Bourbon and Sense

...because with Bourbon comes good Sense

May 2022 Bourbon and this week's Talking Sense.


Rabbit Hole Cavehill

Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon Whiskey

Aroma: Smell of sweetness but nothing discernible.

Taste: Rabbit Hole Cavehill is very smooth and sippable. Candy sweet until you suck some air in and the alcohol bursts forward.

Appearance: More yellowish than most but not unappealing. I go back to the sipping quality for judging.

Finish: First time a short finish: in other words it doesn\'t linger in the mouth but begs for more.

Story of: Website full of marketing maddness but the bottle explains more. Aged three years, 95 proof, 70% corn, 20% malted wheat and 10% honey malted wheat - what ever that means it\'s a great whiskey.

Talking Sense


Mask Mandate Lifted on Transportation

A Trump-appointed Federal Judge ruled that the mask mandate on transportation – planes, trains and buses, was unconstitutional. Her ruling ended the requirement to wear masks two weeks early from the mandate’s original expiration date. Of course, there was a lot of celebration – no one wants to wear a mask unless they must, say like protect their own life or the life of another. But that’s a small point, the jury on mask efficacy is still out and there are studies supporting both sides. Unless we have inside information or we have studied the use of masks, then I suggest we leave their use and effectiveness up to the experts and trust them to recommend the best they know and believe. If masks and PPE, personal protective equipment, don’t work, why do hospital staff wear them for every surgery?


An interesting aspect of the judge’s ruling is that the US government did not immediately appeal. The reason for the hesitation was explained as a strategic move: denial of the appeal would give the ruling broader impact and tie the CDC’s hands from any kind of emergency mandate. I think the ruling was finally appealed but only after careful consideration of any broader impact.


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More Talking Sense


Disney Bashing

Can someone explain to me what’s going on with the Don’t Say Gay bill in Florida and the accompanying reaction by and against Disney? It seems reasonable to not discuss with young children homosexuality, gender change, or anything else to do with LGBTQ: how much can a young child understand about such issues? Was a law necessary or did teachers apply their commonsense and not broach the subject anyway? Is the whole thing an attempt to get in front of the right and for the Florida Governor to gain votes? Disney must have expressed its opinion against the Gay bill at the behest of its employees. Then the State legislature turned its attention to any existing perks the company gained when the State negotiated with Walt himself to attract the company to Florida – not an unusual government strategy. But now the legislature is taking all that away from Disney – maybe it’s time.


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Point


Migrants Invading Texas

I read a New York Times article about a strategy for controlling the border that would entail the Governor declaring that the State is being invaded by migrants. This would enable him to wrest power over immigration from the Federal Government and use State resources, especially police, to protect the Texas border. This in effect declares a war against immigrants, the only time States can engage in war according to the US constitution.

This tactic sounds like another push for States’ rights versus Federal control. Shouldn’t the borders be a nationwide concern with consistent laws across all States and not one State declaring war on “invaders”?


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Counterpoint


Abortion rights or the Right of Women to Choose What Happens to Them?

The leak of the draft opinion on the Mississippi law that challenges Roe vs Wade was a good thing. It causes everyone to think about the issue and hear differing opinions. I’m not sure anyone is listening. If Roe vs Wade gets over-turned, then the Supreme Court needs to make sure that men bear the brunt as much as women. If women are forced to carry an unwanted child, or be charged with murder, then the father of that child should shoulder responsibility for its well-being too: money, time, and love. Men are making these State laws against abortion under the guise of some moral code. But they don’t suffer from the consequences of poverty and unwanted children (never mind rape or incest); men need to experience those results, to stop and think of their effort to take control away from a woman to choose.


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Opinion


Million Deaths

The White House marked last week the milestone of a million Covid-19 deaths. That’s more US citizens than died in World War 1, World War 2, Korean and Vietnam wars together. It’s only the Civil War (645,000), where we were killing each other, that comes close to the Covid count. Why is this important to acknowledge? I think recognizing the severity of the pandemic in terms of body count explains why we tried quarantines, masks, vaccines, social distancing, and any other weapon/prophylactic we could think of the stop the spread of the virus. For those people who make fun of the efforts of the CDC and Dr. Fauci, remember that this was the war to end all wars.


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More Opinion


The Nordsmen

We saw the movie The Nordsmen last weekend. Both my wife and the ticket concierge told me that the movie’s portrayal of Vikings was supposed to be the most realistic of any movie to date. I have to agree that the presentation of the Vikings and their culture was quite a bit different than I had ever seen. There was a lot of dancing and grunting, something resembling Native American dances without the solemity. Include the wolf-like howling, the human sacrifice, and the hairless chests and torsos, and my concept of the Viking culture was forever changed. Why is this just coming out now? Can anyone point to some research that supports the new interpretation (new to me)?


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Thoughts


Buffalo Shooting

So it continues. It doesn’t take very many heinous, violent, crimes (it takes 1) against a race or culture to paint our society with the broad brush of racism. All the good things that are happening everyday around the country get tossed to the side because it just isn’t newsworthy. Others will point to guns as being the reason for these shootings and one must admit, that without weapons, mass killings would be difficult to do. And of course, we label a reason for why a very small part of society holds hatred in their hearts against one race or another, or anybody different: Replacement Theory. Supposedly, White Supremacists (or maybe Asian Supremacist in the case of the recent California shooting) fear that they are being replaced by immigrants and black people. My solution to allaying these fears is my go-to solution for everything: education. Have a civics/history class in early high school that presents both sides of the belief. What are the numbers: are immigrants replacing anybody? Why is social media spreading this fear and which parts are true and which are false?


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More Thoughts


Funding Ukraine

I overheard in a grocery store a customer and a grocery-clerk talking about empty shelves in the store. The customer attributed it to the US sending billions to support the fight in Ukraine rather than spending the money to ensure we have sufficient baby formula or anything else we need to buy. The clerk agreed and couldn’t understand why we need to support the Ukrainians. Probably half the nation is isolationist with the same fraction of GOP leadership supporting Trump’s America First agenda. It has not been made clear why it is to our advantage to support Ukraine in this war. My belief is that we are using Ukraine to fight our battles with Russia. The cold war was over with the fall of the Soviet Union, but it has continued to simmer, getting hotter with time and Russian leadership. No one can believe that Putin will stop with assimilating Ukraine when other former territories like Poland and Lithuania are available and would add magnificent capabilities to the Russian economy, not to mention an enlarged border. Rather than using our soldiers to stop the conquest of eastern Europe, help the Ukrainians fight. It’s an easy way to test our weapon systems, learn the Russian military strategy, and not lose our young people.


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