I am sure that I am not the only one.
I want this to end, but tomorrow will be pure hell.
Even if it is a Biden blowout, I will have to be watching the new coverage, which means that I will have to watch the pundits pontificate.
Well, I refuse to do this sober.
BTW, my prediction. (joking)
You’ve heard of a Rum and Coke?
It’s commonly called a Cuba Libre, though some argue that this also requires lime juice.
The other day, I picked up a pizza when I picked up my son from work at Mod Pizza, and decided to get some Birch Beer, which is somewhat hard to find, but always stocked there.
When I got home, I poured the birch beer in a glass, and mixed it with some (a lot, actually) dark rum. (No citrus added)
The wintergreen overtones (The oil in wintergreen and birch are almost identical) works very well with dark rum.
My only question now is what to call it.
“Rum and Birch” sounds like some sort of S&M thing.
I still have some rum left over from the debates, so I took:
And made a Grog.
Not bad, considering that this is really cheap rum.
The debates start in a few minutes, and tonight, WILL be drinking.
I will be drinking rum and Coke, some of the good cane sugar stuff from Passover, from a plastic cup.
The plastic cup is because I will be tempted to throw it at the TV.
No drinking games though, I will just drink, because after the last fiasco, there is no way to fit that chaos into a game.
I’m watching Perry Mason instead.
I did not have time to get a sufficient quantity of alcohol.
I think that watching that first Biden-Trump debate may have left me with PTSD, and I am not repeating that mistake.
I need to stock up on alcohol before I watch another debate.
If you want to, you can contribute to Matthew’s Saroff’s Beer (and Laptop) Fund and Tip Jar, so that I will enough alcohol for the next debate.
I am amused:
Scotch whisky fans didn’t need any spiritual confirmation that their drink of choice is divine indeed.
However, it doesn’t hurt that Pope Francis has actually declared Scotch whisky to be ‘the real holy water’. It’s important to note that he did say it as a light-hearted joke to the Scottish student priests who offered him a bottle as a gift at a reception in the Vatican.
Though the moment was captured on video last year, the story gained attention recently, as the piece of footage censored by the Vatican was for a soon-to-be-released BBC documentary about seminarians at the Pontifical Scots College in Rome. In a Daily Record article, documentary director Tony Kearney described the scene:
“He was really down to earth with them all [the student priests] and when they handed him the bottle, instead of just handing it to his assistant as he normally would with a gift, he held it up and said ‘Questa e la vera acqua santa’, which means ‘This is the real holy water.’”
As for the specific whisky he was commenting on, it was a bottle of Oban, from the west coast of Scotland (both the 14 and the 21 year old are superb whiskies, by the way).
Somehow, I don’t think that we’d ever here such humor from Southern Baptist.
The kids were at school this evening, so I had to pick them up from the Metro station at about 10 pm.
That meant that I had to watch the Democratic Presidential debates Sober.
Tekeli li!!! Tekeli li!!!!
10:48 pm:
Debate over, not listening to the talking heads.
I am not drunk enough.
10:44 pm:
Cory Booker says that, “The election is not a referendum on Donald Trump, it is a referendum on us.”
Very eloquent, and also a good strategy.
Julian Castro just used the southernism, “Y’all.” It did not sound authentic.
10:39 pm:
Checking Twitter, and I think that the heckle was, “3 million departed.”
They should have done this when immigration had been the subject. Also, they should ENUNCIATE.
Cory Booker just said “Dagnabit”. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Take a drink.
10:33 pm:
Questions about resilience, and what your worst personal failure was.
Biden just got heckled. I cannot make out what is being said.
He’s asked about professional setbacks, and he mentioned his wife and daughter’s deaths in an auto accident, and his son’s death of cancer.
Warren talks about getting fired as a teacher because she is pregnant. Humble beginnings, drink by the Taibbi rules.
Sanders talks about his electoral failures before he becomes mayor of Burlington.
10:26 pm:
Ad break.
Alzheimers society advertising a lot too, as is some sort of student loan scam called Sofi, which sounds like a dotcom.
10:21 pm:
Julian Castro notes the documented fact that charter schools do not perform better than conventional public schools, and notes that they need more transparency and accountability.
Cory Booker comes out with a pro charter patter, and then goes back to environmental racism, which he has at least twice before.
10:18 pm:
Lindsay Davis calls out Biden’s racist statements in the 1970s.
Biden sputters word salad.
This format, and 10 people on stage, is exhausting.
