Another DL E-mail

With President Obama's weekend announcement,  I can't not say something about the recent Net Neutrality news. A couple years ago, I began a paper called "Do the Cupcakes Matter? An Exploration of lobbyist influences over Internet Policy" based off of this story (https://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/fcc-cupcakes-and-humbug). What was funny is back in the day I proposed a move to Title II and it got rejected by my thesis committee as being "unrealistic". I kind of got the last laugh this weekend when President Obama said what me and many other advocates have said for a long time, the internet should be regulated like your telephone rather than a private highway.

For years, Comcast/ATT/Time Warner have said "we built it, its ours to service as we please." What has this meant? In short, its meant that within the big companies power was the ability to control what happens on their networks. For the most part, some may argue, they have used this power for good by trying to limit large bandwidth applications that impact the end user experience. However, some customers noticed that their internet was slowed when they were running things like World of Warcraft. Well, World of Warcraft used a protocol that Comcast had determined was used for mostly illegal purposes and blocked it. This case known as "Brand X v. Comcast" brought the most recent issues with the Corps managment to light. Comcast changed the way they did things (in theory).

It seemed like this issue was going to be swept under the rug. Even Netflix caved into pressure and now pays for what could be called "peering" fee to Comcast and Verizon (see herehttp://time.com/80192/netflix-verizon-paid-peering-agreement/) to allow for the company to have faster access to the network. The Big Corps long argued for this because they wanted companies like Netflix to help pay for "infrastructure". (again BS but thats another story....)

I know I have kind of taken a round about turn to explain history but why should you care? The reason is the internet is the great equalizer. Net Neutrality is a free speech issue because if companies like Comcast can control content whats stops them from pushing only their products? Or Time Warner blocking Comcast content because they own rival TV stations? Truth is nothing. Nothing stops these companies from deciding that one day they will block access to rival content.. Or since Corps are now people; lets say political candidates that one side supports..And we all know how much Liberals love their access to unedited and raw news. We also like the ability to use the net to organize and create movements.

So in the next few weeks as the holidays approach and companies send the FCC and congress their yearly cupcakes.. We'll see how this issue begins to truly shake out.

Current Playlist...

I Am What I am (La Cage Aux Folles): 

Because being able to be secure enough to be a Zaza is a goal... 

Send in the Clowns (London Revival with Judi Dench):

Carry On (Fun.):

Someone to Fall Back On (Jason Robert Brown):

Marry me a little (Broadway Revival):

Another Suitcase in Another Hall (Evita):

Secondhand White Babygrand (SMASH):

The Stout: Revisited.

Last January, my Cinnamon Oatmeal Stout came in 2^nd in the specialty category at the Winter Warmers Homebrew competition held by the Club. Truth be told it was about 2 points down from being in first. A hit among the family and club, I was very happy with this beer.  However, despite all of the great reviews; I have to make changes to the beer. L

The homebrew club is doing an event called “Made on American Street” to jive with an event of such a name; the companion beer competition is all of the American beer styles. And since the stout is the beer I am the most proud of, American Stout it is.  

The original plan was for this beer to just be a plain old stout. However, disaster brew day made me change plans…

The Brew day started out great. Mashed in, no problem and temperatures  stayed consistent. And then came the mashout. As we were testing our new sparge arm, we saw a white floating piece of CPVC pipe. Soon we saw a larger piece of the CPVC, floating up. Turns out the CPVC manifold had completely come apart. This meant a “stuck sparge” and an afternoon of plans immediately shot.

With strainers in hand, my dad and fought the good fight to mash out with pounds of grains coming through the spout.  After about 15 minutes of this crazy exercise, we finally had enough wort for a boil.  Only problem was it was 30 points lower than it needed to be for this beer.

Extract is something that is used by brewers and breweries often because it provides a consistent flavor profile and beers made with it are not time consuming.  In this case, extract was added to the beer to provide the extra og points needed to get this beer where it needed to be. Some all-grain brewers look at using extract as the “easy way out” in this case, it was the only way to go.

Boil went normally as did cooling.. We haven't bottled this beer yet.. Hopefully, it'll be okay.

The Penis Majority

Just adding the DL e-mail to my blog of record.

As many of you know, SCOTUSblog (http://www.scotusblog.com/) and I become best friends during the time when decisions are handed down from the Supreme Court. For those who are uninitiated, that site is hands down the best non-partisan analysis of the SCOTUS rulings. I highly suggest when you have a question about Constitutional law and need a laymen's explanation, visit that site. Their twitter feed can also be hilarious, like yesterday when numerous people thought they were the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) and tweeted praise/distain

In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, we saw the one of the biggest FUs that conservatives can give to women. Lets also never mind that these same companies (Hobby Lobby and Conestoga) have no qualms about funding vasectomies for men. At least the last time I checked, most major religions say a hardy "hells no" to that procedure. No, we had 5 MEN telling women that their birth control is immoral. Alito's majority opinion shows no respect for something called science and how birth control actually works. Just because someone's belief is firmly held, doesn't mean it should be applied to everyone. Sounds like Alito needs to spend some time in a foreign country where his beliefs are marginalized (oh wait he watches Faux news where they tell him he is ALREADY marginalized as a white Christian male).

Reading Alito's majority opinion made me want to scream. So full of fallacy and what would be jokes of argument if they were not so serious. Justice Kennedy also seems to fall short. While it is understandable to defend an individual's right for freedom of religion, this is a company that employs people of various backgrounds. Having someone else's beliefs thrust upon you is supposed to be discouraged by the Constitution the penis majority claims to hold so dear.

As usual, John Oliver does a great job of explaining why this doesn't work:
http://youtu.be/zSQCH1qyIDo

I will leave you with that.

some random pictures..

Basically, this is a few fun pictures from my dad's gardens. Growing up, I can't remember a time when there wasn't a flower patch or something else along those lines that he babied.  Since mom passed and he retired, he has spent a great deal of time fixing the gardens. While we have always had rose bushes; he started adding more lilies to the mix. Dad has also been working on his Master Gardener credential for over a year now, so he is really stepping up his garden game

After going to the homebrew store to get stout stuff (see soon), I wanted to take some pictures of his handywork in first blooms.

Lillie Patch in the front: Tiger, Asiatic and Day lilies with daisies. 

Front Patch: Daylilies. 

Swamp Orchid in Bloom

Asiatic Lillies from the dog pen

Shameless orchid plug: Audrey II about to bloom

Tiger Lillies

Peach Tea Roses

White Roses

Asiatic Lillies