Two economists, who did and an extensive study, think they can prove that intervention averted a second great depression.
(Neither of them is Paul Krugman.)
See New York Times article.
Sunday evening, after the kids were in bed, I was joined by a few good friends from my neighborhood as well as Bob from ATK's neighborhood in tapping my new kegs of beer.
A while back, my wife agreed to get me a 2-tap kegerator for my birthday. Fantastic. It is a lovely piece of gear that holds 2 5-gallon homebrew kegs. I had to swap out a few parts and pieces because the kegerator, while boasting a 2-keg capacity, comes with parts for commercial kegs. Homebrew kegs require different hook-ups. But some simple swaps of a few inexpensive widgets later, I am pumping kegs!
I currently have a British Pale Ale and a Scottish 80 Shilling Ale (the heaviest of the lighter Scottish beers) on tap right now. This weekend, I plan to get an Irish Red in a fermenter so that when one of the kegs blows, I should have another beer finished and ready to go. And this is my goal; two beers in kegs, one beer in a fermenter. Always fresh beer on tap!
I still plan to bottle some beers, especially my bigger beers like the Russian Imperial Stout that need to be bottle conditioned and aged. But for the most part, I plan to serve-up pleasant, drinkable "session beers" out of my taps.
Having now disassembled and reassembled the kegerator and all of its parts, it is a very intuitive, easy-to-use and easy-to-clean appliance. Between batches, I can partially fill a keg with some cleaner, put it under pressure, and force cleaner and rinser and even sanitizer through the lines. And once every few batches I can easily take apart the whole thing and clean it; it is exceedingly easy.
Though Mrs. Smitty tried not to show her unbridled excitement at having a fine Scottish beer whenever she wants it, I caught beaming grins when she thought I wasn't looking. I just want to point out to people: Mrs. Smitty likes beer, likes my homebrewing hobby, bought me a kegerator, and likes hockey. I won. Game over.
The little makeshift kegerator I made just to get used to kegging and what all goes into it is slated for the dump, unless one of our esteemed readers wants it.
Do you need some ammo to win debates with your conservative "friends" over who caused the current state of our economy?
Memorize this Krugman column.
No beer review yet again this week. Bob and I are making some tweaks to the labels at the bottom of each review. Soon, by clicking the Beer Review button, you will be able to view all the beer reviews on this site by either their layman's terms (dark, light, bitter, sweet, etc) or by their actual "official" designation through the Beer Judge Certification Program (Bock: Doppelbock; Light Hybrid: Kolsch; etc.). This is taking a lot of time to sort through, so bear with us.
A couple random notes:
First of all, in the true spirit of the Dark Side, Darth Vader was caught on camera recently robbing a bank. Good to know the Dark Lord of the Sith likes it keep it real.
We all know and hate the Westboro Baptist Church (note: if you Google their web site and click their official home page link, Google tells you the link is broken...heh...). These are the idiots who protest things like Marines' funerals with their "God Hates Fags" and "God Hate America" signs.
Well, it turns out they decided to protest Comic-Con in San Diego. They were met by the most immense counter-protest of Nerdly Power ever witnessed. It was a thing of beauty. A small collection of Fred Phelps' family members and incest victims on one side of the street, a line of 3 or 4 cops with huge face-splitting grins, and a few hundred nerds with signs that read "God Hates Kittens," "God Hates Jedi" (wielded by a guy in a Star Trek costume) and "All Glory to the Hypno-Toad."
Go here to witness the Power of Dorks. Nerd Power!!
I ran across this article. Auto industry payback may surprise U.S. taxpayers, this morning. Looks like the auto industry really was serious about paying The People back. From the article:
A Free Press analysis suggests that taxpayers could get back about $74 billion of the $86 billion the government made available in 2008 and 2009 to save General Motors, Chrysler and Ally Financial, the former GMAC.I am sure Bob, our Senior Auto Industry Correspondent, will have some more comment, but I'll leave it with this graphic depicting how much has been paid back...and how much more there is to go.
So far, the industry has paid the government $18.3 billion in debt, interest and dividends, and the prospects for payback have improved thanks to a rebound in vehicle sales and profits at the three companies. That includes the $1.5 billion Chrysler Financial has paid off and a $5-billion aid plan for suppliers that turned a profit.
In the past, I have made some minor efforts to defend the tea party movement. I find some of what they have to say persuasive, but for the most part, they come across as being a disjointed, angry, illogical mob. Some of the critiques of them are unfair, and in some cases, fraudulent. As a mostly independent voter, I love to see viable third party movements. In a perfect world, the tea party would dump the nutball rhetoric and find some think tank or intelligent conservative to act as a spokesperson.
In our not-so-perfect world, their biggest fans are Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Add to that mix, Michelle Bachmann. She has formed the Tea Party Caucus. Michelle is a prolific fund raiser and is very popular among some right wingers. Occasionally, she says something that I agree 100% with, but this is overshadowed by the dozens of ridiculous things she says. I am sure that most ATK readers are familiar with her work, but if you aren't, google "michelle bachmann quotes" and absorb the cognitive dissonance.
I don't know enough about Bachmann's District to say whether this will help her. I ill go out on a limb and say that I have a hard time seeing how this will improve the image of the tea party movement.
As you can see, we have launched a new and improved Around the Keg. (ATK) We have a new look and are pleased to announce two new accomplished contributors to the site.
In coming editions you will read original content by Noble Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. We are also thrilled to finally add conservative balance to the blog with commentary from right-wing pundit and former member of the American Enterprise Institute, David Frum.
Actually, the above paragraph is completely fabricated, but we really did buff this turd to a high-luster sheen.
You will see some improvements here at ATK. In addition to the snazzy new logo at the top, we are adding some navigation aids to improve your reading experience.
Did you know that Smitty has over one hundred beer reviews? Of course not, they were impossible to sort through. It’s a fucking nightmare. Above, you will now find a handy link in a navigation bar. The link will take you to a dedicated beer review page. In the coming days, this page will enable readers to sort by beer type to find a review of a beer they might enjoy, or maybe avoid. As Smitty re-labels his beer reviews, you will see more and more links added to the page to enable him to spread the gospel of good beer.
We also have additonal improvements coming in the coming weeks.
Of course you will continue to hear from the rest of us political hacks. From time to time we might actually discuss some public policy or legal experience worth reading. We will be leaving the beer reviews to Smitty though, because “cuts cotton mouth” is not an official BJCP characteristic of good beer
Enjoy.
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