You’re going to have to forgive me. My oldest turns 18 in a couple weeks, so this sort of thing has been on my mind. Somebody cue Buffalo Springfield…
This is my review of Epic Brewing Big Bad Baptist Old Fashioned:
(TW: WaPo) Why We Should Bring Back the Draft
Last week, as the war in Iran neared its six-month mark, President Trump said it would “continue for as long as necessary. “ More than 750 American service members have been killed or wounded since the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28. That is a tiny number compared to the Iranian casualty toll, which has topped 37,000.
Our college campuses are silent. That’s not just because universities clamped down on protests following the burst of anti-Israel demonstrations in 2023 and 2024. It is also because our students know they won’t be sent to fight in the Middle East.
Wait, what? This is a bad thing? I did the cursory check on the author since I had a funny feeling he was old enough to be from the Vietnam Draft era, but as it happens he’s only 65 so he’s not. This will not be a rant about Boomers, only assholes.
That is precisely why we need a military draft. Our colleges would explode with protest, just they did during America’s war in Vietnam. Everyone would learn more about the conflict in Iran. And maybe, just maybe, we could convince our leaders to end it.
No dumbass, the reason they won’t be sent to Iran is its being fought entirely from a distance, using siege tactics to cripple them economically. Incidentally this has its own economic ramifications with existing concerns about the economy that Gen Z has been fairly vocal about.
Don’t worry, he makes sure to mention Trump got a draft deferment along with other notable politicians that were of draft age at the time.
And here’s another thing I know: a truly universal draft would make the United States a more equitable place. But the Vietnam-era draft was far from universal or equitable.
That’s because people with money and power could evade it. After receiving four student deferments, Trump obtained a medical exemption when a podiatrist — who was also a tenant of Trump’s father — certified that Trump had bone spurs in his heels.
George W. Bush’s father — in Congress at the time — reportedly pulled strings to get his son into a National Guard unit, which let members fulfill their military duty without going to Vietnam. Bill Clinton got a deferment during his Rhodes Scholarship in England and then told his local draft board that he was “too well educated” to serve as a soldier, the board’s secretary recalled.
Interesting argument given rich and powerful people will still use their connections to make sure their fetid spawn don’t get conscripted, even if they somehow by magic prevent that from happening. We’ll just make it so they can’t do that, sort of like we just make it so they can’t avoid paying taxes right?
Right?
The Selective Service recently announced a new policy to automatically register eligible men, which fed internet rumors that another draft is imminent. So did comments by the recently departed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Asked about a possible draft, Leavitt said President Trump “keeps his options on the table.”
At least I won’t have to tell my kid to avoid the Post Office, they already know he’s of age. At this point, whatever SciFi dystopia you have in mind is what’s going to happen. Personally, I look forward to welcoming the an oppressive class of super intelligent apes. After all, they can’t be any worse than the communists.
I’ve reviewed faux cocktail beers before and it always seemed odd given that beer is one thing but cocktails are another. Maybe this stems from the heavy German influence in beer culture, who seem to think cognac with a lemon slice and ground coffee is a cocktail. I’m not above trying that either. How does this work a an old fashioned? I mean, they have the flavors right. Its a black cherry stout aged in whiskey barrels with a slight hint of orange. Which basically makes it a holiday beer they put in whiskey barrel. I’m not sure I like this, I’d have to try it again, maybe it will grow on me. Epic Brewing Big Bad Baptist Old Fashioned: 2.2/5
“Its a black cherry stout aged in whiskey barrels with a slight hint of orange. Which basically makes it a holiday beer they put in whiskey barrel.”
No.
Beer shouldn’t have anything that grows on trees.
I like a lemon slice floating in my Hefeweisen.
That’s amazingly wrong.
Happy 18th to the oldest! Must be an exciting, stressful relief for many/most, I imagine.
Off to the SkyLake waterpark with the nephews with Dad. Should be a blast. I’m underweight right now by a few pounds (125), but I gotta admit, I look *good.* With the boys and no wedding ring, not a bad habitat to be in. Especially! As my id.me verification didn’t go through on Thurs before we left for Fogerty, but I redid it this morning and it absolutely went through a few hours before my 48hr deadline.
