Tuesday, March 31, 2009

You need to know......about International Tap House.

Check out this mess -

"500 Beers, 40 On Tap, 20 Countries, 1 Location. It's not only a slogan, its a committment. The International Tap House, or iTAP as friends call it, is built by beer lovers for beer lovers and those who want to fall in love with brews. If you are thirsty for a drab domestic beer you can find that at any old drab corner bar. We are your place for something outside the box. An Abbey from Antwerp, an IPA from CA, a Pilsner from Prague will fill the shelves of our reach-in cooler and flow through the tubes of our top of the line keg system. Other than a small smattering of wine, beer is it. We want to do one thing and do it well, every beer is poured in the glass recommended by the brewer. Beer is boss and we want to serve it in a space that is classy, comfortable and NEVER corporate. Tattoos and ties, laborers and litigators, Rolling Stones and Radiohead all mingle together over world-class, award-winning and classic-craft beers. Whether you drink-in or take-out we promise to change minds, excite palates and most importantly make friends. Come and join the revolution, iTAP...Beer, Cooler."

http://internationaltaphouse.com/content/view/12/27/

It's out in Chesterfield, but 500 types of beer to choose from? Wonderful. :) Now we know what to do after random trips to Vegadeli!



Thursday, March 26, 2009

Earth Hour is this Saturday!

Hey kids! Turn your lights out for an hour this Saturday at 8:30pm.

http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php

Turn out. Take action.
Be part of this historic event.
March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm local time
World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Veg friendly ballparks

After all that talk about 20 dollar, 80 pound hambergers, it's nice to see that Chicago and St. Louis scored 5th and 6th on Peta's Top 10 Vegetarian Friendly Ballparks. Just in time for the start of the season! :)

U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago White Sox)

Talk about a year of pleasant surprises on the South Side! After a disappointing 2007, the White Sox are tops in the AL Central both on the field and in the concession stands, touting terrific vegetarian choices. ChiSox fans can select veggie dogs, Gardenburger, PB&J, vegetarian taco salad, veggie tacos, nachos with salsa, fresh fruit cups, or corn on the cob.

Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals)


If Tony LaRussa weren't such a great manager, we might offer this vegetarian dog-and-cat rescuer a job at PETA! Nonetheless, we're thrilled that Busch Stadium has one of the most stacked vegetarian lineups in baseball (probably thanks to Tony's influence). Cards fans can chow down on veggie burgers, vegetable stir-fries, fire-roasted veggie burritos, whole roasted corn, Mediterranean tapas, fresh fruit, vegetable crudités, or mouthwatering Harvest vegetable wraps (spinach tortilla wraps layered with grilled portobello mushrooms, roasted zucchini, roasted red peppers, lettuce, and diced tomatoes).

Before...and after.

Gregatron told me that I couldn't be preachy and talk about how much more moral and high minded we are than omnivores. Bummer, right? :) But look at what these crazy omnivores are doing now!? Five thousand calorie burgers?

I found it amusing that as I was skimming over the news headlines tonight, two articles caught my eye right about the same time.

The first:

Mich. baseball park to offer 4,800-calorie burgers

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Well, at least the salsa is low-cal. The West Michigan Whitecaps, a minor league baseball team, will be offering up major league cholesterol, carbohydrates and calories in an enormous hamburger being added to the menu this year at the Fifth Third Ballpark.

The 4-pound, $20 burger features five beef patties, five slices of cheese, nearly a cup of chili and liberal doses of salsa and corn chips, all on an 8-inch sesame-seed bun. That's a lot of dough!

The Grand Rapids Press reports that anyone who eats the entire 4,800-calorie behemoth in one sitting will receive a special T-shirt. Saner fans can divide it up with a pizza cutter and share.

The Midwest League team is a Class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

And the second:

Death link to too much red meat

Scientists have produced new evidence suggesting eating lots of red and processed meat damages health.

They found big meat eaters had a raised risk of death from all causes over a 10-year period.

In contrast, a higher intake of white meat was associated with a slightly reduced risk of death over the same period.

The US study, featured in Archives of Internal Medicine, was based on more than 500,000 people.

The need is for a major reduction in total meat intake
Dr Barry Popkin
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
The researchers, from The US National Cancer Institute, found those whose diet contained the highest proportion of red or processed meat had a higher overall risk of death, and specifically a higher risk of cancer and heart disease than those who ate the least.

People eating the most meat were eating about 160g of red or processed meat per day - approximately a 6oz steak.

Those who ate the least were only getting about 25g per day - approximately a small rasher of bacon.

Conversely, those who ate the highest proportion of white meat had a lower risk of overall death, and a lower risk of fatal cancer or heart disease than those who ate the lowest proportion.

The researchers calculated that 11% of deaths in men and 16% of deaths in women during the study period could have been prevented if people had decreased their red meat consumption to the level of those in the lowest intake group.

Cancer compounds

The researchers said cancer-causing compounds were formed during high-temperature cooking of meat.

No one's saying that people should avoid bacon or burgers completely, but evidence tells us that cutting down on these foods can reduce the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases
Ed Yong , Cancer Research UK


Health and the attitudes we develop toward food is so complicated that I personally wouldn't even know where to start. Sadly, that the guy eating the 5k calorie hamburger just isn't going to be the same guy that reads that BBC health article. Or maybe he will be, and just not care.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Misusing the term “socialism”

We hear a lot about the term “socialism” these days. In the United States we have a fundamental misunderstand of what socialism is, and what it means. I thought I would write a few words to help clear up some misconceptions about this concept.

Socialism, properly defined, refers to the concept of collective ownership. This means that property is not owned by individuals, but rather communally. There are several different types of socialism. The primary form of socialism is state socialism, where government oversees collective ownership of property. This was primarily seen in places like the Soviet Union, but also to some degree in more democratic regimes. (The United Kingdom, for example, was a largely socialist economy, with government overseeing ownership of industry and coal mines, before Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party did away with this in the early 80s.)

Also, and many people may not realize this, but anarchism is a form of socialism. Anarchism calls for collective ownership without the presence of the state. If people cooperative decide to share property and not infringe on the rights of others, then that is, by definition, socialism.

“Wait a minute, how can you have socialism without government?” Well I’m glad you asked that question. I want you to pay attention very closely. Ready? Okay….

SOCIALISM HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GOVERNMENT!

Many right wingers try to distort what socialism is, to the point that every time a poor kid gets a discounted school lunch they decry “ZOMG that’s socialism!!!!11!1” This is wrong. Government programs, progressive taxation, labor and environmental regulations, and other things associated with being a well off industrial democracy that, at least to some degree, gives a damn about its citizens, are not, by definition, socialistic.

I’m not a socialist personally. I find the notion of socialism to morally appealing but highly impractical. However, I also don’t consider the term “socialism” to be an insult, which puts me out of step with what currently constitutes political correctness in the United States. I just wish we would use the term accurately! You can agree or disagree with how Obama is handling the financial crisis. I have my disagreements with him about several things. But he is attempting to save capitalism with government intervention (like the New Deal did) – he is NOT instituting socialism!

I wanted to hopefully clear up a little confusion on this point. The word “socialism” is thrown around haphazardly not only by ideologues with radical right wing agendas, but less nefariously by a national news media that is too self absorbed and lazy to pick up a fucking dictionary.