If the American Right Wing sees any silver lining in Senator Obama's candidacy, it would likely be how much he pisses off Jesse Jackson.  Jackson is a street hustler who's ridden the racial roller coaster for a lifetime and despite his offensive rhetoric (New York is Hymie Town) and corporate shakedowns (his organization gets paid off not to protest) he is labled as a civil rights leader and healer.  Baloney.

The most recent round involves him stating he wanted to cut off Obama's nuts.  Talk about an unkind cut.  Now it appears that in the same incident he stated that Obama was talking down to black people.  Instead, he didn't say black people, he said the n word*.   Jesse famously has sought media attention by calling for rappers and entertainment folks not to use it, has called for the boycott of the Seinfeld Show DVD's after comedian Michael Richards used it, and has utilized every opportunity to make waves over its use.  How rich.  

Jackson won't suffer the loss of one supporter as a result of this, and he knows it.  He's crossed the line so many times, he doesn't just enjoy a double standard, it is a triple standard.  Jackson's real anger stems from the fact that his type of race hustling is being pushed aside.  A joy to watch him fade away. 

*As a courtesy I'd ask any comments on this thread to refer to it as the n word.  I won't censor you but it is a charged revolting word and I'd prefer it not be used.  My thanks in advance. 

Our Man in Jakarta reports that Indonesia's Highest Court has rejected the appeals of the three Islamic terrorists convicted of the October 12, 2002 bombings that took the lives of 202 people, mostly tourists.  There executions are therefore likely to take place shortly.   Sadly, no tickets are available for the good seats.   

The three still have the opportunity to make a formal appeal for clemency to Indonesia's President, but that would require an admission of wrongdoing.  The three will apparently do so as they do not believe they did anything wrong.  Lovely fellows.  The failure to even acknowledge their wrongdoing is window into their mindset, and the mindset of their fellow terrorists, and the mindset of those who support them.        

The California Parole Board rejected the petition of Susan Atkins for release from prison where she has been for nearly 40 years.  Atkins presently has terminal brain cancer, is paralyzed on the right side and had her right leg amputated.  She will trefore die in custody.  Her husband and lawyer (the second man that she married while incarcerated - this is California) argued that she is no threat with a few months to live, has served a substantial portion of her sentence, and the costs to the state are significant and therefore there is no longer any reason to keep her incarcerated.  Thankfully, the Parole Board dismissed this petition after the hearing yesterday.

Susan Atkins was found guilty in the murder of 8 of the 9 people killed by the Manson family in 1969.  The evil head of the family, Charles Manson, and two of her fellow female killers remain incarcerated.  I won't go into the details of the crimes other than to note that Atkins stabbed to death the pregnant actress Sharon Tate who begged for her life and the life of her unborn child.  Atkins said she stabbed Tate to death because she grew "sick" of listening to Tate plead for mercy.  Atkins was sentenced to death but had her sentence commuted to life when the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty (it has since be restored).   Atkins became a born-again Christian and a "model" prisoner while in prison, and to both developments I say "so what."

If one disagrees with the death penalty, as I do, and one argues for life without the possibility of parole, one should not hedge one's position.   There are people of good intention on both sides of the death penalty debate, and reasonable arguments on both sides (alas, not always reasonbly argued).   In the case of Ms. Atkins, a convicted mass murderer, she deserves to literally rot in jail until the end of her days.  To grant her parole, in effect to extend to her a further mercy she did not extend to her victims, would have been unjust.        

Next week I'll be on a family vacation in Ireland, and as always my fear of flying is starting to get to me.  Not in the plane mind you, but flying along the roads of Ireland where even Portugese car thieves would fear to drive.  It is quite an adventure, and as the presumptive Mahons heirs will be in their baby car seats this trip, I am filled with more worry than ever.   

For my fellow Yanks who have not been, the Irish drive on the same side of the road as the Brits, namely, the wrong side.  The cars are made accordingly, and at least three times a day I will open the passenger side door thinking it is the driver's side door.  I am fairly certain that many of the Irish sustain their version of Catholicism from driving on Irish roads. Reciting the names of the Holy family (Jesus Mary and Joseph!) at great speed shows a sense of the sacred mixing with a sense of sin (breaking as many traffic rules as possible).  Grandmothers drive like crack addicted cabbies. The young are incapable of driving without texting important message to each other about Westlife, Spanish holidays and how the craic was mighty at The Fiddler's Ass last night - all the while overtaking the likes of your humble author.   Indeed, one of the more harrowing experiences is the overtaking.  Overtaking is Gaelic for "passing some slow gobshite Yank" with inches to spare and is usually done in hairpin turns when large trucks are coming the other way.

