Drinkability
So media types are making a big deal about the White House lawn meeting tonight between Obama, recently arrested Harvard prof. Henry Gates, and the Cambrige Cop James Crowley who slapped him with a disorderly conduct charge. It's been dubbed the "beer summit." Lucia Whalen, the woman who called 911, wants an invite. Protesters want the President to drink lemonade instead.
I don't really care about either of those things, what does concern me is the President's choice of brews. Gates will be sipping on a Red Stripe, which is a fine choice. Tasty, light but not too light, an excellent beer to enjoy outside on a summer evening. Crowley prefers Blue Moon, I mean I guess if you like hefeweizen . . . seems a little, I dunno, light (in the loafers) to me, especially for a cop, but whatever. Maybe the lighter the better for Sgt. Crowley. My man Barack is going with . . . wait for it . . . Bud Light. What!? I can forgive him for drinking the stuff at the MLB All-Star Game. He was in St. Louis, and it's a baseball game. But c'mon, this is at his house. This is the beer he keeps in his fridge. Bud Light?
May I suggest PBR as an alternative? You still appeal to Joe Six Pack (so to speak) and you support the largest remaining American-owned brewing company. Plus it doesn't taste like dog breath smells. Am I missing a more obvious choice? What should the President be drinking?
If it were me sitting at a picnic table with the President I think I'd have to represent with a local brew, maybe a Polygamy Porter.
I don't really care about either of those things, what does concern me is the President's choice of brews. Gates will be sipping on a Red Stripe, which is a fine choice. Tasty, light but not too light, an excellent beer to enjoy outside on a summer evening. Crowley prefers Blue Moon, I mean I guess if you like hefeweizen . . . seems a little, I dunno, light (in the loafers) to me, especially for a cop, but whatever. Maybe the lighter the better for Sgt. Crowley. My man Barack is going with . . . wait for it . . . Bud Light. What!? I can forgive him for drinking the stuff at the MLB All-Star Game. He was in St. Louis, and it's a baseball game. But c'mon, this is at his house. This is the beer he keeps in his fridge. Bud Light?
May I suggest PBR as an alternative? You still appeal to Joe Six Pack (so to speak) and you support the largest remaining American-owned brewing company. Plus it doesn't taste like dog breath smells. Am I missing a more obvious choice? What should the President be drinking?
If it were me sitting at a picnic table with the President I think I'd have to represent with a local brew, maybe a Polygamy Porter.
posted by b r christensen at 7/30/2009 10:31:00 AM
5 Comments:
No no no. First Amendment Lager. Even though it tastes like shit too.
Dude. We went over this. PBR is brewed by Miller Brewing Company which is owned by SABMiller - not an American owned brewing company.
Your suggestion puts Obama in a bind: if he wants to "support the largest remaining American-owned brewing company" he has to drink Sam Adams which is disgusting. Plus it paints him as a elitist New Englander.
Yuengling is the second biggest. That might be a better option.
I say go for the pandering vote: Pacifico or Modelo Especial.
I thought I had mentioned that in my post, but I guess I just thought about mentioning it.
But riddle me this, if an American owned brand contracts to union breweries in the U.S. what's the difference economically speaking?
I don't have a good answer to that question, but I think it is principally about psychology: the idea that you are drinking "an American beer" that is owned by an American corporation. Gives you a false sense of economic superiority even while we are being bought out by the rest of the world.
Now that I think about it, shouldn't Obama be drinking Coors? I know that dude is a hardcore Republican, but it shows that you are a beer bipartisan. And Colorado is still a swing state!
Coors and Miller have signed some kind of agreement, so a lot of Miller breweries are closing, mostly union ones.. so who knows.
I usually drink Miller Lite for a refreshing shitty beer, but now I have to feel bad about it.
The traditional thinking is that, even if an American owned company has all operations outside of the country, the amount they pay in taxes is a bit more than a foreign owned company which has all of its operations in the country.. at least, this has usually been the case with most goods, e.g. auto makers.
In practice, however, companies circumvent this by chartering new "joint ventures" in foreign countries, like the Cayman Islands, to hide tax revenue.. so my instinct is to buy things made in this country rather than trust companies to not take advantage of accounting sleight of hand.
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