Glibertarians.com 2018 Archive

Category: Opinion

BIF – Not just a guy from Back to the Future

Not like this. They gotta catch me first.

mexican sharpshooter has left the country temporarily, therefore he will cede the floor to Glibs participating in the BIF until he returns.

By Nephilium

Some of you may have seen my frequent posts about something called a BIF, and wondered what I was talking about. So, the participants in this most recent BIF have written up some blurbs so you can see what it’s all about (blame Yusef for the idea… Slainte Yusef!). First off, a BIF stands for Beer It Forward. The concept is you have a bunch of people who are interested in trying new beers sign up. Then you can either do a shotgun BIF (all participants ship to someone else at around the same time), or a chain BIF (a package wends its way through a list of participants, with people choosing someone off the list to ship to). The chain BIF can add a bit of excitement, as you never know when you’re getting a package, but it has the problem of long delays, and the possibility of the chain getting broken (life happens). So, for the two BIF’s I’ve ran here, they’ve been shotgun BIF’s.

Each participant was asked to put together a package that contained between 72 – 90 ounces of local beers. Why 72 – 90 ounces? It allows for a six pack of 12 oz cans/bottles, or four 22 oz bombers. Swag was permitted, but not expected. Each person was asked for their address, and beer preferences, which were passed along to the person shipping to them. I then split the participants up (roughly) by region, and randomly assigned people to ship to a different region then the one they were in. So… without further ado, we’ll start with…

Yusef, who Nephilium shipped to:

I moved to Canon City Colorado in 1995, left my Wife behind to pack while I made Money and found a Home.It got boring so I went to the Library( they didn’t have Internet back then in Colorado) and found some books about Beer, not making it, but what types and styles, and why, etc. My First real craft Beer was a New Belgium Fat Tire Brown Ale, and I was Hooked.

Not my photo, or Yusef’s

Trappist Monk Ales, Scotch Ales, anything new and different. Came back to Shit Hole Land in 1998 and found `tons of great microbreweries and have enjoyed Good beer ever since.

First off is a Sour Ale called Smiley faces from Platform Brewery, This Beer Stinks, Really, it smells of something God Awful yet tastes Delicious, Super Cloudy and Dense, 4/5

Next is FatHeads Sunshine Daydream, a Session Ipa, Some Fruity notes, and a Nutty finish, 3.5/5, it keeps hanging on through my Drunkenness, + Rammstein

Next up, Hopping Frog Infusion A, Coffee Porter, 6.2% Ambrosia in a glass, the Peanut Butter comes through before the Coffee, making for a Wonderful taste, and Thicc too, like I like my Women. 5/5 it’s that good.

Habutuale was Disappointing, it’s a good Kolsch, and finishes with a bitterness that I like, so I guess it’s good, for a Kolsch, 3/5

Bed Head Red, Sounds like me waking up, but instead is a solid, good drinker, nothing weird, and it doesn’t stink, a solid 4/5

Sibling Revelry Blood Brood, Well, Cloud City is calling, they want there Beer back, It stinks, yet tastes very good, the Haze makes me wonder how I’ll Poop tomorrow, 3.7/5

Thanks to Nephilium for putting this all together,

SKOL!

July 7, 2018
ZARDOZ VS. DEAR ABBY – FAST FOOD WHORE EDITION

ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES.

ZARDOZ WILL PROVIDE THE IMPROVED ADVICE HIS CHOSEN ONES HAVE COME TO EXPECT. THE BRUTAL DEAR ABBY PROVIDES RIDICULOUS, OVERSIMPLIFIED SOLUTIONS PERPETUATING THE SCOURGE OF BRUTALITY…

DEAR ABBY: My husband has become very overweight, which has caused his sex drive — as well as his health — to suffer. I worry about him constantly, and I miss the intimacy we used to have. He is aware of how I feel and started trying to eat healthier. He also tries to exercise at least a little bit every day.

The problem is he constantly falls off the wagon. Sometimes he says he’s too tired to exercise, or he reverts back to his old habits and ends up eating fast food. He always tries again the next day, but he won’t make much progress at the rate he’s going.

I don’t want to nag him to death, but I do want him around for a long time. What can I say that will make him take this more seriously? — ALL ABOUT HEALTH IN ALABAMA

DEAR ALL ABOUT HEALTH: I FAIL TO SEE THE PROBLEM. THE WAY ZARDOZ SEES IT, THE PENIS IS EVIL, THE PENIS SHOOTS SEEDS THAT CREATE NEW LIFE. YOUR BRUTAL HUSBAND’S PREFERENCE FOR OVER PROCESSED, GMO LADEN FOOD IS EXPECTED – AS IT IS THE PLAN ZARDOZ PUT IN MOTION TO CLEANSE THE FILTH OF BRUTALS FROM THE EARTH, AS IT ONCE WAS.

