GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Nick Vaughn unveils new web site.

As the 2019 municipal election cycle draws ever closer, Nick Vaughn continues to intrigue.

Nick Vaughn forms exploratory committee, then joins anti-KKK protesters in Madison.

Nick Vaughn announces the formation of an exploratory committee, but what office is he seeking?

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: What does it mean, this social media surge by Nick Vaughn?

Earlier today, this landed in the Green Mouse's "in" box.

Friends and Supporters,

We wanted to let you know that everything just got easier! Now, you can visit www.NV4NA.org to find out the latest news, sign up for updates, make donations, and find links to social media, all in one place!

So, how about you go check it out! And while you're there, consider donating $5, $10, or $15 so that we can keep the ball rolling!

Your continued support is appreciated!

Team Vaughn

Transparency, 21st-century solutions and a potshot at "career politicians"?

The Mouse still isn't in possessions of details, but he definitely approves.

"The pressure of online advertising (makes) your favorite local news site, and many others, a fresh hell that even Dante himself couldn’t have imagined."

One minute to read an article written at 3rd-grade level of comprehension, and two minutes to swat away the myriad advertising intrusions.

What could any of this possibly have to do with the demise of the American "democratic" experiment?

Why Are Newspaper Websites So Horrible? by Andrew Zaleski (CityLab)

The pop-up ads! The autoplaying videos!

Emily Goligoski ... has heard time and again from news readers about how they’re increasingly turned off by the presentation they’re offered by local newspapers’ websites.

The torments of these sites are well known: clunky navigation, slow page-loading times, browser-freezing autoplaying videos, a siege of annoying pop-up ads, and especially those grids of bottom-of-the-page “related content” ads hawking belly fat cures and fake headlines (what’s known as Internet chum).

Put another way: Why must newspaper websites suck so damn much?

In particular, why is the online presence of local papers so much vividly worse than other fare on the web—especially when these outlets are engaged in a desperate fight for readers and subscribers nationwide? Perhaps you recall the (in)famous cartoon drawn by Brad Colbow in 2011. Entitled “This is Why Your Newspaper is Dying,” it offered a cheeky but precise summation of several crimes against digital decency, from “Your content takes up less than 20% of the page” to “Linking to a random story in the middle of an article.”

If anything, the situation may have somehow gotten worse in the years since, and the quality gap between local newspaper sites and more sophisticated content purveyors has become even more stark ...

Who even knew City Hall had its own agitprop web site? Meet newalbanycityhall.com/

Note the change in font color from red to blue.

That's right: It's New Albany City Hall.

Official News and Information about the City of New Albany directly from the Mayor's office. You can also keep up with our full calendar of events by clicking HERE.

Apparently the city's official site does not allow for sufficient glorification, so allow me to offer this idea:

The Baylor for Mayor web site has been updated.

Join the Shift to Baylor Campaign

Big thanks to the team members who've significantly upgraded the campaign website. The platform planks are in place, as well as donor and volunteer information. There aren't any bells and whistles, just information.

When you check it out,be sure and sign up for the e-mail list.  I'll be doing my best to provide updates as we move forward.

VIA EMAIL: 

baylorformayor@gmail.com

SOCIAL MEDIA:

• Baylor for Mayor at Facebook 
• Baylor for Mayor on Twitter 
• Baylor for Mayor at Instagram

ON THE AVENUES: Drink real beer or die ... of boredom.

ON THE AVENUES: Drink real beer or die ... of boredom.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

This is quite strange.

I’ve always viewed the information superhighway as a convoluted maze of sorts, with plenty of mud paths and dead end alleys branching out in all directions from the modern clover leaf interchanges and shiny new stop ‘n’ robs, including more than a few decaying ghost towns in the style of western American states – broken glass, tumbleweeds rolling, coyotes wailing and tourist shutters snapping.

At work, we used to have a domain called richos.com, which passed from our control at some misty juncture when a renewal payment wasn’t made. It didn’t matter so much by then, because newalbanian.com was fully active, but the previous skeletal remains have continued to be visible, appended with links to cheap Viagra and Nigerian moneylenders, in keeping with ownership somewhere in the steppes of the former USSR – where the ghost towns come Chernobyl-sized.

