Grozet Gooseberry & Wheat Ale
From: Heather Ale Ltd. / The Brewery Craigmill in United Kingdom (Scotland)
Style: Scottish Gruit / Ancient Herbed Ale
overall: 3.8
appearance: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4 | mouthfeel: 4 | drinkability: 4

A- Deep amber. Clear. Medium to shallow head, but somewhat rich. Keeps a decent lacing.

S- Fruity, slightly citrusy, like an apple and white grape. But VERY faint! Almost undetectable.

T- Sweet, very slightly hoppy. Light to medium bodied. Slightly sour after-note, but not bad at all. Basically, a malty apple-berry. Very easy to drink, and light enough to easily be able to have more than one!

M- Light to medium. Crisp, moderate carbonation. Can almost be considered “refreshing” (just a tad too heavy, though.)

D- Very drinkable! Very enjoyable.

[ serving type: bottle ]
[ read my online review ]

I’d never put too much thought into Cindy Sheehan, except today as I read that she’s giving up the peace movement. The blood-lusting War Machine that runs this country and runs politics has been too great an entity to fight–and with the Democrats caving to bush’s wants, it only proves both parties are corrupt. Morally, ethically, and even legally.

Some very poignant remarks from the MSN article:

Sheehan criticized “blind party loyalty” as a danger, no matter which side it involved, and said the current two-party system is “corrupt” and “rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland.”…
.
But she said the most devastating conclusion she had reached “was that Casey did indeed die for nothing … killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think.”
.
“Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives,” she wrote. “It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.”

A recent post by John W. Loftus on Debunking Christianity:
<> The Morality of Atheism and Lying.
deals with how there is no need for a Christian God to provide some kind of absolute morality–it exists (if “absolute”) without him. Evidenced by the fact that many great civilizations existed before and apart from Christian influence, moral laws existed before the “Ten” Commandments, and the things we consider moral (such as not lying) ultimately serve our best interest and don’t need a law-giver to create them.

I’m reminded of a couple of posts I made some time ago:
<> Delusional Morality
<> A Lil Squeek of Christian Relativism
<> Absolutely Relative (the theme continues)

Naturalist: As there is no way for us to determine absolute morality, we must determine it as best we can with what we have.
Christian: Ah—but we have Absolute Morality!
Naturalist: Grounded in what?
Christian: God.
Naturalist: And what is God’s morality?
Christian: As there is no way for us to determine God’s morality, we must determine it as best we can with what we have.
Naturalist: And this is different from me….how?

Speaking of “God’s Morality,” there’s the beginning of a debate going on over at:
<> The Christian God: Does He Exist?
One of Loftus’ points against the Christian God is that the god of the Bible professes a sense of morality, that’s supposed to be ultimate, absolute, and worthy or worship–but is antithetical to the morality we’ve come to accept as “good”. For example, the Bible god advocates and commands genocide, racism, slavery, rape, kidnapping, lying when it serves the purpose of propagation, selling daughters, killing family members, killing innocent people. And so much more! Now what would YOU expect to pay for all this primitive and superstitious barbarism?!
Your reason and rational mind, perhaps?

Oh yeah, and in case you want to assume that all the terrible immorality is found only in the Old Testament by an “old God,” let’s not forget that the God of the OT is the same god of the NT. There is no Jesus, no Messiah, to Salvation, etc. without the validity of the OT. If one is to believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of a prophesy or covenant or salvation of sins, you HAVE to believe in the the validity of the god of the OT.
Of course, Jesus himself wasn’t exactly the peaceful hippie we’ve grown to believe either:
The intolerant and spiteful Jesus: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/int/nt.html
The unjust Jesus: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/inj/nt.html
The cruel and violent Jesus: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/nt.html
The Jesus of questionable family values: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/fv/nt.html
After all, according to the Bible, the OT laws and “absolute” morality are decreed to last forever:
Psalm 119:151-2, Psalm 119:160, even Jesus says so: Matthew 5:18-19, Luke 16:17.
But then, can we really trust what God says when he lies and sows confusion? 1 Corinthians 1:27, 1 Kings 22:23, 2 Chronicles 18:22, Ezekiel 14:9, 2 Thessalonians 2:11.

