, NATO officials had kept close tabs on the messages posted on two accounts linked to the Taliban’s media arm — but had refrained from engaging or acknowledging them.

U.S. military officials assigned to the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, as the coalition is known, took the first shot in what has become a near-daily battle waged with broadsides that must be kept to 140 characters.

“How much longer will terrorists put innocent Afghans in harm’s way,” @isafmedia demanded of the Taliban spokesman on the second day of the embassy attack, in which militants lobbed rockets and sprayed gunfire from a building under construction.

“I dnt knw. U hve bn pttng thm n ‘harm’s way’ fr da pst 10 yrs. Razd whole vilgs n mrkts. n stil hv da nrve to tlk bout ‘harm’s way,’ ” responded Abdulqahar Balkhi, one of the Taliban’s Twitter warriors, who uses the handle ­@ABalkhi.

Lke, ttly soundz lke not enmys to us, rght?

Project Gunrunner/Operation Fast and Furious update: the other shoe drops edition

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Frankly, this took a lot longer than expected.

Of course he did, because...

Attorney General Eric Holder accused his growing chorus of critics of racist motivations in a Sunday interview published in the New York Times. When reached by The Daily Caller Monday morning, the Department of Justice provided no evidence to support the attorney general’s claims.

Holder said some unspecified faction — what he refers to as the “more extreme segment” — is driven to criticize both him and President Barack Obama due to the color of their skin. Holder did not appear to elaborate on who he considered to make up the “more extreme segment.”

“This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” Holder said, according to the Times. “Both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.”

... that's all the miserable hack has left.


But Holder gives his critics far too much credit as incompetence, imperiousness and opaqueness are far more easily detectable traits common to both the President and Holder than their respective high yellow.

While Holder whines that this is just a game of gotcha, perhaps he can explain that to the family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose one year anniversary of his death where Fast and Furious guns were found was just last week and then again to the families of the 300 hundred Mexicans that have died because of Fast and Furious.

Requiem for Porkulus

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This 7 - 1/2 minute video by Reason.tv takes a look at why the $840 billion stimulus package signed into law back in February of 2009 failed.





Also, this from the CBO:

The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday downgraded its estimate of the benefits of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, saying it may have sustained as few as 700,000 jobs at its peak last year and that over the long run it will actually be a net drag on the economy.

CBO said that while the Recovery Act boosted the economy in the short run, the extra debt that the stimulus piled up “crowds out” private investment and “will reduce output slightly in the long run — by between 0 and 0.2 percent after 2016.”

If you are scoring at home, that's $1.2 million/job "sustained"... whatever that is supposed to mean.

OWS updates (UPDATED)

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(please scroll down for update)

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Via Sarah at Lipstick Underground:

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Due to family being in town, blogging has been light and may remain so for just a while. Hopefully, we'll be swinging for the fences by Monday morning.

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(UPDATE #1):

Radical Chic: The beautiful people lend a helpful hand.

“Whatever the reasons, we’re all in the same room, and that’s pretty powerful, right? We’re participating in a conscientious … participation.”

Penn Badgley, an actor on the hit series “Gossip Girl,” has a face too mathematically perfect to be truly interesting, but at this celebrity consciousness-raising gig for Occupy Wall Street, he looks genuinely excited. He bounds onto the stage, grabs the microphone and yells “mic check!” Invited guests from the Occupy movement wince at this earnest misunderstanding of the people’s mic and its reworking of the relationship between society and spectacle in an age where politics takes place mostly on television.

In the early days of Zuccotti Park, the people’s mic was developed as a solution to the police ban on electric amplification. The order ended up being a gift to the movement, as voices were carried by chanting a speaker’s words back to them — which kept remarks pithy and aware of the audience.

In the chic Bowery Hotel, the formula isn’t quite working.

These actors, models, artists, publicity flunkies and those young and well-dressed enough to make their way past the bouncers have spent most of their professional lives learning how to half-listen until it’s their turn to half-speak. “My boss just told me to show up,” says one of the P.R. girls. It’s as good a reason as any to learn about a new people’s movement.

Actual microphones. Bowery Hotel. Models. Invited guests. Getting more and more grass-rootsy by the day.

Your (California) high-speed choo-choo update

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The city fathers of Bakersfield, in the portion of the state where the initial tracks will be laid down, in a symbolic vote, voted 6-1, against the California's high speed rail. They employ the logic that a) the state and the feds don't hsve the money, b) when those two entities don't have any money, they start looking at cities and counties for the money grab and c) they won't be able to actually use the high speed choo-choos for years and years.

The Bakersfield City Council Wednesday joined the growing chorus of opponents demanding that the high-speed rail project be scrapped.

