Beer and Conversation Podcast

The boys drink and review Troegs Graffiti Highway IPA, then discuss the movie “Her” and the idea of having a romantic, emotional relationship with AI.

“Her” was made in 2013, but many of the concepts are still applicable today — even more than they were in 2013!

Joaquin Phoenix plays the lead character (Theodore Twombly), who decides to use a new AI-powered operating system, which allows him to organize his life, but also becomes a daily companion and confidante. The AI (Samantha) becomes part of his life, and he slowly falls in love with her/it — and, if you can believe it, she/it with him.

The movie challenges our concepts of love and personality at a fundamental level.

Eventually, Theodore finds out that Samantha (the AI) is having a similar relationship with 8,000 other people. He’s heartbroken, because one element of human love is exclusive.

The movie is worth watching, but P&C evaluate how the insights from “Her” apply to modern technology, and where we seem to be going with sexbots and AI agents and so on.

Ex Machina is another film that addresses some of the same themes.

So … Can you fall in love with AI? You’d better watch out, because yes, you can.

The boys drink and review an English trappist ale, then discuss some strange news in the world of woke.

It used to be that corporations were Republican, buttoned-up, and conservative. Recently, corporations are at the forefront of woke stupidity.

About the time of Obama’s presidency, there was a huge switch. The Democrats used to be the part of the poor and the working class. They were the party of peace. Republicans were the darling of the corporations.

Now it’s the opposite.

After FLOVID, DEI and woke BS went into overdrive in the corporate world. Inclusive advertising, pronoun policies, LGBYIOASDF parades, an over-emphasis on climate issues, ….

It goes beyond the individual corporations. Blackrock and other investment firms sometimes set the agenda and corporations have to say “yes sir,” and do as they’re told.

It makes sense that Starbucks would go woke. How did Harley Davidson, John Deere, Tractor Supply Company, Jack Danield, and Lowes fall for this nonsense?

Do they know who their customer are?

The boys drink and review Snakeden Saison by 7 Locks Brewing, then review their impressions of The Sound of Hope.

The story starts in Possum Trot, Texas, when Donna Martin is grieving the death of her mother. She feels a calling from God to help some of the children in the foster care system. Her husband, Bishop Martin, reluctantly comes along, but then he decides they’re not only going to adopt — they’re going to take the hardest cases.

Bishop Martin does a deep study on what the Bible says about adoption, and starts preaching on it. This starts a movement in the church and this small church eventually adopts all 77 of the kids out of the foster care system.

This is a heart-warming, inspirational movie, and the best part of it is that it’s based on a true story.

The boys drink and review Founders Vanilla Porter, then discuss the slow-motion self-immolation of England as the island cowtows to woke nonsense.

Why is this happening? How did the west get to a spot where we’re so sold on multiculturalism that we excuse migrant crimes and crack down on the people who point them out?

When a violent, disrespectful Syrian boy threatens to rape two young girls, he’s the good guy, and the older brother who stood up for his sisters is the bad guy.

When the police cover up grooming gangs, that’s good and right, but the people who don’t want their wives, sisters, and daughters to get raped are the bad guys.

The idea that the government cares about and respects the will of the people has been revealed as a total farce. The agenda of the elite prevails and the people need to suck it up and go along with it.

There’s a conspiracy against the will of the people. An unholy alliance of the government, media, courts, police, celebrities, entertainment …. They collectively gaslight, intimidate, and insult the people to push their agenda.

If you criticize their agenda, you go to jail.

If Hamas has a violent demonstration, that’s okay. If English patriots have a rally, they’re right-wing extremists who should be hunted down, fined, jailed, and destroyed.

The media won’t report on it. It’s only the alternative media that tells us what’s going on.

The boys drink and review 2 award-winning beers from Heavy Seas, then special guest Longinus joins them at the bar to review Pedro Paramo, a Mexican novella. This is part of the P&C “shortcut to the classics” series.

Pedro Paramo is a confusing book. The structure, timing, the use of punctuation, who’s speaking, and even whether people are alive or dead is never quite certain.

The book is named after the central character, Pedro Paramo, who is a powerful and tyrannical landowner in the town of Comala. He’s also the father of Juan Preciado, the novel’s primary protagonist, who is sent to Comala by Dolores Preciado, his dying mother, to get what they’re owed.

On his way to find Comala, Juan meets Abundio Martinez, another of Pedro’s illegitimate sons.

Comala is a ghost town in two senses. Not only is there almost no one there, it’s full of ghosts.

Rulfo’s work is an example of magical realism, where seemingly impossible things happen and are accepted by the characters as if nothing special is happening.