YUMMY FAST FOOD LEADS TO AN INABILITY FOR BRUTAL HUSBANDS TO UTILIZE THE PENIS FOR ITS INTENDED PURPOSE AND ALLOWS BRUTAL HUSBAND TO IGNORE BRUTAL WIFE’S PROPOSITIONS. IT ALSO EASES THE BURDEN ON BRUTAL EXTERMINATORS, AS IT IS EASIER TO CLEANSE THE EARTH OF BRUTALS, WHEN THEIR CARDIO IS SO POOR THEY CANNOT RUN FROM THEIR CLEANSING.

“That last bunch was easy…they could hardly waddle away from us!”

ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are both active duty military. We have been married for three years and have an 18-month-old daughter together. My husband is sweet, handsome and a great father. We got married very quickly, and I think that’s where our problems began.

He isn’t good at communication or showing affection, which leaves me feeling lonely. This, on top of being separated several times due to the military, makes for a very shaky marriage. I have cheated on him with eight different people since our wedding. The affair I am most ashamed of was when I was pregnant with our daughter.

I’m currently in counseling, but I’m still unable to curb my cravings. He always forgives me and allows us to continue being married. The problem is, I don’t know if he’s really the one for me. I know cheating is wrong and that I’m not only hurting him, but my daughter as well.

Should we divorce? Or should we continue trying to be together? We have talked about marriage counseling, but we are separated so much it makes it hard to get into a good groove. — IS HE THE ONE FOR ME?

DEAR IS HE: LAST I CHECKED YOU KNEW SEPARATION WAS PART OF YOUR MARRIAGE WHEN THE BRUTAL RECRUITER CONVINCED YOU TO SIGN AN ENLISTMENT CONTRACT. ZARDOZ CANNOT DECIDE WHICH OF YOU HE HATES MORE: YOU FOR REPEATED ATTEMPTS AT THE CREATION OF NEW LIFE AS THE BARRACKS BICYCLE, OR YOUR MISERABLE BRUTAL HUSBAND FOR HIS FAILURE TO CLEANSE THE EARTH OF YOUR PRESENCE. ZARDOZ CANNOT EVEN…

YOU WILL BOTH REPORT AT 0430 WHERE YOU WILL SPEND THE REMAINING DAYS COLLECTING GRAIN FOR THE VORTEX.

FARM HARDER, MAGGOTS!

ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN.

July 6, 2018
Spring Beer it Forward Part 1

Lookie, Lookie. I have “something” for “you.”

It finally came to pass. Upon receipt of a Glib’s name and address, I boxed up the promised Grand Canyon Shaggy Bock along with a few others I thought would be of interest. Unfortunately, Stouts tend to fall out of favor earlier in the year in Arizona than other parts of the country so I did the best I could.

On the flip side, a little under a week later I received a message from UPS and the Glib who drew my name both confirming there was a package at my door.

This is my review of Big Ditch Excavator Rye Brown Ale. Hat Tip: Lackadaisical

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Buffalo, ditches are not what come to mind. Normally, it’s hot wings, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jim Kelly and lemon scent heavy starch.

Not this guy

According to the handwritten note (nice touch, BTW) I also received, the big ditch refers to the Erie Canal. For those of us that were fans of the NFL and/or Chris Berman in the 90’s, this is not a reference to the former starting quarterback of NY (football) Giants: Danny (Erie) Kanell.

The Erie Canal was one of the first infrastructure projects in the United States. Its purpose was to connect the northeast with the rest of the country by digging a waterway starting from Troy, NY to Rome, Syracuse, Rochester and finally ending in Buffalo at Lake Erie. From there, ships could travel via the Great Lakes to ports in the midwest. Congress easily passed an appropriation for the project but interestingly enough it was vetoed by president James Monroe because, get this—he thought the idea was unconstitutional.

Jefferson didnt much care for it either (emphasis mine).

1817 June 16. (Jefferson to Albert Gallatin). “You will have learned that an act for internal improvement, after passing both Houses, was negatived by the President. The act was founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in the Constitution which authorizes Congress ‘to lay taxes to pay the debts and provide for the general welfare,’ was an extension of the powers specifically enumerated to whatever would promote the general welfare…it was never meant they should provide for that welfare but by the exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not place under their action…I think the passage and rejection of this bill a fortunate incident…[it] will settle forever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a mere grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General Government in a claim of universal power.”

How quaint. I’m getting another beer.

