Drinking in the Big Easy

I'm in New Orleans for a trade show. This is the kind of town where you'd have to work it to have a bad meal. And from what I've had from Abita Brewing, you'd have to work at having a bad beer. These folks brew some tasty beers.

Have I mentioned that AT&T sucks?

More brewin'

I'm in the midst of a brew day right now. I just finished the boil for a new and improved version of my strong ale; new, improved, and slightly improvised!

My mash wasn't as efficient at I had hope, so I goosed up the OG with 2 pounds of brown sugar. I also had to play around with the hops. I didn't have as much of my chinook as I thought I did. So, I lengthened the boil by 10 minutes to pick the IBUs back up. Some people might have gone into freak-out mode at all that, and I might have too, but it was kinda fun figuring out these work-arounds on the fly.

This is all going onto the yeast cake from a batch of a new and improved version of Pooh's Blustery Ale.

With both of these, I did decoction mashes. I really like that rich, malty sweetness that this technique gives. (Technically speaking, the process yields melanoidins which give rise to this flavor.)

An update: OK... So the added sugar may not have been necessary. I forgot to calculate boil-off into the equation. My 5 gallon boil yielded about 4 gallon. So that SG of 1.072 that I thought I had turned  into 1.095.

Oops.

This is gonna be an ass kicker of an ale.

"I'm not dead yet"

Just a wee, pointless post to show that this isn't a zombie blog.

It was just a matter of time

Give the man enough time and he finally does something I can approve of. Obama is brewing beer in the White House

Nekkid Pichurs

Seriously? You mean there are still celebrities around who are stupid enough to keep naked pictures of themselves on their phones? I thought they had all learned by now that anything on a phone might a well be posted on a web server.

And let's be honest: If you take nekkid pictures of yourself, or allow someone else to take nekkid pictures of you, they're gonna wind up on the internet. I don't care what you intended or what that other person promised, your nekkid butt is going online. You want your naughty bits to stay private? Then keep the camera away from 'em.

Too much granularity?

The Obama administration has released a new medical billing code system.  Instead of a mere 18,000 different codes, there will be 140,000 codes. So how does your doctor know that a special code exists for your particular malady? Let's say that you come in with a burn you got on the backyard BBQ. How does he know that there's actually a special code for injuries sustained while grilling or smoking foods? (It's aY93G2, by the way.) And if he screws that up, will your insurance refuse to pay?

Kindle on a Linux box

I'm not sure what Jim Lynch is talking about in How to read Kindle books on Linux. I've been reading Kindle books just fine on my Linux box using Wine. If there are any compatibility issues with Kindle for Windows and Wine, I haven't run into them yet.

I almost got away with it

I'm sitting here next to an empty beer bottle. My wife walks by and asks "Did you drink that whole pint?" I responded "It was only 22 ounces." There followed 15 seconds of silence where I thought I had gotten away with that one.

Somehow, I thought there'd be more

A few weeks back, Verizon announced that they were ending their unlimited data packages. It doesn't affect me since I'm grandfathered in with an old plan. The new plan caps you at 2GB per month then they start to charge you out the wing wang for any overages.

Now when they announced this, I thought I was getting away with something with my old plan. I thought "Ha! You fools! I'll chew up data by the terabyte and there's nothing you can do to stop me! Muuwhaahaaaahaaaahaaaaahaaaa!" Well, I just checked my data usage for the month and found that I'm on track to use a whole gigabyte for this billing cycle.

...which makes me wonder: Just how much time must one spend on a smartphone to rack up 2GB?!?

The Precious

I was listening to Glenn Beck this morning on the drive to work. I had never caught his radio show before.

He had Sen. Rand Paul on and the two of them came up with a great analogy for John McCain before and after getting to DC: McCain before going to DC is Smeagol. The Beltway is the Ring Of Power. McCain then becomes Gollum after falling under the toxic influence of The Precious.

Something that bears repeating

Sen. Mark Rubio on the debt...

What could go wrong?

The way I see it, there are two bad outcomes that could emerge from the debt ceiling talks. Failing to reach a deal would mean that the US could default on some of its loans. This is bad because it impacts anyone else trying to borrow money. Federal debt is normally a sure thing for lenders. They charge a lower interest rate, but are sure of getting paid. Not so if the US defaults. That added risk will affect how they price loans for the rest of us.

The other bad outcome, and I think this is worse, would be a deal that fails to cut up Obama's credit cards. Raising the debt ceiling, without reducing the size of government, will just lead to endless replays of this same drama year after year. This means more borrowing and an unmanageable level of debt; or, it means astronomical taxes to service that debt. Either would be a bullet to the head of the economy.

All in all, the short term disruption of a default would be preferable to endless debt and taxation.

Tweeter-bots?

It didn't take me long to figure out that some people on Twitter aren't there to tweet so much as to collect followers. Getting their 1000th follower is more important than posting their 1000th tweet. So, I normally don't do the mutual follow-back thing on Twitter; follow me and I'll follow you. I changed this policy, however, when I set up the account for our local NRA Members' Council. I figured that the point there is to get pro-RKBA news to as many eyeballs as possible; even if those eyes only have eyes for the count of their followers. However, I just made an exception to that.

I had a follower who had no eyes.

I had this one follower show up to both accounts. On my BrewingAle account, I just didn't bother with the mutual follow back. I looked at this "person's" recent tweets and there was nothing interesting there. If they want to keep following me, fine. I'll pass on the clutter, though.

For the MC account, on the other hand, I did the follow back. At first I just ignored the tweets; silly, vacuous stuff that looked as though this person didn't understand how to reply to a tweet. Then I notice that the tweets fell into two categories: Tweets that referred to women's clothing and accessories, and tweets that looked like collections of random words strung together into somewhat grammatically correct sentences. It was that second group that tipped me off.

This is a robot!

The sentences followed a pattern: A proper name as the subject, not a Twitter handle; A verb, usually come conjugation of the verb "tweet"; and an adverb. Then I noticed another pattern: This person never sleeps. The tweets were showing at all day long, several every hour, 24/7. Also, the clothing related tweets looked like auto-generated responses to other tweets that mentioned these products. I'm guess that a search engine touched these off.