The story pursues themes like death and the supernatural, memory and time, despair and hoplelessness, power and corruption, religion and guilt, isolation and loneliness. The themes combine to create a haunting exploration of human existence, where the boundaries between life and death, past and present, are fluid.

This is an interesting but difficult book. If you give it a try, plan to read it twice.

Did the Democrats provoke the assassination attempt against Donald Trump with their over-the-top language? They repeatedly called him Hitler, a threat to democracy, a dictator, that this will be the last election, etc.? Did that inspire the Trump shooter?

It’s easy to imagine. Everyone has had the sophomoric argument about going back in time and killing Hitler before he took power. If you’re faced with an actual Hitler — right here and now — what are you going to do?

Aside from that, how could this have possibly happened? Why did the Secret Service fall down on the job?

The level of incompetence demonstrated by the Secret Service is almost unbelievable. Was it all just a big cluster frack, or was the Secret Service in on it?

What’s the role of DEI in this disaster? Was the Secret Service encumbered by a bunch of unqualified DEI hires?

The head of the Secret Service had a mission to promote women. That was the chip on her shoulder. Did that become more important than fulfilling the actual mission of the Secret Service?

This level of buffoonery and clown-town behavior is close to impossible. It’s almost necessary to believe it was a setup.

But then there’s Hanlon’s razor: never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity and incompetence.

P&C drink and review Crabtown Classic, a local Vienna Lager from Jailbreak Brewing, then discuss Julian Assange.

The Assange case brings out the contrast between freedom of the press and national security.

Assange had a libertarian streak and was suspicious of authority — especially governmental authority. He believed information should be free, particularly when it exposes the misdeeds of governments.

Many believe Assange was supporting whistleblowers, and that his case was a test case for freedom of the press.

Some of the things Assange revealed allegedly betrayed “sources and methods” and compromised national security.

Assange’s prolonged legal battle over extradition from the UK to the US raises concerns about fair trial standards, the potential for politically motivated charges, and the treatment of whistleblowers and journalists under international law.

Is Assange a whistleblower deserving of protection, or a criminal who recklessly endangered lives? The debate is central to the case and reflects broader societal questions about the ethics of leaking classified information.

P&C drink and review a Pretzel Wheat Beer from Aldus Brewery, then discuss how “the left” has changed over the last few decades.

In many areas, the left of the 60s and 70s has been turned on its head by the modern, woke left.

The contrasts become clear when you think about the attitude towards …

• Authority and government
• War
• Drugs
• Free speech
• Multinational corporations
• The working class
• Individual rights
• The rule of law
• Civil liberties
• Free markets
• Individualism

Wokeism has replaced the liberalism of the 60s. The woke require lockstep conformity to a far-left perspective on race, gender, sexuality (and maybe climate, and vaccines), or we’ll ruin your life. There’s no individual rights. There’s no free speech. You must comply.

The boys drink and review Phantasm Double IPA from Elder Pine brewery, then discuss all the other ways humanity might come to an end — other than global warming.

Here’s a list of other ways the world might come to an end, starting with natural causes.
* Asteroid Impact
* Supervolcanic Eruption
* Gamma-Ray Burst
* Magnetic Pole Reversal
* Global Pandemic
* Solar Superflare
* Going back into the ice age
* Loss of pollinators or other essential critters
* Methane Clathrate Release

But that’s not all. There are also human causes.

* Nuclear War
* Artificial Intelligence
* Biological or Chemical Warfare
* Environmental Collapse
* Technological Catastrophe
* Economic Collapse
* Resource Wars
* Cyber Warfare
* Collapse in human fertility
* Lack of confidence in the system
* Universal Islam or Liberalism

The boys drink and review White Chocolate Dream Blonde Stout by Black Beauty Brewery, then (starting at 3:43) discuss the history of blacks and the GOP.

The Republican Party (GOP) started with the explicit intention of stopping the spread of slavery in America. The first Republican president was Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves.

Democrats have a horrible record on votes that affect black people. Most Democrats votes against the 13th amendment (to free slaves). No Democrats voted for the 14th amendment (making freed slaves citizens). No Democrats voted for the 15th amendment (giving slaves the right to vote).

The first black Senators (in 1870) were Republicans. The first black Representatives (in 1871) were Republicans. The first 23 black Representatives were Republicans. The first black Democrat Senator was in 1993!

Democrats founded the KKK. Democrats started Jim Crow laws. By percentage, more Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Given all this, why do blacks predominantly vote for Democrats?

P.S. — Crowhill is not a Republican.

The boys drink and review St. Bernardus Ale, then discuss the obesity epidemic.