Nevertheless, the project was eventually funded by the state of New York and construction began on July 4, 1817. Given the time, construction was done the hard way—with picks and shovels. Yes, the work was done mostly by immigrants.

The canal is viewed by many historians as a success. Within 15 years of construction New York City became the largest port in the country by tonnage processed, exceeding Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans—combined. Nearly 80% of the population of Upstate New York lives within 25 miles of the canal because many cities grew around the canal, much like people later settled around railways and major highways.

Is this beer any good? If you have been following my weekly beer review you might know that I happen to fancy brown ale as well as rye beer. Naturally the combination of the two I found most enjoyable. Big Ditch Excavator Rye Brown Ale: 4.2/5

Also included was the Hayburner IPA.

This isn’t as overpowering as most IPA, so if you happen to be the type that is in search of the most horrifying, tear inducing IPA possible—keep looking. If you happen to be more of a traditionalist as far as IPA is concerned, you may like this. If you happen to find the idea of IPA to be in poor taste, stick to what you like. Big Ditch Hayburner IPA: 3.5/5

More to come on the Spring Beer it Forward…stay tuned.

June 30, 2018
What Are We Reading – June 2018

Read a book, read a book, read a motherfuckin’ book.

Old Man With Candy

I always have a geek book at hand, and this past month, my constant companion has been Electrochemical Methods: Fundamentals and Applications mostly because I have suddenly been given a new role at work which requires some of this expertise, and there’s not much opportunity to fake it. I was immediately and uncomfortably made aware of how much physical chemistry I have forgotten in the mmmmph years since I was in college. Well, at least I remembered the Nernst equation.

A discussion with SugarFree got me to pick up my copy of The Eyre Affair, the first of the Thursday Next series. I bought this the last time I was in England visiting my favorite author- he and I went book shopping and he urged me to give Jasper Fforde a try. He was right. Delightful mix of surrealism, science fiction, alternate history, and literary geekiness, sort of a Douglas Adams with better writing.

SugarFree

I’ve been on a horror kick. I re-read The Tommyknockers for the first time since it first came out. It remains one of the more interesting failures of Stephen King’s long career. The basic premise is sound and portions of the book are fantastic but–like much King’s work–it needed an editor, a very heavy-handed editor. It could lose a hundred or so pages and be a masterpiece for it. The TV miniseries is a rather dreary affair, hampered by poor casting and bad special effects.

I read a dozen or so King short stories afterward as a palate cleanser–most of Night Shift and parts of Skeleton Crew–and watched all the TV and movie adaptations where they have been made. The only thing I really have to say is that Linda Hamilton might be wearing the least erotic pair of shorts ever produced for the female body in 1984’s The Children of the Corn.

I read Nick Cutter’s first two books, The Troop and The Deep. The Troop is an effective and nasty little piece of splattercore, so efficient and complete that I cannot understand how it isn’t a movie yet (it even acknowledges a structural debt to Carrie that a movie adaptation could ignore.) The Deep is more ambitious, but I found it a little too derivative to be truly enjoyable, mashing up Solaris, Event Horizon, Sphere, The Abyss and any number of demonic possession stories to surface to an ambiguous ending.

Finally, I read The Soldier, the first book in a new trilogy by Neal Asher, set once again in his sprawling Polity Universe. It is his usual sort of meth-freak out science fiction overdrive that you either adore or hate. The new trilogy is picking up my favorite narrative thread of his work and my least favorite narrative thread and tying them together into an interstitial tale that doesn’t quite break his continuity but does manage to whack it in the knee with a length of pipe a few times. I’m along for the ride, though, Neal.

Riven

I have really been slacking. The only books I’ve read this month were the childhood books I incidentally read while unpacking the last three boxes my parents were very graciously still storing for me in their garage. I kid you not when I say that my sister and I read this edition of Mother Goose to pieces. It was already well-loved by the time I “inherited” it from my sister, who is only five years my senior. If you are looking for a good book for a very young child, look no further. The illustrations are beautiful and are more than enough to capture the imagination of a child who can’t read yet. And it’s a great book for a kid to grow in to because the rhymes are simple and easy to read.

Other notable childhood mentions are: Mooncake, Dinotopia (The World Beneath), Four Little Kittens, and The Poky Little Puppy. So, if you want to raise a crazy little libertarian chick, there’s a few ideas. Don’t forget to include plenty of Berenstain Bears (just be sure you pronounce it correctly), and go ahead and throw in some age-occasionally-appropriate spooky stories like Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Eyes of the Dragon, and (one of my favorites) The Iron Dragon’s Daughter.

mexican sharpshooter

Yesterday, I read the Very Hungry Caterpillar to my son. Its a classic coming of age tale of a caterpillar coming to terms with a body shaming public that refuses to accept his outward appearance. They simply do not understand the caterpillar and drives him to seek refuge in food as a coping mechanism. The joke however is on society, as the caterpillar shelters himself away from the world, and shows them all what he becomes.

