I would like to begin with a small public service announcement. The Red Cross has issued a crisis level shortage in the US blood supply. Please donate if you are in good health. Otherwise you want Vampires to die…or don’t and let them hunt you down at night. Its your call.
This is my review of Garage Beer Light:
Six years ago John Stossel put out a random act of journalism where he interviewed an African business owner proposing the problem with Africa is Africans in their Government. No seriously. Here’s the video:
Okay its not exactly Groyper Slop but it does present a nice lesson on incentives in the circumstance where basic goods can be had through charity. There is simply no incentive to say, grow your own food, when Sally Struthers is going to show up with a case of Snickers bars.
Okay I did it. I finally found an excuse to post that South Park clip. Now what?
Fine, that’s mean. Turns out now the Guardian is starting to notice…sort of. (TW: The Guardian)
In Ghana and Nigeria, almost half (41% and 40% respectively) of young people aged 18 to 24 were optimistic, with Liberia not far behind (37%). A further one in 10 (11%) young people were uncertain about the impact, according to the African Youth Survey, which interviewed almost 5,000 people across 16 of the continent’s 54 recognised countries.
The Trump administration announced in early 2025 that it was eliminating more than 90% of USAID’s foreign contracts and $60bn in overall US assistance around the world. US foreign aid had been designed to play a critical role in tackling poverty, hunger and inequality worldwide.
Other countries, including Britain, France and Germany, have also been slashing aid budgets. The UK announced in February 2025 that the aid budget would be cut from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in 2027, its lowest level as a percentage of national income since records began. The UN target is 0.7%.
Ivor Ichikowitz, whose South African family foundation commissioned the report, said: “The big picture [from the survey] is that the youth is concerned about governments that are overly influenced by foreign powers. What they’re saying is that African governments need to take agency and responsibility for their own reality.”
This is good, right? I was assured cutting USAID was a genocide.
According to the survey, nearly half of African youth (46%) did believe the closure of USAID would have a damaging impact on their countries, with healthcare services and disease prevention seen as the areas most affected. This anxiety is highest in Mozambique (76%), followed by Kenya (63%) and Rwanda (63%), where youth feel the cuts will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable members of society.
Degan Ali, executive director of Adeso, an African non-profit incubating ideas and enterprises to lower aid dependency, said that while the cuts were carried out in a “hugely irresponsible and inhumane” manner, she was not surprised that a significant proportion of young people saw positivity there. “I think it’s a reflection of the general feeling. A lot of people find aid very demeaning,” she said. “They didn’t feel that the aid was being used for the right things and there is a sense of ‘We can do this for ourselves’. The younger generation feel like our leaders are the duty bearers and are supposed to be handling the needs of our communities.”
Surely, people will still die? Lets check in with the local warlord:
Oprah Winfrey says she will close her school for girls in South Africa next year
I guess not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have been drinking a lot less than I have in past years. So this one really grinds my gears. You see I’ve tried taking a quality over quantity approach since I am still running this feature for reasons I will not articulate. *shakes fist at other TPTB*
Which is troubling because everyone seems to like when I drink and review garbage beer. So here goes: this ain’t it. This is watery because its “light” beer but otherwise is actually pretty decent. If you’re out fishing or something where beer is the main source of hydration this isn’t a terrible choice. Maybe I’m savoring the scraps I left myself, but its better than Bud Light and nobody will question your masculinity while drinking it. Garage Beer Light: 2.4/5
So it’s expensive lawnmower beer?
If you’re filling your lawnmower with beer, you’re doing it wrong.
My lawnmower is a zero turn so it rejects all domestics into the yard and only retains the Mexican beer.
Its not expensive.
Father of some Appalachian school shooter just got 15 years. No criminal history. No charge that even mandated jail time. All negligence. Judge admitted he had no thought that he’d be any sort of threat in the future.
I know that there’s some segment that is fine seeing the parents start to take the fall especially when the shooters usually end up dead and never see ‘justice.’ Especially when the gun grabbers are always demanding to take away the guns. But I can’t help but uneasy about where we go when we start punishing someone who had no actual role in a crime for the behavior of another person. Especially when we start talking about parents and their children.
How many dead or wounded does a mass shooter need to hit before the parent needs to face consequences? And by contrast, is the parent of the ghetto banger going to face consequences going forward for what their little scholars do? Something tells me we won’t be seeing that.
Meanwhile, cops showed up to investigate a threat made online. What the fuck did they do besides do the meme and later say the shooter was on their radar? No liability there.
How many school shooters are on SRI’s or other medications to begin with? But this entire trial essentially boils down to if he had only gotten the little fuck counseling of some kind…
He’d have been a better little sociopath. Forget all the people who do rotten shit while in counseling or after it. He’d have been cured. They totally wouldn’t have just gotten him on some drug that’d have done jack all and called it a day.
