August 2017

For the past few years, I have been a lover of Tequila. Many people’s experience with Tequila is limited to either Cuervo, which in my opinion is as close to generic as you can get- and tastes horrible- or they drink Patron, which is far more expensive than its quality justifies.

Last night, I had the opportunity to sample one that I had not tried before. I like resposado tequilas, because they don’t have the harsh taste of the blancos, nor do they have the aftertaste of the anejo tequilas.

This particular Tequila, Herradura Resposado, was actually pretty good. I had two small glasses of it straight, and then had three absolutely outstanding Margaritas.

A moderately priced $40 for 750 mL, not many people drink it because it is more expensive than Cuervo, and it doesn’t have the big name that Patron has. I found it to be a very nice Tequila, and well suited to sipping and to Margaritas.

In order to appreciate Tequila, there are a few things a person needs to know:

1 Like anything else, quality costs more. Drink cheap liquor, get low quality.

2 Don’t use the more expensive/higher quality liquors for mixed drinks. The more expensive liquors taste better, but those flavors are wasted when they are covered up by the taste of mixers.

3 There are different classifications of Tequila:

Blanco- Clear Tequila that is aged less than 3 months. It tends to be harsh and strong, especially in the cheaper brands. I do not like the taste of Blanco Tequila.

Resposado- Tequila that is aged from 3 months to a year in wood barrels. The type of barrel, and where it is sourced, changes with the distiller. Some use old Scotch barrels. Some old Bourbon barrels, and others. It has a light brown color. Resposado is the type I prefer, because it has less of the wood flavor, but is smoother and less harsh than the Blanco Tequilas.

Anejo- After aging for at least one year, Tequila can then be classified as an “Añejo”. The distillers are required to age Añejo Tequila in barrels that do not exceed 600 liters. This aging process darkens the Tequila to an Amber color, and the flavor can become smoother, richer, and more complex.

Extra Anejo is a Tequila that is aged over three years. Anejo Tequila becomes much darker, more of a Mahogany color, and has a smooth flavor that can become as complex as a top end Scotch.

There are other sub types.

Gold Tequila is usually Blanco Tequila with artificial color added so that it can be sold at the more expensive Resposado prices. This is the type used by bars for mixed drinks. It can also be a mixture of Silver and Anejo Tequila.

Silver Tequila is Anejo Tequila with much of the color and flavors filtered out. What you get is a smooth, spicy Tequila, but without the barrel flavor that some people do not like. I don’t prefer this type, but many people do.

Just 26 months ago, the Pope was telling his followers:

People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian

This has long been the position of the Catholic Church:

The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, in their document, “The International Arms Trade (2006),”emphasized the importance of enacting concrete controls on the production, possession, and trade in weapons, including handguns,calling for them to be regulated” by paying due attention to specific principles of the moral and legal order.”

Just seven months ago, the Pope was telling the world that there is no such thing as Islamic terrorism.

Just five days ago, he was saying that the human rights of Muslim refugees trumped national security.

That was before ISIS released a video, expressly threatening to kill the Pope. Now all of a sudden, Islamic terrorism is real, and the Vatican is using firearms to protect the Holy See.  Look at the following video to see how the Vatican is protecting the Pope with automatic weapons, body scanners, and the closing of streets to various types of traffic.

They say that an antigun pacifist is just a pro-self defense gun owner who hasn’t yet been a victim of crime. It seems that the Pope is not exempt from this. Either that, or there is one set of rules for the Pope, and another for his subjects. Funny how his principles change when the threat becomes personal.

There is a lot of press time, pixels, and ink being used by the MSM to talk about President Trump’s approval numbers. The press is breathlessly announcing that his approval numbers are around 38% and falling, they say. they claim that Trump is polling lower than any other President, forgetting that GW Bush polled lower, thanks to them beating on him about the war that they fawned over Obama with.

The analysis from the experts is laughable, but one thing they ARE getting right: The Republican members of Congress are treating this as politics as usual, and are fighting him every step of the way, because poll numbers. That may explain why Republicans are fed up with Congress.

Remember this: During the last week of August last year, Trump had a 30% approval rating. On this date (August 24) of last year, the NYT had Trump at 11% to Hillary’s 89%. I don’t trust the MSM, I don’t trust their polling data, and I think that the tail is attempting to wag the dog here.

It seems that the former Marine who decided that he wanted to kill him some cops and then proceeded to do so, was known to the Orange County Sheriffs, because he had made a statement on Facebook that  “…No cop is going to get Glen Miller today…kill whitey…”.A copy of the notice can be read here. (PDF warning)

Again, we see that a significant portion of the American people have decided to declare war on the rest of us. What else can we learn from this? The lesson that I take away from this, is that all of this intelligence gathering doesn’t seem to be doing anything. The government has the information, but are overloaded with so much of it, that they cannot or will not take any action based on that intel.

Do you think that recent polls showing that Republican voters are losing hope in Congress faster than the President will in any way cause the Republican members of Congress to take notice? If yes, then why are they still saying things like this? Or has that party become so enamored with the smell of its own flatulence that they will continue down the same path?

I recently had this conversation, and it made me realize that I am living in one of the science fiction universes that I read about as a child…

wife: What do you think about travelling to Barbados or Italy? Maybe spring break, or Labor day?
me: that would be nice.
wife: bye (leaves for work)
me: Computer, turn off the bedroom lights
computer: ok (as lights turn off)
me: computer, tell Roomba to clean the house
computer: OK (robot begins cleaning)

me: I rush off to notify the world about living in the future by typing this post…