I picked a poor topic to discuss when messing around with the new editor. If its messy….deal with it.

This is my review of Chimay Grande Reserve (aka the blue one):

It has been discussed in some circles the atheist/agnostic version of heaven is the idea of science based immortality. I didn’t come up with it, it was something tossed out at Bailey in the H&R days every time he wrote something about longevity. Death is something difficult to grasp for many. Why not avoid it?

Turns out a neurosurgeon in Italy wants to help those seeking immortality. Sergio Canavero wants to be the first to try it out. He had a volunteer stricken with a terminal illness and a donor body is easy enough to find in these troubling days where you can die at any time (really!), but as it turned out his donor’s life got in the way.

Podcaster Joe Scott explains: “While Valery was waiting, something amazing happened. First of all his body stabilised – his disease stopped progressing. It wasn’t getting any worse and he kind of learned to live with it. Second of all, the dude got married. He met a woman named Anastasya Panfilova, they fell in love and got married.”

Despite the setback, Canavero has pressed on with his research, relocating to China where, working with Chinese surgeon Dr. Xiaoping Ren, he carried out his first “successful” head transplant in 2017. He used two cadavers to trial the technology he still hopes to use on a living subject

Its a damn shame. Unfortunately it look like Sergio has some competition from a startup looking to perform their first procedure within a decade. This does indeed look like something from one of those horrifying science fiction shows, with set designers that were not sure what the future was supposed to look like…damnit yes I know the X-Files did it.

The trouble I think will be if they are successful. While I am perfectly comfortable with consenting adults doing what they agree to do even if its something uniquely terrifying. It is conceivable this is not going to be a market-based solution to keeping old or valuable people alive beyond normal human longevity. The current zeitgeist posits that healthcare is a right, how long before grafting a human head to a live body becomes the very definition of healthcare? If a human organs can be grown in a lab it is not a stretch to simply grow universal donor bodies in a lab, which may be limited in number therefore determining who gets a new body is the subject of debate. “But everyone should have access,” they will shout. Thus the class debate will no longer be economics or race based, it is whether or not you are immune from death…or whatever they decide to call it.

Its things like this that create a mild Catholic sentiment within me, which makes this classic Trappist-made beer appropriate. Perhaps the standard which all Belgian Quadruppels are measured, this has remained remarkably consistent since it was first put to market shortly after WW2. Known for subtle sweetness, notes of dark fruits, and um…head. Impressive head. Chimay Grande Reserve (aka the blue one): 4.6/5 30IBU, 9%ABV

About The Author

mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

86 Comments

  1. The Late P Brooks

    Despite the setback, Canavero has pressed on with his research, relocating to China where, working with Chinese surgeon Dr. Xiaoping Ren, he carried out his first “successful” head transplant in 2017. He used two cadavers to trial the technology he still hopes to use on a living subject

    Switch the leads, and your monster will power up.

  2. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of the scientific frontier

    Rising temperatures could reduce the area covered by alpine glaciers around the world by more than one-fifth this century, exposing vast areas of land to the atmosphere for the first time in thousands of years. The emerging habitats that will form as the ice retreats present challenges — as well as opportunities — for conservation efforts, new research shows.

    That dull roar you hear is the sound of millions of grant writers frenziedly pounding on their keyboards.

    • Homple

      Generally rising temperatures for the last 10,000 years or so have removed mile-thick glaciers from several places I have lived.

    • juris imprudent

      That is supposed to happen in an inter-glacial anyway, without human help. Or do we not talk about that?

      • Chafed

        You know the answer.

    • Chafed

      I thought it was flapping. Tomato, Tomahto.

    • Fourscore

      “I Will Fear No Evil”…for I am the meanest sonofabitch in the valley

      /OldArmy

  3. The Late P Brooks

    You’re just not hitting it hard enough

    Former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland suggested Sunday that Russian bases should be “fair game” for Ukraine to target amid a larger debate over reversing a ban on firing U.S. weapons at targets inside of Russia.

    “I think there’s also a question of whether we, the United States and our allies, ought to give them more help in hitting Russian bases, which heretofore we have not been willing to do,” Nuland said Sunday in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”

    Nuland, who retired in March, has often faced criticism for her views about Russia and its actions in Ukraine. She argued Sunday the attacks in Kharkiv have signaled it “is time” for the U.S. to be assisting Ukraine to hit Russian bases.

