Sick and Cranky

I'm taking the day off because I managed to give myself food poisoning. Bleagh. This always makes my already stellar personality even more pleasant. So I'll treat you to some of my general free-floating hostility today.

Have I mentioned lately how useless I think most government regulations are? My latest target is some asinine directive about labeling alcoholic beverages. At least that's what the guys at the liquor store told me was preventing me from getting my Belgian beer. The Belgians finally acceded to whatever moronic request our government made, so I can get Lindeman's Framboise Lambic again. But only in the small bottles for now. Bastards! I'm not over the fact that I went months without being able to get it because of some crap about what was or wasn't on the label. I was buying it for years with no problems and all of a sudden, I can't anymore because some jackass in DC decided alcohol content needs to be on the label. Who, exactly, is being helped by this regulation? Was the lack of alcohol content on the label causing great distress to the consumers of this nation? I seriously doubt it.

Speaking of hostility, Jeff Jarvis has a whole great heaping helping for Michael Powell over at the FCC. Given that I tend to be an absolutist on 1st Amendment issues, I agree with Mr. Jarvis a lot more than Mr. Powell. Mr. Powell is trying to apologize for the fact that no one at his organization understands the Constitution. What part of "Congress shall make no law" is difficult? It's apparently beyond the grasp of our elected representatives, however.