So what's the point of this 'bot? I suspect that it was a proof of concept program. The random sentences are just to collect followers while the product tweets were the payload. In this case, the writer was tweeting about other people's merchandise, but the final release would probably push his own wares.

Well, at least this spammer isn't stealing bandwidth or processor time on an infected machine.

Bin Ladin gets his raisins

I thought that he got smoked years ago. Oh well. Better late than never.

ATT Uverse... Don't do it!

I've decided that ATT Uverse just plain sucks. I haven't had Internet that cuts out this often since this ol' dial-up days. If you've been considering ATT, my advise is to go with anyone else!

BTW: I'm posting this via Verizon. ATT is on the fritz again!

Wow... Just wow...

Where does one begin? This video is just jam-packed with industrial grade stupid. I don't know which is worse... Jesse Jackson Jr. blaming the iPad for unemployment or him calling for the American people to choose jobs in obsolete industries over their 1st Amendment freedoms...

What morons decided that this pinhead belongs in Congress?

Term limits

One lifetime only?

Raul Castro proposes political term limits in Cuba | Top AP Stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

The sound of heads popping

I'm listening to Ted Nugent on NRA News right now. And if you listen carefully, you can hear the Pop! Pop! Pop! of liberal heads exploding in the distance.

A question of scale

Congress is near deadlocked over ~$40 billion in proposed cuts. How much is that compared to the Federal deficit? One commentator put it this way: If the deficit is a Quarter-pounder combo from McDonald's, the proposed cuts are ¹⁄₅ of one French fry in that combo.

The host saga

If you will recall, I wasn't very happy with the responses I got from FreeServers.com when I complained about their antiquated software (including an out-of-date server kernel). I never got a satisfactory answer from them; just apologies without any pledges to actually fix the problems. As a result, I moved that site off of their servers and onto a new host. The billing department, as opposed to tech support, actually sounded concerned about my complaints. To their credit, they didn't try to hard sell me into keeping their crappy service. I guess they've heard this before.

I moved that site to a host I've used before for other projects: ipower.com. I'm very happy with them. If you're looking for a web host, give them a look.

Not a pretty mental picture

Software Firm Looking To Hire Naked Coders - Slashdot

Atlas-Shrugged-Movie.com unavailable

This is a good sign, no matter how you look at it.



Either there are tons of people interested in the movie, or it's generating enough buzz to attract a DDoS attack from concerned looters.

Green energy

Fair and balanced?

George Skelton at the LA Times writes about "subversive" Republican activists thwarting the "democratic process" by holding GOP toes to the fire over Jerry Brown's tax schemes. There's a brief tease about how Brown's labor allies are just as inflexible. But does that point get further discussion? Of course not! That doesn't fit the media template.

So that's how that works

I was wondering how that last picture got to the right place. Clever Blogger uploaded it to my Picasa account. I had just hit the picture button without thinking about it.

A fine haul

Bottling again

That hefeweizen is finally ready to bottle. I'm also putting some of that American stout into bottles as well.

The stout really benefited from an extra month in the keg. The hops mellowed a bit. Now there's a bit less bitterness and more flavor from the hops. There was also a hard water bite that was overdone that's gone now. I suppose that next time I should do something to accentuate the malt character more.

Finally: Something that John Kerry and I can agree on

Reducing taxes on small brewers

The mysterious minds of TV executives

What's up with the execs at CBS? What part of "Charlie Sheen" didn't they understand when they hired Charlie Sheen? Why are they getting upset with him for acting like... well... Charlie Sheen?

There's just no way that the grand poobahs at CBS didn't know what they were getting when they cast Sheen on 2½ Men. If fact, they had to have been counting on Sheen's history as a dyed-in-the-wool Hollywood bad boy as a way to attract an audience. And he certainly has delivered over the years. So why act surprised and upset now?

Poor journalism

The York Press needs to hire better journalists.

This story from January 21 recounts the terrifying day that Englishman Tim Stark found a .22 cartridge lying in the street.

THE HORROR!!

But one question remains unanswered thanks to some shoddy reporting: Did Mr. Stark wet himself? And if so, did he wet himself before or after he made his frantic call to the police to report the dangerous bullet?

The vicious Fossgate Bullet!

I suppose that it's a good thing that there wasn't a rabbit nearby. Imagine the carnage that might have resulted!!

I also got rid of that Tweety button thing

Either no one clicks it or it doesn't work.

An unfortunate change

There used to be a list of FReeper blogs over there on the sidebar. I had to remove that because most seemed to be dead. The one exception is AnnaZ, who I've added to the blogroll.

Now I'm not the guy to lecture about neglected blogs, but at least one had never been posted to. Others hadn't seen the light of day since 2005. Why am I complaining? I got that list from another FReeper who put in quite a bit of effort compiling a list of FReeper blogs. I wish I could remember who that was. It's sad to see their work go for naught.

Bad host! No biscuit!

I'm getting increasingly annoyed with FreeServers.com.

I manage a website there using one of their paid plans. (Not the freebie service!) Specifically, the plan is advertised as one for those who want to use WordPress to manage a blog. (I used to use Blogger.com for that site's blog, but they stopped supporting self-hosted blogs using ftp. In short, I didn't want Google to have an off switch for that blog. They have that here with this blog, and they should. It's hosted on their server and on their dime.) The problem started when I decided that I wasn't happy with the way the thing looked.

WordPress, for those who don't know, is a blogging program that's hosted on a blog's web server. It runs using the common web site programming language PHP. As such, all of the templates that one can download to change the look of a blog are, in fact, little PHP programs themselves. They interact with each other and the main WP software. WP is now on version 3.1. FreeServers uses version 2.0.4; a rather hoary old version. Modern WP templates assume that a more modern version of WP is on the server. Do you know how difficult it is to find one that will work with 2.0.4?