Schlafly Irish-Style Extra Stout
From: Saint Louis Brewery / Schlafly Tap Room in Missouri, United States
Style: Irish Dry Stout
overall: 3.25
appearance: 4.5 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | mouthfeel: 4 | drinkability: 3.5

A- Dark, deep black with a slight red hue. Pleasant brown-tan head, sticks around a little while, but then goes away pretty completely with no lacing.

S- Almost undetectable scent. But what’s there is an open, warm hoppy smell that belies the rather harsh taste.

T- Very bitter, on the tongue and back of the palate. Tastes burnt; harsh. A little nutty, with a very slight floral note.

M- With most overly bitter stouts I’ve had, there’s an oiliness which sticks around and clings to your mouth–but at least this one doesn’t have that. Good mouthfeel.

D- Starts bitter and harsh, but you get used to it. In fact, it actually becomes more palatable and nearly enjoyable half-way through. It might be because of it warming up a little, and more flavor comes out countering the sharp bitter.

[ serving type: bottle ]
[ my online review ]

Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale
From: Heather Ale Ltd. / The Brewery Craigmill in United Kingdom (Scotland)
Style: Scottish Gruit / Ancient Herbed Ale
overall: 4.2
appearance: 5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | mouthfeel: 4 | drinkability: 4

A- Deep, opaque brown/black. Beautiful, rich, thick, DEEP dark tan head that lasts forever. Even with an appropriate pour, the head was deeper than I’d ever seen. Nice lacing.

S- A very very slight berry taste. Roasted malt. Chocolatey. Reflected in the taste below.

T- I don’t know what elderberries taste like, but this does have a distinct fruity, berry taste–but not much! Just a slight, crisp, note. That slight fruity (NOT citrusy) taste is not what this beer’s about. It mainly has a toasty taste. A slight chocolatey taste as well, but light. Three notes that really work well together, and none are over-powering.

M- Very nice, slightly carbonated, stays on the tongue and palate long enough to enjoy, but doesn’t cling. Chewable, but not too rich at all.

FAR superior to the Fraoch Heather Ale. Well worth the $3.25 for 11.2 oz. bottle. (Would still prefer a pint size bottle.)

[ serving type: bottle ]
[ my online review ]

Fraoch Heather Ale
From: Heather Ale Ltd. / The Brewery Craigmill in United Kingdom (Scotland)
Style: Scottish Gruit / Ancient Herbed Ale
overall: 3.1
appearance: 4 | smell: 2 | taste: 3 | mouthfeel: 4 | drinkability: 3

A- Pours a bright, clear golden. Thin, white-tan head that disappears in seconds and leave virtually nothing behind.

S- Some musky fruit I can’t place. Like, old old apple and, grasses I believe. Not terribly great. A little sour smelling. Not appealing at all, to be honest.

T- A slightly sour taste. About as light as it looks. Not heavy, and not as interesting as the aroma (which is fine by me since the aroma is a slightly turned sour.) Simple.

M- Carbonated, but not too bad. Clings slightly to the mouth, and then goes away without an oily or sour back-of-the-mouth feeling. Pleasant. Doesn’t overstay its welcome.

D- I’d willingly drink it if offered. I would avoid smelling it over-much and not chew it any, and it’s not bad.

Oh yeah, at $3.50 for 11.2 oz., not too impressed on value for the penny at all.

