Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Merry Christmas

Brewer: Butt out and let us sell Santa beer

Maine said label would appeal to children, orders bottle pulled from shelves


PORTLAND, Maine - A beer distributor says Maine is being a Scrooge by barring it from selling a beer with a label depicting Santa Claus enjoying a pint of brew.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District, Shelton Brothers accuses the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement of censorship for denying applications for labels for Santa's Butt Winter Porter and two other beers it wants to sell in Maine.

The episode is reminiscent of last year when Connecticut told Shelton Brothers it had problems with its Seriously Bad Elf ale.

"Last year it was elves. This year it's Santa. Maybe next year it'll be reindeer," said Daniel Shelton, owner of the company in Belchertown, Mass.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, contends the state's action violates the First Amendment by censoring artistic expression.

But the state says it's within its rights. The label with Santa might appeal to children, said Maine State Police Lt. Patrick Fleming. The other two labels are considered inappropriate because they show bare-breasted women.

"We stand by our decision and at some point it'll go through the court system and somebody will make the decision on whether we are right or wrong," he said.

The lawsuit was brought by the Maine Civil Liberties Union, which says the beer labels are entitled to First Amendment protection.

"There is no good reason for the state to censor art, even art found on a beer label," said Zachary Heiden, staff attorney for the MCLU.

The label for the English-made Santa's Butt Winter Porter shows a view from behind of Santa Claus with a pint of beer in hand sitting on top of a barrel.

The beer's name has a double meaning by referring to Santa's rear end and to the "butt" of beer, a term that designates a 126-gallon barrel.

The label for a French ale, Les Sans Culottes, is illustrated with detail from Eugene Delacroix's 1830 painting "Liberty Leading the People," which hangs in the Louvre and once appeared on the 100-franc bill.

The label for Rose de Gambrinus fruit beer shows a bare-breasted woman in a watercolor painting commissioned by the Belgian brewery that makes the beer.

In a letter to Shelton Brothers, the state denied the applications for the labels because they contained "undignified or improper illustration."

Can someone explain to me why the ACLU is involved in this rather than private attorneys?

The lawsuit was brought by the Maine Civil Liberties Union which says the beer labels are entitled to First Amendment protection.

Give me a break, First Amendment protection, oh what the hell publish whatever you want. Why not, we have no morals any more anyway!!!

Their ad is in poor taste as is, I suspect, their beer!! Anything for a buck!!!!!!





I need a new car, I wonder if I can go back to high school?

I don't want to learn, I just want to show up.

For some students, a moving incentive to study

Some schools offering cars and trucks to reward good attendance

CASPER, Wyo. - Sixteen-year-old Kaytie Christopherson was getting ready to do her homework on a Friday when she got a call that made a big improvement in her life: She had won a brand-new pickup truck for near-perfect school attendance.


And not just any truck, but a $28,000 Chevrolet Colorado crew cab, in red, with an MP3 player. Freedom comes standard.

“I take it everywhere. To work, school. I don’t know, anything I do, I have it out with me,” the high school junior said. “I pay attention to where I park it, though.”

Public schools commonly reward excellent attendance with movie tickets, gas vouchers and iPods. But some diligent students like Kaytie are now hitting the ultimate teenage jackpot for going to school: They have won cars or trucks.

School districts in Hartford, Conn., Pueblo, Colo., South Lake Tahoe, Calif., and Wickenburg and Yuma, Ariz., are also giving away vehicles this school year.

In most cases the car or truck is donated by a local dealership, and the prizes typically are awarded through drawings open only to students with good attendance.

So does bribing students with the possibility of winning a car or truck actually get them to think twice about staying home from school? Some educators think so, and say their giveaways have boosted attendance. But the evidence is not clear-cut.

Kaytie — who has a 4.0 average at Natrona County High, Dick Cheney’s alma mater — won her truck last spring, in the school system’s first such drawing. But she said that was not what motivated her to keep up her attendance; she just didn’t want to fall behind.

Hopes to curb dropout rate
District attendance officer Gary Somerville said he hopes to raise attendance and also reduce the district’s 29 percent dropout rate, which he blames in part on Wyoming’s booming gas-and-oil industry.

“These kids can go out and earn $15, $16, $17 an hour swinging a hammer. It’s kind of hard to keep them in school past their 16th birthday,” he said.

Hartford has been holding a drawing — for either a car or $10,000 — for the past six years. Five of those times the winning family chose the money.

“I can’t tell you that it’s increased attendance,” district spokesman Terry D’Italia said. “But what it has done over the years is just kept a focus on it and kept it at the top of kids’ minds.”

Jack Stafford, associate principal at South Tahoe High School, said attendance increased slightly last year, the first year the school system gave away a car, and is up slightly so far this year. He said changing times call for such incentives.

“My mom had the three-B rule: There’d better be blood, bone or barf, or I was going to school,” Stafford said. But “that’s not the case now.”

Who wants that 2007 Chevy?
Kaytie’s district is giving away a blue 2007 Chevy Colorado crew cab this year. It is being displayed at football and basketball games and will be parked at the mall over the holidays.

“The kids all come around and say, ’Man, that’s the truck I’m working for,”’ Somerville said.

Only 98 of Natrona County’s 3,200 sophomores, juniors and seniors were eligible for last year’s drawing. They were allowed only one excused absence, and no unexcused ones.

Districts have a lot to gain and little to lose by holding car drawings. The vehicles are usually free. And in Wyoming, even a one-student increase in average daily enrollment means another $12,000 in state funding for the year.

If not for the giveaway in Casper, Kaytie might be driving the family’s broken-down 1987 Buick LeSabre with peeling blue paint.

“I would have had such an awful car,” she said.

Boy is this a sign of the times or what? The cars are a reward for attendance not grades!!

When I was 16 any car was ok, but driving the family's broken-down 1987 Buick LeSabre with peeling blue paint for today's kids is unheard of!!

I also would like to note the parents are the ones I'm sure that encouraged her to attend school, but she kept the truck and the parents are stuck with the broken-down 1987 Buick LeSabre with peeling blue paint!!!





You know at the Last Supper the maitre'd said "No ID No Wine."

Well IHop has done one better.

IHOP will stop carding customers for pancakes

Mass. outlet wanted to stop dine-and-dashers, headquarters apologizes

QUINCY, Mass. - John Russo has been a victim of identity theft. So when he was asked to fork over a photo ID just to be seated at an IHOP pancake restaurant, he flipped.

"You want my license? I'm going for pancakes, I'm not buying the Hope diamond,' and they refused to seat us," Russo said, recounting his experience this week at the Quincy IHOP.

The restaurant now has agreed to reverse the policy of requiring customers to turn over their driver's licenses before they can order — a rule that was enacted to discourage "dine and dash" thefts.

WCVB-TV in Boston reported the Quincy restaurant's policy had been enacted without corporate approval.

IHOP Corp., based in Glendale, Calif., released a statement Monday night to WCVB that said an employee felt the policy could eliminate the problem of people leaving without paying.

"This was done without the knowledge or approval of management. ... We apologize to any guest who was inconvenienced," the statement said.

Russo said a security guard at the restaurant had "at least 40" licenses in hand when he arrived to eat.

No I.D. No syrup!! One more case to add to my list of how people don't think anymore.

A security guard at the restaurant had "at least 40" licenses in hand. It appears the patrons don't know how to think anymore either!!

Why not collect a $50.00 cover charge to get in just in case you eat a lot of pancakes!!!

When we reward for attendance in school rather than learning, this is what we get.

And that brings to a close another week here at the blog that brings you more of less than any blog on the net!!!