Geez, it's been a great birthday weekend. Yesterday was kinda kick-back from days of dining out, of fun and frivolity which really all began a week ago last Saturday at friends who brew a great Austrian style beer themselves.
So yesterday I stayed home, nursing the growler of some excellent India Pale Ale (IPA) procured from the brewpub the day before. IPA is the product of "empire." In all the history of empires and the bastards who ignore that history and decide they want their very own, I'm unsympathetic.
Empires just seem to wreak a lot of havoc and hell on land and lives, particularly on those being civilized, liberated, or democratized. Inevitably, the empire collapses, leaving only crumbling monuments to it's once "glorious" past. Little that is good comes from empires. Except for one major exception that I can think of--India Pale Ale.
Seems at the zenith of British empire, getting kegs of beer to its troops in distant places like India before they rotted were unsuccessful. So to keep the troops happy, brewers went to work and discovered by adding more hops to the mix, that acted as a kind of preservative. The beer's "shelf-life" was greatly increased. Distant trips to India were no longer a problem. Who knows how much longer the British Empire thrived because of happy troops suppressing and exploiting subjects in the hinterlands? IPA is probably the best thing to ever come from empire building.
Of course, the only trouble with any beer--like yesterday's in a bottle--once tapped one must drink the damn stuff lest it die there. And there's nothing sadder for great beer than to pass from existence imprisoned behind walls of glass. Of course, I wouldn't feel the same remorse, say, for members of the Bush administration. But I digress. Or maybe that's a non-sequitur. Or wait, possibly that was a great segue?
So I started my post-birthday "long weekend" by stopping by Nona's Fish Wars this morning. Oh crap! This damn Plame case just gets more and more rotten. It's excellent reading, but where does this shit end?
Now we learn our very own Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Andy Card the Justice Department was launching an investigation into the Plame case but then waited 12 hours before delivering official notice to the White House! How much evidence can be destroyed in 12 hours if someone were so inclined? I don't know. Ask Ollie North.
What does it say about the state of the nation when your very own Department of Justice leader facilitates torture by abrogating international treaties and it's now revealed he could have facilitated the destruction of evidence in the Plame case as well? Oh wait, I forget. Historical precedence for this was established years ago by Nixon and Reagan. Some of those same veterans of Watergate and Iran-Contra are back in the White House today, repeating history. As we learned from before, what's the big deal, right?
"Welcome back, Dada!" I thought to myself. Then I remembered tonight we're being taken to another great "birthday dinner" by very good friends.
Well, I was so unprepared for the slime being revealed 'neath those White House rocks being overturned, I've decided to extend my birthday at least another day.
Now, how much India Pale Ale is still in yesterday's opened growler that I must rescue from imprisonment 'hind those glass walls today? Not sure. But I'm up to the task.
No comments:
Post a Comment