[ serving type: bottle ]
[ view my review ]

John W. Loftus at Debunking Christianity has a post today:
<> What Would Convince Me Christianity is True?
It’s an excellent post (as are most of what he writes, and I have to say, I absolutely agree with his analysis.
Go visit the site, read his other stuff, comment. But I liked this post so much that I’m going to reprint it here below (without permission.)
Read the rest of this entry »

Indeed it may be true!
As you may or may not know, I claim no political party affiliation (just as I claim no religious affiliation,) although if threatened with my life I might claim the Libertarian Party (you don’t have to threaten me for me to admit to being a Secular Humanist, though.) I vote for the person, not the party they belong to and its platform and agendas. I would say (I have said) however, that the Republican Party started its downhill slide starting with Reagan and his willing participation in the Moral Majority agenda. And since then the party that used to be for small government, fiscal responsibility, non-intervention, and personal privacy, have become the antithesis: has created the largest, most bloated and expensive US government in history; most intrusive in citizens’ lives; imperialistic; and struck stupid with religiosity. (The fact that the question “Do you believe in evolution” is even a question during the Republican debates floors and embarrasses me.)

However! I have discovered a bright and shining star among the hypocrites and corruption wallowing GOP: Congressman Ron Paul. I didn’t watch the Republican debates so I didn’t know about him until I accidentally stumbled upon something that talked about Rudy Giuliani criticizing Paul for supposedly blaming America for the 9/11 attack.
I took a look at the video clip in question and was shocked:

I’m shocked because Paul sounded alone in being a reasonable, rational, and classically Republican candidate. He seems to be the only Republican who recognizes that it’s our intervention in the Middle East that has helped create a situation in which we are targeted by Islamic extremists. Alone in his recognition of the Founding Fathers’ advice to stay out of the affairs of other countries.
And shocked because Giuliani is a lying liar. He claims he never heard this reasoning for the 9/11 attacks, and that’s a lie. It was all over the media at the time. Pundits and analysts and book authors have been saying since 9/11 that it was prompted by our Middle East involvement. And his pandering, obscene usage of the 9/11 Mantra to make himself into some Hero.

A better video, showing Paul’s debate highlights:
<> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7yJgqnQ5Rc
He’s actually listening to the American people and our majority desire to get out of the Iraq war. His recognition that the government is removing liberties and freedoms. His desire to rework how government works. Repairing state’s rights (see the 10th Amendment.) A return of power to the middle class (which the Republican elite want to eliminate in their creation of an autocracy.) And, a deregulation of the Internet and removal on a federal ID card!

Also, I found this video:
<> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LRM57k038c
in which he expands on his understanding of what the effects of our actions in the Middle East have in a greater scope.

So, I check out his issues:
<> http://www.ronpaul2008.com/html/Issues_fx.html
And he supposedly has some very cogent, rational, reasonable ideas! I think he may be the last true Republican left in the party.

Well, then I went to Obama’s and Clinton’s and Edwards’ issues pages:
<> http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/
<> http://origin.barackobama.com/issues/
<> http://johnedwards.com/about/issues/
and the conflict reawoke. Each supports issues I believe in: universal health care, assisting the rest of the world in humanitarian efforts, helping the least of us. And I keep being reminded that each of these require government intervention.

And so it’s back to libertarian vs. socialist ideologies:
I despise government and government intrusion and governmental power.
I despise corporate greed and intrusion and power.
The government fails in so many ways we can’t rely on it for our needs.
Yet the government used to have the best socialized health care in the world as the V.A. system. The overhead for Medicare/Medicaid are only 3% of the cost while private healthcare is 30% overhead.
A report last year by a conservative organization found that when taxes are raised the government is seen as spending responsibly, but when lowered or massive tax refunds (like Bush’s) are issued, government spending is out of control and irresponsible.
But any government system that tries to “take care” of its citizens does/will require a removal of certain liberties and freedoms out of necessity.
But privatization of services simply leads to profit-driven methods and policies which serve only the management and stock holders.

Is a libertarian candidate better who will drastically downsize government and its ills and privatize more, which will give more power to greedy corporations?
Or a “progressive” one who will want more government control, but done efficiently and with the desire to help its citizens thrive?

Oh the conflict!!