*phew* Youngest is staying over, and I have no other responsibilities. Munch thought I’d be joining at HH and was gonna join me, but I’m off by about a week. *frown* I’d go if I could. Would be perfect. Be well, all!
Happy 18th to the oldest! Must be an exciting, stressful relief for many/most, I imagine.
I’ll let him graduate but I look forward to kicking him out.
Send him a bill for damages?
I don’t think I’m that ate up….yet.
How does this work a an old fashioned? I mean, they have the flavors right. Its a black cherry stout aged in whiskey barrels with a slight hint of orange. Which basically makes it a holiday beer they put in whiskey barrel. I’m not sure I like this, I’d have to try it again, maybe it will grow on me.
This isn’t a second time for this beer? Or is my memory off and it was another Big Bad Baptist that you reviewed?
I’d try the beer. It looks interesting.
I have reviewed a Big Bad Baptist. I have also reviewed an old fashioned themed beer as well. This is new.
Got it, thanks!
Oh! New sub in and I sillily scheduled it for Wed, cuz I didn’t remember/ IDK if SF will be ’round. Do as ya will. It’s the story of my nadir journey back to Korea in March, 2020, BUT! It involves escaping from Korean quarantine! It’s the last of my ‘downer’ stories, but it’s still fun, IMO. Fantastic setting to be in as COVID started. Fuck, that was nuts in so many ways. Eager to share. With my personal project I’m sharing, I got The Incident in the first two ‘chapters’ to clue unknowing readers in, establish the voice /setting.
My damaged-Yankee doodle return to America ‘series’ won’t need more establishment, though I shingles, gout and other medical episodes (fun ones (to read), frankly) will be added, at least to my project.
Next chapter? For outside readers, it’s gonna be a bit of an origin story. I’ve got a good Little League one, but I think my Kazakh adventure, looked-over with new eyes, is a fantastic next step. I went there in 2017, published it here in ’19, only a few months before The Incident, IIRC.
Be well, all! Hopeful hotties to interact with as I bounce in a positive mood 😎
Of course some fascist college prof would like conscription.
The state should assign every person a job.
“Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the advisory council of the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest.” I mean if he teaches history and education, then he’s definitely not commie adjacent.
I called him an asshole, didn’t I?
George W. Bush’s father
A man who knew nothing about war or military service.
I mean, he was shot down four times in the Pacific. He wasn’t very good at it.
Japs had good aim man. Doing the the math and adjusting for the wind with their brain calculators.
Wow, this guy makes a super original argument that I definitely haven’t heard during every other military action we’ve done while a Republican was president.
It’s not 100% wrong. At the end of the day the volunteer force makes it easier to justify the pointless wars we engage in. Most people don’t have real skin in the game outside the funny money in Washington DC being spent on the misadventures in the world’s sandbox.
It was new to me too.
/crawls back under rock
Alright, lets start by drafting refugees. They need jobs, food, and housing.
If that’s too far, we’ll start with the Clancy protestors.
Jonathan Zimmerman writes and article explaining why we need to draft our kids to fight wars for Israel.
For some reason Israel is as popular as herpes with young people.
Maybe the beer would be better if it was made by bootleggers.
Maybe.
Maybe we start drafting people in order of age, oldest first. They have more life experience, so should be able to bring a larger skillset to whatever cause we’re supposed to be fighting for. Plus if they die off in droves on some battlefield we’ll shore up that pesky Social Security problem. You think the Professor would approve of that?
Ukraine started in the middle then expanded in both directions as they ran out of people.
Why not? A 50 y.o. should be able to sit at a console and direct drones to targets a couple hundred miles away.
Have you tried to walk your average non-technical 50 year old through doing anything on a computer?
“How? How do you not know what a right click is?”
Neph.
It’s a Mac.
Everything is double click.
All the military systems I had contact with (20-15) years ago were designed by guys who hated ergonomics and functional user interface.
God I hated Blue Force Tracker. It was like if Mapquest had been designed by someone who loved 1999 Word Perfect but had made it harder to use.
I like your idea.
It’s a shithole
… the True Cost of Economic Security, a groundbreaking new standard developed by the Urban Institute and commissioned by the National True Cost of Living Coalition, tells a radically different story. One that better captures the lived experiences of millions of Americans by capturing the full range of what families actually need: housing, food, healthcare, childcare, transportation and savings for the future. It asks not just whether you can survive today, but whether you can build toward tomorrow.