The council voted 6-1 to say "no" to the California High-Speed Rail Authority's plans to build the project in pieces, with an unusable segment under construction in the San Joaquin Valley for the next 10 years.

The council's move was virtually identical to a unanimous vote by the Kings County Board of Supervisors in October that disapproved of any possible route through Kings County.

In a blistering presentation to the council by City Manager Alan Tandy that echoed an equally harsh staff report, Tandy said the project's proposed path would destroy key landmarks in downtown Bakersfield, operate no trains for the foreseeable future, be overseen by Authority officials he said have failed to respond to Bakersfield officials, concerns over a period of 18 months and worsen the state's existing fiscal crisis.

At potentially $120 billion dollars for the project... there's no money but Tandy knows that's not going to stop this thing.

"When the state has fiscal crises, they turn predatory to cities and counties to cover their excess spending," he said.

Tandy attacked the argument that the project would bring needed jobs, saying that it would be better to create employment by improving run-down streets and roads in Bakersfield and Kern County.

This fiscal black hole effect was precisely the fear of a Democratic lawmaker, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal of Long Beach:

"My fear is that with (an uncertain) price tag and no dedicated revenue stream, any money we do get will go to that project, to the detriment of the state's existing transportation systems,"

But whom thought that plunging head-long into the project was a good idea anyway. Sigh.

Several council members said they admired the vision of high-speed rail, but couldn't in good conscience support the plan because of the amount of borrowing it would require in a state already in a deficit crisis.

"Sacramento continues to look at local governments as the piggy bank to fund their out-of-control projects," said Councilman Russell Johnson.

Alas, the grand statist vision of public make-work projects will never yield to the realities of fiscal sanity.

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Constitutional republics are, like, hard

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Remember when they told us that if we voted for McCain it would mean just four more years of consolidating executive power, end-arounding Congress and generally shredding the Constitution? Well, they were right.

In an interview with KOAA-TV, a local news channel from Colorado Springs, Colorado, President Obama says if Congress is not willing to pass legislation he wants, he will do it himself in order to win another term. Read the transcript below.

Rob Quirk, KOAA-TV: "And one year from today we will know if this a one-term or two-term president. So, I asked the president what will it take from now until then to not only win Colorado again, but reelection as well."

President Obama: "Well, what we're going to have to do is continue to make progress on the economy over the next several months. And where Congress is not willing to act, we're going to go ahead and do it ourselves. But it would be nice if we could get a little bit of help from Capitol Hill."

C'mon Obamabots. This is precisely the reason why you allegedly despised Bush. The fact that Congress won't do his bidding is of no constitutional relevance. Don't like the do-nothing Congress? Then don't get your asses kicked like you did in 2010 and you can continue to pass more disastrous legislation like the $800 billion Porkulus bill and the 2,200 page monstrosity, Obamacare, where we are still in the process of finding out what's in it.

This whole two-party thing is a bitch, ain't it? Funny how the Founders set things up with this concept of "checks and balances" to prevent the very abuse of power that we are seeing unfold before our very eyes. They must not have wanted to get anything done either, huh?

And just where does his Excellency get off assuming the American public wants what he's serving up? Again, the 2010 midterms were a pretty clear indication from where we sit that the electorate had enough of his Keynesian hocus pocus with respect to the economy and joblessness and were horrified that he made Bush look like a mere piker when it came to running up the national debt.

Face it, people. You're cheerleading for Bush's 4th term.




Time to re-do the math (O > W)

* = newbies since the last update

Closing Keeping open Gitmo.

Ending Formalizing the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists.

Ending Maintaining military tribunals.

Not letting unemployment get above 8 10.5 percent with a $800 billion stimulus package.

Discontinuing Continuing other Bush-era policies like rendition, Project Gunrunner and TARP.

Ending Throwing into warp drive the politicization of the Justice Department under the leadership of the biggest hack in the administration.

Engineering a bankruptcy cramdown of domestic auto companies that will most likely cost the U.S. tax-payers tens of billions of dollars.

* Interpreting the Patriot Act to collect information on people via mobile phone geolocating *

A crony capitalism that is disguised as a green jobs program.

* Including Fisker, SunPower and Beacon Hill

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Engaging in an act of war against a country that posed no threat whatsoever to the U.S. with without the consent of Congress.

Swift Painfully slow response to national disasters.

Ending Maintaining the practice of signing statements.

* Subjecting our national security to an expensive green technology boondoggle that doubles down on the cronyism. *

* For you visual types, how about a federal government - Goldman Sachs Venn diagram? (thanks, W.C. ) *

Signing off on predator drone strikes for the ostensible purpose of assassinating a foreign head of state. And then doing so.

Using executive orders and administrative actions and generally subverting the role of Congress in order to enact his agenda.

