The Republicans Are Coming! The Republicans Are Coming!

Since this Shark Week on the Discovery Channel here in the United States, and the Republican Party National Convention will be starting on Monday, Aug. 27th in Tampa, Fla., we thought we'd make fun of our friends on the right. Of course, not all of them are as radical, fringe as Michele Bachmann, but then again, quite a few of them are indeed like sharks, and we don't mean the nice, friendly sharks one sees in the comic strip "Sherman's Lagoon."

As of today, many right-wingers are skewing Vice President Joe Biden for controversial remarks he made in Danville, Va., a town I'm a bit familiar with, in which he told a largely African-American audience that the Republicans would put them back in chains. The right immediately saw this as a reference to slavery. Biden also thought Danville is in North Carolina, but when college basketball season comes along, many residents in Danville pretend they are in the Tarheel State as well (for those of you in Dubai, the University of North Carolina and Duke University, both in North Carolina, are national powerhouses in the sport).

Of course, the partisan party faithful will be more likely to get excited if they see Chuck Norris as opposed to the likes of Congs. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky), Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), then they will accuse Chevy Chase of having too much power and influence in the Democratic Party.

Then, some convention-attenders may have one too many bourbons and have to call Yellow Cab of Tampa (a real taxi company), and hence miss out on the prayer breakfast the next day.

There have been some folks who are new Republicans like Cong. Artur Davis (R-Ala.), an African-American party who quietly switched sides in June. But, one has to wonder if this is genuine or if Cong. Davis just wants to stay in office as Alabama is a red state even by the South's standards.

And, assuredly, tonight Gov. Mary Fallin (R-Okl) will sleep well tonight having decided to execute an inmate named Michael Hooper last night. We will admit that Hooper's crime, which was the murder of his girlfriend and her two young children was very heinous. But, isn't hypocritical of Fallin and those who proclaim to be fiscal conservative to spend at least one million dollars per execution (according to a 2011 column in "Tulsa World," Oklahoma has not released figures on how much capital punishment costs), not to mention that executions seem to certainly contrast the teachings of Jesus Christ.

But, we look forward to posting several entries about it here and our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times" as we include voices ranging from Cenk Uygur, a Current-TV progressive talk show host who used to be a Republican, and Dennis Miller, a comic/talk show host who switched stripes from liberal to conservative. Perhaps, now he even shares a Pabst Blue Ribbon or two with his pal Bill O'Reilly.


http://www.dsc.discovery.com/sharkweek

http://www.gopconvention2012.com

http://www.yellowcaboftampa.com

http://www.slagoon.com

http://www.godanriver.com

http://www.ok.gov/governor

http://www.okcadp.org

http://www.dennimillerradio.com

http://www.current.com

http://www.pabstblueribbon.com

The links above are for: 1) Shark Week; 2) Republican Convention; 3) Taxis in Tamps; 4) "Sherman's Lagoon" (comic strip); 5) Danville Register and Bee; 6) Oklahoma governor's home page 7) Oklahomans Against the Death Penalty; 8) Dennis Miller; 9) Current TV; 10) Pabst Blue Ribbon

Beers from Around the World (#47)- KEO from Cyprus

Yes, I am a Turkish-American which of course makes it a bit ironic that the feature beer today is from the Republic of Cyprus (a country Turkish people refer to as Greek Cyprus), but we love irony. Cyprus was incidentally the only EU member nation I couldn't name in a quiz from mentalfloss.com, and of course I realized why that was.

The island-nation has a long, unique history and it is virtually impossible to talk about Cyprus without discussing the shish kebab political spats between Turkey and Greece that have gone on since the days when David threw a rock at Goliath.

But, we will somehow try to avoid that here. However, in full disclosure, I did visit the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1991 when I was 21. The TRNC is only recognized by Turkey. Greece and Turkey went to war over Cyprus in 1974. The TRNC formed in 1983. Rauf Dentas became the country's first president, and he did not finally step down until 1983, which is pretty typical of Turkish and Greek politicians (forgive the ethnic humor).

As for KEO Beer, it has its own unique story. It is the only domestic brand served in Greek Cyprus. The brew, which is made in the port city of Limassol, has a colored lager appearance with a pilsner taste according to Wikipedia (yes, we're not sure what means either).

A controversy with KEO, which is ironically 20 percent owned by the Greek Orthodox Church (?!), occured when the beer was featured in a 2010 American adult film set in a Greek taverna in New York.

According to "Cyprus Mail," a KEO rep said: "We are always searching for ways to promote our products and Cyprus throughout the world, but this is certainly not a path we would have chosen."

"The Cyprus News-Mail" said that the scene in question happens when a woman pours a KEO into the mouth of her boyfriend as they are.....

We imagine that for political reasons it would be very difficult to find KEA at the Fez, a pub in the Northern Cypriot city of Kyrenia (Girne) or anywhere else above the green line which divides the island-nation.

The president for the Republic of Cyprus is the progressive politician Dimitris Christofias; his counterpart is Dervis Eroglu, who was elected president of the TRNC last year.

We imagine if the two ever have a 'beer summit' they may have to settle for a Pabst Blue Ribbon.

50 Beers from Around the World- Castle Lager (South Africa)

Former president Bill Clinton (see last entry) was among those who attended the World Cup in South Africa over the summer. Clinton was there to watch the game between the United States and Ghana, in which the west African nation prevailed in an exciting overtime victory.

Today, we feature the South African brew Castle Lager in our 50 Beers Around the World series (we are about halfway through now). In South Africa, beer in its traditional sense was first introduced by British immigrants in the late 1800s.

According to Wikipedia though, the native Zulu and Xhosa tribes were both brewing forms of sorghum and maice beers prior to the British immigrants' arrival.

Soccer season is in full-swing around the world. Those of us who root for the Turkish team GalataSaray, out of Istanbul, (I am a Turkish-American) were irked to hear that the gold and red lost to TrabzonSpor 2-0 over the weekend.

We profiled the Turkish beer Efes Pilsen as well as the American brew Pabst Blue Ribbon earlier in the series. Perhaps, there is a bar in Paterson, NJ, which has the largest conticencies of Turkish-Americans, which serves them both!

50 Beers of the World- Pabst Blue Ribbon (USA)

Today's 50 Beers of the World entry focuses on an American brew Pabst Blue Ribbon, which started in Milwaukee but the home brewery is now located in Woodbridge, Ill. The beer is often called PBR.

It debuted at a festival in Chicago back in 1893, and the beer reached its peak period in 1977 when PBR sold 18 million barrels in 1977.

We presume the brew can be found at The West End Tavern in Boulder, Colo., located at 926 Pearl Street, which was voted Best Bar in Boulder by "The Daily Camera" (the local newspaper).

Closer to home and the last time we checked, PBR was available at our favorite Turkish restaurant in the country Tallula's on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, NC, which also has an Urfa Kebab that is to die for.

SIDEBAR: Israeli journalist Elana Kirsch has an excellent article in the online edition of "The Jerusalem Post" about her recent trip to Istanbul, Turkey, which comes at a time when the governments of Ankara and Jerusalem have mucked things up between the two countries that were once on excellent diplomatic terms. Kirsch said she was greeted with everything from "Shalom" to "free Gaza" to "We hate Israel." My favorite part of her story though is when she first told locals that she was Australian. I did something similar on a trip to Baku, Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic that borders Iran in 2008 when I said I was 'from Istanbul.' (I'm a Turkish-American). When I ran into people who were actually from Istanbul, I had to fess up.