No Beer for you.....

Now I am pissed off.... the Wisconsin Legislature... has done it again.  This time they are attacking.... get this (in Wisxonsin, no less)  BEER!  or more correctly, small brewers and breweries.  Ok, it gets complicated, but here is the nub, and I will also post a link.  There has been a 'Turf War' between Anheuser Busch and Miller Coors for beer distribution in Wisconsin... Miller-Coors was a big campaign contributor for Scott Walker.... Now there is proposed legislation that would significantly cripple the growing micro-brewing industry in Wisconsin.  You can read more HERE.  

THE REAL DEAL..... is that it would in essence hinder the growth of independent business... Wisconsin small Breweries.  Now it is just plain and simple a matter of a large mega-company trying to stifle any ANY competition.

Real American, huh?  That is Scott Walker's way of creating jobs, helping business grow..... shit&whisker!

I know I have waxed eloquent on this page of my love for  beer.  The truth is, about twenty years ago I had pretty much given up on drinking beer.... not that I had a problem...but more so... it just didn't taste good anymore.

And then, all across the country Small brewers started making good beer again... all grain, clean water, not additives... old styles revived... Pilsners, Porters, Stouts, IPA's, Ales, Stouts... IT WAS GREAT!  Good beer tastes great with good food.....fish, cheese, BBQ, b eef, pork, Mexican.... name it!!!

Now, craft beer, as it were, really has a small market share...but it was growing.  Brewpubs sprang up... often with attached restaurants... and it gave us  CHOICES!  well corporate greed knows no bounds.  At first the big three would buy up small breweries... or make partnership deals... Red Hook in Seattle, Goose Island in Illinois, Leinenkugels in Wisconsin.... to channel profits that had been siphoned away..... but that wasn't enough to satisfy the greed.  Nope.  Know the new 'rules' will not eliminate small breweries... but it sure will make it difficult to sell your brand.  It further inhibits current distributors from bringing in small brands from other states... Stone Brewing company and Dogfish Head are already gone from store shelves.

OK... I am just ranting.... but the real deal is..... this is just another measure to stifle... independence, entrepreneurship, innovation, and ...... jobs.  The current legislature does not have the individual in mind.....  they never have. Never will.  It is NOT about balancing a budget... never was.

just a poem today.....

Barking

The moon comes up.

The moon goes down.

This is to inform you

that I didn’t die young.

Age swept past me

but I caught up.

Spring has begun here and each day

brings new birds up from Mexico.

Yesterday I got a call from the outside

world but I said no in thunder.

I was a dog on a short chain

and now there’s no chain.

 

Jim Harrison

We won't get fooled again

ok.... been some strange days.
Nothing big, nothing specific..... just hacking at the tropical rhubarb of anxiety that is growing in the head, whacking at the emotional banana plants, stumbling over the rotting stumps of past bad decisions,  plus... I was accused, (slightly, perhaps in jest), of being a bigot.

So, here's the deal... the political thing has boiled itself down to a joke.  It just boggles me. The rhetoric is so banal and insensate that it makes me gag just thinking about it.  Who are these people....? ... and I just do not mean the politicians... all the commentary about them, and then the commentary about the commentary.  I won't comment about that.

I made contact, or rather he made contact with me, with someone from high school (screwy FB) who now sends me notes about people who have died in my old home town, religious tracts he thinks are relevant and republican-ish thoughts.
I can't begin to comment.

I think someone called me a bigot... I think... 'cause I looked through the comments and I didn't see a comment that anyone could have misunderstood.... but then, snark can cloud things.  At first I was a little upset, and even a little mad.... and then I just let it go. There are roads to walk today, and I am all out of peanut butter.. and mad just isn't working today.
That's my only comment.

So, no one has died... the politics suck, I am not a bigot... and if I have any prejudices isn't just that my chemicals get jostled around sometimes.... it's like getting gas... and it goes away.

 the thing of it is.... from the radio to the TV, from FB to Blogger... it just seems that everyone is apt to be telling me what to believe... and I don't believe me
all that much, so why should I believe them?

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

.... cause he ain't no wizard, and there ain't no yellow brick road.... and Dorothy never really left Kansas ...
and it ain't no deal.


leave a comment, eh!

as the years spin... by

The boy and I went to Ardy&Ed's for a burger and root beer yesterday.  I have been taking him there for twenty five years.  This year.... he took me.
Today we take him to Milwaukee for his flight back to Portland.  I miss him already.



So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through.      


Oh, well.

The revolution will not be on Fox .... RIP Gil Scott Heron 1952-2011

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
 

The revolutionThe revolution will be live.