Last night I inadvertently discovered that while presumably, the domain itself is as misplaced as ever, a complete snapshot of it can be accessed via some sort of Internet archive. There it is, vintage 2002, and while eleven years may not seem so long to you, it’s like an entirely different business was being operated back then.

Most days I can’t remember which beer I had for breakfast, so it should come as no surprise that the old website’s contents had long since become synonymous with lengthy gaps in Richard Nixon’s office recordings. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when the following polemic was revealed to have been among the centerpieces of my ideological thrust at the website. It would have been written well before 2002, and probably dates to around 1997.

Today at 53, I spend quite a lot of time contemplating the balance between the allowable percentage of narcissism in beer appreciation, and the wider interests of beer as community in a context of localism. Turns out I was on the scent at 37. As 2013 draws to a close, the major difference between then and now is my mellow imperturbability in the present age.

Right.

Let’s rewind to the Clinton administration.

---

Extremism in defense of good beer is no vice, says the Publican

Drink real beer or die ... of boredom.

Among many unique talents, Americans are adept at maintaining the fiction of their individuality by means of rationalizing that a boastful allegiance to one or another mass-produced idea or commodity denotes independent thinking. Such self-delusion is infinitely less taxing than the all too arduous task of introspection that prefaces genuinely free thought.

In no other aspect of life is this more alarmingly true than when an American sets out to select a beer.

Nine out of ten Americans, most of whom are eager to pound their fists on the bar top in an impassioned defense of their uniqueness and individuality, nevertheless persist in lubricating their argumentative frenzy by buying the major national brands of beer to the exclusion of all others. In large measure, numbingly and with blind repetition, they drink the same beer each and every day.

It is a strange ritual, but it isn't entirely the fault of the consumer. What passes in America for "choice" is shaped not by rational thought or informed free will, but by pervasive forces of marketing and advertising. These abysmal disciplines enforce and maintain the status quo for products that are little more than the tasteless residue of a cynical industrial process performed with antiseptic exactitude by bloated multinational corporate entities like Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller.

Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. Some of us openly, loudly and proudly dissent from the norms of American beer "culture”, and we have no intention of going away quietly. Confronted with a seemingly insurmountable ocean of swill, we have ignored this expression of the tyranny of the majority and have chosen the path less traveled - - the true, revolutionary path that leads to beer that does more than provide lowest common denominator satisfaction for the American desire to quaff small, easily digestible doses of alcohol diluted in generic golden liquid, which is the product of brewing as the mass production of a commodity, one utterly lacking artistic merit, and something that is peddled to the masses in a way that would make the famous totalitarian propagandists of old blush with envy.

We'll have none of that. We demand flavor and integrity from our beer and we refuse to settle for less, because beer is important to us, and it is an important part of the story of humanity in a number of ways. The saga of beer is a long and fascinating one, with chapters that deal with all aspects of the human experience. Beer is about science and art, farms and cities, social history, local culture and geography. It's about the places you've gone, and the ones you'd like to go. It's about different textures and flavors to match your mood, the time of day, the season, and the task at hand.

Beer is all about pleasure, and it is my unshakeable belief that the pleasure of beer is enhanced by bolstering one's knowledge of its diversity, and applying this knowledge to everyday life. We all recognize that life is short, and there are so many things to do and to learn, and so very little time, but there's always time for a good beer - - so why not make that beer the best one possible?

If we are to define ourselves in even a small way by the beer we drink, we should do it ourselves, actively, with our minds and our palates in concert, and not because a bikini-clad model, an animated reptile or any other manifestation of corporate America has told us to do it.

The daily experience of our pub flows naturally from these revolutionary principles. We espouse the values of good beer, good food and a good life. We encourage the art of conversation and the marvelous times that follow from it. We enjoy the life of the pub, and the integrity to be discovered therein, and we want our guests to enjoy it, too.

Or, you can make it a Bud Light.

Case closed.

Your PourGate update for Tuesday, September 3, and a letter to the editor.

NABC's dispute with the Floyd County Health Department remains in a Cold War phase, and that's about all there is to say. We will continue to pursue remedies.