By the True Cost of Economic Security standard, 49 percent of all Americans — nearly half the country — lacks the resources they need to be economically secure. Economic insecurity cuts across racial lines, affecting families of every background and in every part of the country.
——-
Even though Blacks have earned college and graduate degrees at significantly higher rates today than in 1963, discrimination in the workplace and systemic factors like occupational segregation means that they still suffer higher unemployment rates and lower wages than white people. Black women in particular reap fewer rewards for the higher educational attainment they were told would afford them economic freedom. Those with advanced degrees earn about as much as White women with bachelor’s degrees.
In too many ways, we are moving away from the promise carried by those who marched in 1963.
Why would these helpless victims of cruel impoverishment and oppression not seek a better life elsewhere? I guess they are still enslaved.
https://www.fpwa.org/team/jennifer-jones-austin/
Black commie. I’m sure I left my shocked face around here somewhere…
…Would…
I could see it.
C’mon, Bro. You know the saying:
Don’t stick it in commie.
The racial wealth gap has worsened since 1963, ballooning to a median white net worth of $296,200 and just a $37,600 median net worth for Black families. Nearly one in four (23.8 percent) Black people have a net worth that is zero or negative.
Don’t you even look at the policies of the Great Society though, crackers!
Rewarding people for being poor had the expected results.
Let’s just overlook that until the “Civil Rights Era”, blacks were closing the economic gap with whites.
“discrimination in the workplace and systemic factors like occupational segregation”
Complete and utter bullshit.
And yes, the sad results of decades of leftist policies are sad.
Why is everything so expensive?
Because government has taken over healthcare, education, childcare, retirement…
In a time where federal policies are rolling back the hard-fought advancements of the Civil Rights Movement, now is the moment to confront the structural inequities that continue to deny too many communities the full promise of freedom. Shifting those structures demands that we treat childcare, healthcare, housing and savings not as luxuries but as the building blocks of economic security that every family deserves.
Sixty-three years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, we have the data, the mandate, and the unfinished work before us. What we need now is the will to act on it.
Free shit today.
Free shit tomorrow.
Free shit forever!
“Lord, I have been to the mountain top, and I have seen the promised land. I have seen white and black children getting FREE childcare from the taxes of others. I have seen endless race grifters black, white, yellow, and brown running NGOs getting government funding from others expropriated labor. I have heard the joyful cries of mentally unbalanced children receiving hormones and surgeries- all paid for by unwilling others. We are coming Lord, we are coming for that sweet sweet FREE government funding.”
No wonder he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
TWIP: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/09/the-week-in-pictures-no-canada-edition.php
Don’t you even look at the policies of the Great Society though, crackers!
We just haven’t been hitting it hard enough.
Its a black cherry stout aged in whiskey barrels with a slight hint of orange.
I would not volunteer to throw myself on that grenade.
It’s right under your noses
These changes at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are not occurring in isolation. They fit within a broader agenda that increasingly seeks to push women toward motherhood and away from economic independence. Trump has considered numerous such proposals — including birthing bonuses and even a “national medal of motherhood” for women with six or more children.
It is not just a regressive concept of societal roles. Passing the SAVE Act would also make it more difficult for millions of women to vote, and the Department of Health and Human Services is undermining comprehensive reproductive health care and advancing a narrow vision of women’s health centered on childbirth.
Trump wants you barefoot and pregnant.
I for one don’t want any of those Lindsay Clancey believers on TikTok pregnant.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/inimaichettiar/
Black commie. My shocked face is getting a workout today.
She’s definitely Indian.
But yes, probably a commie. And like all race grifters she’s married to a white guy.
‘Passing the SAVE Act would also make it more difficult for millions of women to vote’
???
The illegal ones.
lolwut
It’s like the last half century of relentless “I don’t need no man” propaganda never happened.
I haven’t had this one, but a while back I did have the Southern Tier Barrel Works: Manhattan. It was good, but I’ve found most of the cocktail inspired beers to be missing the mark. An exception can be made for those that are leaning towards highballs, such as Short’s Melt My Brain. Which was a gin styled beer mixed with in house tonic and lime added. So… a gin and tonic beer.