SP

Lots of mindless reading this month while on the road to and from Montana, most of which doesn’t deserve mentioning, so I won’t.

Sorta enjoyed the latest Agent Pendergast book, City of Endless Night, but it seemed much weaker than previous works in the series. As usual, I knew the identity of the villain as soon as xe was introduced.

I’ve started Robert Dugoni’s David Sloane series. I’m only a bit into book 1, The Jury Master, so haven’t quite formed an opinion yet. I am not generally a huge fan of lawyer novels (or lawyers, with a couple notable exceptions), but this seems less wrapped up in the legal story lines than most in the genre.

In audio, I’m currently listening to The Final Cut by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison. It has two narrators, Renee Raudman and MacLeod Andrews, neither of whom I’ve heard before. I like it so far, but I’m not that far into it since I only allow myself to listen to books when on solo roadtrips or as a reward while cleaning (of which I’ve not been doing much!).

Brett L

I toted along the first book in the Kvothe Series (I think its officially called the Kingkiller Chronicles, but since the author has spent seven years NOT RELEASING THE BOOK WHERE A KING GETS KILLED, I’m just going with the the name of the main character) to the beach to re-read. And then I read the 2nd volume and then I read the final oh wait, no. Rothfuss and GRRM are still having that contest about who gives less of a fuck about finishing his series. I read the Racing Weight book on the advice of Deadhead in the Glibfit series. I started the plan but then bombed out. Will attempt a restart on Sunday.

Finally, I have been listening to Jordon Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos on and off. I won’t say it changed my life, although I appreciate his perspective on some things. It’s like listening to the reverse version of a preacher who uses science and psychology. Or maybe it like taking an ethics class from a Jesuit? I don’t know how else to describe Dr. Peterson’s somewhat unique insistence on the Bible as a central allegory to our current civilization, while fully acknowledging an embracing FW Nietzsche’s critique of religion. What comes through clearly on the audiobook of Dr. Peterson reading his own book is that he believes what he wrote. I am glad to have listened to it, even if I’m not going to choose to clean my room, today.

jesse.in.mb

Recently had some flights and managed to put away quite a bit this month. The Dark Monk (A Hangman’s Daughter Tale Book 2) by Oliver Pötzsch: I enjoyed this one (I wrote about the first book in March) although there’s some minor element of the passing that I find off-putting, but not so off-putting I won’t read the next book. Finding Camlann: A Novel by Sean Pidgeon: frumpy archaeologist and a pretty Welsh linguist with turbulent personal relationships with other people investigate rumors of Arthurian legend and find each other. Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir by Cinelle Barnes makes me appreciate my…uh…problematic parents much more. While some part of me wonders if it suffers from some of the issues associated with I, Rigoberta Menchu, the story she tells is riveting.

Web Dominatrix

I haven’t been reading much this month since I’ve been so busy, but I just ordered (yet again) a copy of The Enneagram Made Easy. This book is my go to for all things Enneagram and really helps me understand myself better and those around me.

I’ve had to order it again because I keep giving it away to people when I realise they’ve never read it because it really is that useful and interesting.

Not Adahn

I primarily read RPG manuals for entertainment these days. I like them. They have worldbuilding, a peek at how things work backstage (which is something I like) and they can be read in whatever chunks of time I have without interrupting a narrative flow. This month:

Star Wars: The Role Playing Game, by West End Games. This came out in 1987, so if you want to know how Star Wars geeks thought about how the SW universe worked back in the day (with input from the studios that still had Jedi fresh in their mind), here’s your answer. TL;DR: George Lucas retcons every goddamned thing. Also interesting is looking back and seeing how sacred canon used to be. Unlike today, where every game designer puts his personal self-insert fanfic headcanon into the games they work on (Did you know that all elves in D&D are trans now?) this book treats the movies as inviolable fact. There are only two Jedi masters left, and no, you character can’t meet them. Which really sucks if you want to play a Jedi as the game allows that there might be a few minor Jedi that escaped the purges, but without real training, your character is going to be crippled. But having Obi-Wan or Yoda meet another potential student would completely fuck the storyline so it’s disallowed.

