Beer and stuff | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    So now we know the Prez' recipe for beer or ale or whatever they are brewing up at the white house. Apparently the key ingredient is honey from the white house hive. It's too bad we aren't privy to a lot of the other stuff they seem to be continually be brewing up at this White House. Hmmm...

    Speaking of "honey" and brewing things up at the White House, wasn't that what got Bill Clinton in trouble when he still lived there?? Hmmm... But, I digress...

    In looking over the recipe it would seem that they failed to mention at least two things. Those would be the government employee who actually assumed the responsibility of brew master who does the work involved in creating this nectar and a second one who looks after the bee hive from whence cometh the honey that seems so central to the final product

    So now we have a "White House garden" and a "White House brewery" and an apiary. Could those be but three more examples of the Prez' job creation activity?? One agronomist to see after the White House garden, one apiarist to take care of the bees, and one brew master to look after the White House mico-brewery; government employees all. I didn't check, but is the production of alcoholic beverages allowable in government housing?? Even if it is, surely any restrictions would not apply to the Anointed One. No other restrictions seem to apply to him.

    You would think that the First Family which seems to try so hard to convince folks that they truly understand the plight of the middle class would have been seen out there tending their family (White House) garden (but only for purposes of generating votes from that cohort - despite their penchant for Bibles and guns). That would have been a nice touch. I suppose David Axelrod didn't think of it (or maybe he never saw a family garden before, or maybe it was below the dignity of the First Lady). In any case, it didn't happen. A good photo-op missed. Too bad.

    Likewise some shots of the Prez checking temperatures and fermentation rates of the beer in process would surely have endeared him to the great middle class. And how about some pics of him washing the bottles, filling them, capping them, and labeling the finished product?? Not to be. He was too busy telling college kids about all the good things he has done for them (like keeping them on their parents' health insurance policy until they are 26 and providing them "free" taxpayer supplied contraceptives). What he failed to mention was how he also managed to ensure that so many of them were forced to take their newly minted and very expensive college degree back home to hang on the wall of their "old room" where they are forced to live because they can't find a job. This despite all his job creation activities (most of which turned out to be outrageously expensive and clearly missed the target). No mention of that, of course. (Besides, it was probably "Ws" fault anyway.) And, of course no mention of all the crony capitalism we have been exposed to. In the meantime, the Government employees back in D.C. took care the White House "farm" and "brewery".

    What this looks a lot like is simply one more example of the Government competing with the private sector. I suppose we will know soon enough if this is a threat to the country's micro-breweries. It may depend on whether they contributed "enough" to his campaign or not. (Oh my; another word like "fair share". Like "fair Share" its meaning is surely variable depending on whose contributions are being discussed.) In the meantime, it's probably too soon for the "big" breweries to start worrying, but it probably wouldn't hurt it they started "bundling" contributions for the Anointed One.. There's no point in taking a chance.

    D'ya think??