"Drinking Liberally" with Dr. Schansberg, and other ruminations.

Random thoughts ...

Each week on Thursday, the Southern Indiana contingent of Drinking Liberally meets at the Public House.

Tonight there'll be special guest: Dr. Eric Schansberg, the Libertarian running against incumbent Mike Sodrel and former congressman Baron Hill in the 9th District race for Congress.

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The more the two principle 9th District candidates prattle on about "Hoosier values," the more I find myself contemplating which "values" are worthy of embracing.

Bob Knight's chair throwing?

The once powerful Indiana Ku Klux Klan?

The infamous lynchings in Marion?

Or just the usual, relatively humdrum expressions of unthinking piety and casual faith-based discrimination?

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For the second night in a row, I watched as the Detroit Tigers mauled my Oakland Athletics. It can't be denied that the Tigers are beating us fair, square and convincingly, but even though it's tough to watch your team fail, it's just as difficult to cheer against the Tigers. They're baseball's great post-season story -- and my late father's favorite team.

My idea of family values is toasting my dad with a beer while I watch his team play for the American League pennant, and knowing that in spite of our many differences, we harmoniously agreed on the importance of baseball and the eternally insipid nature of the propaganda disguised as political discourse in an election year.

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I'm going to be busy the next few days, with two signature beer events running simultaneously in New Albany:

One week, two great beer events. Are we still in New Albany?

Much of my day Friday will be spent at the Public House as our annual hop festival commences, while on Saturday, I hope to see many of you at Bistro New Albany's Bank Street beer garden.