AtticaFlinch

Last night, I had one of these: And these four: Waking up this morning wasn't easy. Yeah, great stuff. I tried my first one about a month ago. I picked it up at Central Market after I saw the silt on the bottom of the bottle. I've never had a bad beer that was cloudy and silty, and the Racer 5 was no exception.

Cost of war so far: $900 billion and rising Er... Double er... Interesting article. I wonder, if cost is really the issue, perhaps we could get out of that war that's been draining our bottom line and put the money to better domestic uses. Just sayin'. Don't even get me started on TARP...

Meow. I'll just begin, and with the exception of my previous sentence (and now this one), ignore your last sentence and delve into your questions. 1) I believe the government is a construct of the governed, and not uniquely (if you've ever studied American history or the political writings of John Locke) I believe it exists to protect certain individual rights. In our case, those three fundamental, inalienable rights are to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Arguably, we haven't exactly set the benchmark on the final two, but I can't comprehend that anyone could look their mothers in the eye and say the government solidly upholds our right to life without fail. And so you know, I'm not speaking specifically of people sentenced to death row or any other citizens who've blatantly violated the social contract. I'm referring to the average Joe, the guy who sits on a bar stool or a church pew next to you. In a more primal world, one more akin to the dangerous world our forefathers occupied, our lives were protected with military excursions into American Indian lands and naval blockades. Government resources were stretched thin and scientific advancements weren't far removed from the Dark Ages. Then, time progressed, and necessary military intervention diminished at the same time medical advancements progressed. We now have the means to limit our exposure to the dangers of the outside world in multiple ways, and as the actual threat implied from other people (with the exception of a handful of religious yay-hoos in the Mideast) has lessened dramatically, and the ability to combat internal microbiotic and other medical dangers has improved, I personally feel the need has shifted from protecting my life militarily to protecting my life medically. It's no stretch in logic. We spend public money on the military, an essential function, to the tune of half the world's military budget. Yet, we can't be arsed to provide free, universal medical care to everyone who legally lives here? That's balderdash, truly. 2) If I point to any one specific example, it's going to be easy enough to poke holes in their system, so I'd rather not go down that path. I will say this though, simply because there may not be a system that works to every single critic's individual specifications, that in no way implies the systems themselves don't work well for the vast majority of the citizens who utilize it. There are a bagful of countries who offer universal care, but sniping individual shortcomings doesn't prove for a moment that we can't get it right if we finally get ballsy enough to combat this issue with fervor. 3) There's more than enough time for reasoned debate, but there's no time for more of this continued irrational debate. Don't put words in my mouth. Again, what I said, is we can't make everybody happy, so let's not even try. Also, as I said, we can't ever accurately predict any future, good or bad, so waiting until we arrive at a potential future outcome by committee decision is time wasted. I can't predict what time I'll wake up in the morning, despite the fact my alarm clock is set for 6:30. Most likely, I'll wake up at 6:30, but anything can happen to get in the way of that. However, I can reasonably say, with all likelihood, with the measures I've put in place to secure a certain outcome, that I'll begrudgingly crawl out of bed at 6:30. In my opinion, to argue against the terms of the plan proffered for reasons as not being 100% certain the whole thing won't turn out badly is like saying I shouldn't set my alarm for 6:30 because I might oversleep anyhow. Is this satisfactorily setting the groundworks for reasoned debate with you?

Not at Central Market either. I went by there on the way home from the office, and they sold out in two hours. I spoke with their beer guy, Casey I believe, and he told me he'd had some but wasn't terribly impressed. He has a buddy that buys it annually and bottle ages it for a year which supposedly does the trick to bring all the flavors out. Divine Reserve is apparently a longterm drinking investment. I didn't leave empty handed though. I got some insanely hoppy IPAs which are leaving a big smile on my face right now.

I'll grant that every proposal so far presented doesn't go far enough, but at least it's a start in the right direction. I wrote much earlier in this thread I'd rather Obama pushed much harder for more extensive reform and that what'll make it through eventually will likely be too compromised to be 100% effective. Still, I'll take that first step as a promise that bigger and bolder initiatives will follow. What I don't understand is the mentality that recognizes the problem but is so scared that changing the system will cause the world to end and quality healthcare to be pushed unceremoniously into the abyss. That's BS, plain and simple. We can't do nothing for fear of the outcome of doing something. Even if you disagree with how I see the situation playing out, you must still admit the rewards a system overhaul would bring far outweighs the risks. Sure, there's the opportunity for the entire thing to run off the rails, but that'll only happen if we continue to argue about it, holding tea parties and other forms of banal protests, and we don't cooperate to come to equitable solutions. And to clarify, I don't in anyway suggest there's nothing to fear, just that the fear promoted is irrational. You're correct in saying I don't know what will happen, but the doomsday scenarios being mentioned as "what ifs" teeter on the precipice of ridiculousness. Again, to do nothing for fear of what might be is just plain cowardly. We can't bury our heads in the sand and hope the problem goes away. We can't sit on the sidelines anymore. You can only fill a balloon (or a cat's intestines) so much before it blows on its own accord. We can talk this over and shout and scream and drive a wedge further and further between the citizens of this country, or we can just bite the bullet and put a plan in place, any plan. Discussing this until everybody's happy and Madam Cleo's been consulted to divine the future outcomes is time wasted and about as effective as a meeting of the general assembly at the United Nations.