Now, I could try a hack solution. The WP software actually lives in a directory that a FreeServers subscriber has access to. I could just overwrite the old software with the latest version. There's a problem with that plan, however. The latest WP requires the latest PHP to work; at least something newer than v.4.1.2. (PHP is now on v.5.3.5!) It would also require a more modern version of MySQL. WP uses this database to keep track of posts. The latest version is 5.5.9. FreeServers uses v.4.1.22. These two items can't be upgraded by a mere subscriber. The PHP and MySQL installations are out of reach to subscribers.

I did a little searching and found out just how old these versions are. WP and MySQL date to 2006. The version of PHP they are using dates to 2002.

And then it gets worse!

While I was digging, I found that they are also running an out-of-date version of the Linux kernel on their servers. V.2.4.9-31 also dates to 2002. This just went from irritating to scary! I'm no expert, but I'm guessing that any script-kiddie worth his proxy could find an old exploit code and pwn my site and every other site on that server.

And I'm paying for this?

I complained to FreeServers. They responded that upgrading software requires time. I guess 9 years isn't enough!

Will FreeServers tech support read this, get off their lazy asses, and fix the problem? I doubt it. They're probably still using IE6. I'm not sure they can view this page!

On the virtues of forgetfulness

Sometimes, forgetfulness can be a good thing.

My wife was rummaging around in the pantry and found some jars of homemade pickles that have been back there for nearly 3 years. I remember opening some jars from that batch back then and being less than happy with the results. I should have been more patient! These just needed some time to age. The flavors, once sharp and unpleasant, have mellowed. The vinegar dominated everything; now the spices and garlic come through.

I put a few bottles of 2010 Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale in the back of the pantry now. I intend to forget those for a while and see what happens.

BitTorrent hair pulling

I have been pulling my hair out trying to get my torrent client to make nice-nice with my ATT-UVerse supplied router. Long story short: It was just a bad torrent I was trying to download. (For the record, it wasn't that kind of torrent! I was trying to get a report on gun running, or the lack thereof, into Mexico.)

I don't know how, but the router had a program already using the default port for kTorrent. I just switched kTorrent to another randomly chosen port an we were off to the races.

Still bubblin' away

That Hefeweizen is still bubbling away in primary.

Caught on tape: Mexican military incursion into the US

A Mexican military vehicle with about a dozen armed men crossed into Texas near Mission. The incursion was caught on tape.

Drunken tweets

Drinking and tweeting is ill advised. C'mon... we all know, even three sheets to the wind, that we're really not as clever drunk as we think at the time. You're just gonna end up deleting something anyway, so don't even bother hitting "post". But this is especially true when you're posting with the boss' Twitter account!

High tech stuff

This is really just a test post. I'm having a little fun with Blogger for Android.

Talk about confusing

Argentina Confiscates U.S. Air Force Cargo - WSJ.com: The Argentines are apparently POd because Obama won't be stopping to visit their country. I have thought they'd be thanking us for not sending Jughead to them!

This blog

I got to looking at the content of this blog and realized something. I started this as a place for mostly political rants. It's morphed into mostly a blog about beer!

I suppose that one can only take so much of American politics before requiring a drink. It's also important that those of us involved in the struggle to save our nation from the community organizers who would destroy it to occasionally get out and do something fun. We all need to decompress from time to time. If you try to keep your head in this game too long, you wind up on YouTube wearing gold lamé, a Hello Kitty tutu, and ranting about the World Bank stealing your socks. You don't want to be that guy! (Especially if you are a guy!)

What we conservative and libertarian activists do is important, but don't forget to stop and smell the hops.

C'mon America! We can do better!

This graphic from The Economist shows world drinking patterns...



As you can see, we Americans just don't booze it up as much as the rest of the world!

But seriously...

This actually reflects our heritage as a beer drinking culture as opposed to a wine or spirits drinking culture. 235 years ago, ours was a whisky drinking culture. The influx of German immigrants in the early 19th Century changed that. They brought with them a beer drinking culture that was soon adopted by their new American neighbors. Thus our culture, at least when it comes to alcohol, more closely resembles that of Germany than the Mother Country. (See WHO reports by nation)

A mess avoided

I'm glad that I rigged a blow-off tube...



That's yeast and sanitizing solution pooling in the plastic container. What's bubbling out smells of yeast (of course) and bananas. I'm hoping to pick up more clove and spice flavors as the yeast cools tonight.

Search Engine Madness!

OK... So perhaps I should have done a search before I named that last video. YouTube's search engine now believes that my beer is somehow related to a Korean pop group. It could be worse, I suppose. It could have mistaken "bubble" for "bobble" and put up links to McDonald's ads from Japan.

(Not So) Tiny Bubbles

The Cheesehead Hefeweizen is bubbling away...

Cheesehead Hefeweizen

I was going to brew this up on Sunday, but the game was just too interesting!

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal      
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.051 SG
Estimated Color: 3.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 8.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
4.50 lb       Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        50.00 %       
4.50 lb       Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)                 Grain        50.00 %       
0.38 oz       Hallertauer [4.20 %]  (65 min)            Hops         5.9 IBU       
0.25 oz       Tettnang [4.80 %]  (15 min)               Hops         2.2 IBU       
0.05 tsp      Lactic Acid (Mash 60.0 min)               Misc                       
2.50 gm       Epsom Salt (MgSO4) (Mash 60.0 min)        Misc                       
2.50 gm       Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60.0 min)  Misc                       
4.00 gm       Salt (Mash 60.0 min)                      Misc                       
6.50 gal      Distilled Water                           Water                      
1 Pkgs        Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300)       Yeast-Wheat                


Mash Schedule: Decoction Mash, Single
Total Grain Weight: 9.00 lb
----------------------------
Decoction Mash, Single
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
35 min        Protein Rest       Add 18.00 qt of water at 126.6 F    122.0 F       
45 min        Saccharification   Decoct 7.63 qt of mash and boil it  155.0 F       
10 min        Mash Out           Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min         168.0 F   

But given how long this took to complete, Ale Interrupted may be a better name.

Hefe Interrupted

I've been brewing all day.