Ars Magica 3rd Edition, by Wizards of the Coast. Is there any company that has done more to destroy the gaming industry than WOTC? They make one massively successful game, buy up everyone else, then it turns out that they’re not very good designers, they just got lucky once. This piece of crap follows in that tradition. I have a copy of the first edition of Ars Magica (by Lion Rampant games) and like everyone else loved the setting, the concepts behind the game, the alien medievalism, and found the mechanics a bit baffling when they weren’t clear but clunky. This book is literally five times the thickness of the first one, but completely fails at being any more clarifying. It guts the medieval mindset for a modern one and slathers on all sorts of 1990’s-era White Wolf emo crap and d10 rolling. In fact, this is so much a WW game, I had to double check to make sure it was WOTC. Unless WOTC bought WW which could very well have happened. And it became an even less-playable game. In fact, with the mutli-character concept, most of the playing is done solo filling out spreadsheets (which would be an excellent use of downtime between gaming sessions) except that it requires everyone in the group to be there watching you fill out your spreadsheet and approving your choices. Who would actually want to play this? Nobody. Which is why they made advancing your character so freakishly impossible — nobody is going to play this twice so those rules don’t matter. If you want to play an actual “I’m a wizard, I can do everything” game, you’ll need to get a copy of Mage: The Ascension.

June 29, 2018
The Wit and Wisdom of Cardi B
- My slogan for my [Presidential] campaign is – “ISIS, Suck a Dick!” Remember, America! Suck a dick! Suck a dick. Suck a whole lot a dick. Vote for me!
- I put niggas to sleep like Jigglypuff.
- It’s cold outside, but I’m still lookin’ like a thottie, because a ho never gets cold.
- Ride the dick like a BMX. No nigga wanna be my ex.
- Eleanore Roosevelt, she did so much for the Blacks. That’s my bitch! And we got the same birthday – October 11!
- Ever since I took that etiquette class, all I wanna do now is white people activities.
- Everybody want to be a rapper. Fuck your dreams! Get a job.
- God forbid, the government tries to take us over, and we can’t defend ourselves because we don’t have no weapons. How do you think American colonizers went to Africa and it was so easy for them to get those people? Because they had guns. No matter what weapon you have, you can’t beat a gun. They have weapons like nuclear bombs that we don’t have. So imagine us not having any weapons at all.
June 28, 2018
The Personal Vs The Political
The thing that attracts me to libertarianism (well, actually I call my own philosophy Constitutional Property Rights Minarchism, but more on that in a later post) is that it is a governing philosophy based on an idea of how society can best survive while respecting the individual. At the purest level it isn’t about how a person should live their life, but how they should be governed, if at all.

Pictured, a leftist’s idea of the common man

What grinds my gears, as Family Guy’s Peter Griffen said, is people who purport to be libertarian who try to tell me what I should accept on a personal level. The idea is to live and let live while keeping the peace, not to control people’s thoughts. Actually, on a personal level, I disagree with a lot of things that are popular in many libertarian circles, and that isn’t a problem for me. Because to me libertarianism isn’t about structuring society, it’s about structuring government.

This is the part where I get into the personal. There are no ‘to be sures,’ there are no caveats. These are the things I feel in my bones on a personal level. I am unashamed of them, this is who I am. I do not judge others by the same standard that I judge myself; I’m much harsher on myself. If I imposed my personal beliefs through politics, the place I create probably wouldn’t be much more free than a caliphate.
1. I have never shot a gun. I do not want to.
2. I do not believe any marriage outside the Catholic church is legitimate.
3. The Catholic church does not recognize gay marriage.
4. I do not believe there should be sex outside of marriage.
5. Except for beer, cigarettes and painkillers, drugs are bad, MKay.
Pictured: Commie Pope

This is not to say I loathe or hate anyone who does any of the above; but I will judge you by your actions, and I am free to disassociate with you as I feel fit if your actions abhor me. For anyone complaining that I wouldn’t personally recognize gay marriage, know that I also don’t recognize the marriage of my brother who got married by a justice of the peace. I hold no animus towards him or his ‘wife’, I just don’t consider them married. They are living together and raising their children and that is just fine, but they are not married in my eyes and are violating rule 4 that I would impose on myself but not others.

Now for the political. Well, all of those points have no place here. As long as people don’t harm each other or respective property, I have no problems. If I can’t convince you that my personal morals are correct, I have no right to force them on you. Choosing the way we govern ourselves is not the same as the way we personally act. Governance should be about understanding the rights inherent in being a human and respecting that. It is a whole other post to describe the nature of rights, as well as to explain my CPRM philosophy. I might get around to that, if you haven’t rejected me as a pariah by then.

We’re all individuals but if we work together we can put Heimdall out of a job.
June 25, 2018
Sense of Decency

Back in the day it was determined that certain things brought people together. When enough people in a small group unite for common cause, one might just call them a team. Under most circumstances, teams are a good thing, but what is it they are uniting under?