Maybe instead of farther away along the ground, they could go up. Hike up a set of stairs to the entrance 1000 feet in the air and then ride an elevator down into the store. Simple if you ask me. I am the answer man. I'll provide the easiest out-of-the-box solutions for any problem.

And to be fair, the vast majority of the people who currently overuse the system right now are going to be the ones who overuse it when the government eventually steps in anyhow, and they've already got the government healthcare option. Let's take a moment and consider that realistically it's the elderly who abuse the system, and since they're already reaping the benefits of free insurance, the effect to healthcare supply will be minimal at best under the different system. All the others, the current uninsured will likely seek medical assistance to the same degree they do now, though moreso with preventive care and less with catastrophic emergencies, and their effect on cost will either be reduced or at least at a break even point. Their indirect costs cause the greatest increase in my premiums, as even if they never pay for their treatment, someone still does, and that someone is the insured. And to TheNiche, overseas care is nothing we really have to be concerned with. A public payer option won't drive costs (and therefore doctors' salaries) down despite what a handful of televised Chicken Littles will have you believe. No matter what, our country is still going to be siphoning off the best and brightest doctors from the rest of the world. If anything, the public option will aid in reducing legal issues that currently plague our medical system, thereby reducing so much of private practice's income, thereby increasing profitability. If, on the off chance, the public option does force lower costs on doctors and hospitals, the reduced expenses will even everything out. The worst case scenario is a wash, and the best case scenario is a financial windfall for all involved. Make no mistake that a public insurance option bears no resemblance to the European system whatsoever. These are two different animals entirely, and the results will be nothing close to similar, despite what the fearmongers are saying.

I'm guessing due to Texas' quirky distribution laws we can't just go to the brewery and pick up a sixer either. Crap. Hopefully I'll be more attentive next year.

Ignorance is the real problem. It's amazing to me with all the available resources, especially with the web, just how much more uninformed the general populace today seems as compared to generations in the past. Case in point, I had a conversation with my father recently about the healthcare issue in which he spouted several far-right talking (shouting?) points about death panels, socialism and governmental ineptitude. Not once did he present a valid concern (and yes, they're out there), he just reiterated verbatim what he'd been informed he should be outraged about without understanding all those outrages was entirely manufactured and simply not real. As far as joking about this issue goes, I'm an affable guy. I love jokes and joking, but this really is too big and important an issue to fart around about. I completely understand why you didn't get the joke. All the finger-pointing done by the radicals on the far-right might be laughable if it wasn't so vehement and dangerous. If the general populace wasn't so easily pushed to anger for reasons they neither comprehend nor care to comprehend, I think it would be ok to laugh off the right's hyperbolic rhetoric, but that's not the case. People are incensed, they're frightened, they're saying words like "revolution" and "secession," and all because the government wants to ensure the health of the people. That's just sad and pathetic. My country tis of thee, sweet land of eff off you working class loser, I refuse to share because my situation has yielded more fiscal results than yours, and even though I'm every bit as lazy as you, I'm going to pretend my success is the result of hard work and not luck and pretend your failures are due to inert laziness, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

Which Wich feels too gimmicky to me. Too many sandwich shops are beginning to use the same format for my liking anyhow. Brown Bag Deli on Westheimer just below Shepherd does the exact same thing. I've also eaten at a place out here near where I work off the beltway and I-10 west that mimicks that format to achieve identical results. In highschool I worked at an upper-middle range sandwich shop and have been a bit of a snob about sandwiches ever since. For subs in Houston, Lenny's is where it's at, but I'd only get excited if they announced Thundercloud was coming to Houston.

This is the first I've heard of this, and I've got to have it! I've just had a kid, so hitting up a bar is a little bit unlikely. Anyone aware of where it might still be available in a six-pack?

I've used this joke before, but hell, it's the first time I've used it here. This plate looks like two X chromosomes got into a crayon and glitter battle with a Y chromosome. If it's not gay, then it's as least as fabulous as clear plastic stripper shoes. But it's also now going to be impossible for the blind to accurately identify license plates. I hope they put some Braille lettering somewhere on the plates to prevent this gross miscarriage of the disability rights act, just like they have to do at drive-thru ATMs.

