Move On

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Finally, Trump and the Birther Brigade can pour a hot cup of shut the fuck up.

Now let's watch all the birthers play Calvinball and say they need even more proof. I think The Onion is spot-on about the next wave of birther controversy.

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Royal Snobs

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

This settles it.

The royal marriage is doomed.

With their nuptials just days away, reports say Prince William and Kate Middleton have decided no beer or hard liquor will be served at their reception.

...

Reports say palace officials and the couple felt it was inappropriate for guests to be drinking beer and spirits in front of the Queen.
Need I say more?

I searched the internet and came across the flowchart below. Using this flowchart, it is easy to see that one of the most appropriate drinks for a wedding is beer (look in the upper left quadrant of the flowchart and you will see a direct line from "are you at a wedding" to "beer"). Clearly, the money the Royal Couple has paid to their wedding planner is wasted; they never consulted this handy chart.

[flowchart source: Brookston Beer Bulletin and artist Melissa Schmechel]

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Dearborn Responds

Monday, April 25, 2011

Mayor O'Reilly, a fine Irish-American
I missed this, but apparently the Mayor of Dearborn, Jack O'Reilly, wrote an open letter to "Pastor" Terry Jones before Terry's silly protest.

Click that link. It's a great letter; cogent, calm, well-put. Some highlights:
I watched you on television speaking about the Constitution and Dearborn, and it appears you need more information about both before you come to our city.

...

The Constitution says that your rights must be balanced with the rights of others under the same document. Your free speech rights do not allow you to trespass on the private property of others or prevent them from the Constitutional right to freely practice their religion. I am not just talking about Muslims but members of all faiths.

The members of the Christian churches on Altar Road asked me last week if they should cancel their Good Friday services because of your planned visit. I assured them that they should not because the Constitution does not allow you to violate their rights. I don’t know why you selected Good Friday but it wasn’t very considerate of the significant Christian services being held at that time. I assure you that you will not make them forfeit their services.

...

There is no Sharia Law in Dearborn, only Constitutional Law. Sharia Law is church- or faith-based law that is applicable only to the followers of that faith...The actual originator of the event you plan to hold in Dearborn, Frank Fiorello of the Fraternal Order of the Dragon, accepted my invitation to learn more about Dearborn, and after seeing the truth, he canceled his protest.

But, if you don’t believe that Dearborn follows the Constitution, here are some realistic facts for you. Businesses in Dearborn lawfully meet the diverse needs of our Greater Detroit area, but if Dearborn practiced Sharia Law, would we have ... more alcohol licensed bars and restaurants per capita than most other cities? None of that should be allowed under Sharia Law.

How about this? A business we boast about, the nationally known Dearborn Sausage, opened more than 60 years ago across the street from the first mosque in Dearborn and is famous for its sausages and spiral sliced hams. It is one of many meat packing operations in our City and no one has ever objected. [Sharia Law expressly forbidding pork; note added by me]

Dearborn is also famous for The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, where more than 1.5 million visitors come each year from across the country and the world to learn about the foundations of our American way of life.
I could go on, but you get the point. It's a nice letter. It plays Terry for the fool he is and in essence plays anyone small-minded enough to believe his or other reactionaries' hype and nonsense.

His closer is spot on: "As we work hard to balance your rights with the rights of others in Dearborn, you will be extended every courtesy during your visit – as long as you follow the law based on the Constitution’s protection of everyone’s rights. That should be a familiar statement to you."

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The Limits of Free Speech

Friday, April 22, 2011




Pastor Terry Jones seems to be giving Fred Phelps competition for the title of most offensive 'christian'. His latest stunt brings him to my state where he plans on staging a rally in front of a Dearborn Mosque against "the radical element of Islam." Local officals have expressed concern that things may get out of hand and have asked him to put of money to help pay for some of the massive amount of security that will have to be deployed. He has refused and there is a hearing scheduled later today to decide if he has to pay.

Not surprisingly, the ACLU has come out in support of the right of Terry Jones to protest and said that the government cannot impnge on someone's free speech rights. I can see both sides of this and the fact that Jones is so offensive makes it hard to support him in any way. This would be a security nightmare. Jones has a 1.2 million dollar bounty on his head from some Pakistani group and I am sure that there are many others that want him dead. On the other hand, with 'free speech zones' and other similar pratcices, are we seeing a gradual erosion of free speech rights? What kinds of constraints should the state put on groups when they want to protest? The Supreme Court has said time and time again, that content-based restrictions are unconstitutional, so does this amount to a de facto contetnt-based restriction?

Personally, I wish that the media and everyone else would ignore this guy, but that isn't going to happen. In the alternative, I would like to see a massive, peaceful, counter-protest.

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Question of the Day

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Here's a question for you history and political geeks to discuss.

