Beer and Conversation with Pigweed and Crowhill

Trump recently told "the squad" to "go back where they came from." But most of them are from ... here.  Pigweed and Crowhill have a glass of scotch and discuss the latest news craze. Was this racist? Did Trump go too far this time? 

The boys both recently saw Gran Torino, and marveled at all the interesting themes in the movie. But before they dig into that, they moisten the brain tissues with Lagunitas Equinox, "a genuine pale oat ale." Of course it's delicious (it's Lagunitas), but P&C didn't quite get the point of the oats. 

Mr. Kim won't put up a flyer for a gay pride event, which gets the accusations flying. Mr. Kim gets says he doesn't want to display the poster because it's ugly. He also asks why gays need a noisy parade? Do Koreans have parades to say "We are the Koreans." To avoid getting in trouble with the gay activists, he decides to have a gay discount, which leads to some very interesting vignettes about "gaydar."

What is the default men's boot? Western boot, hiking boot, work boot, dress boot, harness boot, snow boots? Are boots pretentious when someone wears them for fashion? Then there's boots on women! That leads to a discussion of consumerism in general. Should we buy quality stuff and care for it, or should we buy a bunch of temporary cheap stuff? Are we wedded to an economy that requires us to keep buying stuff?

Pigweed raises the ethics of Daenerys' use of her dragons, which raise the large issue of ethics in warfare.  The boys consider St. Thomas' rules for war, contemporary Catholic ethics on the justification for an offensive war, and limitations on conduct in war. They then compare this to Julius Caesar in Gaul, Guantanamo Bay, a scene in Full Metal Jacket, police use of force and the crisis at the border.  Tune in for a whirlwind tour of the ethics of killing each other! 

The new American past time is to get offended at something and attack! That's what the digital revolution and smart phones / social media has allowed us to do. We've made outrage into a valuable commodity, and part of it can be blamed on the ubiquity of cellphones. But there are other problems with the way kids are being raised today. They don't learn how to get along, and they learn to expect that an adult will come and solve things for them. 

The boys discuss treason, traitors, Wikileads, Julian Assange, and related matters, stating with review of Wikileaks, which is, to some degree, just a way to keep power in check by exposing secrets and corruption. But where's the limit? The Manning case is different, because he indiscriminately released that compromised assets. Snowden is a different case. He saw some serious corruption in the U.S. government and struggled with the ethics of revealing it.

Pigweed expressed the heretical notion that we shouldn't be celebrating the 4th of July. There are other dates -- like Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, or King George's recognition of the colonies' independence -- that are the true "independence" days. Crowhill takes a different tack, and the boys go at it for a while, trying to decide what's the appropriate celebration of America's independence, and why it matters.

The topic of the day is the 30 years' war, which was an incredibly destructive war that grew out of religious wars in Europe. In terms of mortality, it was as destructive as WWI, in terms of the percentage of the population that died. Pigweed and Crowhill try to pick the coolest guy from the 30 years' war. Pigweed recommends Gustavus Adolphus, and sings his praises. Crowhill picks another, Georg Nusch, burgermeister of Rothenburg, who saved his town from destruction by drinking 3.25 liters of wine.

In the latest lawsuit against Jack Philips from Masterpiece Bakery, Jack didn't bake someone's trans celebration cake, so, of course that becomes a federal case. P&C wrestle with the moral and legal distinctions between the different situations where someone is demanding that a vendor provide service the way they want. It boils down to a distinction between providing a generic service and forcing someone to participate in your ideology. They also discuss the Oberlin college case.

The boys drink and review The Gusto, a local Hefeweizen, before they get into the topic of the day: morality and commerce. Netflix wants to boycott Georgia because the state is considering a strict pro-life bill, and some people are leaving Netflix as a kind of counter boycott. We all try to influence others to adopt our moral views. But how far should we take that? Should we extend it to commerce? The boys reason their way through it and come up with the Pigweed and Crowhill solution.

Pigweed reviews the high hopes of blockchain technology, which is the foundation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, then Crowhill gives a simple explanation of blockchain technology. First, the boys discuss fiat currency in general, and how the value of bitcoin doesn't depend on the fiat of any government or institution. That leads to a discussion of the stability of the U.S. dollar, and its status as the reserve currency. This was recorded before Facebook's announcement of their new currency

The May 2019 five for five contribution, where Pigweed and Crowhill do five topics in five minutes each. This time, the topics include: * Santa is fun when he's like Superman. * The deep state is real and scary. * SATs should measure your actual abilities. * Western civilization is cool, even though there are problems. * You should get out of the house and meet somebody.

Jury nullification is the idea that a jury is more than just a finder of fact. The jury is, rather, a check on the lawyers, the prosecutors, the lawmakers and the judges. The purpose of a jury is to inject a little common sense, citizen perspective on the law.  If someone is technically guilty of violating the law, but his peers on the jury say he's not morally culpable for what he did, then the jury has every right -- no, the responsibility -- to defy the law and pronounce him not guilty. 

Pigweed is wondering why conservative atheists are so rare. Atheist usually means liberal. But why? There's no reason to link conservatism inextricably to religion. Conservative political principles don't seem to require God. They seem accessible to reason, and easily argued without recourse to God. The boys try a few test cases, to see if traditional conservative views can survive on reason alone.