Indeed, Irish roads have improved, and their motorways are quite good, but stray of them (as you must) and you are living in a car insurance commercial.  Mist, rain, fog, stone walls, unfortunate sheep, the famed loose chippings, isolated road crews of men hardly working, farm tractors, and questionable traffic control devices all serve as a Celtic obstacle course.  And that is before one considers the darting "L" Learners Permit vehicles that seem to be every third car and the insistence of truck drivers to pretend they are driving VW Beetles.  Comfort is not provided from the death tally on the signs entering each county:  Welcome to Longford - Celebrated Midlands Fishing and 1600 killed on the road this year. 

The true test is the roundabouts which are more terrifying than a Wham Reunion Tour.  These are intersections that are controlled in great part by a spirit of gleeful oblivion by the local population, and are traffic circles in which one enters in certain peril, proceeds clockwise in a fast motion nightmare until one spies a conveniently unhelpful sign signifying the chance to exit the Scary-Go-Round has just been missed.  One then circles again in the hope that marital relations survive repeated failures to follow the spouse's shouted instructions to "exit here damn it".   

Of course nothing is more frightening about driving in Ireland than the car rental counter where the global pirates of the various car rental companies add fantastic increases to the cost of renting a car through insurance and hidden fees.  All done, might I add, when one has landed at dawn after having flown through the night, and confirmed when one is rushing for the return flight home.  I presume the heads of these car rental companies are in a special circle of Hell, perhaps itself a roundabout, where they are doomed to ride in circles forever, knowing that they declined extra insurance only to find it pop up on their credit card statements time and again.                          

John McCain is leading Obama in one recent poll, a poll of pet owners.  The United States has a high degree of dog ownership, unlike say North Korea which has a high degree of dog eatership.  The people with pets tend to view other pet owners more favorably, and non-pet owners with deep suspicion. 

Senator McCain, like his childhood friend Noah, has a habit of collecting pets.  He has two dogs, a cat, some birds, some turtles, a feret and some fish.  Senator Obama apparently is without pet, although he apparently announced that his family is looking into getting one.   A belated attempt to curry favor with the menagerie demographic is too transparent and could lead to some awkward moments for the Charisma-in-Chief.  Does Obama get a French Poodle to match his foreign policy, a pit bull to offset his more aggressive spouse, a plain mutt to remind folks of his appeal to all races, or a cat named Hillary (the only pussy Bill Clinton would actively avoid).

Senator McCain's keeping so many things captive is of course ironic considering his own history.  However, it apparently has given him a leg up (if not four legs) among his fellow pet owners.  In any event, might we all not have been better off if the present occupant of the White House had been out walking his dog for almost the last eight years, instead of acting as a King Midas in reverse?   

There is an old song Johnny Cash, among others, sang called "The Streets of Laredo."  In that lament a dying cowboy asks the man who stops to hear his final words to tell his family a few things, but not to mention the name of the man who killed him so that his name will pass on.  I feel the same way about the SOB who strangled his own daughter as reported by The Associated Press in Jonesboro, Georgia.  Apparently Sandeela Kanwal, age 25, did not want to continue in her arranged marriage so her father strangled her to death in the family home.   Kanwal is not her maiden name.  Her father's arraignment was adjourned to get a translator since he can not speak English.  Apparently he is a native of Pakistan.  I have tried to maintain a fairly objective tone on this site towards a certain religion for some time, and I would still maintain that this behavior is not representative of that entire community (not named by the Associated Press in an ommission so glaring it must be deliberate).  However, if there is no outcry from that community calling for justice for this poor woman, then I'll frankly be at a loss to defend them this time.  All I can really do is express my disgust with the father and hope his family name, so important to him he would strangle his own child, dies with him.        

I live in a small town on the border of New York State and Connecticut, about an hour north of New York City.  A touch of suburbia here and there, but still maintains its rural elements.  An area also rich in the history of the American Revolution.  Some of the roads I drive on were the road the Continental Army, the American militia, British soldiers, Tories and French troops marched on centuries ago.  Their ghosts still haunt the oldest trees and fields. 

