http://disqus.com/people/ec9dcba0337335f0ab03a67729ec2f3b/enMon, 09 Jun 2008 19:26:39 -0000http://crispyontheoutside.disqus.com/how_many_ounces_of_beer_in_that_pint/#comment-2664516In the modern world it makes sense that rather than waiting for government to create new sausage to regulate behavior we should rely on the wonders of the world wide web to get the message out. You can count on the fact that if enough folks protest, both vocally and by taking their business elsewhere, the vendors will get the message AND change their behavior.<br><br>That said, don't count on the fact prices won't be increased along the way. The only reason the glass is smaller is so the brewer wouldn't have to raise prices. Consider the packaging of just about everything, from corn chips to coffee to chocolate bars and you'll see the same phenomenon. Of course, folks reading this story care only about their beer. Count me in!VisitorMon, 09 Jun 2008 19:26:39 -0000http://bravenewfilms.disqus.com/wow_dianne_feinstein_faces_censure_vote_this_weekend/#comment-5191961I live in the San Francisco Bay Area so Diane Feinstein has been a political heavyweight well known to me for a long while. In another era, she would have been seen as a moderate capable of dialogue with moderates across the aisle in the search for compromise that has historically been essential to governance. If she doesn't represent precisely my more progressive values, I've appreciated the role she has played in the past. Unfortunately, it has been a long time since real comity prevailed in the halls of Congress. Republicans embraced wedge politics and pursued a strategy of slash and burn that has driven both parties away from the center. In this new environment and heightened awareness of the likelihood one will be knifed in the alley, politicians who compromise appear suspect to partisans. I doubt Senator Feinstein will run again at an advanced age, so perhaps the best we can do is live with her for a few more years. Sadly, politics has become such a crass exercise it is difficult to engage seriously. I'm enough of a student of history that I have no illusions this great American experiment is guaranteed to continue forever. I've thought often over the last eight years that the arc of this divisive, increasingly dysfunctional struggle for power could easily lead to fascism. The right is far more adept at mobilizing the pseudo patriots required to implement the politics of fear than is the left to motivate those whose politics are based on hope.VisitorTue, 13 Nov 2007 08:40:13 -0000