Booze News You Can Use: Cullman, Alabama city officials delighted with alcohol tax revenue

For many years, Cullman, Alabama – a tiny town in Central North Alabama, founded by German immigrants in 1873 – had been “dry,” which is to say that there were no legal sales of beverage alcohol in the city.

In fact, the city had been dry for nearly half its existence, having experienced “wet” and dry periods aside even, from national Prohibition.

There had been various referendums in 2004, 2002, 1992, 1990, 1986 and 1984, with the closest vote in 1984, when alcohol sales were voted down by a mere 159 votes.

Cullman had also been the butt of national jokes & mockery because it had the only dry Oktoberfest in the United States. That all changed in 2011, and for the 30th celebration of Oktoberfest that year, celebrants were able to legally sell & enjoy the consumption of beer, wine & liquor.

What is particularly fascinating about this entire ordeal – local prohibition in small-town Alabama – is that it is representative of

Thinking about foot rubbing… and marriage

Who came up with this idea of marriage, anyway?

Read on, for a very thoughtfully expressed idea, from a non-religious perspective.

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A thought experiment about marriage

A world in which sexual intimacy could not produce children would never have come up with the idea of marriage.

 In previous articles, I have asserted that if sex did not naturally lead to children, no one would ever have conceived the idea of marriage. My claim may be obvious to most people, but we live in a world in which people who never intend to have children get married; so, of course, do some people who want children but are infertile. In generations past, we felt compassion for those who married but did not have children, because it was presumed that they wanted children, since, after all, they married one another. No longer can we presume this. The era of contraception and surgical sterilization has altered the face, so to speak, of the childless couple, and consequently the face of the married couple.

The quest for same-sex marriage begins here. In a world where seeking marriage is seeking a community-endorsed way to have sex and bear children, the idea of same-sex marriage is like the idea of a square circle. The very idea of same-sex marriage is conceivable only in a world that is using the term “marriage” in a completely different way, to refer to something of a completely different nature.

Allow me, then, to make a case for my assertion about sex, children, and marriage through a “thought experiment”—a scenario in which human beings have no word for, no concept of, marriage.

Imagine a colony of young men who have no memory of ever having lived anywhere else. Properly speaking, the men do not even know that they are men, but only that they are different from all the other creatures they encounter. They hunt and gather. They are naturally social beings who care about each other, form friendships, try to please one another, generally

Federal Investigators: Google obstructed justice in snooping case

To some, the decline was in full swing when the term “google” became a proper name, but when “Google” as a proper name (and therefore a noun) began to be used as a verb, as in “Google it,” when referring to an Internet-based search.

Is this not another case in point for strong regulation?

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Google fined by FCC for impeding Street View probe

By Hayley Tsukayama, Monday, April 16, 9:44 AM

The Federal Communications Commission has cleared Google of charges that it illegally collected WiFi data using its Street View cars, but fined the company $25,000 for obstructing the bureau’s investigation.

According to the FCC filing, the company has not been helping U.S. regulators look into the matter. “For many months, Google deliberately impeded and delayed the Bureau’s investigation by

Get government out of our daily lives!

This morning, as I was going about my morning routine, it occurred to me in that process that I am

Huntsville Utilities: Corrupt, or merely incompetent?

Over the past several weeks – perhaps indeed, months – Huntsville Utilities has come under increasing criticism; most recently for significant changes to their operations and policies.

The Huntsville Times‘ headlines for Friday, July 1, 2011 recently plastered the public utility with the headline “Charity targets utility’s high fees“.

At issue are the utility’s exorbitant rates for establishing initial service and reconnection – which in many cases can be as high as $1000, or more.

The Huntsville chapter of the Society of

Our National Economy -or- How We Got Into This Fine Mess

The state of our national economic affairs is, to be certain, a complex topic.

And, as complex topics go, there is no one “simple” solution to resolve the greater problem. The greater problem is, of course, the whole state of affairs – especially, and particularly as it relates to every family’s household income.

Again, the complexity of the issue begs to be understood, because

On Marriage, Human Relations, and Society

At it’s core, marriage is a state of human affairs permitted and governed by the state.

In this context, the word “state” refers to governmental authority. Governmental authority in the United States is defined as being the will of the people as determined by the ballot.

Why does the state regulate human affairs?

It is because of an overriding sense of justice, an overwhelming sense of right and wrong. It is because to “do wrong by” another person is a transgression of an inherent social contract that occurs at the very core of humanity, one which is by its very nature unspoken, yet fully known in the human heart.

Why, for example, on any playground the world over, can we

Another perspective on “Ching Chong, Ching Chong Cha”: 名嘴嘲諷中文 華裔領袖促道歉_星島日報_加拿大多倫多中文新聞網。 Canada Toronto Chinese newspaper

名嘴嘲諷中文 華裔領袖促道歉_星島日報_加拿大多倫多中文新聞網。 Canada Toronto Chinese newspaper.

[2011-01-21] Share

本報記者任薇薇三藩市灣區報道
電台名嘴在節目中搞怪模倣胡錦濤發言和嘲諷中文語言，華裔國會議員紛紛譴責林堡（Rush Limbaugh）種族主義的言論，加州眾議員方文忠將提請州眾議院亞太裔立法黨團促林堡向華裔道歉。
聯邦眾議員趙美心(Judy Chu)稱林堡的言論令她感到「震驚和恐懼」。她發表聲明指出，「謾罵華人和嘲諷中文語言是幼稚和冒犯性的伎倆。不認同和批評一個國家的政策是一回事，妖魔化其人民是另一回事。

Comedy is a “two way street.” That is, it conveys a message, and the message is about us, our circumstances and situations. What makes comedy funny, first of all, is that it MUST address reality – the known. We cannot discuss something that cannot be known, for as the byline to this blog reads, “… there is no such thing as nothing.”

Delving into the philosophical, we understand comedy also on two levels, again, both which are firmly rooted in reality.

Now, having addressed that element, it is proper and fitting to address the other, or obverse element – that is, the opposite element – which element is not humor.

The man Rush Limbaugh has never