It’s all BS.
Another aspect that I think came out from the estranged mother was that the school resource officer or staff got a tip that morning that some comment was made. They went to intervene, but they grabbed the wrong fucking student. A little while later the little shit started shooting.
Again, where’s the accountability for that fuck-up?
Father did some dumb shit here, but it’s a slippery slope and not one I trust government to even come close to applying equally.
Another reason not to have children.
My legal council recommends that I not “have” children.
The Red Cross can go die in a fire.
it does present a nice lesson on incentives in the circumstance where basic goods can be had through charity
Funny how that works. Let’s cut the legs out from under anybody who shows any sort of entrepreneurial inclination.
And that’s the best case scenario. Ordinarily, the “aid” just goes to line the pockets and the entrench the current warlord/dictator.
its better than Bud Light and nobody will question your masculinity while drinking it. Garage Beer Light: 2.4/5
Sounds boring enough to be be worth a try.
Is t that the beer owned by Swifts boy?
I would question masculinity even more.
A quick search suggests, yes.
I should have performed any research on this before I gave money to those retards. I’ll add it to my Sepukku list.
Found a beer flight of 4 beers all over 50 IBU so I am happy. None is light beer though.
Also why do canadians put mayo in salmon tartar it dont need no mayo. I hope USAians do not put mayo in salmon tartar
I wouldn’t know – I prefer cooked salmon
We don’t eat salmon tartare. We only put it on the menu because you furriners seem to like it.
I was in the Calgary area last month and came to the realization that Canadians have an unhealthy relationship with mayo.
I feel attacked here.
Not part of the First Nation(s)?
See, around 50 IBU is where I draw the line, as in, “Hop soup, do not want.”
I tend to avoid putting mayo on most things.
You can drink nothing and be mediocre, or you can drink heavily and be “a potentially brilliant mind ruined by alcohol”.
https://x.com/w_guppy/status/2083271349871448193
@Pie – how long are you in Toronto for?
I have long left toronto. i am in quebec city.
Ah. So the beer descriptors are blonde, blanche, rouge, brune, et noire?
Pilsner red ale west coast ipa and irish red ( 42 ibu weirdly high for this) i dont like wheat beer.
They had an english meniu it was on the edge of the tourist area.
I did get a couple of oh you are romanian you should speak french.
Did you tell them to go fuck themselves?
Only on my mind
Quebecois make up for all of the politeness of other Canadians.
You could have told them to go fuck themselves in Romanian. Say it with a big smile, and they would just laugh and go along.
LOL good one
Nor when some unelected commie from not-your-tribe comes along and steals it, to be fair.
Sally may show up with a Snickers box but it gonna be empty.
Kinds of blows the typical Guardian Narrative around president Literally Hitler, doesn’t it, when even the Good countries are getting sick of lighting so much money on fire.
They’re doing it out of fear of Der Trumpenfürher
This African youtuber says black people do best countries run by white people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA6nPZN_JB0
He goes on to suggest letting Europeans or Asians govern Africa for a while to fix things. I don’t think there will be major changes until aid is cut to zero and stays there.
In other news, I work with a Mexican guy who makes $15/hour (same as me) and has 5 kids. Somehow, he makes it work. I suspect government assistance is involved, but maybe not. My forklift skills continue to improve. There’s a sandy pit where we dump broken blocks and other debris. I got the forklift stuck there once and had to be towed out with the front-end loader. Oopsy. It wasn’t a big deal. I guess it’s happened many times before.
OSHA came to inspect and we did a bunch of things we don’t normally do, like spray the factory floor with water to keep the dust down and goose the particulate pollution number. I get that they did it to avoid violations and fines, but it defeats the purpose of the inspection. We also all religiously wore safety glasses and forklift seatbelts, which again, is not the standard practice. Oh well. If they keep paying me, I’ll keep showing up.
It’s obvious why they have trouble keeping people and have a permanent “now hiring” sign. It’s loud, dirty, dangerous, exhausting, and boring. A lot of industrial work is like that. Getting exercise on the job and being tired at the end of the day is good for me. I’ve been losing 2 pounds a week since I started working there. Things are bound to get better if I stick with it. I also found a mobile home for sale nearby. I’ll probably buy it next year as I embrace the Hank Hill lifestyle.
On the topic of work safety glasses – I hate them but make a point of wearing them sometimes when using a Dremel or Sawzall, because scratched corneas also suck.
Nice.
The forklift I have has duals on the front of it and I’ve managed to get it almost stuck in my gravel driveway. They don’t like to go off hard pack or concrete on a good day.
Don’t be like the guys on a job I worked at.
Mudding late Saturday on the job site, get stuck, go get the 950 loader to pull the pickup out, get it stuck.