Sybil Ludington, a sixteen year old girl and the eldest of 12 children, rode her horse one night in 1777 through the surrounding villages and farms to muster her father Colonel Ludington's militia.  Her statute sits up on a lake in Carmel New York, I drive by it weekly.  Her fathers troops marched over the same road I take to go shopping, and 400 of them went to meet the British Troops at Danbury, Connecticut.  Dirt roads then, paved roads now, they marched with musket to meet the foe, I drive with credit card to buy diapers and baby formula in bulk at the Costco store.

In nearby Ridgefield, Connecticut if you go to 25 Main Street you'll see the Keeler Tavern which still stands.  In April 1777 it received a British cannon ball in its wall during the Battle of Ridgefield.  Firing on an establishment that serves alcohol is of course the greatest of all war crimes.  The Cannon ball is still there, lodged in the wall if you want to take a look. 

On April 27, 1777 the Battle of Ridgefield was fought up and down mainstreet.   Among the American heroes of that Battle was Benedict Arnold.  Arnold, also a hero of the Battle of Saratoga where he received a crippling leg wound, would later turn traitor and try to turn West Point overto the British.  He escaped capture and would later lead British raids in Connecticut that burned several towns to the ground.  Since he was a native of Connecticut you can imagine the adverse effect this had on his popularity ratings in his home state.  He died in petulant obscurity in England.   On the Battlefield of Saratoga there is a monument to his leg, considered the only Patriotic part of him.  I kid you not.

There is a small monument in Ridgefield, a marker really, in a stone wall and surrounded by small flags where several of those killed in the battle are buried.   The inscription reads that buried here are "eight Patriots companioned by sixteen British soldiers, living their enemies, dying their guests".  I think the idea of them being companioned now is quite touching, foes in arms and brothers in death.  We know the two great nations, foes in two old wars and natural companions since, have by separate roads perhaps sought the same destination, a world in which freedom and liberty are not just words but deeds.  We stumble along those roads, at times venturing in the wrong direction, but we return to them and we continue onward. 

On this Fourth of July, with its pagentry of fireworks, baseball, hot dogs, pinics, parades and flags, I find myself reflecting on that simple marker in Ridgefield, these men who died for the words we cherish today.  The Declaration of Independence whose signing we attribute to Juy 4th 1776, is in the end an expression of liberty and freedom, crucial yet incomplete.  Its failure to account for slavery would result in a bloody Civil War in less than one hundred years.  Its promise was often unfulfilled for many of its citizens for decades after.  It is by our deeds, not our words that we are measured.

To my fellow Yanks, have a happy and safe Fourth!  To our friends across the sea, let us remind ourselves of the companionship inscribed on the stone marker, theirs in death and ours in life.   Now, this Yankee Doodle Dandy is off to get gas for the grill, beer for the cooler and some more fireworks.               

The welcome news out of Bogota is that Presidential candidate Betancourt, three American contractors and several Colombian military/police hostages have been freed by a stunning rescue by the Colombian military without a shot being fired.  The rebels must not know what the farc happened.  Some of  the hostages have been held for more than five years.  Perhaps this will help finally restore some order and stronger sense of justice to this struggling South American nation.  Three cheers for Colombia and its well executed hostage rescue! 

A Palestinian Terrorist has managed to kill at least three people today in Jerusalem and injured scores of others by ramming a Construction Vehicle into a bus, other cars and pedestrians.  His target, civilians.  The only bright spot is an off-duty Israeli soldier managed to shoot him before he could do further harm.

In a defining moment at least three Palestinian organizations have claimed credit for the attack, The Al Asqua Brigade (an Abba affiliate), the Galilee Freedom Battalion (a reputed Hezzbollah affiliate) and the Monty Python named Popular Front For The Liberation of Palestine.  Hamas denied involvement but praised the attack.  Lovely bunch.  Apparently the deceased terrorist actually appears to have acted alone.  His acts are consistent in principle, if unique in in the undertaking, with the so-called Palestianian Liberation Movement. 

There are legitimate grievances that the Palestinian people have as a whole, and these grievances are undermined by the actions of the terrorist organizations that exploit these grievances.  Unless and until they can somehow reign in those who commit these types of acts in their name, there will never be any peace in the Mideast.     

