Boycott Guinness, Sam Adams, Heineken - Catholic League

By Bill Donohue

(The Catholic League)  Bill Donohue is calling for a boycott of Guinness, Heineken, and Sam Adams:

Diageo, the parent company of Guinness, and Heineken, have pulled their sponsorship of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade; the Boston Beer Company, maker of Sam Adams, has withdrawn its sponsorship of Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade.

None of these companies believe in diversity. No gay person has ever been barred from marching in any St. Patrick’s Day parade, anymore than the parade bans pro-life Catholics or vegetarian Catholics; they simply cannot march under their own banner. The parade has one cause: honoring St. Patrick. Those who disagree do not have to march—that’s what diversity is all about.

The parade is quintessentially Catholic, beginning with a Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It is this Catholic element that angers those who are engaged in a bullying campaign against the St. Patrick’s Day parades. The bullies also have nothing but contempt for the constitutional rights of Irish Catholics.

In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 9-0 decision that the First Amendment guarantees the right of private parade organizers to determine its own rules for marching. It is this liberty that the makers of Guinness, Heineken, and Sam Adams want to squash.

I have had my last Guinness and Sam Adams. Heineken was always slop, so there is no sacrifice there. I urge Catholics, and all those who believe in tolerance, diversity, and the First Amendment, to join with me in boycotting these brews.

To contact Guinness, email: press.office@diageo.com
To contact Heineken, email: pressoffice@heineken.com
To contact Sam Adams, email: jessica.paar@bostonbeer.com

Link:

• Boycott Guinness, Sam Adams, Heineken

Related:

• Sam Adams pulls sponsorship from St. Patrick's Day Parade Due to Exclusion of Gays

Sam Adams pulls sponsorship from St. Patrick's Day Parade Due to Exclusion of Gays

Photo: wcvb.com

Gays exclusion led to Boston Beer Company decision 

(WCVB) BOSTON — After its support of the South Boston St. Patrick's Day Parade led one Boston restaurant to boycott its brew, the Boston Beer Company – which manufactures Sam Adams – has pulled its sponsorship from Sunday's parade.

Club Café, in the South End, had announced it would not serve the company's beer because of the ongoing controversy over the exclusion of openly gay individuals from marching in the parade.

Boston Beer Company said that it is disappointed that an agreement could not be reached between the gay rights advocacy group MassEquality and parade organizers that would have allowed a group of gay veterans to march, despite pressure from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Rep. Stephen Lynch.
"We share these sentiments with Mayor Walsh, Congressman Lynch and others and therefore we will not participate in this year's parade," the Boston Beer Company said in a statement.

"We were hopeful an agreement could be reached to allow everyone, regardless of orientation, to participate in this parade. However, given the current status of the negotiations, this may not be possible," the statement read.

A 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council could include or exclude whichever groups it wanted.

"As a result of this (decision) we are again proud to serve Sam Adams and Boston Beer Company Products," Club Café said in a statement on its Facebook page.

The parade organizers' phone was not answered. The parade, one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades in the nation, draws as many as 1 million spectators to South Boston.

Update:  The Catholic League: Boycott Guinness, Sam Adams, Heineken

Link:

• Sam Adams pulls sponsorship from St. Patrick's Day Parade

The Next Big Idea? Butch Bakery, Cupcakes for Guys

David Arrick was intrigued by the cupcake craze, but realized all the tasty offerings out there seemed, well, a little girly. So he cashed in his 401(k) and began selling "aesthetically masculine" cupcakes made with beer, bacon and other manly ingredients

By Patrick Sauer @ AOL Small Business

"It's the middle of a recession, and there's a line of women down the block at Magnolia Bakery," Arrick says of the uber-popular cupcake outpost featured on the popular HBO show. "It's sugar, it's cake, people love it, but I thought, 'Why aren't my boys being represented?..'"

Arrick and friends collaborated on manly recipes. They mixed-and-matched chocolate, peanut butter, banana, buttercream, cinnamon, booze, beer and the dessert de resistance: bacon. ("Bacon makes everything better," Arrick says. "And I'm a Jew.") They came up with 12 cupcakes with names like the Rum & Coke, the Big Papi and the Jackhammer. Arrick likes a bit of crunch with his sweets, so each cupcake has a candy disk on top in patterns like camouflage, plaid and houndstooth.

"We turned the cupcake business on its ear and tapped into something out there," he says.

Cupcakes were requested for soldiers in Iraq and fishermen in Alaska, but the publicity outpaced baking ability. At present, deliveries are only being made in New York. The company recently moved into a new commerical space, but Arrick hopes to add a storefront soon..