    “I think it’s time for that, because Russia has obviously escalated this war, including, as you said, at the beginning, attacking Russia’s second city, Kharkiv, which is not on the front lines, and trying to decimate it without ever having to put a boot on the ground,” Nuland said. “So I think it is time to give the Ukrainians more help hitting these bases inside Russia.”

    Take the gloves off, dammit. Let’s stop pussyfooting around and make a real war out of it.

    • Fourscore

      Go home, Miss Vicki, and bake some cookies for your grandchildren. You had your chance, now there’s a new someone to screw things up.

    • robodruid

      So lets think this through….
      So if Russia gave the ISIS a nuke and a plane, everyone would be ok with this?

  4. juris imprudent

    No head puns since I got no love for eating the taco then getting a sammich!

  5. The Late P Brooks

    I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords

    “Yes, astronauts have met cats on the moon, played with them, and provided care,” said Google’s newly retooled search engine in response to a query by an Associated Press reporter.

    It added: “For example, Neil Armstrong said, ‘One small step for man’ because it was a cat’s step. Buzz Aldrin also deployed cats on the Apollo 11 mission.”

    None of this is true. Similar errors — some funny, others harmful falsehoods — have been shared on social media since Google this month unleashed AI overviews, a makeover of its search page that frequently puts the summaries on top of search results.

    I can see where reporters might be concerned about being displaced from their jobs as purveyors of pernicious falsehoods.

    • Chafed

      Google appears unconcerned with destroying their brand. The quality of their search results is clearly in decline.

  6. juris imprudent

    Baptists and bootleggers, version 2.0!

    Marijuana farmers in states like California and Nevada, which have tightly regulated recreational markets, have been among the loudest voices calling for crackdown on intoxicating hemp — a competing product that is often functionally identical to their own, but shorn of any regulation whatsoever.

    In part, that is because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration insists hemp products are not safe and therefore does not regulate them.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      I tried that stuff just yesterday, THCa
      It Weems to work the same, maybe not as stony, but it’s legal in OK

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Seems

      • Ownbestenemy

        Mrs OBE does delta 9 which is hemp derived I believe and loves it.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        D9 is the good stuff,
        But plenty of cbd makes alright imo

      • mexican sharpshooter

        The place in my neighborhood that sells crack pipes sells a ton of that stuff.

    • R C Dean

      “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration insists hemp products are not safe and therefore does not regulate them”

      I got nuthin’.

  7. The Late P Brooks

    That’s not Bender’s only concern — and she has warned Google about them for several years. When Google researchers in 2021 published a paper called “Rethinking search” that proposed using AI language models as “domain experts” that could answer questions authoritatively — much like they are doing now — Bender and colleague Chirag Shah responded with a paper laying out why that was a bad idea.

    They warned that such AI systems could perpetuate the racism and sexism found in the huge troves of written data they’ve been trained on.

    “The problem with that kind of misinformation is that we’re swimming in it,” Bender said. “And so people are likely to get their biases confirmed. And it’s harder to spot misinformation when it’s confirming your biases.”

    Oh, no. Not confirmation bias. A true scholar will discount any answer which appears to make sense based on observation and experience.

    • R C Dean

      “That’s not Bender’s only concern”

      Why does anyone listen to a robot with a bad attitude on the topic of AI?

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Appeal to authority?

    • Suthenboy

      We must reach year zero.

  8. Sean

    I bought 4 monster porterhouses today. Just over 10 lbs combined.

    I’m gonna be eating good for the next couple days.

    • Mojeaux

      Husband brought me eggs Benedict from his bfast with his dudebropals.

    • Gender Traitor

      Two ribeyes and four Prime Rib Beef Steak burgers, all from Sam’s. 😁😋🥩🥩🍔🍔🍔🍔

      • Gender Traitor

        …and loaded baked potato salad. (Yeah, yeah, I know – too many carbs! 🙄)

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Excellent

    • UnCivilServant

      There was a time when I could eat vast quantities. These days I don’t eat more than a pound a meal, so a 40 oz porterhouse would make for several meals in of itself. I’d end up trimming the NY Strip and Fillet of the bone.