Brewing, however, usually isn't an all day event. I was in the middle of mashing a Hefeweizen when I got called away to a lunch meeting. This is my first attempt at a decoction mash. I had to leave in the middle of the saccharification rest, so I figured "What's the harm?". A little extra time for those enzymes to get all happy in the mash can't be a bad thing.

Now I'm about to take off for another meeting. There will still be 20 minutes left in the boild, but my wife says she'll shut off the burners. I'd normally use an immersion chiller at this point, but it's a Hefe; what's the point!?

I'll post the recipe in a bit; though, it's pretty simple.

Kegging time once again

Here's my stout about to go into the keg...



Did I ever mention what a lucky man I am? How many husbands get "keg the beer" as one of the items on the honey-do list?

A disturbing thought

I found a particular banner ad disturbing today. It's an ad from Monster.com and it asks the question "How many hours does the average American work per year?". The possible answers are 989, 1777, and 3148. I haven't clicked on the ad to find out. I'm afraid of what the answer might be.

To put a scale to this question, start by calculating what one's hours ought to be. There are 52 weeks in the year and 40 hours per week, assuming 8 hours worked per day and no holidays. That's a total of 2080 hours. If you throw in a holiday per month, which most people don't get, that cuts the hours worked down to 1984.

So let's get back to those answers. 1777 sounds about right for an average; but, only if we're at something approaching full employment. And for those who didn't take Econ 101, that's an unemployment rate of roughly 4%. The latest unemployment numbers put us at 9.4%.  But that's the "official" number that doesn't take into account those who have stopped looking for work. Throw them in and the real rate is closer to 20%. So the reasonable sounding answer just can't be right.

How about 3148? That means two things: Those who have jobs are working their asses off and employers would rather pay a boatload of OT rather than take the risk of hiring new people. A company acts that way when it expects hard economic times over the long haul. Scary.

And 989 hours? Just as scary. Having 20% of the workforce out of action wouldn't drop our estimated count from 1984 hours down to an average of 989. If this number is correct, then few of those who have jobs aren't being called in for a full 40 hours per week. A company acts this way when it sees itself winding down. You cut your workers' hours when you're about to put the company into mothballs. Scarier still.

Some "state of the Union", eh?

So which is it? Well, if there were a large number of people making OT hand over fist, then they should be spending that money hand over fist. Do you see any such economic activity? I don't.

I still haven't clicked that ad.

Job security

I guess this kid just doesn't understand the concept of job security...

Border Patrol Agent Fired for Uttering Forbidden Truths - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

RSS feed debugging

I had a problem on a WordPress-based blog that I maintain where the number of entries shown in the RSS feed had somehow been reduced to two. OK... So the feed loaded really fast, but it also made the blog look like it hadn't been updated in ages. I found this page that explained how to change the number of items shown...

WordPress › Support » Amount of RSS Items in the feed

I think that the problem started when I changed themes. The new theme may have had its own RSS setting. Updating the parameter as suggested at the link fixed the problem.

(I'm posting this here so that others with the same problem will have at least one more possible search engine hit to find a solution.)

Pooh's II is on tap!

...and I'm a happy guy!

On the folly of prohibition

The Cato Institute's Jeffery Miron has written Strict Gun Control Will Seem Like War on Drugs, an examination of the potential success of proposed gun controls,

It was contemplation of the gun grabbers' dream of total prohibition, and my probably reaction to it, that caused me to adopt a more libertarian attitude toward recreational narcotics. (That means "drugs", for those of you on drugs!) Miron argues that gun prohibition cannot work for the same reasons that drug prohibition, like alcohol before it, does not work. I came at the argument from the opposite direction. I realized that drug prohibition cannot work because gun prohibition would not work. How do I know that it wouldn't work? Because as a law-abiding citizen, I know that I would violate a law prohibiting gun ownership!

I will not accept disarmament. I will be armed, even if that requires me to break the law. "If guns are outlawed, then only outlaws will have guns" isn't about criminals getting guns no matter what; it's about otherwise law-abiding citizens becoming criminals for doing something they see as morally upright.

The State cannot successfully ban possession of a commodity unless the people themselves have already decided that they do not want that commodity. The people, or at least a very large portion of them, want guns. They'll get them one way or another. In the 1920s, the people wanted alcohol and they got it. Now they want narcotics. Drug prohibition is doomed to failure because too many people do not accept the idea that drugs are inherently immoral. (By the way, I am not arguing their morality one way or the other; I'm simple stating a fact.) Because the people themselves have not rejected drugs and drug use, the State will have no success banning drugs. The Drug War will be lost.

Worse than that, the Drug War brings the same unintended consequences that a War on Guns would have. If possessing a .22 rifle was as illegal as owning a machine gun, and got you the same penalty, why wouldn't you want a machine gun instead of a .22? And if you were a gun runner, and if the penalty for smuggling a .22 was the same as for smuggling a machine gun, then you would quickly see that the same risk brings greater reward if you smuggle the machine gun instead. Drug traffickers already know this. The more potent the drug, the greater the payoff is for the risk. Thus more deadly drugs like cocaine or heroin are preferred by smugglers. Pound for pound they pay better and the risk is no greater than for smuggling marijuana. Before them, rum runners realized the same truth. Hard alcohol pays better than beer or wine for the same risk. For a gun runner, the machine gun, pound for pound, is a better investment of capital and effort than a .22 rifle. When I realized that gun prohibition would follow these economic rules, and fail because of them, I realized that drug prohibition cannot work.

Wanted for murder...

Reward - Attack Cartoons:

From the pep rally...

Obama urges Americans to unite in tragedy's wake

And by "Unite" he means "Stop disagreeing with me you ignorant peasants!". Liberals are always so fond of unity and bipartisanship... just as long as those qualities are reached by having everyone see things their way.

Time to keg!

Pooh's Blustery Ale II is now in the keg. The starting gravity was 1.069 (I got a little carried away with the honey!) and it's dried out to 1.006. That gives us an ABV of ~8.25%. (A session beer by Falcons standards!) The color and clarity are what I wanted...