Go get the 988 to pull the 950 out. Get it stuck.
Go get the D8 to pull the 988 out. Get it stuck.
4am Monday rolls around and you can’t run the plant…
The Truck Got Stuck
They are all on government assistance. Only through government math can anyone pretend they are net contributors to the economy. Medicaid and SNAP. All of them.
So many of these fucks work off the books to pay nothing in taxes only to turn around and collect “benefits.” Drive nicer cars than you do and they have zero shame for any of it.
I long ago said no to taking shit from the government. I had VA people push me over and over again to go for it and I said nah. I’ll save that for the grifters and maybe even the people who actually need that shit. But when you look around you at people getting theirs who really shouldn’t even be in the god damn country it gets a little hard to not just view yourself as a sucker more than anything.
When it comes to the left, one of the few true statements they make (though it’s highly selective when applied) is that a lot of wealthy fucks milk the system, too. And in their minds that justifies everyone else doing it.
Bernie recently made a point I kind of have to agree with. Just shy of half of all the AI R&D came from the federal government over the last 15 or so years. Hundreds of billions for tech that will drive people out of work at an increasing rate, but will have endless applications for the government (primarily military and surveillance aspects of it).
He kind of has a point to me that if the investment has been socialized, then maybe so should the fucking profits that end up resulting from it. But that’s not going to happen.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
I’ve never seen a pre-announced inspection anywhere done by anyone that serves its point. From the military to private sector it was always a dog and pony show that had no real resemblance to normal operations.
Exactly if they wanted to catch you doing something wrong, show up unannounced.
Is t that the beer owned by Swifts boy?
I looked at the web page. All it said was Columbus Ohio. I assume it’s a contract brew, like Pabst.
Just went out and wacked weeds for an hour. The temperature is climbing rapidly.
Similar to my go to Lone Star. They went from being brewed by Miller, to being brewed by Budweiser last year. I guess they had the capacity after Bud Lite sales dropped.
Also, Lone Star and Pabst is owned by the same group.
After whacking the weeds are they all upright and hard now or have they gotten soft after the beating?
My wife and I refer to the heavy duty string mower as The Dirty Bitch. I’m taking that down to Virginia to tackle some overgrown fenceline, and the backyard that hasn’t been cut in a couple of months I’d say.
Kinds of blows the typical Guardian Narrative around president Literally Hitler, doesn’t it, when even the Good countries are getting sick of lighting so much money on fire.
They are only cutting their aid budgets because President Cartoon Villain is forcing them to buy more evil wartools.
Also, Lone Star and Pabst is owned by the same group.
A Russian, I believe, who owns pretty much nothing but recipes and trademarks.
I think he owns Rolling Rock, too, but I’m too lazy to check.
have they gotten soft after the beating?
They look pretty droopy, out there in the sun with no roots to keep them erect.
When I was in the Peace Corps (motto: Fighting Fire with Marshmallows Since 1961), I read a great book by Michael Maren called The Road to Hell. In it, he wrote about being a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya and later doing foreign work in Somalia.
His basic point, which he learned from direct experience, is that foreign aid inevitably gets gobbled up by and empowers the worst sorts of people. It creates perverse incentives that stifle local, practical solutions.
I could probably write a book just about my Peace Corps experiences in Tanzania. But there are many Peace Corps memoirs, and I’m not sure how I could make mine stand out to a publisher. Here are two short stories inspired by my Peace Corps experiences:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2023/09/curse-of-msukule.html
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2024/01/jungle-beast.html
There’s a ice cream I’ve found called Jennys which I think is the best I’ve ever had. Certainly in the grocery store aisle.
There’s a peanut butter flavor one, but I can’t find the shit and it’s making me angry.
This is a straight up market failure.
Peanut butter ice cream can not be good.
Peanut butter and ice cream have been a top seller for decades. I won’t engage with this tomfoolery.
Sorry 3🚪. You’re wrong
Jeni’s does some amazing stuff that you might think would never work, but it does. Buttered Popcorn ice cream? Strangely, is very good.
I was disappointed in only their cinnamon roll one. The ice cream is still great, but the pieces of actual cinnamon roll were a bit dry.
Jeni’s? If you’re in central Ohio, and for some reason I think you are, they have plenty of parlors you can hit. We also stumbled across one in Nashville, so they must be spreading.
Florida actually. Publix has it. And yes, Jeni’s. Had no idea they had parlors.
But no one has the god damn peanut butter variety I see on the website.
On the point of Africa and why it stays poor in general, pretty much most theories have some validity, though I place the least weight on all the bullshit about colonization. Plenty of former colonies aren’t shitholes. They were left with a lot infrastructure from the white man that they’ve simply run into the ground.
