Bye-Bye Bourbon?

Before you think I have lost my mind or have decided to start drinking clear alcohol, hear me out.

The odious asshat pictured at the top of the page is Indiana Governor Mike Pence. He is a not-very-smart man. He recently proved this by signing a bill into law which, under the rubric of "religious freedom", allows for discrimination on the basis of religious belief. Not surprisingly, a lot of the country is calling this bullshit out.

The snark in me wants to say the best way to protest this would be for companies in Indiana that are opposed to this law to use it to refuse service to right-wing Christians. Because they always seem to be shocked that a good portion of their poorly-written laws can be used against them.

But no. There is another way. That dovetails nicely with a pet peeve of mine.

When it comes to booze, I am a stickler for truth. If you say your scotch is aged 12 years, it damn well better be 12. If you say your beer has three different kinds of hops, you best not be lying about it.

And if you are going to say your bourbon is "hand-crafted" like you spent a decade+ making it? Well, you had better be telling the truth.

That is where Lawrenceburg, Indiana and MGP enter the story.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana (not to be confused with bourbon-locale Lawrenceburg, Kentucky) is home to a massive brick complex that cranks out mega-industrial quantities of beverage-grade alcohol. The factory, once a Seagram distillery, has changed hands over the decades and was most recently acquired by food-ingredient corporation MGP. It is now a one-stop shop for marketers who want to bottle their own brands of spirits without having to distill the product themselves.

Their products are well-made, but hardly what one thinks of as artisanal. And yet, much of the whiskey now being sold as the hand-crafted product of micro-distilleries actually comes from this one Indiana factory.

I encourage you to read the whole piece as it is quite enlightening. And you can also find out the companies that use MGP as their source of whiskey. And then stretch the truth about where it comes from. And there are some big names on there as well, like W.H. Harrison Bourbon, Breaker Bourbon and Hooker's House.

So you have a state wanting to legalize discrimination in the name of God (which I personally think He is not cool with, BTW) and that same state housing the source of a lot of whiskey-laced lies. What to do, what to do, what to do...

The Face of GamerGate

These are the brave warriors fighting a battle for ethics in journalism by...viciously slandering and attacking women.

“I have been terrified of inviting a deluge of abusive and condescending tweets into my timeline. I did one simple @ reply to one of the main victims several weeks back, and got a flood of things I simply couldn’t stand to read directed at me. I had to log offline for a few days until it went away. I have tried to re-tweet a few of the articles I’ve seen dissecting the issue in support, but personally I am terrified to be doxxed (having personal information such as an address, email or real name released online) for even typing the words ‘Gamer Gate.’”

As has been noted, the targets of this vile insanity are almost exclusively women. Men talking against GamerGate and it's mouth-breather adherents don't get nearly the same kind of response. I'll let you discern why that may be.

But to make this all really simple...

Fuck GamerGate, GG, #GamerGate or whatever the Hell they want to call it. Fuck every little WATB who thinks that slagging and attacking women is somehow acceptable.

Sorry women scare you so much, brohams. But it's the 21st Century. Get the fuck over yourself.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Of course, you are almost asking for this to happen when some of your biggest donors are oil companies. But that doesn't change that this is complete and utter crap (Dallas Morning News via io9).

The Dallas Morning News has learned that the Perot Museum failed to display a panel that spelled out the link between burning fossil fuels, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and a warming planet.

The 4-by-2.5-foot panel had been designed to hang in its earth sciences hall but was lost in the bustle leading up to the museum’s opening in December 2012, said Steve Hinkley, vice president of programs at the Perot Museum. He did not learn of the panel’s omission until a reporter began inquiring about it earlier this month.

......

The missing panel, titled “Changing Climate,” states that “Volcanic eruptions and burning fossil fuels increase the amount of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. This warms the Earth and can cause sea levels to rise and climates to change.”

A caption below a photo of what looks like a smokestack added: “Humans have altered Earth’s climate by burning coal and other fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide,” according to an image of the panel provided by the Perot Museum and by the panel’s designer.

The article goes on to have Hinkley state the reason the panel is missing is that it was improperly designed for the space and they need to make a new one. Of course, this problem arose a year and a half ago and I am willing to wager it doesn't take that long to make a new panel.