• As for the FCHD's over-reach as it pertains to regulation of beer pouring, we await interpretation from higher-ups in Indianapolis. There are other potential fixes, but one must be patient and follow these various threads to their outcomes.
• As for the FCHD's defamatory web site posting, and our subsequent cease and desist and tort claim notice, we await an apology and are prepared to proceed, come what may, if adults in county government do not turn up. 

As for the letter below, I submitted it to the newspaper two weeks ago and have since grown weary of the draft residing at the top of the blog's queue. I'll link to the eventual placemarker in Hansonville when it finally appears -- but be sure to turn off your laptop's sound, lest you hear the dentist explain yet again her commitment to healthy teeth.

---

To the editor of the News and Tribune:

The New Albanian Brewing Company (NABC) certainly appreciates the News and Tribune’s stance in “Cheers and Jeers” (August 17 & 18, by editor Shea Van Hoy).

Van Hoy jeers the Floyd County Health Department (FCHD) “for its petty posting of a photo on its website taken in front of a local business.”

Unfortunately, petty is the least of it.

The photo, now finally removed, is defamatory and retaliatory. It testifies eloquently to a hubris-laden institutional culture in desperate need of instruction as to the etiquette suitable for taxpayer-supported government actors.

The source of my company’s current imbroglio with the FCHD is its misstep in seeking to require temporary food serving permits for beer pouring events. Moreover, it’s about the proper regulatory jurisdiction of the FCHD in relation to the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission (ATC).

Van Hoy writes, “The legality of such permitting can — and has — been debated,” and while this is true, readers may not be aware of the extent to which the FCHD’s legless argument has been demolished.

The crux is this: Who regulates NABC when it comes to pouring beer at temporary events, such as this summer’s excellent Bicentennial Park concert series?

The FCHD’s answer comes from thin air: Ignore both statute and precedent, wave a magic administrative wand, and declare without warning that henceforth, beer is food. Actually, no other county health department in Indiana currently is making this spurious claim.

That’s because seventy-plus years of Indiana regulatory history and all prevailing precedents indicate otherwise. As beer dispenser, NABC is governed solely by the ATC, and in the course of appealing the FCHD’s over-reach, we managed something the health department could not: We produced a court ruling clearly affirming our position.

In Fort Wayne v Kotsopolous (1998), the Indiana Court of Appeals clearly and succinctly confirms the ATC’s regulatory pre-eminence in Indiana. In short, NABC’s supplemental catering authority, as licensed annually by the ATC, is all we need to temporarily pour beer at Bicentennial Park or elsewhere – provided, of course, that we abide by the ATC’s guidelines … and we do.

The FCHD has absolutely no part in this permit process, and its attempted justifications to date have been arrogant, irrelevant and tortuous, reminding me of the way “The Economist” magazine once described a speech by the former British prime minister, Harold Wilson:

“It contained difficult passages in which it is impossible to disentangle what the words really meant to him from what they were intended to mean to others and what they might later be said to have meant at the time.”

Whether inventing baseless regulations or posting actionable photos, is this really the way we want county government to operate?

These machines kill fascists, pathogens and bureaucrats.

As of Friday, the Floyd County Health Department's web site has been purged of references to NABC and me, and there are no artlessly staged "stock photo" ops ("eco-lies", we call them), and no images of me purloined from my web site absent my permission. Seems they can take dictation, after all.

Meanwhile, last evening's Bicentennial Park concert gig was the occasion for another cursory inspection by the department, whose representative took little time in offering me the clipboard for signing, along with these words: "There isn't much to see here."

Yep. The foot soldiers keep getting it, while their superiors ...

ON THE AVENUES: When the whip comes down.

ON THE AVENUES:  The fruitless search for adults in county government.  When the whip comes down.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor. 

See Jerod Clapp's solid News and Tribune piece

---

The cracks rapidly are turning into fissures, and it’s only a matter of time until the baseless edifice begins crumbling.

Neutral observers from here to Ulan Bator agree that the Floyd County Health Department quite clearly is losing ground, and rapidly, as PourGate 2013 enters its third month.