Interesting.
Alright, lets start by drafting refugees. They need jobs, food, and housing.
The French Foreign Legion model. I believe non-assimilation was not an option; get French or get out.
I was shocked at the number of non citizens in the army when I was in.
I got out before they started letting illegals join.
Non-assimilation was never an option anywhere until recent years and then only in the woke West.
Back in the ’50s/’60s there were many immigrants in the Army, some draftees, some enlistees.
I had a German, a Dutch, an Ecuadorian, an English kid and a Czech working for me at different times in France. Some enlisted to get a good tech school rather than be drafted. The English guy said he’d been in the US a very short time before he got his draft notice.
We lived better at a remote station than at a large garrison so there was that too.
Vietnam Vet: I was in the shit. Charlie was all around. I was holding my dead buddy’s body over me so they would think I was dead.
Iraq 1/2/Afghanistan Vet: That sounds like the time our humvee got hit by an IDE, I got knocked out when my buddy’s leg got blown off and hit me in the head.
Iran Vet: I hear you guys. I was stuck on a boat for months. Sometimes the toilets didn’t work.
Statistically during Iraq and Afghanistan the death rate at Ft Campbell was higher than in the war zone.
Stand your ground
A Florida woman who shot and killed a 62-year-old army veteran in a dispute over a space at a Walmart parking lot will not face charges because of the state’s stand your ground law, prosecutors said.
Melissa Payne opened fire in June on Bart Diguglielmo, who was unarmed, during the incident in North Lauderdale. Security cameras and cellphone video of passersby captured the argument and Payne firing a single shot.
On Thursday, prosecutors for the Broward county state attorney’s office ruled that Payne was protected by the 2005 law, which insulates from criminal charges any person who uses deadly force when they fear an imminent threat to their life, or the likelihood of serious bodily harm.
Although Diguglielmo had no weapon, he was seen on the video circling Payne and her vehicle, and moving towards her several times, leading prosecutors to conclude she acted in self-defense.
——-
“The video does not demonstrate that [Payne] was in the right, rather it demonstrates that the State of Florida cannot overcome her claim that she was in reasonable fear of great bodily harm by clear and convincing evidence,” the memo said.
“Florida is a Stand Your Ground State. [Payne] did not have to wait to be attacked before resorting to deadly force. She did not have to retreat as long as her fear was reasonable and no evidence has been presented to disprove that.”
Videos of the incident, which were widely scrutinized after the 30 June encounter, show Diguglielmo “aggressively approach” Payne, according to the memo. The incident followed an argument between the two over who reached a parking space first.
More like fire at will, right?
It would be ridiculous to expect the Guardians to provide a detailed version of the story. My assumption is she had no viable avenue of retreat. A still shows her, pistol in hand (pointed directly at ground) with him squared up right in front of her, much closer than a cop would have allowed. Maybe he should have retreated.
You’d think a 62 year old army veteran would recognize when a strategic withdrawal was in order. It’s a parking space, for fuck’s sake. At Walmart.
Easier to understand if it was at Costco …
Or the Waffle House.
Dumb way to die.
He made that choice.
Watching the entire video is painful, guy kept advancing, she kept retreating.
He could have waddled all the way into the store in the same amount of time.
One less hothead. Win.
Yep.
Officials say none of them were wearing seat belts and that alcohol is likely a contributing factor in the crash.
The crash was reported just before 1:30 a.m. Friday on Highway 2 between Big Pines and Wrightwood, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Investigators say six people were in the 2016 Hyundai Veloster when the driver veered off the road.
“For unknown reasons, the vehicle swerved away from the roadway, struck a telephone pole and rolled down an embankment. At that time, four parties were ejected from the vehicle,” CHP Officer Thaniel Ong said.
I would never have guessed you could get six people in a Veloster.
Small Central American people?
Pygmy Panamanians?
The inverse giants of Guatemala.
And seriously people.
Wear your seatbelt.
95+% of the time I read about a vehicle fatality it’s because of an ejection/not wearing their seatbelt. The rest of the time it’s a motorcycle crash or someone in their 80s.
Even if your an idiot the seatbelt is likely to save you’re ass.