Th American Presidential Election is in the summer doldrums at the moment.  Both parties are reconciling themselves to their candidate and probably experiencing a little buyer's remorse, and getting ready for the big push of the conventions which serve as the formal annointing of the chosen candidate.

Senator Obama took some hits this week over former General Wesley Clark who made some snide comments about Senator McCain's military service.  Clark is a has been who never was as a polticial force, and seems intent on displaying his tone deafness at any given opportunity.  Attacking McCain's service record is really the province of the fantatic right, and has as much chance of success as a Drive-Thru Burger Joint in New Dehli.  It actually gave McCain a chance to replay his service record.   Memo to Obama and surrogates, if you attack a guy's strongest point, you gotta land a punch.  otherwisse, concede the point and move on.

Unsatisfied with playing only to his opponent's strong point, Obama sought to gloss over own his weakness with a pitch to the Evangelicals.  He announced plans to expand President Bush's program of investing federal money in religious-based initiatives.  He seeks to get religious charities more involved in government programs.  Gosh, would that mean giving them money?  Sounds like a payout to ease tensions over Rev. Wright, his advocacy of same-sex marriages and a tolerance of abortion almost bordering on promotion.   His plan - $500 million for 1 million children.  Heck if you say children enough times people might think you care, and of course round numbers never hurt.  Of course how 5 bucks a kid works out to anything of substance is just an annoying detail.  But it sounds so damn nice I am sure Oprah will love it.

Does it end there?  No, McCain somehow got Billy Graham to pose for a photo with him.  I honestly thought Graham had died before I saw the photograph and was reminded he is still with us.  Graham's the evangelical's evangelical, and doesn't give off the queasy vibe one associates with the Pat Robertson's and Jerry Falwell's.  But for God sakes did they have to get the poor guy out of bed for a photo opportunity?  I suppose at least it gives McCain the rare opportunity to sit next to someone older.  In any event, expect more silliness to follow.          

The good thing you can say about the Chinese Government is that at least they aren't Islamic fanatics.  After that, it gets a little dicey.

The Olympics will of course showcase modern China, with all dissidents and other undesirables placed beyond the reach of the World media.  We'll get cute little children, that high pitched music and propoganda displays that would make Mao proud.  I am sure their will be sojourns to The Great Wall and other cultural sites.  I expect little mention to the Chinese hosts of Tibet or Tiananmen Square.  We are a bit screwed anyway as they hold a nice marker on our currency.  

A fascinating issue for those in the World who love China anyway is to watch how they've shapped the Mugabe agenda in the U.N.  They gutted any action the UN would take, even to the point of watering down its customary inaction.  The old African song The Lion Sleeps Tonight may still hold true, but the Sleeping Tiger of Asia is awake and on the prowl.        

Bill Haley and The Rockets' classic "Rock Around The Clock" topped the charts this day in 1955.  The song is credited as the first rock song to do so, and the flood they could not stop started right after with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbinson, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion, Ricky Nelson, Smokey Robinson, The Beatles,  The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Eric Clapton, The Band, Otis Redding, Van Morrison, Jefferson Airplane, The Dead, Creedance Clearwater Revival, The Who, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Led Zepplin,  Frank Zappa, Allman Brothers, Neil Young, ABBA, Van Morrison Tin Lizzy, David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Ramones, The Talking Heads, Blondie, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Elvis Costello, The Neville Brothers, DEVO, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, AC/DC, REM, The Pogues, U2, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, The Killers, White Stripes, and Pat Boone just to name a few. 

Rock n' Roll has been the soundtrack of many of our lives.  It is somewhat disconcerting to watch bands I recall starting out have their 20th reunion tour, and the Woodstock audience went grey (if they kept their hair) some time ago.  I often stare in horror at young co-workers who have never heard "Lola", who think Sherryl Crowe wrote "The First Cut is The Deepest" and who call 80's music oldies.  Rock is a form of popular music that has abandoned the notion "I Hope I Die Before I Get Old" some time ago.  Or at least those of us north of forty have rejected that line, although I am sure there are some twenty-somethings who have at least embraced the idea "Hope You Die Before I Get Old."  Bill Haley may look to some teenagers now as somebody's old Uncle who lingered too long at the buffet table before grabbing a microphone at a cousin's wedding in black and white prehistoric times.  But count it out for me Bill "One o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock ROCK!!"   Hit that guitar riff, and with the aid of a few cocktails and lax nursing home security I'll be out on the dance floor.  If we can no longer use rock to rebel asagainst our parents, let us use it to rebel against our kids!!!           