Jumping from a building is a pretty dramatic way to off one's self. I wouldn't expect a peaceful suicide from ODing on oxycontin for someone who formerly led the Houston Grand Opera. Those theater folks, they're all about the drama.

I guess I was wrong. These photos are a dead-ringer for Prague (which is what I was implying with the cockroach reference), except for the burnt-out buildings in the last photo, I guess, but whatever...

I've never considered myself all that bright, and my wife does call me an idiot often, so yeah, idiot is an appropriate moniker for people like me. That said, I never drive the wrong way down one of those one way streets because of the train or a lack of familiarity. My pitiful driving is more directly related to the amount of box wine I had the evening before. When you log as many hours in the car as I do, you're bound to make a mistake or two, I guess.

The second set of photos gave it away. Another hint... They've got a cockroach problem there.

As a former archaeologist, I find this exciting. Unfortunately, during that time period there wasn't much activity in this part of Texas. Stumbling across a big site is rare in these parts. I hope they dig up some good stuff, though I doubt what they pull up will be of interest to anyone who would expect it to be as unique and ornate as the stuff from Mexico, the American Southwest or the Mississippi River valley. Also, this is just a tiny detail, but it's one that gets under the skin of archaeologists everywhere... arrowheads is an improper term. They're called points. Most likely, especially in this area, those points were on the ends of spears, not arrows. Sorry to be pedantic about it, but the word arrowhead really pisses off almost every archaeologist I've ever known.

I'm going to build my own subway and start a trend.

Right now I'm in the mulling stage. I have no immediate need to do anything, so I post on messageboards trying to determine where I'd like to eventually move when I do eventually move. As far as the negatives you've listed, sure it would suck to give up HEB and Kroger, but I like shopping at Fiesta and Mexican mercados too. I never shop at Randalls, and Whole Foods and Rice Epicurian aren't even on my radar. And with the quiet neighborhood thing, I'm currently in the Greenway area and was in Montrose before that. What many people see in the 'burbs as tranquility I see as stifling. I'd rather hold my head under water than contend with that quiet. With the safety and gunfire, before moving back to Houston I lived in Memphis, within a couple blocks of Orange Mound which is often regarded as one of the worst , if not the worst, neighborhood in America. My wife's also from Memphis. It's where we met. We're no strangers to danger, and as a result we carry ourselves differently than perhaps some other people might. And for the education, if it doesn't improve as I anticipate it might, there's no reason I won't be able to move. In fact, I doubt I'll even be in Houston in another five years and considering my kid's just a baby, education's largely irrelevant. Those are good points though, and they're certainly points I'd consider if I were looking to buy a home. As it is, I like renting. I've yet to hear a resoundingly convincing argument to promote buying a home. So, no worries over here.

They're both about the same drive away from me, and the fact I choose to go to the Dunvale location, as horrific as it is, speaks volumes about the Meyerland location.

Same here. Nothing says "classy" quite like strolling through a giant liquor store with a baby seat propped up on the shopping cart. I've lived in the loop since I had returned to Houston two years ago, I pass that Sears all the time and this thread is what finally enlightened me that it was open. I seriously thought hobos squatted in it. Go figure. As far as Walmart goes, when I'm forced to go to Walmart, I shop at the location on Dunvale. That place is just plain gross, and there's no way to sugarcoat it. I go there when the alternative is too expensive or because I need so many items that shopping elsewhere would require several stops. I doubt anyone would be foolhardy enough to suggest Target is better than Walmart on a business ethics level, but in comparing pleasant shopping experiences, Target is in a different ballpark. Walmart, especially the Dunvale location, is absolute bedlam; kids screaming, garbage everywhere, shelves out of stock, crowded narrow aisles, employees who don't even pretend to mask their apathy... You don't get that in the two Targets within the loop. A third one in Midtown would be a welcome addition and could help spur further growth.

Spot on observation. I'm 31, married and my wife gave birth to my first child a month and a half ago. I live in the loop, and wouldn't consider moving out to some place like Cinco Ranch, Sugarland or the Woodlands. Not ever. I would consider moving outside the loop, but not far. The East End is great right now and is seriously high on my list of potential places to move when my lease is up. I look at it as a neighborhood with a ton of potential, and I figure by the time my child's in high school, the demographic of the neighborhood won't be anything like it currently is. I reflect back on my childhood, wrought with suburban blandness and uniformity, and I've realized I don't want my own child to be raised that way. It wasn't a bad upbringing, but it wasn't particularly notable either. I don't want to raise my child in a counterfeit bubble. But, for clarification's sake (and so I don't get attacked by the 'burb acolytes), I don't find it odd to want the bubble either. To each their own.

Yeah, no kidding. I picked up Micky-Ds on the way into the office this morning (which is something I never do), and now I'm really regretting that decision.

Yeah. Pretty crappy event. I take it you were friends with her too?