I treated the water with a bit of acid to get the pale color I wanted. (Our local water is really better suited to darker ales and stouts.) I also tossed some gelatin in a few days ago to clear it out.

I sampled it flat and it's pretty tasty. It will be better with carbonation to bring out the flavors.

How predictable!

Carolyn McCarthy readies gun control bill

I can't help but think that people like McCarthy have these bills already drawn up and waiting in a file cabinet for just the right tragedy to come along.

I had no idea...

Quoted without Comment - By Ramesh Ponnuru - The Corner - National Review Online

Did you know that wanting lower taxes makes you an aspiring slave owner?

Ding dong the witch is dead!

The "Old Grey Lady" is showing more signs of senility...

In Pomp, and Little Circumstance, on Capitol Hill the New York Times opines...

In any case, it is a presumptuous and self-righteous act, suggesting that [Republicans] alone understand the true meaning of a text that the founders wisely left open to generations of reinterpretation. Certainly the Republican leadership is not trying to suggest that African-Americans still be counted as three-fifths of a person.

The last point first: The NYT editorial staff seems to have forgotten that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were passed by the Republican Party. The Party of Obama, on the other hand, fought tooth and nail to preserve slavery.

As to the meaning of the Constitution, I cannot recall any of the Founders suggesting that the English language would change over time. It simply did not occur to them that English is fluid over time. This concept was at the heart of Supreme Court's debate over the meaning of the 2nd Amendment during the Heller case. That court reasoned that the only interpretation possible to the Constitutional text is the original public meaning of the words. This is something that we can know. The Constitution is far from being the only document we have dating from the late 18th Century. We have plenty of examples of English usage from that period. The US Constitution is far from being a mystery to the modern reader.

Happy New Year

...and happy new beer!

I just racked that Stout off to the secondary fermenter. I took a bit off with a wine thief and measured the SG. This beer isn't finished yet, but the SG is already down to ~1.013 from 1.057. I tasted a little and this should be quite good when it's finished.

Stupid is as WaPo does...

Breitbart.tv » Liberal Star Blogger Ezra Klein: Constitution ‘Has No Binding Power on Anything’; Confusing Because it’s Over 100 Years Old

Another "Facepalm" moment...

Now I'm in the mood to brew something else...

Mead, the drink of Vikings, comes out of the Dark Ages and into America

This has me thinking of brewing a cyser, but the Mrs. would probably string me up if another bubbling carboy showed up around the house.

Chris Matthews: Why Doesn't Obama Just Release The Birth Certificate?

Chris Matthews: Why Doesn't Obama Just Release The Birth Certificate?

2 reasons come to mind. First and foremost, the Birthers are right; Obama is a foreign national here in the US illegally. Obama won't release a document that would get him sent to Gitmo. The second, and probably more likely, reason is that His Royal O-ness just can't stand the idea of people challenging him. Don't they know that he's simply beyond such pedestrian concerns? How dare this rabble question The One?!

Privacy and "The Cloud"

Katherine Noyes has a round up of blogosphere responses to Richard Stallman's comments to The Guardian regarding privacy and "cloud" storage. Stallman's Cloudburst: Prudence or Paranoia? details responses from Oh-Stallman-is-overreacting-again to "He's absolutely right,". Personally, I think that the bearded, blind squirrel has found a nut.

Google's ChromeOS is the object of Stallman's ire this time. The system minimizes local storage in favor of "cloud" storage. This is OK if you want to access data from multiple machines and if you pay attention to what you're tossing out into the aether. Putting Granny's oatmeal raisin cookie recipe on "the cloud" is one thing, but your tax records are quite another.

"Cloud" storage is well known to those working in a Windows Server environment; even if they're unaware that it's happening. Do you work in an office where your "My Documents" folder is there no matter which computer you use? It's there because the folder is stored on your company's server, not on the local hard drive the way it is on your home computer. This little, local "cloud" is OK for company data because it's only available in-house. No one from outside the company can see it. (Assuming, of course, no security farts from Redmond!) However, if you've been keeping a diary of what you really think about your boss in My Documents, that file is probably visible to your boss. Do you see now how "cloud" storage can be bad?

Most vigorous fermentation ever!

That batch of the American Stout was minutes from blowing its top this evening. The bubbler had filled with yeast and had turned from bubbler to cork. It's now clean and refilled with a little Jack Daniels.

Merry Christmas!

...and a happy brew year!

It's brew day again. This time I brewed an American stout. "Ol' Curmudgeon" looks like this...

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
11.25 lb      Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        81.82 %       
0.75 lb       Roasted Barley (700.0 SRM)                Grain        5.46 %        
0.50 lb       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)     Grain        3.64 %        
0.50 lb       Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)     Grain        3.64 %        
0.50 lb       Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)                Grain        3.64 %        
0.25 lb       Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM)           Grain        1.82 %        
1.00 oz       Warrior [17.20 %]  (60 min)               Hops         53.2 IBU      
0.50 oz       Chinook [10.60 %]  (30 min)               Hops         12.6 IBU      
0.50 oz       Amarillo Gold [7.40 %]  (30 min)          Hops         8.8 IBU       
0.50 oz       Amarillo Gold [7.40 %]  (0 min)           Hops          -            
0.50 oz       Chinook [10.60 %]  (0 min)                Hops          -                                   
8.00 gm       Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 min)               Misc                       
14.00 gm      Chalk (Mash 60.0 min)                     Misc                       
8.50 gal      Los Angeles, CA (West)                    Water                      
1 Pkgs        American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272) [StartYeast-Ale]

This was pitched onto the yeast cake from "Pooh II". Pooh II, by the way, looks like an improvement over the last batch. I was able to maintain much better temperature control this time. (Despite a few 80° days!) It also looks closer to the color I had in mind. This stout, on the other hand, will be as black as the ace of spades.

Enviralists gone wild...

Compare and contrast.

Is it wrong...

Is it wrong to drink scotch while you're brewing beer?