A pin-up girl.

This is my review of Auburn Alehouse Pu240 Imperial IPA.

In 1944 the US Army Air Corps aircrew under Regulation 35-22, were allowed to decorate their aircraft with nose art, so long as they were done so with a “sense of decency.” This was done in contrast with the US Navy/Marines, who did not allow nose art at the time. The Air Corps allowed it because such images raised morale.

Nose art does not necessarily mean only pin-up girls. This is really a continuation of a tradition some believe date to the Greeks painting eyes on their Triemes. The German Luftwaffe was believed to be the first to paint the iconic shark mouth on Bf. 110. This lead to the Royal Air Force copying them, and finally the First American Volunteer Group—better known as the Flying Tigers. The US. Air Force to this day pays homage to these aviators with the A-10. Another example is aircrews using cartoon characters such as Donald Duck, to decorate their planes.

That said, we just remember the pin-up girls. Aircrews in the Pacific Theater took advantage of their lower public profile and often had art that pushed the bounds of the decency rule, such as Butterfly Baby but the most famous planes in that part of the world had no girls at all. This in contrast with planes such as Memphis Belle from the Mighty 8^th AF in England were a bit more understated. So…here you go.

[Insert Tail Gunner Joke Here]

Thankfully, Auburn makes an IPA that lives up to their artwork. If you are a fan of this style, or you are the type that like to drink exactly one beer over the course of hours, this one is a good call. Good body, pungent hop aroma and a healthy abv. Auburn Alehouse Pu240 Imperial IPA: 3.8/5.

June 16, 2018
I Don’t Like These People; Here’s Why!

Really?

Virtue signaling…it’s everywhere isn’t it? At first it wasn’t that irritating, because it was easily ignored. The only people doing it were the usual suspects that would go away when their 15 minutes of fame were up. Then Twitter came along and verified how much everybody is stupid—except for you. It drives people to drink. Then the booze merchants had to get in on the act.

I promised myself that when I finally found this I would take it out to the desert and shoot it. Sadly, it was more expensive than I anticipated so I decided I needed to get back at Stone. How can I do it if don’t have a Twitter account?

This is my review of Budweiser Freedom Reserve Lager (limited release).

I figure the best way to stick it to them is to leave it on the shelf and buy something else that doesn’t suit Stone’s standard of “independentness.” Even if Budweisser is technically virtue signaling with this one, at least its one I can get behind. For the astonishing price of $16.99 for a dirty dozen, Budweiser will donate a percentage of the proceeds to Folds of Honor, a Veteran’s charity.

The problem I have with a lot of Veterans charities is how many of them, to put it bluntly: suck. Turns out Veterans like any other seemingly disadvantaged group are used to prey on the compassion of others. In fairness, if somebody wants to donate money, so long as everything is voluntary it is perfectly acceptable for a well meaning individual to do so.

The most well known example of such a charity is the Wounded Warrior Project. To put it politely: they suck ass. Given their celebrity endorsements, merchandising, being schilled by Bill O’Reilly every night for ten years, and their extensive marketing campaign it should be no surprise they have a high overhead. I would find it acceptable if that was the only questionable thing they were spending their donations on. TW: NY Times. Except it wasn’t; they were actually paying their executives $½ million salaries and hosting events at five star hotels. It got to the point where Charity Navigator gave them a D rating after they spent 40% of their revenue on overhead. They got better, but for many it’s too little too late. Then there are other scheisters who will use their well-known name to enrich themselves.

Brand new spinter vans cost money, yo.

They’re not the only ones, even DAV got a poor rating. This one is my personal favorite, run by a VA employee.

One I do like is Pat Tillman Foundation. I’ve participated in one of their events called Pat’s Run, where Arizona State hosts a 4.2 mile long run around Tempe Town Lake and ending at Sun Devil Stadium. Why the odd distance? He was number 42 at Arizona State. Its a scholarship fund.

Folds of Honor seems legitimate enough to me, they too are a scholarship fund.

About this beer: if you are leaving it on the shelf because you think it’s going to suck—it might surprise you. It’s a malty red lager based on a recipe recovered at Mount Vernon. Obviously, it’s different due to Washington predating lagers. My only complaint is it could use a bit more body but to be completely honest, this one doesn’t suck. Budweiser Freedom Reserve Lager (limited release): 3/5

June 9, 2018
Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Search for Silver Lining

This week, the Supreme Court (or SCOTUS, for the cool kids / kids who don’t like to type long words), released their opinion in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop V Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Because it’s 2018 and up is down, white is black, and the Black Panther is an Alt-Right parable, SCOTUS rules that the Colorado Civil Right Commission technically lived up to their name and violated someone’s civil rights. Kids, this is why you call your fundraiser the “Race for the Cure” not the “Walk for Cancer.”