Last Year Exxon made 40 billion dollars profit.  Nice.  Yesterday, the rich got richer as the Supreme Court of the United States dismissed the $2.5 billion dollar punitive damage claim against the company that resulted from the 1989 Exxon Valdez crude oil spill off the coast of Alaska. 

Compensatory damages are intended to make the victim whole.  Puntive damages are not compensatory damages.  Punitive damages are punishment damages, and intended to send a message.  The jury sent the message (actually awarding $5 billion which was a year's profit at the time), but it has been reduced and fought over by a corporation able to make 60 petitions and appeals, 23 time extensions and over 1000 motions, briefs etc.  Now the Supreme Court has found a way to allow Exxon to demonstrate that its nearly 20 year fight against the jury's verdict paid off.  Wonderful.  Exxon's spill covered 11,000 square miles of ocean and devastated marine life and the coast of the 49th state.  Thousands of people lost their homes and jobs.  Lovely.   Makes the soaring price of gasoline seem so much more comforting.    

Summer has arrived and with it baseball, barbeques and beach books.  If I venture to the beach I always bring a couple good beach books (and forty gallons of sunscreen, a case of beer and a large umbrella which serves as a sort of flag for my Mahons embassy among the bathing beauties).   If you are looking for a wildly popular author who actually enjoyed critical and commercial success, may I suggest what might be a suprising choice - Charles Dickens - whose work was hiding in plain sight when it came to me.

I know, I know, some wise ass out there will say A Christmas Carol doesn't really go with sand and surf.  And they would be right.  But damn if that old boy couldn't write a tale.  I happend to grab A Tale of Two Cities off the shelf a couple weeks ago and it is terrific.  I am halfway through.  I mean I know how it ends and have seen two or three movies of that work, but the writing and wit are fantastic.  And Boz could do drama and melodrama like no one else.  I will readily admit having seen more off Dickens work in movies and television than having read it, and I think in my mind I always just figured some day I'd get around to reading him.   I have read Great Expectations a few times and David Copperfield once.   Each work is so rich with characters and storyline that I am starting to think my failure to have read other works by him is almost criminal.   

Anyhow, I suggest that if you are picking out some books for yourself this summer, give a thought to this master of the English language and champion of human decency.  It may not be a far far better thing than you have ever done, but it would be a good idea none the less.        

Hillary Clinton is not a cheap date.  In order to secure her active participation in the campaign, Senator Obama has asked his financial donors to help pay down up to $10 million of the Cinton campaign debt.  The conference call in which he made this request took place this week before the big joint appearance of Clinton and Obama in New Hampshire.  He has not yet expanded this appeal  his expanded internet donor base, but methinks it is just a matter of time.  Senator Clinton, facing over $22 million in campaign debt, including a $10 million dollar personal loan to her campaign, has said she'll attempt to retire her debt to her vendors before recovering her personal loan.  How nice. 

In case you are among the twisted souls who think such blatant money grabbing is confined to one party, Rudy "Try To Remember That Time in September" Guiliani has offered to speak on behalf of any Republican Congressional candidate, however, the price is that he splits the donations from the event to retire his campaign debt.  Does he go Dutch on all his dates?  

Gentle readers, we would hope the vanquished would at least arise from the ashes of their campaigns to champion at least the cause they claimed to support, namely the election of their own party's standard bearers.  However, the old cliches ring true, and you have to put your money where their mouths are.    

Former New York Giant Football player George Martin has completed his 3003 mile walk across the United States to raise money for people who responded to the 9/11 attack and are now suffering from respiratory illness.  He walked from New York to California. Went through 24 pairs of shoes and raised 2 million dollars.  George was born in 1953 which makes him ten years older than me and I don't even walk to the train station I can see from my house.  He started this September and went through winds, ice, heat, mountains and deserts to reach San Diego California today.  His cause is very special because many of the rescue workers who responded on 9/11 are suffering from respiratory illness and the 9/11 fatigue has kept their problem off of the front pages.  Martin was always a humble man and announced that what he did wasn't heroic, and that the real heroes are the people he walked for.   Well you are my hero today Mr. Martin.   

