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Month: April 2021

128: Machiavelli

Crowhill Crowhill
April 29, 2021
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Niccolo Machiavelli's The PrinceThe boys drink and review Holy Roller, a hazy IPA, and talk about Niccolo Machiavelli, the infamous author of The Prince.

Do the ends justify the means? (And did Machiavelli mean that?)

The boys discuss Machiavelli’s historical context, the work for which he is mostly known, and the meaning and application of the term “Machiavellian.”

Machiavelli satirizes the classic view of virtues, espoused by Cicero. Those virtues might be nice, he says, but they won’t keep you in power.

The Prince is contrary to both Roman and Christian values, and was almost scandalous in its time.

127: The Beer Episode

Crowhill Crowhill
April 24, 2021
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In which Pigweed and Crowhill, long-time homebrewers, talk about beer for 40 minutes.

They start with hop classifications, and review Pigweed’s 3 categories of hops

  • Tobacco / Earthy (Fuggle, Mt. Hood, Northern Brewer, Saaz)
    • Even skunky
  • Piney (Chinook, Northern Brewer, Simcoe)
    • Resins and stickiness
  • Fruity
    • Grapefruit
    • Tropical fruit?

About what about cold beer? Why is it so important to drink beer cold? For much of history, beer was drunk warm, or at least not cold, and in cold climates, a mug of warm ale would revive you. But Americans seem to like their beer very cold.

A relatively new craze on the beer scene is sour beer. What makes a beer sour, and why do people like that? (Our friends at Hysteria Brewing make a lot of sours!)

The boys also take issue with their fellow beer geeks who seem to think they have to criticize Budweiser.

They end the show with a pair of homebrew beer challenges. 

126: Crybaby America

Crowhill Crowhill
April 17, 2021
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P&C drink and review Joyous IPA from Troegs, then talk about tattletales and crybabies. The boys are sick of them, but it seems their ranks are swelling.

What’s causing this? Could it be instant gratification, the daily outrage, helicopter parents, participation trophies, people get extremely upset over the most ridiculous things, and the malaise of safety?

How have we come to this place? How did we become so coddled and spoiled?

The boys discuss possible causes from three angles: technology, culture, and the geopolitical situation.

125: Witches

Crowhill Crowhill
April 11, 2021
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P&C drink and review “Unforgivable Curses” by Peabody Heights brewery, then discuss witches and witchcraft.

What’s up with witches? Nowadays we mostly think of them as fun and sexy, but there was a time when people were scared to death of witches, hunted them down and hanged them. Why?

The boys discuss various pogroms against witches over the years, trying to sort out what’s true and what’s a misconception. They cover …

  • Saul and the witch of Endor
  • Joan of Arc
  • The Malleus Maleficarum
  • The witch’s mark
  • Salem
  • How many witches were actually killed?

… and much more.

124: Sue, boycott and punch back!

Crowhill Crowhill
April 10, 2021
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P&C drink and review a hop-infused cider (what?), then discuss how lawsuits and boycotts might be the only hope of saving western civilization from the assault by woke, racist morons.

The boys don’t like litigation or boycotts, but it seems those might be the only tools to fight critical race theory and the other woke idiocies that are ruining lives and destroying the culture.

Corporations are buying into these explicity racist, illegal, and immoral diversity struggle sessions to avoid lawsuits. Conservatives need to show them that lawsuits and boycotts can come from both sides, and that the law is on our side. Critical Race Theory is clearly racist, and therefore it’s unconstitutional for the government to promote it.

And now we have Major League Baseball getting into politics. Rather than being the non-political escape that we all were able to enjoy together, sports organizations are injecting partisan politics into our free time.

As distasteful as it is, we need to boycott the idiots until they get some sense and grow a pair.

123: Voting Laws

Crowhill Crowhill
April 9, 2021
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P&C review Pigweed’s most recent pale ale, then discuss voting laws.

Are the “one-time” voting accommodations for the pandemic going to change things permanently?

The last election was weird. Mail-in (late) ballots. Ballots mailed to everyone on the roles. Votes counted after election day.

Both sides recognize there’s cause for some sort of clean-up, but we have different visions of what that should be. There’s (so far) a federal approach, and a state (GA) approach.

P&C weigh in, discussing the role of the federal and the state governments, and how we balance keeping things local vs. national standards.

122: Does God exist? P&C review some of the more common arguments

Crowhill Crowhill
April 8, 2021
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P&C drink and review another Pastry Archy offering: Oatmeal Cream Pie, an imperial honey wheat ale.

With their minds sufficiently lubricated by delicious beer, they review arguments for the existence of God, starting with Anselm’s ontological argument.

They move on to several of Aquinas’ arguments, which mostly revolve around the concept of an infinite regress.

Some of the arguments involve the old “can you get something from nothing” question, and the idea of gradation. When we compare things, are we assuming an ultimate standard? What about morals, and miracles, and ….

They can’t cover it all, but P&C review some of the more well-known arguments and add their commentary.

120: Food fads: Organic and GMO

Crowhill Crowhill
April 2, 2021
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P&C drink and review an abbey ale, then discuss food fads, and worries some people have about new agricultural innovations. 

Organic food. GMO. “All-natural.” Does it really matter? Or is this just a big marketing ploy? What does “organic” really mean? And aren’t all of our foods genetically modified?

The boys weigh the costs and benefits of scientifically modified food. 

121: Korea

Crowhill Crowhill
April 2, 2021
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Captain Crunch made a surprise trip the Mid-Atlantic region, bringing a very strange Korean rice beer, and regaling Pigweed and Crowhill with tales of her travels in Korea.

What’s different over there as far as shopping, weather, living arrangements, technology, driving, trash? What’s it like having a wacko neighbor to the north? And what kinds of snack foods do they eat?

Listen in and hear all about it.