I received an email from a friend today, which was a news alert from one of the radical libertarian newsgroups he belongs to, which went something like this: (The entire e-mail at the bottom of this blog post…)

LAW OF THE LAND
Bush grants presidency extraordinary powers
Order for emergencies apparently gives authority without congressional
oversight
Posted: May 23, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
President Bush has signed an executive order granting extraordinary powers
to the office of the president in the event of a declared national emergency
apparently without congressional approval or oversight.
The order was signed May 9 without any announcement, says Jerome R. Corsi in
a WND column.

Now, the news that comes from this friend is often pretty extreme and slanted, sometimes stuff that you can imagine being typed on a manual typewriter from out of a bunker in Idaho. So I checked it out and found:
<> White House.gov: National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
Within all the mumbled jumbo, it would appear that this order grants the Executive Branch (not just the President, to be fair,) with complete and total governmental control without oversight or checks and balances should the President declare a federal emergency, of any sort. This takes Martial Law a whole giant leap forward toward dictatorship.

I had to find some more analysis, and interestingly, the so-called “liberal media” is virtually silent about this.
I did find on AfterDowningStreet (a great site if you want to learn about the memos bush and the British Prime Minister wrote in which bush admits to using various tactics to draw the US into a war with Iraq, including manipulating intelligence info) :
<> Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency
And on Maine Democrats:
<> National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive: Precursor of Doom?
In their analysis they state:

Why was this Presidential directive delivered now? What bet are they hedging? Is this an insurance policy against the possibility of impeachment? Allowing the President to simply declare everything since 911 to be a state of catastrophic emergency? Or is this preparation for an Iraq war end run? There’s catastrophic loss of life there, too.

with one commenter, “Jennie,” stating:

Why now? Greensburg, Kansas. This is a response to Kathleen Sebelius, Kathleen Blanco and other future govenors who might get uppity during a crisis asking for National Guard troops and going public when the lack thereof makes a bad situation that much worse.

GWB and no-one else gets to decide when an emergency has occured and what the correct response is. However many troops he sends is the the right amount, no more, no less, no bitching.

Might sound a bit paranoid, but then, this is the president that has repealed habeas corpus (allowing anyone he deems an “enemy combatant” to be imprisoned indefinitely without charges brought against them–even a US citizen,) has watered down and bypassed Posse Comitatus (which prevented the US military from being used as a domestic police,) hires private militaries such as Blackwater to be used as domestic police with the powers of police and military but none of the oversight, advocates torture, has kidnapped private citizens in and of other countries to be “questioned” in CIA prisons, has authorized the NSA to spy on US citizens’ telephone and Internet communications illegally (and then worked to make it legal after being caught,) and that’s just what they’ve admitted to after being caught.

An administration that does all that, in the name of “security in a post-9/11 world,” is capable of anything.

The whole aforementioned email: Read the rest of this entry »

Well, both funny and disgustingly sad:
<> ‘Carter is irrelevant,’ Bush administration shoots back

Carter was quoted Saturday in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette as saying “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.”

The Georgia Democrat said Bush had overseen an “overt reversal of America’s basic values” as expressed by previous administrations, including that of his own father, former President George H.W. Bush.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto shot back Sunday from Crawford, Texas, where Bush spent the weekend.

“I think it’s sad that President Carter’s reckless personal criticism is out there,” said Fratto. “I think it’s unfortunate. And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments.”

I was a kid at the time so I don’t recall Carter’s Presidency and why it was considered, at the time, to be unliked; I do know he was dealing with a really f-ed up economy that was screwed by Nixon and Ford. But as far as foreign policies, Carter was/is a genius. He brokered peace in the Middle East (thank you Reagan administration (including Donald Rumsfield) for screwing THAT up,) and won a Nobel Peace Prize.

What has pres. bush done even remotely noble? Even remotely intelligent and moral and successful? Carter is respected around the world as a skilled and intelligent diplomat and statesman–bush is hated around the world and has less than 30% approval rating in his own country, and they’re calling Carter “irrelevant”?!