Shutting down Operating a seeming revolving door between the White House and Wall Street and K Street.

Pushing through health care reform legislation in the sleaziest, most cynical, un-hopenchangey and business-as-usual manner possible.

Authorizing a program to assassinate American civilians. (We had previously neglected to add this rather Bushian but never Bush-authorized program. Shame on us.)

Actually authorizing a drone strike hit that killed American-born Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan (from this point forward, we never... never want to hear a peep about water-boarding)

And adopting another Bush-like tendency in combating the war on terror: refusing to provide the legal justification for the killing of U.S. citizens.

Got Tebow?

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Our blog-buddy Harrison over at Capitol Commentary gives his take on the Tim Tebow phenomena. He's not a big fan of Tebowing though he uses solid Scripturally-based logic to make his case.

In his post, he called us out specifically for our thoughts on the matter for which we obliged. The following is our edited-up comment:

We have zero issues with Tebow and his Tebowing. In reality, sports figures have been Tebowing and praising God in interviews for years now.

A confluence of circumstances have led to this: an overtly spiritual young man (who actually appears to walk the talk) and absolutely the most improbable, absurd, and fun! sports runs that we have ever witnessed. These week-after-week Indiana Jones-like cliff hangers defy all logic and conventional wisdom.

If Tebow remained buried at #4 on the depth chart, all this, of course, would be a non-issue. But head coach John Fox and general manager, John Elway bowed to popular pressure knowing that there was no way in hell heck that this Heisman Trophy winner with the atrocious mechanics and unconventional style would succeed in the NFL: Put him out there, watch him flail, bench him for good and get on with business. Well, well, well.

Early in the run, it was priceless to see Elway up in the luxury box gritting his teeth and grimacing as if to say, "Damn Dang, this kid is actually going to pull this thing out, again."

Our advise to opposing players (and for everyone else out there) who take issue with Tebow getting too Jesus-y: Keep him and his Bronco teammates out of the endzone in the last two minutes of the game and in overtime which appears to be the only time the Broncos score.

Full disclosure: We are Charger fans… but still can’t help but having our ever-lovin’ brains blown away by this guy’s performances every week.

P.S. Tebow was mic’ed up for last week’s game against the Bears. When he was praying during the game-winning field goal, he was essentially desiring to give glory to God win OR lose.

Now, this might not represent the most noble logic but another reason why we're just enjoying the heck out of this ride is, of course, because Tebow is cheezing off all the right people.

Here's liberal tool, Bill Press, illustrating perfectly, our point.





For those of you in Placentia, California, "S-T-F-U" translates to "Shut the f#@k up".

Just some more of that new civility we've been hearing so much about.

And for Press to become so exorcised and agitated over someone who merely plays professional football and is of absolutely zero consequence to Press's life, we won't have to waste a whole lot of time wondering who is the real disgrace and embarrassment here.

MAXED OUT: FRANZISKANER HEFE-WEISSE

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Max's top 10 countdown continues...

Alright you crazy kids of craft, let’s get right down to the
nitty-gritty. I am at the tail end of my favorite beers of all time.
Let’s recap: Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza, Hitichino XH, Moonlight
Reality Czech, Delirium Tremmens, Ballast Point Victory at Sea,
Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, Pizza Port OB Cho Saiko, St. Louis Grand
Fond Tradition… and now, for the ninth and final before the final
final… we have… the beer that introduced me to good beer!

FRANZISKANER HEFE-WEISSE!!!!!!

This beer would never be in my top 10 favorite beers of all time
other than the fact that this represents the beer that brought me into
the community. This is MY ‘gateway beer!’ I KNOW! Now you all know
the secret behind the madness. You know the man behind the curtain.
You know Franziskaner is the beer that brought me to you.

Franziskaner is a 5% ABV hefe that features heavy clove. By clove, I
mean banana. It is a nutritiously delicious beer that brightens your
life with citrus and delightfulness. Do you all remember when I asked
you what a good breakfast beer was? This is the epitome of a GREAT
breakfast beer. This is the reason that you wake up in the morning.

OK. So I know a lot of you think that throwing a lemon/orange in
your beer makes it taste like delicious. WRONG!!! The way to do it
is to SQUEEZE the lemon into your beer and set the lemon to the side.
The reason for this is that the acid doesn’t overwhelm your beer when
you simply squeeze it into the beer. OK. Now you know. And as GI
Joe says, "knowing is half the battle".

Next week I will unveil it. Maybe. My FAVORITE BEER OF ALL
TIME!!!!!! Maybe. Tell me yours. I’m curious.

Until next time my beer-loving brethren, have a beer for me.

(ed. note: our favorite beer... Hmmmmm... gonna need to chew on that for a while. And do some refresher research. Can't let something this important be left strictly from memory.)