No, the problem is much simpler. Big Oil/Gas/Whatever donates money to these museums and then makes sure that scientific facts that would hurt their bottom line simply disappear or get crowded out by a bunch of noise.

Republicans' New Target: Kids

Politics is a bloodsport. Anyone who thinks otherwise really hasn't been paying attention. But you'd like to think there were some limits. Kids, for instance. You'd like to think that targeting children in bills would be off-limits. Because, you know, they're kids.

Well, don't fool yourself. GOP members in the House, known for their high-levels of assholery to begin with, have reached new heights of being assholes.

I'm not sure why this isn't a bigger deal. I hadn't heard about it other than in this brief passage tucked away in a Politico article about the House GOP agriculture bill. But it takes a small program intended provide meals to children in the school lunch program during the summer months and says it can now only be used to benefit kids in "rural areas".

This is a program that dovetails off of the "Head Start" programs that help to make sure that kids get breakfast and lunch at school if they qualify. Because kids going hungry is not only morally repugnant, but it negatively impacts their ability to learn. This program simply makes sure that these kids eat in the summer as well. This should be pretty non-controversial. But no one should be surprised that the Republicans have decided to make it very controversial indeed.

So why should only "rural" kids benefit from this program? I am sure that Republicans have some wonderfully vague and nondescript talking points. But here are the real reasons:

1. Rural kids live in rural families in rural areas that tend to vote Republican. Urban kids live in urban families in urban areas that tend to vote Democratic.
2. Rural families tend to be white. Urban families tend to be non-white.

Sorry kid, but giving you lunch is a step too far for the GOP

Argue all you want against those two statements. But at the end of the day, it fits with the way the modern Republican Party works.

And here is a bonus reason. The reason the Republican party gets poor white people to vote against their best interests and voting Republican is by using coded racist language and appeals to racial fears (e.g. immigration). Had the Republicans killed funding for this altogether, then poor whites and non-whites alike would have a common reason to attack the Republican Party. And the last thing they ever want is poor people, regardless of race or ethnicity, coming together in common cause.

So, you "divide and conquer". They write-in the program for poor, white rural families and cast urban residents to the side. The divide is kept intact. And, when someone inevitably points out that this is bullshit and urban kids count too, the Republicans can talk about immigrants and/or the lazy poor getting "your" benefits. Which reinforces the white/non-white divide in the lower class.

When Jesus said "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me", he didn't mean "make them suffer". Someone should clue the GOP into that.

Another Case of Getting It Really, Really Wrong

I am a web developer. And there are a lot of good things about working in the tech field. But if there is one thing that isn't good, it is the "brogrammer" mindset that is still all too prevalent in the industry. A complete unwillingness (or worse, inability) to acknowledge that:

1. Women work in this field as well, and
2. Maybe guys shouldn't act like misogynistic assholes

I have talked about this before here, how men in the industry have to confront this alongside women. That we can't just sit back and shake our heads in silent disapproval. Because not only is it just wrong, abhorrent behavior...it makes every guy in the industry look bad.

Real men in the tech field hate these guys.

With that in mind, here is another dumbass "bros in the industry keeping it real" idea that is just ridiculous and sad.

A "Hackers and Hookers" themed Halloween party, organized by a startup co-working collective called "Hacker Hideout," tech people might be smart commentary on the state of gender and business today. If it weren't real. But, yes, it is real: for $10, you can drink unlimited beer with a bunch of losers whose companies won't even get purchased by Yahoo!, wondering Where are all the girls??, and generally lacking social mores.

Guess which gender the hookers are!

You would think by 2013 we'd be getting a handle on this kind of bullshit, but no. Just like the CEO of a healthcare startup thinks women wearing high heels have no brains, we still have a long way to go.

Ideally, these assholes would just shut the fuck up and stop doing this crap. But the problem with that is it won't change the regressive mindset that forms these idiotic ideas. Better they come to the fore and receive the public mocking they richly deserve. Perhaps then the idea that maybe, just maybe, we should treat everyone the same will sink into their brains.

Summing Up the Government Shutdown in One Picture

All of this is one big Republican temper-tantrum because the Affordable Care Act is law. And that isn't going to change. So like a child they are collectively holding their breath. Except, unlike a child, this idiocy is hurting the economy to the tune of $300M a day.

Assholes.