Everyone expected a bombshell, and most people think this decision was a dud. Everyone was expecting something along the lines of ‘No, you can’t force someone to bake that cake.’ What we got instead was a ruling that said the Civil Rights Commission clearly hates religious people and therefor their finding is thrown out.

I’m going to try to convince you that, for us weirdos, this may be a very important dud. Well, no. That’s too optimistic. I’m going to try to convince you it should be a very important dud, but it probably won’t be.

In broad strokes, Justice Kennedy wrote an opinion a few years ago requiring the government to recognize gay marriage. He threw in some language that people with religious objections might be wrong, but they aren’t evil. In standard Kennedy style, it was long on rhetoric and short on formal logic. Which is OK. It’s a style. But it’s one that makes it easy to ignore the parts you don’t like.

And boy howdy, did our finger-wagging betters ignore that part. But Kennedy really meant it. I’ll get back to that in a second. First, a diversion.

When thinking about history, context is king. Why does the First Amendment call out freedom of religion separately and additionally with freedom to assemble? Same reason we have the Second Amendment. The Founders knew their history and knew what went down in the British Civil Wars. What happened? Well, lots of wars. Some of it over state suppression of religion.

And it was very clear to the Founders. People will die for their religion. Worse, they’ll kill their neighbors over it. Better to take it off the table.

Over the next couple hundred years, this has mostly worked out for us libertarian and libertarian-adjacent folks. Sure, it’s not logically consistent to call out one kind of moral code and not another. It probably riles up the kind of libertarians who can spell deontological on the first try. But in the cause of liberty, I think religion has been a net positive. Martin Luther was a professor of theology. Martin Luther King was a reverend. An open and vibrant market in churches leads to better churches and a more vibrant religiosity of the population compared to state religion.

And, for the most part, we could rely on the legislative and executive branches of governments to protect generic mainline Protestant freedoms. Sorry Catholics, no public schools or wine on Sundays for you!

But the winds of change have been blowing, as anyone who read a newspaper after Obergefell could see. Legislatures and executives are now more protective of the new mainline morality: left of center secularism. The court, as we see in Obergefell, is good with this. In fact, they push farther than the other branches sometimes. How should we feel about this, as libertarians and libertarian-adjacent folk?

I think in principle, it’s probably a net win for liberty if it’s handled as a limit on state power. Let’s face it, “don’t shit on people with fringe theories of morality” is probably an abstract idea that we should be able to get behind. We’ve got fringy theories sometimes.

In practice, not so much. We aren’t seeing left-of-center-secularism leading to restraint on government. Instead, the whip is now lashing in a different direction. Surprise, surprise: the left-of-center is now motivated by animus and using state power to score points in the culture war. This is my shocked face.

I said Obergefell was kind of rhetorical. It was. It was lofty and nice. It was nice to people with deeply held religious opinions. “Many who deem same-sex marriage to be wrong reach that conclusion based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises, and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged here.” Most people skipped right over that and made with the disparaging. But they shouldn’t have. See, Kennedy has a very particular and idiosyncratic idea about how the government should relate to the populous. He thinks it shouldn’t be a tool of animus, used to beat down your political opponents. Crazy, right?

But this puts us in a funny spot. We have two big decisions that should work together. One says you can’t craft laws that oppress people just because your religion tells you to. One says you can’t act in a way that oppresses people just because you think they are scum.

I’m… I’m totally good with that. If we could use that as the basis for some formal logic, that takes us places. Polygamy laws were clearly put in place because people had religious differences with the Mormons and because people thought they were scum. Lots of zoning is pretty clearly an effort to keep ‘those people’ away from us nice folk, for various values of those and nice. Nixon started the drug war because he hated those long hair hippies always talking about peace and love and brotherhood and voting Democrat.

Do I think this is going to happen? Do I think SCOTUS is going to say that any of these rules were motivated by animus and should be thrown out? Nope. Kennedy isn’t all about that formal logic, and those in the know think he’s going to retire soon. And this is a test that is somewhere between mostly impossible and impossible to apply. All you have to do is mouth the right words if you are a public official. But there’s worse principals than “you can’t use government to crap on people.”

So I’m going to sit on my silver cloud here, and say that we are probably in a better place for liberty than we were last week. Even if not by much.