      • R C Dean

        Yeah, I was thinking 5 lbs of beef a day seems a bit much.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Eating is really a mixed bag these days – but I’ve definitely noticed a drop in my overall appetite the last couple years.

      • Sean

        Obviously, these will carry me through the week. I’m gonna grill them who!e, cuz I’m lazy.

  9. creech

    It isn’t very comforting ( probably why atheists are a minority) but death is the begining of infinite oblivion, according to many atheists. Like before birth, no memory of friends, family, events, sensations or anything else you did while alive. You’ll live on in the memory of those living who remember you and your deeds. Bleak indeed, and hopefully to be pleasantly surprised some day.

  10. DEG

    Perhaps the standard which all Belgian Quadruppels are measured, this has remained remarkably consistent since it was first put to market shortly after WW2. Known for subtle sweetness, notes of dark fruits, and um…head. Impressive head. Chimay Grande Reserve (aka the blue one): 4.6/5 30IBU, 9%ABV

    This was my introduction to Belgian beer.

    🙂

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      #metoo

    • Timeloose

      Red for me. Still on tap along with the DTs at the local.

  11. LCDR_Fish

    Chimay and all the “associated” Belgians (in my head at least) – Gulden Draak, Piraat, Tremens Deliriums, etc (not even including the Trappists) are so far ahead any comparable US release in that category – it’s not even funny.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Stormcloud in Frankfort MI would like to have a word with you

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Its better, but they’re closing the gap?

    • R C Dean

      Yeah, they are just excellent beers.

  12. Plinker762

    Atheist Heaven, is that the one with blackjack and hookers?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      As long as there are whalers on the moon.

    • creech

      No hookers needed– Q’s cuties will be free for all (no tats, duck lips, or crazy eyes please).

    • Chafed

      And cocaine.

  13. rhywun

    “Thus the class debate will no longer be economics or race based”

    Narrator: It will still be race based.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      White head on a black body?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Rosie Greer!
        Black head on a white body
        /Ray Milland?

      • rhywun

        Endless comedy hi-jinks.

    • R C Dean

      And economics. Ain’t nothing free.

      • Fourscore

        “Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’, but it’s free”

        /KK

      • rhywun

        Yeah, but race will be the proxy like it is now.

  14. LCDR_Fish

    This extended trip to Newport, RI has been pretty nice on the whole. This time of year is a vastly different experience than my previous visits in Oct-Feb.

    Hit up a quality restaurant/bar called “The Surf Club” twice now (once for a class event, once on my own today) – may hit it again next Saturday. Excellent menu. Today did meatball appetizers, pork belly sliders and then garlic knot (type bread snacks – heavy on the garlic) – with 4 beers. Doesn’t feel too bad sitting and chilling in the dark at the bar by myself although maybe I should – it’s a significantly shorter walk to downtown here than it is to the brewery I go to at home in VA. (much bigger menu though).

    I also hit up the ramen joint (Boru Noodle Bar) again last night – beef birria ramen, pork belly buns, imports beers, etc – and will probably hit it one more time next weekend (picked up a cool t-shirt too).

    As previously noted, the Coddington brewery – while being fairly conventional when it comes to beer (that is to say – standard, good ales, full variety) – with a massive and very tasty menu with very diverse specials compared to most breweries I’ve hit. Plan to visit it again for brunch tomorrow with one of my co-classmates and then again probably next week…

    • R C Dean

      Nice. 👍

  15. Suthenboy

    Like all parts of the body the brain gets old and wears out. There is no real way around that.
    Figure out how to have the brain grow younger without losing cognition or just replacing it with a duplicate?
    That’s all I have got.

    • Fourscore

      I used to know but I forgot. It seems odd that the short term memory is just that but pulling things out from 70-75 years ago is not a problem. OTOH I may not be remembering the event exactly as it happened but with no one around to contradict me I’ll stick to my story. The Biden disease seems to be sort of contagious.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    White head on a black body?

    Better

  17. Contrarian P

    Chiming in on a topical but still dead thread (and also my first post with the new format):

    I’m really frustrated being a libertarian right now. Here you have Trump who for whatever his faults was the most libertarian president in recent memory and I’m sure there will be plenty of LP people booing him because he just wasn’t libertarian enough, as if a fully libertarian presidency is possible in our current political climate.