10:10 pm:
Yang is a big backer of charter schools. F%$# that.
Buttigeig: Step 1 is to appoint a secretary of education who actually supports public education.
Lindsay Davis asks Warren if she is “in bed” with teachers unions. Lindsay Davis can go Cheney herself.
Warren mentions that she was a public school teacher. Good for her. (optional drink taken)
Sanders finally gets called on. Talks up his debt forgiveness.
10:06 pm:
Anthropogenic climate change: Moderate Jorge Ramos seems to be hostile to the idea of global warming.
Sanders is being studiously ignored on this question.
Andrew Yange is talking up “Democracy Dollars”. There is someone who did too much LDS in the 1960s. When does he start swimming with humpback whales?
9:53 pm:
Sanders to Biden: I never believed what Cheney and Bush said. Righteous!!! Drink, because it was epic.
9:48 pm:
Afghanistan. How the F%$# did we get out?
Biden now disavows the AUMF that allowed Bush to invade Iraq.
He claims that he’s a critic of the Iraq war. Bullsh%$.
9:42 pm:
Sanders makes a cogent statement about how “Free Trade” is really about labor arbitrage.
Biden cries, “Think of the intellectual property.” Not incoherent, but morally bankrupt.
Cory Booker: “I’m the only person on stage who finds Trudeau’s hair very menacing but they’re not a national security threat.” I laughed, and I am definitely got a buzz on.
Win from Taibbi:
I second this. DRINK if you think Kamala had a warmup edible tonight. https://t.co/C8jCAAnFVh— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) September 13, 2019
Harris sounds seriously off.
9:36 pm:
Trade policy questions, and the responses from everyone is fuzzy.
No one wants to come out against tariffs, so they are criticizing Trump’s incoherence.
Harris is really sounding awful.
9:26 pm:
Ad break. Notable ads:
The New York Times is advertising the sh%$ out of the debates.
I am depressingly sober. It’s what happens when I drink something with the alcohol content of a strong wine.
9:16 pm:
Beto speaks Spanish, Taibbi rules, drink.
9:11 pm:
Biden is challenged about Obama being deporter-in-chief. Good.
9:05 pm:
If Booker mentions that he moved to Newark one more time, I think that I am going to scream.
Warren says that Republican opposition to gun control is corruption. Warren, corruption, drink.
8:57 pm:
Kamala Harris was poorly prepped for this debate. She is sounding like an airhead, and she is not an airhead.
I think that someone convinced her that she needed to be more “Feminine” and it was a bad move.
Beto, “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15.” Swear word, drink.
O’Rourke sounds remarkably animated and sincere, because, IIRC, he is animated and sincere about the ammosexual threat.
Klobuchar called out McConnell. Drink.
8:49 pm:
Best question so far, a challenge to Kamala Harris about how she opposed law enforcement accountability, marijuana legalization, etc., as a prosecutor.
A close second is a question to Klobuchar over her awful record as a prosecutor.
8:45 pm:
Quote of the night so far, Beto O’Rourke: “We have a white supremacist in the White House, and he constitutes a mortal threat.”
I am impressed that O’Rourke is not doing his pre-El Paso shooting unity bullsh%$.
8:42 pm:
Andrew Yang, “I’m Asian, so I know a lot of doctors.” Sounds like Joe Biden stupid sh%$. (Drink)
8:38 pm:
So much sucking up to Barack Obama when discussing healthcare.
Julian Castro just said to Biden, “Did you just forget what you said 2 minutes ago?” Burn! (Drink)
8:33 pm:
Kamala Harris sure picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. Complete word salad and invoking John f$#@ing McCain? (Drink)
8:30 pm:
Butgigeig says, “Damn,” quoting Sanders, and sounds completely uncomfortable doing so. Awkward, take a shot.
8:26 pm:
Elizabeth Warren says that she’s never met anyone who loves their insurance company. Too true. (No drink)
Sanders notes that Americans pay twice as much as everyone else in the world, Biden interrupted, “This is America.” Stupid sh%$ from Biden. Take a shot.
8:22 pm:
Stephanopoulos whines to Warren and Sanders about taxes, and refuses to consider the savings of single payer.
Sanders says damn. Take a shot.
8:18 pm:
Stephanopolous serves up a big slow one over the center of the plate for Biden, basically asking if Warren and Sanders are icky socialists. Take a shot.
8:12 pm:
Sanders sounds a bit hoarse in his opening statement.
8:06 pm:
Castro’s opening statement had both Spanish and a sports reference. 2 Shots.