It's Brew Night again

It's cooled off here in So. Cal. so it's time to brew. I've been putting this off for weeks now. Every time I think of brewing, it's gotten hot this fall. Now I think that it's finally winter. (I really need to invest in a 'fridge; however, She Who Must Be Obeyed frowns upon the notion.)

Tonight's brew is an improved version of Pooh's Blustery Ale. I am tweaking the recipe with Simcoe and Amarillo instead of using just Chinook. I wanted more of a citrusy (Is that a word?) character. I've also added a little lactic acid to the water for a light color. If I've done this right, the SRM color should be ~5...


Which looks more Pooh-ish to me. My last two shots at this recipe were darker than I wanted. I also messed up the water salts. I'm using a spreadsheet from John Palmer this time to set the amounts as well as the acid amount.

The grain bill is unchanged. The hops are now ½ oz. of Chinook for 75min., ½ oz. of Simcoe for 30min., and 1 oz. of Amarillo at knock out. I've also bumped up the honey to 1¼ pounds.

Despotism Made Easy

A guide for aspiring tyrants

Space Madness!!!

The Mystery Missile, which was really a jet's contrail, was caught by a weather satellite...



The "missile" was really an eastbound flight coming up over the horizon toward observers in the L.A. area. The blue arrow above shows the contrail. Note that it is fatter on its west end and narrower the further east it goes. Obviously, the source of the trail is moving from west to east, not east to west as some missile maniacs would have you believe.

In this view...



You can see far more twisting and distortion at the "base" of the "plume" than would be seen from a missile. The trail at the bottom of the image could not have been left seconds earlier, as would be the case for a rocket motor. It was laid down minutes earlier and upper level winds have had time to blow it around. We see this with jet contrails, not rocket motor exhaust. Also, the "plume" never got out of the reddened light of the sunset. Missile plumes get bluer as the rocket gets out of the light of the sunset.

It gets worse for Democrats

The Washington Post reports that, as a result of the Party's strong performance in State legislative contests, the GOP can draw nearly half of new House districts. The 2010 census numbers translate into new Congressional district boundaries next year, after new legislatures have been seated. The GOP dominates far more State legislatures and Governorships than ever before. Making things worse is the passage of Prop. 20 here in CA. This proposition takes the redistricting process out of the hands of the Democrat dominated legislature and puts a non-partisan commission in charge. The Dems won't be able to Gerrymander districts like they did in 2001.

Reid won, but who lost?

Fox News is projecting that Harry Reid has beaten Sharron Angle in Nevada. But who's the real loser? Why none other than Chuckles Schumer! I'm sure that Chuckles was measuring Reid's office for new drapes, but those plans may be dashed. Also dashed are any hopes Chuckles had for advancing new anti-gun laws as Senate Majority Leader.

Redcloak's California Voter Guide - Senate

U.S. Senate: Carly Fiorina

What can one say about Barbara Boxer's long term of service in the Senate? Pretty much nothing. She's kept the dust bunnies off of her chair, but that's about it. She's been a big nothing; a waste of space; a zero.

Redcloak's California Voter Guide - Statewide offices

Governor: Meg Whitman

I'm old enough to remember Jerry Brown's first turn at the wheel... Never again!

Lieutenant Governor: Gavin Newsom

No, I haven't been smoking crack. Abel Maldonado is a whore. He's one of a handful of Republicans who helped to pass the largest tax increase in American history. While the rest of the GOP in Sacramento stood firm against the tax increase, Maldonado sold us out. (If you just can't bring yourself to vote for "Any Threesome" Newsom, vote for the Libertarian candidate, Pamela Brown.)

Secretary of State: Damon Dunn

Controller: Tony Strickland

Treasurer: Mimi Walters

Attorney General: Steve Cooley

Kamala Harris is an anti-gun wingnut. Cooley isn't all that friendly to gun owners, but he isn't openly hostile.

Insurance Commissioner: Dave Jones

As with Abel Maldonado, Mike Villines is a whore. He's another Republican turncoat who voted for the largest tax increase in US history. (And if you can't stomach voting for a Democrat, vote for Libertarian Richard Bronstein.)

Redcloak's California Voter Guide - The Propositions

OK... So it's been a while. I hope, however, that you will find this worth the wait.

Some of these are no-brainers and some will require some explanation. But first, a few general rules...

• Rule 1: A tax increase or bond measure, no matter its supposed purpose, gets a NO vote. We're all taxed more than enough and the State already has plenty of our money to wallow in. Two corollaries to this: Anything that makes it harder for the whores in Sacramento raise our taxes gets a YES vote. Anything that makes it easier to raise our taxes gets a NO vote.
• Rule 2: Any tax cut, no matter who benefits, gets a YES vote. Taking money away from the whores in Sacramento is a good thing, even if your tax liability doesn't change.

The Propositions

19 "Legalize it!" YES

Your opinion of recreational drug use isn't what's at question here. The real question is whether or not the State should continue to participate in the Nation's failed drug war; but only with regard to marijuana.

The Drug War is a failure, pure and simple, and we all suffer as a result. Do you feel safer having to obtain permission to purchase decongestants? How many times have you read of botched drug raids that ended in the deaths of innocent, law abiding citizens? And what have we gained by surrendering our freedoms and safety? Nothing. Drug use continues unabated. Let's at least get the State out of the marijuana prohibition business.

20 Redistricting YES

You simply cannot trust elected officials to draw their own district boundaries. This has never been true in the American experience. The 200-year old term "Gerrymandering" is taken from the name of a politician, Elbridge Gerry. Today, some California Congressional districts make for stranger beasts than any Gerry may have envisioned.

21 Save the parks or Bambi, or some such line of bull crap NO

It's a tax increase. See rule 1 above.

22 Prevent raiding of local funds by Sacramento YES

This is kinda like a rule 2 situation. Keeping Sacramento's dirty fingers out of the cookie jar is a good thing.