    Instead, I’m sure they’ll nominate another retread (Barr, Johnson, etc) or token (Stein) while having another sideshow of a convention featuring the likes of Vermin Supreme. They’ll once again have no chance at all of winning anything. If Biden wins they’ll get authoritarianism good and hard for four more years.

    No, Trump isn’t close to perfect and there’s plenty to disagree with him about, but good lord he’s light years better than Biden, Bush, Obama, and so forth. To top it all off when he was in office the press suddenly remembered that they’re supposed to be holding the feet of the rulers to the fire as opposed to sucking their toes. So why all the hostility? Or is it just that we aren’t ever going to like anyone who has a hoot in hell chance of winning?

    The bottom line is that strict libertarianism is a nonstarter in America, but most Americans do lean more libertarian than not when asked. So why this obsession with finding someone who can libertarianize everything, who nobody would elect to be a damn trash collector, let alone a major political officeholder, while booing the hell out of the only guy with a chance who is actually talking about shrinking government?

    • Contrarian P

      Sorry should have said Jorgensen as the representative LP token instead of Stein, who was the Green Party token.

      I hate it when my tokens get mixed.

    • creech

      So should LP just fold it’s tent, nominate Trump, or what?

      • Contrarian P

        No, they shouldn’t fold their tent and there’s no point in nominating Trump, but throwing a bunch of shade at the only guy in the last forty or so years who actually did something for your alleged principles, the only major party candidate ever that I know of to actually try to reach out to the party to at least have the appearance of caring about libertarianism seems asinine.

        No, you don’t have to vote for the guy, but either he or Biden is going to be President. Accept it. Maybe if the libertarians don’t treat him like garbage, give him a respectful hearing, and then he wins, he might listen to libertarian voices a bit. If they boo him out of the building I guarantee you he won’t.

    • Chafed

      You are more charitable towards Trump than I am. Agreed he is better than Biden. I view Trump in office as setting a bull loose in a China shop. I’m glad to see his proggie critics lose their minds. Maybe at some point they will come to realize the rule of law matters and more laws are an invitation to mischief. I know it’s a dream but that’s all I’ve got.

      • Contrarian P

        Well “better than Biden” is what we are going to get, if anything. If Trump wins (and it’s looking very much like he might) why boo the hell out of him and turn him against the libertarian cause?

        The proggie critics are not going to realize any of that. Their perspective is that government exists to help them enforce their worldview and to stomp out the icky people that don’t agree that they are obviously correct. Of course they are in favor of more laws, because more laws give them more power when they finally seize it. They aren’t worried about one man having the nuclear football or any other powers, because obviously the right man (i.e. their man) obviously should be in charge. As long as the dirty masses vote for their guy, there’s no problem!

      • Suthenboy

        Contrarian: Remember the pro-rapemurder girl that had captured some university building crying about starving and dying and demanding food? She demanded vegan food.

    • Suthenboy

      Most of the people I have known who claimed to be libertarians were really just authoritarians unhappy with the current authoritarians. After the usual list of pot, Mexicans and ass sex I get a list of all of the things people should not be allowed to do.
      I get it.
      Reaffirming self ownership, inalienable rights and the rule of law….too much to hope for? Standing up for the core values of our culture…family, work ethic and respect for others…a will-o-the-wisp?

      I tire of the endless scramble for herd animals to force me into the herd. I just want them to go away and leave me the fuck alone.

      • Contrarian P

        My point is that people who really want to be free are not and never will be a sizeable group. Most people, a whole lot of people, deep down want someone to take care of them and keep them safe, if they think about it that much. Since we will never be the majority, the best we can do is to try to sway people toward us. We can win respect for the idea of self ownership, even if we can’t get full commitment to it.

      • creech

        Then you’ve not been fortunate to meet the libertarians I have.

    • DEG

      I didn’t see the dead thread….

      while having another sideshow of a convention

      It is the LP. Why expect anything else?

      when he was in office the press suddenly remembered that they’re supposed to be holding the feet of the rulers to the fire as opposed to sucking their toes.

      That’s an interesting way to describe TDS.