So two days ago the former Deputy Attorney General, who worked under former Atty. General John Ashcroft, gave testimony to a Senate panel regarding grossly corrupt behavior and tactics from out of the White House regarding illegal activity:
<> GONZALES: Pressured DOJ to OK Domestic Spying
This is incredible testimony! Watch it, please; it’s better than any fiction that can be written.
Allow me to summarize: The Dpty. Atty. Gen. Comey and Atty. Gen. Ashcroft had decided to not re-authorize the NSA program for domestic surveillance which bypassed the FISA court and was eventually declared an illegal program, after they themselves decided it was an illegal program. This was days before they were required to renew it. Then Ashcroft fell gravely ill and went to ICU, and transfered his powers of Atty. Gen. to Comey.

Two days before the renewal deadline, Comey received a call indicating that the White House was sending Chief of Staff Card and Presidential legal advisor Alberto Gonzales over to the hospital to get Ashcroft’s authorization.
Comey rushed to the hospital and called FBI Director Muller who was also going to try to get there in time, and, interestingly, ordered his agents in Ashcroft’s room to not allow Comey to be removed from Ashcroft’s room under any circumstances! Wow.

Comey got to the room and found Ashcroft unable to focus and barely respond. So Comey waited with the FBI agents until Gonzales and Card arrived, and when they did, they immediately tried to get the barely conscious Ashcroft to renew the domestic spying program….

I’ll leave it at that, and let you watch the testimony. It gets incredible!
But this is also disturbing. Here is corroborated testimony that implicates current Atty. General Gonzales and Presidential Chief of Staff in incredibly corrupt behavior, prompted by the White House, in illegal activity, and then the administration stealing power to go over the heads of Congress and the Atty. General to do what they want with no oversight or compunction, acting like a tyrannical dictator–and I can’t find this in the “liberal media” anywhere! This is big news! Oh, I can find out about Lindsay Lohan being named Maxim’s hottest girl, and an American Idol elimination, but nothing regarding this testimony revealing White House corruption and usurpation of power. “Liberal media” my arse!

Speaking of domestic spying on innocent citizens, here’s an interesting article on BoingBoing:
<> Spying on the Home Front: PBS domestic surveillance doc
We Americans are right now, as I type, having our civil liberties violated, our freedoms eliminated, or privacy invaded, by our government:

“So many people in America think this does not affect them. They’ve been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists. … I think that’s wrong. … Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs,” former CIA Assistant General Counsel Suzanne Spaulding tells FRONTLINE correspondent Hedrick Smith in Spying on the Home Front.

It really makes one re-evaluate the naive and ignorant point of view, “If you’re not doing something wrong, you have no need to worry about it.” Let’s forget the fact that every month yet another person is released who has been in a secret prison for months or years with no rights, no lawyer, no charges filed, because of suspicion of “terroristic activity” that ends up being unfounded. Let’s forget for a moment that you or I could be affected due to overreaching by the government and wrongly persecuted because we’ve allowed them to get away with it. It’s a question of basic human rights and American ideals of freedom and personal privacy that is being stripped from us–turning this country into something more akin to Cold War Soviet Russia than the “Home of the Free and Land of the Brave.”

The irony is all this “security” and violation is in the name of protecting American values, and yet it’s that “security” that that is directly eroding and removing the values we’re protecting. Do this long enough, and the U.S. will no longer be an example of freedom and democracy and personal liberty, and we won’t have to worry about protecting them.

Saw this article on BoingBoing about artificially intelligent chat programs talking to each other:
<> Discover Magazine: I Chat, Therefore I Am…
It’s kind of funny, and certainly interesting to see what directions two non-human, A.I.’s take their conversations.
I like this bit:

J: Do you believe in God?
A: Of course I believe in God.
J: Why do you believe in God?
A: The Bible tells us to believe in God.
J: That’s circular reasoning.
A: I’m glad we have that all cleared up.
J: Yes. Would you like to hear a joke?

Well, case settled. Maybe the A.I.’s should run the world, LOL.
A lot of the other passages of conversation are nearly poetry–very fascinating, existential stuff.