CA Condors

Millions of years of evolution is a beautiful thing.

 

 

DC Gun Registration

Registering your gun in DC is such a pain that if I happened to live there I'd likely skip the whole process for now and wait a couple months for the permanent rules.  You need to complete a safety test, get fingerprinted, and kiss the Mayor's ass.  Maybe that last part is a joke, but they do seem to have a lot of discretion.  

The worst part?  A vision test.  So if you have trouble seeing, you cannot own a gun.  This would seem to violate many existing laws, such as the ADA act.  Just because someone is visually impaired does not mean they are prohibited from owning a gun.  Per federal law, only criminal acts and mental illnesses are barriers, not disabilities.  Make all the jokes you want about blind people and guns, but if you believe in the Constitution, they should be able to own them.

Offshore Drilling is not the answer

Today George W Bush lifted the mortatorium on offshore drilling put into place by his father.  Oil companies cannot yet begin drilling offshore until Congress passes a similar law.  As always, the whole issue of offshore drilling is BS.  Here is why:

1. More oil will not lead to cheaper gas.  Our oil refineries, which turn oil into gas, are maxed out.  Oil companies have been closing them, and none have been opening.  Even if we had a lot more oil, we could not product much more gasoline and this is why the prices of gasoline are so high.

2. Even if oil companies choose to drill offshore (and most won't) the oil won't be produced for at least 5-10 years, so there is no short-term fix.

3. We are now hearing about shale rock in the Rocky Mountains, which could outproduce Saudi Arabia.  

Oil shale, offshore drilling, and arctic wildlife refuge drilling are not the answers.  Everytime we burn some type of fossil fuel, we are slowly fucking over the world.  We have seen changes in our lifetimes, which are comparatively small to the 5 billion years that our Earth has been here.  We've done so much damage that ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic is melting at a rate that has never been seen.  While I disagree that our coastal cities will be flooded soon, it is not outside of the realm of possibilities.  

We need to harness cleaner form of energies such as wind power, an idea advocated by an oil man, T Boone Pickens.  See www.pickensplan.com

Real American Beer

Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser, has been sold to InBev, a Belgian beer manufacturer, which will now be the largest beer maker in the world.  

Over the next few weeks, you will hear lots of politicians talking about America losing a great company.  You'll see a bunch of hicks from all over the US saying that they will no longer drink the "foreign" Bud.  This is all bullshit, of course.  Many drink Coors (owned by the Canadians) and Miller (owned by South Africans).  

I don't drink Bud.  Maybe occasionally, but I don't take pride in it.  It is cheap and alcoholic and not much else.  

Who cares who owns a shitty beer like Budweiser when we Americans have much better domestic choices.  Here are just two:

Boston Beer Company - A publicly traded company based in Boston that brews Sam Adams.  These guys are the best "big beer" makers.  They experiment a modest amount and make some kick-ass beers like the Black Lager and their winter collection.  They also encourage home brewing.

Dogfish Head - This is the 25th largest microbrewery that I toured over the weekend.  These guys are absolutely crazy and make some very strange beers.  They've put everything from coffee to oysters in their beer, and now make a fair amount with different kinds of fruit.  Their beers are so good they can be pared with foods like wine.  

When you've got American brewers like these two making truly world-class beers, who cares about Bud?  Bud has been our national embarrassment for decades (go to any other country and order a Bud), and I'm glad that the Belgians took it over.

Delaware Beach Trip 2008