23 Suspend AB 32, the Global Warming Suicide Pact. YES!!

This is the most important proposition on the ballot and a no-brainer. Religious fanatics in Sacramento expect the rest of us to present ourselves a sacrifices to their goddess Gaia. AB 32 would crush the State's economy. It kills jobs. It hurts people. And for what? The myth of Man-made Global Warming. While it would be better to repeal AB 32 altogether, at least this gets the razor a little further from our wrists.

24 Increase taxes on businesses NO

See rule 1 or rule 2 above. Sacramento, in an inexplicable fit of sensibility, cut taxes for some businesses in the State, helping to save or create jobs. The public employee unions want those taxes reinstated. Call it saving a tax cut or preventing a tax increase, but the effect is the same. By keeping your boss from getting screwed, you save your own job.

25 "Balanced" budgets NO

The flaw with this proposition is that it makes it easier for the whores in Sacramento to spend our money. It now takes a 2/3 majority to pass a budget. The whores love to pork up the budget with all manner of give-aways to their whore-mongering friends in the public employee unions and other special interests. When they try this, it becomes harder to get 2/3 of their members to go along. Getting 1/2 to bend over is a much easier task.

26 2/3 vote to raise "fees" YES

"Fee" increases are the latest way the whores in Sacramento have of sneaking around Prop. 13's 2/3 vote requirement to raise taxes.

27 Let the whores in Sacramento draw their own district boundaries NO

Does this really require an explanation? See Prop. 20 above.

Happy 4th...

Useless but hysterical...

I just noticed that YouTube has added a new control to their viewer. There's now a little soccer ball on the control panel. Click it and you get droning vuvulzelas added to the video's soundtrack.

Copycats!

Per existing California law...

834b. (a) Every law enforcement agency in California shall fully cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.
(b) With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the following:
(1) Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and place of birth, and entry into the United States, and demanding documentation to indicate his or her legal status.
(2) Notify the person of his or her apparent status as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws and inform him or her that, apart from any criminal justice proceedings, he or she must either obtain legal status or leave the United States.
(3) Notify the Attorney General of California and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service of the apparent illegal status and provide any additional information that may be requested by any other public entity.
(c) Any legislative, administrative, or other action by a city, county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent or limit the cooperation required by subdivision (a) is expressly prohibited.

So it looks like Arizona was merely copying their trend-setting neighbor to the west. What's next Gov. Brewer? A bill to change the Suns' colors to purple and gold?

Is it asking too much?

Could Mr. Holder do just a little reading before he shoots his mouth off?

It's a quick read.

It's official... I quit

...quit the GOP that is.

I'm looking at this sorry crop of candidates we get to choose from here in California and I decided that I don't want to be part of the aforementioned "we". They're a bunch of RINOs all claiming to be the most conservative candidate in the room. Whitman is Aaaahnold in drag. Poizner? I didn't even know that he was a Republican until a few weeks ago. I kid you not: I thought that he was a Democrat! Would a "conservative" give money to John Kerry and Algore?!? Fiorina? Didn't she support Barbara Boxer last time around?

In Sacramento, the biggest tax increase in US history passed because a Republican governor and a few GOP turncoats in the legislature wanted it. Now that governor wants one of these tax hiking stooges as the new lt. governor.

So that's it... No more.

I've been a Republican since I turned 18. Back then, the word "Republican" had a face...



Where did that party go? Where is that GOP now?! Reagan was once a Democrat. He said that he didn't quit the party, the party quit him.

So, perhaps I didn't quit after all...

Brother, can you spare a dime...

Perhaps Obama can part with a little BP Bling to help clean up his mess in the Gulf of Mexico.

Algore's new digs

HotAirPundit reports on Algore's new digs. It seems that St. Al the Warm has entered the California real estate market in a big way... a $9,000,000 way. Nearby Santa Barbara has a very nice airport that should be more than adequate for Al's private jet.

That strong ale...

...got stronger!

The latest batch of my strong ale tips the scales at 8.5% ABV. It's still hoppy and sweet; a good balance.

Upgrading to Lucid Lynx

I've been using Kubuntu for quite a while now. The latest long term support release is 10.04, Lucid Lynx. I just let the automagical update do its thing and updated my box. It went without a hitch, for the most part. I did have one small problem with Thunderbird, however.

When I tried to start Thunderbird, I got an error saying that "Thunderbird is already running...". Of course, it wasn't. The problem seems to be when the update process tries to set up a new profile rather than using an old one. The old profile gets stored as /.thunderbird.upstream. A new /thunderbird sub-directory is made, but the profile.ini file in mine referred to the old profile that now resides in /.thunderbird.upstream. The problem was fixed by copying the old profile directory into the new /.thunderbird directory.

This is the only glitch I've had thus far.

By the way, I really like what I'm seeing in the latest T-bird.

You know...

...this used to be a political blog.

Perhaps the beer is a manifestation of my libertarian streak!

Taste test

OK... The Pooh's Blustery Ale has been kegged and under CO2 for 4 days. It's pretty good! I'm trying it out a little too warm, but the flavor's very good. More malt-forward than my previous beers; ~45 IBUs. It still has a lot of residual sweetness despite fermenting out to 1.005 (O.G. was 1.056.) Some honey bite to it as well and the color is where I wanted it; Pooh-bear colored.

Two beers in secondary

I've never had this before: Two beers in secondary fermentation...



On the left is the Pooh's Blustery Ale and on the right is the Strong American Ale



There's just under 5 gallons here...



...and roughly 6 here!

I'm gonna need another keg!

I like this...

I pitched that AB clone onto the yeast cake from the Blustery Ale and it's taking off like a rocket! I pitched it about 45 minutes ago and the airlock's already bubbling. Another plus, I only end up cleaning the primary fermentor half as often this way. Ditto for the secondary.

Another brew night!

Pooh's Blustery Ale has been racked off to the secondary and now a second batch of that AB clone, in this case "A Modest Strong Ale", is bubbling away on the stove. The Blustery Ale does smell like honey, so that little twist seems to have worked.





The dogs really love it when I brew beer. My wife takes the spent grain and make dog biscuits with it.

Aaarrrggggh!

The keg's empty!