At a certain point I just come back to the fact that the average IQ in the motherland is no shit 70. For point of reference, that’s the already *lowered* standard for mental retardation. The reason why it was lowered is oft cited by bigots online and startingly true. You can take a guess on your own if you haven’t heard about it.
The human capital isn’t there to even develop sweat shops or factories. There are many a poor Chinamen, but they’ve had a literate and educated populace for an incredibly long time. Same for India. Is anyone investing anything into that place on scale besides the Chinese who are looking to get them caught into debt slavery? It’s a bad bet.
Resource extraction is like all they have. And that tends to be brutal hard work and the management and expertise that exists comes from outside Africa. It’s imported and they come there and act like handlers of the locals who do the dirty work. Or you get nationalized industries that are wildly inefficient and corrupt.
So they remain mired in poverty through a number of things, but perhaps worst of all of them is that the human capital isn’t there and developing it means starting from scratch. It’s simply not worth the time and energy. Easier to just dump some aid on them to say you’re helping to keep them at subsistence level living.
For the record, African Americans have an average IQ of 85. They are the wealthiest group of blacks on the planet overall. Poverty does not explain all of this (and I’m not saying it’s biological or in the DNA necessarily here). 93% of black males can’t even read at grade level. There’s a school in Baltimore that had like 70% of its students reading at an elementary grade level or lower (kindergarten). 60% still graduated and I suspect if more just showed up on the regular it’d be higher.
The number one factor that I believe correlates to a child’s success in education is parental engagement. Which doesn’t mean they have to be incredibly intelligent themselves. Just engaged and care about their kid succeeding.
I’ve always been impressed with cultures that prioritize education. Jews faced incredible amounts of persecution in Europe for a very long time. I don’t know if any other small minority could have endured and survived that level of hardship and maintained a unique cultural identity let alone found ways to succeed as they did. But it really does put perspective on the argument that any and all woes of the black man are the result of persecution/racism.
One thing Jews have always had was a culture grounded in literacy and educating their children. Modern African Americans mostly have disdain for the idea of education. School is a social event if they even bother to attend.
Whatever someone wants to believe about the causes of black intelligence as a collective, it’s painfully difficult to argue that there’s any universe where merit is the primary driver of decision making where they are going to thrive given the current state of things. You can’t get equal outcomes when there’s such a massive gap in inputs.
This guy, Jawanza Kunjufu, makes some good points, but mostly promotes the view that black underachievement is the result of a wide-ranging conspiracy theory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qgw0r29GYw
He notes that black male teenagers view success in education as feminine, and that success in sports, fighting, and sex are the keys to popularity.
For those pressed for time, this 30 second video of a black fraternity hazing ritual explains a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT9TgiPl-WM
The outlook is not good. It’s even worse when you consider the fact that the most intelligent Africans often migrate abroad rather than stay to improve their homelands. Brain drain is the term.
Africa is dependent on other countries for food aid/imports as well as machinery, fuel, and fertilizer. If mechanized agriculture doesn’t catch on there, a likely scenario, any disruption to imports or aid will be disastrous.
As the population of the industrialized world declines, aid and imports to Africa will as well, but Africa’s population will still be increasing according to the projections. African migrants will be able to reach Europe, but the Middle East is a no-go for them. Arabs would simply shoot or enslave mobs of African migrants.
The current era might very well be the peak of African development. Life expectancy and literacy are much higher, and a large share of the population have access to electricity, running water, and telecommunications.
Harar is a city in Ethiopia where the locals hand feed hyenas to keep them around because the hyenas eat the garbage off the streets and keep stray dogs away. That’s the kind of solution that works for them. Many western solutions will not for various reasons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQbjNlJ_0w
Also in Ethiopia is dilapidated French train that local mechanics keep running through persistence and creativity. There are no spare parts to buy because the train is obsolete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqhFGntvlnM
Technology/computer question.
Anyone with a Macintosh laptop know how to get the dang thing to stop turning itself on by itself when “off” and running the battery to zero?
Nope. Mine doesn’t do that. Is it old? Or I think there is a setting maybe “Power Nap” that lets it do stuff while “asleep”. Try turning that off.
It’s four or five years old.
One of the reasons I barely use it is everytime I need to use it it’s out of juice. I’ll check the battery usage and it will have spikes where it turns itself on and then off over the course of several weeks and then it’s dead.
Crack it open and disconnect the battery.
My old G4 laptop I could do that.
With enough determination, any battery is user-servicable.
Is it actually powered off, or is it in sleep mode and doing some sort of Wake on LAN thing?
Always power it off.
*Linux holds up a boom box
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Y8tFQ01OY
From one of my favorite albums.
LOL my apartment will be available in mid-August if you’re looking to slum it.
Oh?
Dad probably works for a wealthy Jew and was getting some shit for all this.