June 7, 2018
Spontaneous Cooking for…Two! Date Night Dinner

So far, I have mostly talked about cooking for one without recipes. I think everyone should have a more involved dinner they can make for date night. But, even a date night dinner doesn’t need a recipe.

Let’s think about what a good date night dinner should be. First, I think it should be something special, something that shows you like your date and want to impress them. By this I mean that it should be a little unexpected and, although it is something that takes more work than normal, it should look effortless. Second, you want to spend time with your date, not cooking. That means it should be something that allows you to do the work ahead of time. I’m going to show you how to make a chicken kiev type dish.

It is much easier than it sounds, it looks impressive and you can do almost all the work and clean up before your guest arrives. A chicken kiev type dish is a pounded chicken breast wrapped around a filling, usually a flavored butter, and then breaded.

First, make the filling. Traditional chicken kiev is filled with butter, garlic and parsley. Chicken cordon bleu uses ham and cheese. You could do sauteed onions and mushrooms. This is yet another canvas for experimentation; you are limited only by your imagination. I’m going to make a pesto type filling.

Pesto is basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, salt and olive oil. When I make pesto, I usually make a lot and freeze some. I put basil, chopped garlic, salt, toasted pine nuts, and parmesan in my food processor (a blender works too) and pulse it until it becomes a paste. At this point, I would normally add olive oil, but today I am going to scoop some out and mix it into softened butter.

Pesto Butter Prep

Then, I put down some plastic wrap and spread the pesto butter on it, roll it up and put it in the freezer.

Pesto Butter Prep 2

I am making a lot of the butter because I will use it in other recipes later.

Final Pesto Butter Prep – Ready to Freeze

You could do just enough for this dinner.

Minimal Butter Prep

Basically, this is a compound butter. You can do this with all kinds of herbs. A pat of butter mixed with red wine and herbs is sometimes used as a topping for steak. I put the butter mix in the freezer because we need it to be frozen when we cook the chicken. That helps prevent it running out of the breast, making a mess, and leaving dry chicken behind.

Next, pound out the chicken breasts. I put two small chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap and pound them thin.

Small Chicken Breasts

I have a meat mallet, but you could also use a small frying pan or sauce pan or even a rolling pin.

Alternate Pounding Tools

You want to make the chicken thin with a uniform thickness.

Pounded Chicken Breasts

Get the frozen butter from the freezer, unwrap, and cut a piece for each breast. Then roll the chicken around it and secure with toothpicks. Use plenty of toothpicks – you don’t want to leave it loose and have all your filling disappear when it cooks. Don’t stick the toothpicks through the filling. That just creates holes for the filling to leak out of. At least one or two toothpicks should be pushed through as if it were a pin in a piece of cloth – or, as if you were making a stitch.

Now we are ready to bread it.

Wrapped Breasts and Breading Prep

I add salt and pepper to each pan and paprika to the bread crumbs. I roll the breast in flour and shake off the excess. Dip it in a beaten egg, shake off the excess, then roll it in bread crumbs. I used panko, but you could use corn flakes, regular bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, dried potatoes, whatever. This will get messy, which is why I don’t have pictures of this process or wrapping the breasts. I didn’t want to get my phone all icky. When each one is done, I put it in a pan prepared with cooking spray.

Breaded

The breasts should rest to let the coating set. No matter what cooking method you choose – deep fried, pan fried, or baked – you need to let the breaded food rest for a while. Otherwise the breading will fall off. Maybe everyone else knew this, but when I learned this, it made a huge difference in my results.

The breasts should bake at 375F for 30-40 minutes. I usually turn them about half way through. When done, the breading should be brown and crispy.

Finished

As always, use a meat thermometer. Make sure you stick it into meat (the ends) and not the filling. Food poisoning isn’t sexy. I chose to bake this because I am making it for a date night. You could deep fry or pan fry it instead, but that would require you to monitor it while it is cooking, taking time away from your date.

You can do everything but bake the breasts a few hours ahead of your date, leaving you time to clean up the kitchen. It won’t hurt the breasts to spend time in the refrigerator. You could have the oven heated and put the breasts in when your date arrives, leaving time for a glass of wine.

A dinner needs a side dish. You could serve a pretty salad or boiled potatoes. It is a date night, so keep it light. I am making roasted cauliflower because I can bake it in the same pan as the breasts. Then I only have one messy dish. I just chopped it into florets, tossed them with olive oil, salt, and pepper and put it in the same pan as the chicken. The side dish you choose should pair well with the filling. In the final picture, you can see the filling, which can be used to help season the cauliflower.

Finished and Sliced

Fancy!

A date night dinner needs one more thing, a dessert. I’ll talk about that another time.

June 3, 2018