• The Next Big Idea? Butch Bakery, Cupcakes for Guys

D.C. Blognic

St. Catherine

Cathy had a blognic-brunch today and she and her generous guests raised $305 for the seminary. God bless them.

Cathy at the Super Bowl

The Lost Art of Catholic Drinking

by Sean P. Dailey

There is Protestant drinking and there is Catholic drinking, and the difference is more than mere quantity. I have no scientific data to back up my claims, nor have I completed any formal studies. But I have done a good bit of, shall we say, informal study, which for a hypothesis like this is probably the best kind.

To begin with, what is Catholic drinking? It's hard to pin down, but here's a historical example. St. Arnold (580-640), also known as St. Arnulf of Metz, was a seventh-century bishop of Metz, in what later became France. Much beloved by the people, St. Arnold is said to have preached against drinking water, which in those days could be extremely dangerous owing to unsanitary sewage systems -- or no sewage system at all. At the same time, he frequently touted the benefits of beer and is credited with having once said, "From man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world."

Wise words, and St. Arnold's flock took them to heart. After his death, the good bishop was buried at a monastery near Remiremont, France, where he had retired. However, his flock missed him and wanted him back, so in 641, having gotten approval to exhume St. Arnold's remains, they carried him in procession back to Metz for reburial in the Basilica of the Holy Apostles. Along the way, it being a hot day, they got thirsty and stopped at an inn for some beer. Unfortunately, the inn had just enough left for a single mug; the processionals would have to share. As the tale goes, the mug did not run dry until all the people had drunk their fill.

Now, I'm not saying that Catholic drinking involves miracles, or that a miracle should occur every time people get together to imbibe. But good beer -- and good wine for that matter -- is a small miracle in itself, being a gift from God to His creatures, whom He loves. And as G. K. Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy, "We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them." In other words, we show our gratitude to God for wine and beer by enjoying these things, in good cheer and warm company, but not enjoying them to excess.

Just what constitutes excess is for each person to judge for himself. However, we now approach the main difference between Catholic drinking and Protestant drinking. Protestant drinking tends to occur at one extreme or another: either way too much or none at all, with each being a reaction to the other. Some people, rightly fed up with the smug self-righteousness of teetotalers, drink to excess. And teetotalers, rightly appalled at the habits of habitual drunkards, practice strict abstinence. It seems to occur to neither side that their reaction is just that: a reaction, and not a solution. If they considered it a bit, they might see a third way that involves neither drunkenness nor abstinence, yet is consistent with healthy, honest, humane Christian living.

Here we encounter Catholic drinking. Catholic drinking is that third way, the way to engage in an ancient activity enjoyed by everyone from peasants to emperors to Jesus Himself. And again, it is not just about quantity. In fact, I think the chief element is conviviality. When friends get together for a drink, it may be to celebrate, or it may be to mourn. But it should always be to enjoy one another's company. (Yes, there is a time and place for a solitary beer, but that is the exception.)

For example: The lectures at the annual Chesterton conference are themselves no more important than the attendees later discussing those same lectures over beer and wine (we tend to adhere to Hilaire Belloc's rule of thumb, which is to avoid alcoholic beverages developed after the Reformation). These gatherings occur between talks, during talks -- indeed, long into the night -- and we typically fall into bed pleasantly stewed. I cannot imagine a Chesterton conference without this. And yet I also know how detrimental it would be if we all stumbled back to our rooms roaring drunk.

Avoid each extreme -- that's how you drink like a Catholic. This is the art of Catholic drinking. There are plenty of our brethren who consider drinking somehow immoral, and there are plenty of others who think drinking must end with great intoxication. But the balanced approach -- the Catholic approach -- means having a good time, a good laugh, sometime a good cry, but always with joy and gratitude for God's generosity in giving us such wonders as beer and burgundy. Remember that, and the lost art of Catholic drinking may not remain lost.

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Looter Guy, right, talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, during a meeting between President Barack Obama and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009. Standing behind, at center, is National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Beer

Update: Cathy commented: "Ah yes! Nice animation! Where's the clip of me at the bar?"

http://sanctepater.blogspot.com/2008/04/son-advertises-for-drinking-partner-for.html

Polygamy Beer

"Not joking--they really do make 'Polygamy Porter,' only in Utah."

Beer Drinking Monkey

• Oldie Photo

Anheuser-Busch (BUD): As InBev Closes In, Americans Boycott Budweiser

Corey Lorinsky | Jul 12, 08 1:16 PM

Jordan Moore took the news that his beloved Budweiser could soon fall into foreign hands very personally: He decided he would scrap his plan to get the logo of the King of Beers tattooed on his right rib cage.