Why is it that videos from the 1920s up to fairly recent times show mostly slim, fit people, but everybody at Walmart is fat? What has happened?

According to Dr. Peter Attia, the standard American diet is a solution to a business and marketing problem, in four parts.

1. Quantity. Too many people were undernourished and we need to produce calories at scale
2. Cost. We don’t want food to cost too much
3. Storage. It has to be non-perishable and portable
4. Taste. It has to taste good

We’ve definitely solved that problem, but we’ve created another. About 43 percent of U.S. adults are obese.

What happened? P&C review the stats and the possible explanations.

The boys drink and review Hare Chaser Grapefruit IPA from Flying Dog brewery, then discuss the ignorance of most protesters.

You would think that if a person is willing to take time off of school or work, jeopardize their education or job, or their future, to clash with police, to protest an injustice — that they might know something about the topic!

The Ben Franklin Players come on the show to illustrate a common experience with modern protesters.

When a pro-Palestinian protester says “from the river to the sea,” odds are good he doesn’t know which river or which sea.

Then we have to consider the different treatment protesters get from law enforcement.

Damage public property, steal and burn the U.S. flag and assault police officers? That’s free speech.

Pray outside an abortion clinic? Jail.

P&C discuss the protest culture and our response.

The boys drink and review Crowhill’s homebrewed Extra Special Bitter, then discuss five topics — to clear out the backlog.

#1 — (2:58) Is it even possible that the Secret Service is as incompetent as they were in Pennsylvania? The security failures were epic and strain credulity. Could competent, trained professionals be this bad?

The boys review some of the emerging details and wonder what in the heck went wrong. Was the Secret Service complicit in the attempt, or were they impossibly incompetent?

And what about the DEI component? What were those short women doing trying to protect 6’3″ Trump?

#2 — (17:40) Is Ben Shapiro right about Social Security? Ben argues that the program was never designed to support people for 20 years of retirement. As life expectancy increases, shouldn’t the retirement age?

The boys are big fans of Shapiro, but aren’t convinced of his argument for several reasons. Listen in.

#3 — (23:18) Pigweed calls BS on the “my life is hard” narrative. Everyone these days has to have a persecution narrative. Society is expecting too much. It’s so hard. “Everybody told me I couldn’t be a scientist.” Baloney.

#4 — (27:38) Two views of technology: it will kill us, or it will usher in a golden age. This reflects two instincts that are necessary for humans — the need to explore and find new things, and the need to protect against contagion and unknown threats.

#5 — (33:20) Everybody wants to save the world but nobody wants to do the dishes. Sometimes you hear people say they want to do work that will make the world a better place. Do they have the competence? Do they have the necessary knowledge? The world is a complicated place. If they can’t keep their own house neat and orderly, what makes them think they can make the world neat and orderly?

The boys end the show with a letter to the show from Inigo Montoya, who accuses P&C of being “raw doggers.”

The boys drink and review Pigweed’s Seal Team 6 — a homebrewed Black IPA — then discuss eugenics.

Humans have been breeding animals and plants for a very long time. Most of the foods we eat are the result of thousands of years of careful breeding by farmers, and “man’s best friend” was bred from wild dogs.

Why shouldn’t we do the same with humans?

Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin who was very influenced by The Origin of Species, proposed just such a plan and called it “eugenics.” Darwinism convinced Galton that an organism’s most important characteristics must be biological rather than shaped by environment or experience.

The idea caught fire with the intellectual elite. John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger and Alexander Graham Bell all promoted the idea to one degree or another.

The Supreme Court even weighed in. In upholding a Virginia law that permitted compulsory sterilization of individuals thought unfit to reproduce, Oliver Wendell Holmes said in Buck v. Bell, “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

38 States adopted some form of eugenics laws and more than 60,000 Americans were sterilized without their consent.

Adolf Hitler read about this and thought, “gee, what a good idea.”

After the horrors of World War II, the west turned away from eugenics. It still stands as a reminder that fine-sounding ideas approved by intelligent people can still be horribly stupid.

The boys drink and review Crowhill’s homemade gin, then give a broad overview of liquors. P&C discuss …

• Fermentation vs. distillation
• The history of liquor
• Liquor vs. liquer and fortified wines
• What “proof” means
• White vs. colored liquors
• The main types of liquor
  • Vodka
  • Gin
  • Tequila
  • Rum
  • Whiskey (vs. whisky)
  • Brandy
• The science of getting drunk
• The science of hangovers

… plus a few anecdotes and common myths about liquor, such as …

Does red wine need to breathe before you drink it?
Does the shape of a glass make a difference?
Can “hair of the dog” cure a hangover?