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They can’t seem to up-armor vehicles; they can’t buy enough bullets; they can’t supply troops with the necessities, much less the niceties, of life in a combat zone; but somehow they can manage to organize a concert to celebrate the tragedy of the attack on the Pentagon on September 11^th, 2001.

The America Supports You Freedom Walk has got to be one of the worst concepts to ever come out of the Pentagon, including the blue and silver striped tie for the Air Force uniform, wearing ascots with fatigues, and making mukluks Southeast Asia critical equipment.

I don’t remember reports of anything other than solemn remembrances of December 7^th, 1941 during World War II. I don’t understand how a large group of people assembling at the Pentagon to be frisked and then walking to the Mall for a concert shows any concern or support for people who died at the Pentagon or for those people deployed in a combat zone doing their best to stay alive. Apparently if you had planned to visit a grave in Arlington National Cemetery on that Sunday, you are out of luck.

The best way to have honored the people who died on September 11^th would have been to capture the man who planned the attack or, at least, to have attended their funerals, many obviously within walking distance of the Pentagon.

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The beer that many consider to be the best in the world, Westvleteren 12, is not easy to buy. Australian Broadcasting tells us: Monks run short of ‘world’s best’ beer.

“Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out,” said a message on the abbey’s answering machine, which it calls the “beer phone”.

The abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand.

“We are not brewers, we are monks,” the father abbot said on the abbey’s website. “We brew beer to be able to afford being monks.”

Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen newspaper: “Outsiders don’t understand why we are not raising production but for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery.”

If you’re not a fan of the brewer’s art you may not be aware that every time you increase the size of the brewery you decrease the quality of the beer. Not every system “scales”, and breweries definitely don’t. All a modern megabrewery can guarantee is consistent mediocrity.

The monks have been using the same formula and methods to brew beer for a very long time. They pay attention to what they are doing and produce a superior product. If they became a business they would start to cut corners and the quality would disappear.

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From the top: the North wall of the house, the front lawn, and recent additions.

If the lawn dries enough to support a mower, the mushrooms will be gone shortly. I’m going to be forced to use chemicals on the wall, and more “mildew resistant” paint additive in the Glidden mildew resistant paint that was applied 18 months ago.

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