Pooh's Blustery Ale

Odd how the mind wanders about some days...

"If there's a buzzing-noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee."

Then he thought another long time, and said: "And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey."
And then he got up, and said: "And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it." So he began to climb the tree.

OK... So I really like that strong American ale I made about a month ago. I want to make another batch, but part of the "secret sauce" is the ginormous starter I pitched the beer onto. Last time, I used an unhopped wort from DME to make a big starter. I racked off the resulting unhopped beer and I set aside about a gallon in a vented jar. I poured a little vinegar with live acetobacter in it and now it's turning into malt vinegar. I don't need another gallon of the stuff, so why not make an actual beer instead?!

So today's recipe started out as an excuse to grow some more Wyeast 1272 American Ale II yeast. However, I also got a hanckering to make a pale ale. Thus far I've been making darker beers; nothing really appropriate for summer. So I decided to make an American Pale Ale with a twist. I decided to add some honey for a bit of spice and aroma. This is a recipe that's come straight outta my own oddyknocky. If it doesn't pan out, I have no one to blame but myself!

So today's brew day and I wake up to the sound of the wind blowing. What goes thought my mind? The phrase "Blustery day"; an occupational hazard of being a parent I suppose. So what comes next? Well, it's a blustery day and I'm making a golden bear colored yellow ale with honey in it. This must be "Pooh's Blustery Ale".

From Beersmith...

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5.00 gal      
Boil Size: 6.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 5.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 44.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount        Item                                      Type         % or IBU      
8.00 lb       Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)            Grain        78.05 %       
0.75 lb       Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)                     Grain        7.32 %        
0.50 lb       Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)              Grain        4.88 %        
0.75 oz       Chinook [13.00 %]  (60 min)               Hops         35.4 IBU      
0.25 oz       Chinook [13.00 %]  (30 min)               Hops         9.1 IBU       
0.25 oz       Willamette [5.50 %]  (0 min)              Hops          -            
0.25 tsp      Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min)                Misc             
1.00 lb       Honey (1.0 SRM)                           Sugar        9.76 %
(Added at the end of the boil)                     

1 Pkgs        American Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1272)       Yeast-Ale                  


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body
Total Grain Weight: 9.25 lb
----------------------------
Single Infusion, Light Body
Step Time     Name               Description                         Step Temp     
75 min        Mash In            Add 11.56 qt of water at 164.9 F    150.0 F       
10 min        Mash Out           Add 7.40 qt of water at 201.6 F     168.0 F  

I've been writing this as I go. The software predicted the mash temperatures very closely. I like this program. I've been trying out Promash, but I think that I like Beersmith better. For those of you using Linux, Beersmith, like Promash, runs well under Wine.

An addendum: Beersmith also nailed the estimated starting gravity. The estimate was 1.057; I measured 1.056. I can't be sure with all of the foam kicked up in the fermentor, but it also looks like the program nailed the post-boil volume as well.

Wow... That keg's almost empty!

I didn't think that I could go through that much beer so quickly!

I just bottled some of that AB clone using a homemade beer gun; about 2½ 6-packs worth. I picked up the keg and it almost flew out of my hands. I guess it's time to make more!

The beer was well received at last Sunday's meeting of the Maltose Falcons. I used Wyeast 1272 American Ale II which doesn't attenuate as much as the dry English ale yeasts that most people seem to use for a beer like this. I ended up with a beer with more residual sweetness that played well with the hoppiness of all that Chinook.

Have I mentioned how cool this is having beer on tap? OK... I may have.

Beer on tap...

OK... It's only been 24 20 hours, but I really like the way that beer turned out. And did I mention how cool this is having beer on tap?

Kegging time

And by that title, you ought to be able to guess that I took the plunge and bought kegging gear.

I took that AB(-ish) clone and racked it off into the keg. There's roughly 4.5 gallons. I'm playing a trick that I read about to speed things up a bit. I've got the keg on its side and I'm shacking it until it stops loudly taking gas. This exposes more of the beer's surface area to the gas and speeds up absorption. The ideal keg, from a carbonation standpoint, would be one that's very broad and shallow such that a thin film of beer would cover the bottom. In that case, all of the beer would be exposed to the gas. In a real keg, however, the beer at the bottom of the keg is, in essence, protected from the gas by what's on top.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm an engineer?

If I do this right, the beer should be ready to go by Sunday.

Mmmmm... Beer.

That AB clone is turning out nice. I just transfered it to the secondary. The ABV is ~7%, the color is good, and the balance of hops and sweetness is good...



I know... AB isn't really an all-Chinook recipe. But I had a freezer full of the little lovelies from my over achieving plant.

And now, let's get back to the beer

Enough mocking the Church of Warmingtology... Let's talk about beer! (OK... so the COW will have a cow over my CO₂ footprint, but that can't be helped.)

After way too long a pause, I've started another batch of homebrew. This time I'm going for an American Strong Ale (an Arrogant Bastard clone). Tonight, I got the yeast started and I plan to pitch the brew onto that yeast cake this weekend. I brewed up a gallon and a half of unhopped wort to get the wee yeasties going. After I rack off the liquid, I may try my hand at making a malt vinegar. The recipe I'm using is...

• Grain
• 12 lb. two-row malt
• 1.25 lb. Crystal (120L)
• .75 lb DME (I added this when the SG didn't end up as high as I wanted)
• Hops
• 1.5 Oz. Chinook (whole), 60 min.
• 1.0 Oz. Chinook (whole), 30 min.
• 1.0 Oz. Chinook (whole), flame out (I added a wee bit more that was left in the bag.)
• Irish moss at 15 min.
  

EPIC FAIL!

This week, the gurus of glorrible warming were forced to cancel a hearing before a U.S. Senate committee due to "inclement weather"...

UPDATE: The following Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearings have been postponed due to inclement weather this week:

- The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife, will hold a hearing entitled, "Collaborative Solutions to Wildlife and Habitat Management."

- The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, "Global Warming Impacts, Including Public Health, in the United States."

(Yes, I bolded that last part.)