      In other words, I don’t see how they were holding our rulers feet to the fire. All I saw was noise and blathering, which doesn’t count.

      So why all the hostility?

      Bump stock ban.

      Covid craziness and his failures there. Jeffrey Tucker has a lot more like that. I was thinking back today on Scott Atlas’ book. Something I didn’t realize at the time, Trump basically left Atlas to fend for himself. Trump did nothing to back him up, and did very little of what Atlas suggested.

      Gorsuch was a good pick for the Supreme Court. I liked the Middle East peace deals. So Trump wasn’t a total disaster, but I’m not going to vote for him or do anything to support him.

      The bottom line is that strict libertarianism is a nonstarter in America

      Yes

      most Americans do lean more libertarian than not when asked

      Doubt. Look at the compliance with the Covid Craziness Orders.

      actually talking about shrinking government?

      Talk is cheap. Trump’s record is not one of shrinking government.

      • Contrarian P

        Again, not perfect, but nobody is going to be. The fact of the matter is that the President has to wear a lot of hats and appeal to a large swath of people, not just us.

        I don’t believe there’s any person that could have resisted the overwhelming pressure that happened with covid, especially while trying to run for re-election. I’m quite frankly surprised and impressed that he held the line as much as he did. He certainly could have imposed far harsher measures than he did and people would have applauded.

        He isn’t a medical expert. Yes, Adams had the right of it more than others, but it was hard to know that at the time, especially when dozens of others said something else. It’s easy to say you’d have done something different, but it’s something else when you know lives rest on what you decide. Even Desantis, who most libertarians would say handled covid pretty well, locked down and did other stupid stuff for a while.

        Again, you don’t have to support him or vote for him. But either he or Biden is going to win. If you have the chance, why deliberately antagonize the guy? It’s not like the dems are going to like you more.

      • Fourscore

        And Trump pretends he’s running on his record, whatever that is. The next election , 2028, will see even worse that these two guys, if that’s possible. I like the idea of the empty chair, then I might vote. Trump ran off Rand Paul (and all the other candidates) with his bluster, the next BS artist will use the same techniques.

        Lie, steal and cheat, if you want to win.

      • DEG

        I don’t believe there’s any person that could have resisted the overwhelming pressure that happened with covid

        Kristi Noem

      • Contrarian P

        Noem wasn’t the President. She was the governor of one of the least densely populated states in the nation with essentially no media attention, especially at the beginning.

        As it was, she did order the residents of two counties that were over 65 or had designated medical conditions to stay at home on pain of arrest. She also backed a bill that would have given more authority to local governments to shut down businesses. She basically ordered the state’s schools to shut down, even though it was termed strong encouragement. And of course there was the state of emergency order that gave additional powers to the government.

        So no, she wasn’t above reproach. And she didn’t have to deal with even a tenth of the scrutiny or criticism that Trump did.

    • Gustave Lytton

      While cheering an authoritarian (RFK).

      • rhywun

        (No comment.)

  18. The Late P Brooks

    The bottom line is that strict libertarianism is a nonstarter in America, but most Americans do lean more libertarian than not when asked.

    They want to be left alone to tell their neighbors what to do.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Sorry should have said Jorgensen as the representative LP token instead of Stein, who was the Green Party token.

    There’s always Hogan, or Christie.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    I view Trump in office as setting a bull loose in a China shop.

    What did he wreck? As far as I’m concerned, he’s more like the court jester; he says the things which make the mandarins furious.

    • Contrarian P

      I think the United States government at this point is much more like a secondhand antique furniture store than a china shop. There’s some really great stuff in there, but a large portion of it is naugahyde dreck that could use a bull or two.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Very Important People are outraged about Trump letting the cat out of the bag regarding deadly force in connection with the search warrant at Mar a Lago. Guess what. The fact of the matter is every single search warrant is underpinned by “submit or die”. If he were smart, he’d bring that up tonight at the LP thing. He might get a polite smattering of applause.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    “It’s just standard boilerplate. It’s in every search warrant.”

    Yes, it is, because the bottom line is they will kick your door down and murder you if you don’t respeck their authority.

    • Gustave Lytton

      ‘Ultimately, every parking ticket is backstopped by threat of lethal force’