Category: Aggregated

It’s Independence Day! The 4th of July! Burgers! Picnics! Fireworks! That’s what it’s all about, right? Go, America! Actually, no, there probably weren’t any hotdogs cooking on the grill on Independence Day in 1776. When the founding fathers of our nation signed the Declaration of Independence, they probably weren’t wondering if the beer was cold yet, if Ben was going to burn the burgers again, or whether Thomas remembered the lighter for the fireworks. They were thinking about freedom. The whole purpose of the gesture was that these men were tired of bowing down to someone who did not have their … Continue reading →

Beer is a better drink to serve with food than wine, Britain’s Beer Sommelier of the Year has claimed, as she advises hosts to serve it a Champagne flute or brandy snifter rather than traditional pint glasses. Jane Peyton, who was named Sommelier of the Year by The Beer Academy in May, said that there was too much snobbery around pairing beer with food. She advised serving beers made with Champagne yeast as an aperitif or ales with chocolate and coffee flavours with rich desserts like tirimusu. “It’s actually much better pairing with a food than wine and there are … Continue reading →

Texas state Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) has an intriguing response to Obergefell v. Hodges, the United States Supreme Court decision imposing a national mandate to override the diverse ways in which state governments deal with same sex marriage. Simpson is asking Texas Governor Greg Abbott to declare a special session of the state legislature to consider Simpson’s proposal that Texas end marriage licensing in the state. Simpson’s radical response to the court’s decision should not be too surprising given that earlier this year he responded to the war on marijuana with a bill that would eliminate all Texas laws regarding … Continue reading →

Conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians are not going to like what I am going to say. And neither are most ordinary conservatives. But that has never stopped me before. The recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges was inevitable: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State. It was inevitable because exactly two years before, the Supreme Court, in the case of United … Continue reading →

The Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850 to deal with the problem of runaway slaves and the weakening of a 1793 law with the same objective. All people want to keep the fruits of their labor and when this desire is violated they seek some remedy, whether it be a change in the law or a change in location. If a slave could make it to Canada he was probably safe from the slave catchers. Some northern states had laws against black people – slave or free – moving into the state, so Canada was probably the best option. … Continue reading →

Ron has written many important books, but I think his latest is the most important for our time: Swords into Plowshares. Ron, movingly and eloquently, describes his lifetime of perpetual war, beginning with the horrific WWII, but shows us how to dream of, and achieve, a future free of war and other forms of state violence. Swords into Plowshares can change a nation and a world, if it gets into enough people’s hands. That is how persuasive this book is, which so brilliantly shows us the heart and mind of this great man and the great cause of peace, domestic and … Continue reading →

MasterPiece Arms is expanding on the new model Defender series with a 9mm Luger carbine that uses Glock-pattern magazines. Called the MPA20DMG, this carbine combines a machined aluminum lower with a standard Defender upper in a carbine configuration. The MPA20DMG is built around a 16.2-inch barrel that threaded for common 1/2-28 muzzle devices and comes equipped with a beefy ported compensator. The front is toothed for use as a standoff device. Running down the length of the barrel is a free-floating quad rail for accessories like the Strike Industries angled foregrip shown. The handguard has an inner diameter of 1.57 inches … Continue reading →

The lives of thieves have always captivated the minds of the public, be it through books, movies, or newspaper headlines. They lead dangerous and fascinating lives full of surprises, risks, and uncertainty. We are all familiar with the most famous thieves, such as romanticized couple Bonnie and Clyde, trickster Frank Abagnale, and bank robber John Dillinger. Below, however, we have put together a list of lesser-known thieves with utterly fascinating stories that are worth sharing. 10 Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Remy Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Remy, also known as Comtesse de la Motte, was a French thief who became famous through the “Affair of … Continue reading →

The ways of human perversity are legion, and secretly we are glad of it, for it would be a dull world—a kind of ideal Switzerland raised to a higher power—without them. The bizarre, the wicked, and the perverse entertain us even as we condemn them or shake our heads over them in pretended disbelief. We want the world to be free of all this evil, but not just yet. A case in France, that of Dominique Cottrez, will be the subject of books to come, ranging from the frankly prurient to the academically respectable. There will be sage attempts to … Continue reading →

“Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then.” ― Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly Once upon a time, there was a nation of people who believed everything they were told by their government. When terrorists attacked the country, and government officials claimed to have been caught by surprise, the people believed them. And when the government passed massive laws aimed at locking down the nation and opening the door to total government surveillance, the people believed it was done merely to keep them safe. The few who disagreed were labeled traitors. When the government waged costly … Continue reading →

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers. – Thomas Pynchon A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him. – Ezra Pound The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring that the right of gays and lesbians to marry is mandated by the Constitution, has brought responses that reflect how conditioned most people’s minds are to the practice of state-contrived conflicts. The power of the state depends upon conflicts and, therefore, state officials endeavor to create bogeymen, wars, and other fear-objects with which to mesmerize the Boobeoisie into … Continue reading →

The past four years or so have been extremely frustrating for investors like me who have structured their portfolios around the belief that the current experiments in central bank stimulus, the anti-business drift in Washington, and America’s  mediocre economy and unresolved debt issues would push down the value of the dollar, push up commodity prices, and favor assets in economies with relatively low debt levels and higher GDP growth. But since the beginning of 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied 67% while the rest of the world has been largely stuck in the mud. This dominance is reminiscent of … Continue reading →