Brewer-in-Chief

The Washington political scene became shocked this week to learn of a new development that will have long term ramifications for the presidency.  It turns out, the White House has been brewing its own beer on-site!

It was only in the late 1970s that home-brewing was made legal, as this country is unfortunately still packed with emotionally disturbed individuals that will stop at nothing to force our good people to brew and distill in the dead of night (hence the term, "moonshiners").  Neo-prohibitionism is a real thing--consider that when Mothers Against Drunk Driving first showed up at Capitol Hill to get laws passed so that we could send youngsters off to war and try them as adults but not let them buy a beer, the MADD-hatters weren't laughed out of the city as they richly deserved.  To this day, there are still such a thing as "dry" counties--in fact, Jack Daniels whiskey is produced in a dry county, so you can visit their distilleries but not purchase anything on site. 

Are you outraged by this?  Because your grits should be fully grilled by now.  It is your right as an American to decide to not drink, but that right means nothing at all if the decision not to drink has been forced on you by the government.

Progress, though, has been steady, as thousands of microbreweries and distilleries and wineries have opened over the past few decades and home-brewing has emerged as a terrific way to mask one's substance abuse problems.  And it's great to hear that the president is into home brewing himself.

A bit of political advice for this election year?  Get behind wholesale deregulation of the alcohol industry to make it cheaper and easier to make and sell booze.  No American should ever have to say "if only we were as enlightened as the Germans".