Notorious Terrorist Supporter and Vividly Ugly Abu Hamza al-Masir a/k/a Captain Hook must finally be hearing the tick tock of the crocodile as Britain's High Court has emerged from Neverland and ordered him to be extradicted to the U S of A to face terrorism charges.  Eleven charges to be precise as we Yanks tend to supersize whenever possible.  Of course when it comes to terrorists we do like fries with that (or to have them fried), but I don't think he is facing the death penalty which probably aided the Court in its decision.  Well done to our friends across the sea. 

In American politics the candidates from both sides will attack  "Washington, D.C." as a place that needs change.  It is a time honored tradition, never mind that both candidates are office holders in Washington, D.C. and seek higher office located there.  The population can always be agitated against the capital, where Congress lies (hee hee), federal laws are passed and of course federal taxes originate.  But we Yanks should ask ourselves, is it the government that needs change, or do we need to change ourselves?  Change our spending habits, change our eating habits, change our reliance on foreign fuel, change the way we accept the dominance of pop cultural values, change our acceptance of certain corporate malfeasance, change our acceptance of poltical soundbites as a substitute for political thought and debate, and change an emphasis on profit over value.   Probably not the best political advice for a candidate - tell the people we need to change things we do, not just the party in office. 

But merely mouthing the words is not enough.  Candidates will schedule the odd event where thye will "take a stand" to show they can be tough on some element of their own base.  Obama did that on Father's Day when he criticised those black fathers who have not supported their children.   Ok, true enough, it has been a longstanding problem in the black community.  But should we elect Bill Cosby, since he has been saying this for years?  To me this was more a a scripted event than any real attempt to invoke change.   What will he really do? 

Is McCain any better?  Well he often antagonizes the rightwing of his party, earning their distain and the support of more mainstream folks.   But what will he really do?  His Supreme Court nominees wil hardly be the same as Obama's.  And McCain's view of Iraq is quite different, no matter what cynics might say.  I suppose the analysis we have to use is not what they will say, but what they will do.  We have some time to think about it.   But not a lot of time.           

The United States Supreme Court ruled today that detainees in Gitmo can appeal to the United States Civil Courts.  It was a 5-4 decision, and the Court held that they can not be detained indefinitely and without charges.  The Court noted that the COnstitution and the laws of the nation are designed to survive in extraordinary times.  The roughly 270 prisoners, only 19 of whom have been charged, will now likely file appeals to the United States Federal Courts.  Some of the prisoners have been held for six years without charges.  President Bush announced he does not agree with the decision, but he will abide by the decision.

What does this mean?  The military tribunals are probably over.  The prisoners will have to be charged and tried or released.  Those who are convicted should be punished, those who are not should be released.  In my opinion, we will have removed one of the great propoganda weapons from the terrorists and restored the sense of justice after long last.  I am sure everyone agrees. 

Call Me the Al Gore of the Anti-Global Beering Crowd and set aside an Oscar for my role in An Inconvenient Cocktail.  I am protesting the potential takeover over Anheuser Busch, makers of Budweiser, by Belgian Brewer InBev.  The $46 Billion Dollar Offer (what a round!)  may very well be accepted.   God Save the King of Beers!

This offer, if accepted, would create the world's largest beer company.  The good people of St. Louis would find themselves out of work pretty damn quick I am sure as InBev is one of those global monsters that buys other companies with all smiling assurances and then closes factories and ships jobs elsewhere. 

My devoted readers (both of them) know I have declared Budweiser the forbidden hops due to their sponsorship of the Chinese Olympics.  But that sad parting will, like the season of Lent, end at some point, and I was looking foward to returning to my beverage of choice.  Now I am not so sure.  The growing costs of production have apparently not met demand, as yuppies and other degenerates turn to trendy "microbreweries" , theme beers and wine.   Of course Anheuser-Busch made money last year (over two billion) but the corporate suits see they could make more.

What is next?  Will the Japanese buy Rockefeller Center (they did), the Arabs buy the Chrysler Building (apparently they will) some loudmouth idiot from Cleveland will buy the New York Yankees?  We must resist! To the barricades!  Bring the guns, pikes and swords!  I'll bring the ice and non-molotov cocktails.  Drinkers of the world unite!   We must stop these global corporate predators in their tracks.