Yang just announced that his campaign will give 10 people $1000.00/month for a year. Literally a lottery offer onin his opening statement. Definitely a shot.
We are finally down enough candidates that they will all be on one stage, so I guess that I have to live blog this, so I will be drinking, because, forget it Jake, it’s ABC.
It’s only the primaries, so I’m doing Buttershots, Butterscotch liquor that is only 15% ABV.
I will be playing a drinking game based loosely on Matt Taibbi’s 3rd debate drinking game.
I will be posting at the top, with each update having a time in H:HMM pm format.
(On edit)
Watching on ABC and have some comments about ads.
Ummmm……What could possibly posses someone do curling sober?
A Canadian curling team that includes an Olympic gold medalist was ejected from a curling event in Alberta on Sunday for being “extremely drunk,” breaking brooms and swearing.
Ryan Fry, Jamie Koe, Chris Schille and DJ Kidby were kicked out of the Red Deer Curling Classic, according to the CBC, and forfeited their final match. The event is part of the World Curling Tour.
Today, the family went to an SCA demo at the Royal Rabbit Vinayards.
Because we were a part of the entertainment, we got to do a tasting, so I sat with Natalie (I had to drive) while she tasted small samples of about a half-dozen wines.
I talked to her about how to use her nose, how to let all of her tongue to taste the wine, and what sort of foods are good for different sorts of wines.
Nat turned 21 in June, so it was a perfectly legal, though somewhat surreal, child parent bonding.
I am actually not watching it as all.
Watching it sober would be masochistic, and drunk blogging it would probably leave me in a coma.
It appears that in response to advance notice of speeches by Indian PM Narendra Modi bars are scrambling to come up with drinking games:
India’s teetotaler Prime Minister Narendra Modi almost fueled a booze binge on New Year’s eve in the nation’s cities.
As his scheduled speech drew nearer, pubs announced Modi-themed drinking games while Indians sought solace through social media humor. The last time Modi had addressed the nation, on Nov. 8, it had ended with him canceling 86 percent of currency in circulation and unleashing chaos in a country where almost all consumer payments are made in cash.
Modi had likened the move to a bitter medicine to help cure tax evasion and graft. Many saw it differently.
“Come get a drink on us,” pub chain Social, which has 15 outlets across the nation, announced on Facebook. “If we’re going down, we’re going down together.”
‘Mitron’
Social offered a pint of beer or an alcohol shot for 31 rupees ($0.5) each time Modi uttered “mitron,” which means friends in Hindi. That compares with 85 rupees for a pint of Kingfisher beer it normally charges customers. Mobile wallet company Mobikwik — backed by Sequoia Capital — promised lucky users a 100 percent cashback.
I think that Donald Trump, another teetotaler, will be a similar inspiration for bars in the United States.
On the other hand the recent ruling by India’s Supreme Court banning overtures to religion and caste by political candidates is something unimaginable in the us.
Hell, such a ruling would effectively outlaw the Republican Party:
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that politicians cannot seek votes on the grounds of caste, creed or religion.
The landmark judgment came while the court revisited earlier judgments, including one from 1995 that equated Hindutva with Hinduism and called it a “way of life” and said a candidate was not necessarily violating the law if votes were sought on this plank.
Several petitions filed over the years have challenged the consequences of that verdict. “It is a fallacy and an error of law to proceed on the assumption that any reference to Hindutva or Hinduism in a speech makes it automatically a speech based on Hindu religion as opposed to other religions … (Hindutva and Hinduism) are used in a speech to emphasise the way of life of the Indian people and the Indian cultural ethos,” the 1995 judgment authored by Justice J.S. Verma had said.
In its decision on Monday, a seven-judge constitution bench of the court ruled that the relationship between man and God is an ‘individual choice’ and the state cannot interfere in it, Economic Times reported. It added that an election is a secular exercise, and that should be reflected in the process that is followed.
Four judges of the seven-judge bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur (who retires on Tuesday) ruled that “the constitution forbids state from mixing religion with politics”, Livemint reported. While Thakur and justices Madan B. Lokur, S.A. Bobde, and L. Nageswara Rao formed the majority and hence gave the ruling, the other three judges – Adarsh Kumar Goel, U.U. Lalit and D.Y. Chandrachud – dissented and said that the matter must be left to parliament.
I have mixed emotions on this one, I tend to be absolutist on free speech issues, but the fact that this kneecaps the Indian Fascist party (BJP) is a positive outcome.
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