"I'll tell you one thing," said the 21-year-old concrete worker during his lunch break at The Brick of St. Louis bar, in the shadow of this city's storied Anheuser-Busch Cos. brewery, "if Budweiser is made by a different country, I don't drink Budweiser anymore. I'll go back to Wild Turkey." (Wild Turkey, a Kentucky bourbon, is owned by French drinks giant Pernod Ricard SA...)

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Fla. Woman Fired For Laughing

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. -- A Florida woman was fired by a restaurant owner for laughing.

Darra Kollios, who works at the Trinity Grill in New Port Richey, said her boss approached her in front of a customer with one of the oddest requests she's ever heard.

"I had a customer at the bar and the owner came up to me and said, 'Please stop laughing,' Kollios said. "We giggled -- the guy at the bar and myself. And then I said, 'Are you serious?' And he said, 'Yes, if you laugh again, you will have to go home."

Kollios said she was then fired on the spot.

Kollios said she was shocked by her employer's actions.

"I will say that I don't have an odd laugh," Kollios said. "I did ask a few people but it's not."

The restaurant owner said a customer did not complain about the laughing. However, he prefers the restaurant to be quiet and cozy and Kollios' laugh prevented that from happening.

Under Florida law, employees are considered "at will," which means they may be terminated for any reason as long as they're not under contract and it doesn't involve age, sex or race discrimination.

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Little Known Fact

Norm and Ray

"Well you see, Norm, it’s like this…A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

• Ray Knows Everybody's Name
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• Stella Borealis Catholic Roundtable
  

Eighth grader finds 100 year old beer

Associated Press

AP

The beer bottle engraved with William Esser, proprietor of San Antonio based Lone Star Bottling Works in 1891.

SAN ANTONIO — When Collin Lindsey followed a local archaeologist for a job-shadowing assignment recently, he had no idea he might get a taste of San Antonio's history.

Collin, an eighth-grader at Legacy Middle School, spent a day washing and handling artifacts at the University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for Archaeological Research and became so taken with an old, corked bottle found at the River Walk extension project that he went home, did some research and came back with a theory: The yellow liquid sloshing inside was likely century-old beer, brewed by a predecessor to the Lone Star Brewing Co.

His discovery so delighted archaeologist Lynn Yakubik and her colleagues that they agreed to test the liquid to see if Collin's theory bears fruit. Or hops.

"That's San Antonio past right there in your hand," said Yakubik, director of the center's education and outreach programs. "He was so excited about what he had done that day, he went above and beyond, looked it up for us and sent us an e-mail. He is such a cool kid."

AP

Collin Lindsey, left, examines his discovery with archaeologist Jon Dowling.

Collin, a 13-year-old who loves to collect rocks, arrowheads, cannon projectiles and other curiosities, jumped at the chance to follow Yakubik around for a day as part of a career exploration class at his school in East Central Independent School District. She gave him a tour of the center's vast warehouse of 10 million artifacts all meticulously labeled then put him to work washing artifacts as archaeologists toted them in from the field.

An old bottle waiting to be analyzed caught Collin's eye.

"It was amazing to see that something so old could still have liquid in it," he said. "There was even an air pocket inside of it."

Collin examined the bottle and found an embossed star and the name William Esser. He went home, got online and found a history of Texas breweries that listed Esser as the proprietor of San Antonio-based Lone Star Bottling Works in 1891. It was later bought by Anheuser-Busch.

The bottle is stopped with a Hutchinson spring stopper, patented in 1879, said Jon Dowling, a project archaeologist at UTSA. It also lacks seams on the lip found in older bottles, dating it between 1879 and 1907.

Dowling said he found the bottle sticking out of the riverbank in late April while monitoring construction of the river extension to north downtown.

Because archaeologists can't be sure it's beer, hazardous materials experts must open the bottle, Dowling said. Once opened, they can send a sample to Lone Star or another brewery to be tested in a lab.

"When Collin turns 21, he's going to come back and sample the beer," Dowling joked.

"It may have aged really well," Yakubik added.

As for Collin, he wants to be an archaeologist more than ever and plans to attend more digs with UTSA staff.

"It makes me want to do it more now because of how nice they were, and how nice they were to each other," Lindsey said. "It was a real friendly, good work environment."

He's eagerly awaiting the test results, though he thinks he's already got the answer: "I really think it's beer."

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Shameless...

Update: Speaking of beer...