Do you think the United States, in its present form of 50 States, will still exist in 100 years?

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Today In Beer

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

BrewDog Brewery in Scotland has yet again pushed the envelope with their beer. In "honor" of Prince William and Kate's Royal Wedding (these are Scots, remember...no love lost and all), they have brewed up Royal Verility Performance Ale. A beer brewed with viagra.

A limited-edition beer containing Viagra to mark the forthcoming royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29th. Brewed using various well known aphrodisiacs, the limited edition artisanal beer will only be available to buy from the BrewDog.com website.

According to the specially commissioned label, the Royal Virility Performance contains Viagra, chocolate, Horny Goat Weed and ‘a healthy dose of sarcasm’. The beer is a 7.5% ABV India Pale Ale and has been brewed at BrewDog’s brewery in Fraserburgh.

In other news, Sam Adams (always a solid brewery) is soon to release special edition cases of their Latitude 48 brew. Latitude 48 is an IPA brewed with several varities of hops all grown on the 48th Latitude.

Along with that agressively-hopped IPA will be single-hop varieties of of Latitude 48; From the article:
Our source says the Variety Pack will be a 12 pack, featuring the Sam Adams Latitude 48 IPA as well as several single-hop editions of the beer. It’s basically a beer-tasting school in a box!

The single-hop versions of the beer (confirmed by recently-approved label variations over at BeerNews.org) will be Hallertau, Simcoe, East Kent Golding, Ahtanum and Zeus.
Essentially, each case will include 2 bottles of Latitude 48, and 2 bottles of each type of "Deconstructed Latitude 48." EAch hop used in the main beer will have its own beer in this variety pack.

This is awesome for several reasons; why I really like it is that it will give drinkers a chance to really taste what very different types of hops do to a beer individually; what Hallertau tastes like, what Simcoe tastes like, etc. What a unique way to present your real, complex beer: by deconstructing it. I'm geeked.

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Another Dose of Daily Awesome

Friday, April 15, 2011

Dick Durbin, in response to the mendacious comments of JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, essentially tells the credit industry to go roundly fuck itself. I would put quotes of some of my favorite "pour yourself a hot cup of Shut The Fuck Up" lines, but really it's the whole letter that gives me a half-chub.

Go read the whole letter. It's only 4 1/2 short, massively-margined pages, but Durbin goes point-counterpoint and it is as sexy as SI's Swimsuit Edition.

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Your Dose of Daily AWESOME

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

This pretty much caps my day: Lionel Richie and Rob Zombie singing Brick House. What does one do with their day after seeing this?

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Testify

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I ran across the video below this morning. This video inspired me. Carl Sagan's words are...poetic. Moving. My third time through, I still felt emotional about this video.

I want to share it with you. Watch it. I hope it moved you, appropriately on a Sunday, as much as it moved me. This is all the sermon on need; indeed it's a sermon that I feel inside.

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2nd Most High Holy Day of Extreme Magnitude

Thursday, April 07, 2011

This day in history, April 7, 1933, Prohibition is repealed for beer!

Beer, making people happy, including this lady who's about to down 6.
Though December is the repeal of prohibition altogether via the ratification of the 21st amendment (December 5, 1933, to be exact), FDR's signature on this bill certainly paved the way for total repeal.

This bill wasn't perfect; it only allowed beers to be 3.2% or less ABV, but we can with all honesty say that yet again, beer led a revolution and became the first legal alcoholic beverage since the ratification of the18th amendment in January of 1919 and the passage of the Volstead Act later that year (October).

So hoist a pint of beer tonight...for beer!

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Partisanship and Religion in the Workplace.

Monday, April 04, 2011

Late last week I found the following printed on a sheet of paper and posted anonymously above the copier in the office where I work:

“Solution to the problem in Libya:
They want a new Muslim leader, I say give them ours…
Solves 2 problems.”
This item pissed me off, but I held off responding until I thought about it. As a manager, I have the ability to address the item to the entire staff, but am unsure if I too am just being partisan.

It bugs me for multiple reasons.  Not only is it tin-foil-hat, Obama-is-a-Muslim crap, it touches on religion and politics.  We work in a state government office, so we need to avoid partisanship.  I am considering the following statement to our staff:

"Last week I found some commentary posted above the copier that I found troubling.

The printed item (which I won’t reprint) could be seen as a silly joke. It could also be read as conspiracy theorist nonsense or partisanship in the workplace. At worst, it could be read as religious intolerance.

We all come from different backgrounds religiously, politically, and culturally. Overall we work well together. Our diversity is a real strength. Let’s keep it that way."
Am I just being too sensitive? What are your thoughts?

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Drink Michigan - Jolly Pumpkin Review

My 2nd official review for Drink Michigan is up and running today. This time, it's Jolly Pumpkin's iO. Go check it out!

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