Horizon

It seems to me that blaming a taser because it's abused is a bit like blaming a guitar because it's out-of-tune.

That sounds a lot like "Guns don't kill people..."

A cliche, but true for all that, non? So the appropriate question to ask is not "are guns evil", but "who should be allowed to have them, and for what purpose, and to what extent are they replaceable with other, less dangerous weapons?" Which frames the issue in a rather different way.

The item wasn't entirely for yr benefit, Alan, don't worry.

BTW last month I skipped this item about a police chief using phrases from the Taser company's own literature to describe the non-Taser factors he was blaming for yet another death of a Tasered suspect.

Sorry, but whatever its theoretical usefulness as a kinder, gentler means to restrain the dangerous, in practice the Taser does not appear to bring out the better nature of anyone associated with it.

"This guy is threating to arrest both of us over a $1.50, have our car towed and he's waving around his night stick like he's ready to bust some heads."

As someone who was arrested and detained for hours by transit cops who thought I'd tricked the ticket machines into giving me a ticket worth $1.10, I can sympathize. Standards seem to be very low in some departments or precincts or however it is they organize them.

The item wasn't entirely for yr benefit, Alan, don't worry.

Fair enough; I didn't mean to slight the growing constituency of NRA wingnuts who read Demisemiblog religiously.

Fair enough; I didn't mean to slight the growing constituency of NRA wingnuts who read Demisemiblog religiously.

No offence taken, Alan. Though I do wish you'd quit drawing attention to my waistline.

I like to think of you more as a barbed insert, Ben ...

That's reassuring. The barbed insert is a noble fitting, without which most kegging would be impossible. Imagine a world without forced carbonation, and you'll understand the vital role of the barbed insert in our society.

PEOPLE, this is a family blog.

Apparently Alan Hogue is one of those bottle-carbonation bigots. I always suspected as much.

And I would just like to say a word for the myriad innocent victims of forced carbonation, a custom that, "traditional practice" or not, has widespread gastric consequences for those subjected to it.

Hrmph. You can take my CO2 tanks when you pry them from my cold, dead hands!

Can we now spend 1,000 posts or so dissecting what the Founders meant exactly by "A well-regulated brewery, being necessary ..."?

Here's a little trivia. A set of steward's records of a relatively wealthy household from the late 14th century shows that the average member consumed 1.5 gallons of ale per day (a little higher than the supposed late medieval average of 1 gallon/day), plus the household consumed on the order of seventy bottles of wine each day on top of that. And they employed their own brewer. And ate almost nothing but red meat.

Obviously, medieval culture was far more advanced than we traditionally give them credit for.

I wonder if Joe Mitchell knew that. Yr medieval household sounds just like one of his old New York "beefsteaks."

Alan, what's your source on the medieval household stat?

(a little higher than the supposed late medieval average of 1 gallon/day), plus the household consumed on the order of seventy bottles of wine each day on top of that. And they employed their own brewer. And ate almost nothing but red meat.

I have phases like that myself from time to time...

Alan, what's your source on the medieval household stat?

I found it in a review of this book. The review itself should appear here within a week or so.