You’re more likely to uncover an atheist in Dave Matthews’s root cellar than find anyone outside of a lone figure on a Floridian grassy knoll who believes this saga hasn’t brought abject disrepute to Floyd County … but why focus on the obvious major themes when seemingly minor details can be so deliciously instructive?

As you may recall, Dr. Thomas Harris was oh-so-lordly-dismissive when quizzed by Eater Louisville’s Zach Everson about a government actor's webiquette.

"I'm pretty sure that was an accident," said Dr. Tom Harris, Floyd County Health Officer, pointing out that the picture was labeled "stock photo." When told that an NABC Bank Street Brewhouse employee witnessed the photo shoot the Wednesday before it was posted, and asked how many restaurant pics the Floyd County Health Department's photo archive contained and that Floyd County is 148 square miles, was it really an accident that its most recent website photo was taken in the 10 feet in front of the NABC Bank Street Brewhouse, Dr. Harris said that it was his department's prerogative to post what it wants on its website.

If this week’s bumbling deletions are any indication, Dr. Tom was mistaken.

On Monday, the FCHD was notified of NABC’s cease and desist demand, with accompanying tort claim notice. By Tuesday afternoon, the department had gotten the message, and it began somewhat belatedly exploring the esoteric nuances of a Word Press blog platform. It was time for the good doctor to put away the leeches and make a date for the modern world, except that it wasn’t quite so easy to be weaned from the patent medicine.

Having resolved to substitute a photo of me for the previous actionable view of the departmental truck parked illegally on the street adjacent to Bank Street Brewhouse, and to drop the E.coli incitement text in favor of dated and disingenuous agitprop, whomever was handed the site keys and password could do no better than add the new photo beneath the old, swap texts, and fail to discern how the heading might be replaced. It was a muddle, even by the department’s messy standards.

A few hours later, the riddle of removing the old photograph finally was solved, with the comic result that the health department now claimed to be protecting the integrity of county-wide food safety from the wiles of that nasty green-clad Communist with the beads in his beard.

---

In the end, it took two legal documents, three days, multiple web site makeovers and a friendly note from me to the FCHD's web site host/admin on Wednesday, and the malicious and defamatory photo of the FCHD's photo finally disappeared. So did the photo of me, one deployed weekly here on my blog as the face of my column.

Actually, I hated bothering the site administrator about it, but after all, as rigorous sticklers for the rule of law and common savior’s etiquette, the FCHD never actually asked my permission to use the photo it cribbed from NAC. I appreciate the admin’s prompt and professional attention to niggling detail.

All that's left now on the front page of the FCHD web site is the corrected header and the new text, and while it isn’t E.coli, it's vastly misleading in terms of the department's creative depiction of its Keystone Kops-like public access "compliance," which in fact was a masterpiece of sneering evasion, but I guess we need to let them score a point every now and then -- just to keep the game interesting. 

---

With more dust settled, and smoke clearing, let's be clear about where we stand. 

As county government vacantly wheezed, merrily whistled, rolled puffy eyes and scratched butts in a pre-Camm III stupor, its health department ineptly staged a defamatory "stock photo" and posted it, leaving the photo and E.coli text on a government web site for two full weeks, clearly causing damage to my business, and making just about any rational person ask:

Is anyone in charge here?

In short: Your tax dollars at dork, as opposed to work.

Now the photo finally has been deleted, and yet we've yet to the see the apology mandated in NABC's legal action, although it might constitute a welcome start toward rehabilitating the department's oft-self-shot feet.

As of yesterday, it's been two months since the health department operative first appeared in the alley by Bicentennial Park to cite NABC for failure to possess a temporary food service permit that we don't need to have. Insofar as this error of the department's judgment is concerned, I'm reasonably confident of it being sorted out sooner rather than later, at higher Indiana state pay grades than either mine or Dr. Harris's.

So be it. Too much time already has been lost to this foolishness, but perhaps the time has arrived to view the situation in broader focus.

What have we learned about Floyd County government, overall?

Healthblogger may need to instigate a mass narcoleptic prescription before we’re able to tackle that one, although these latest returns … well, they’re not at all encouraging, are they?

New and improved Food and Dining Magazine web site is up.

Publisher John Carlos White vows that when he's finished with a massive overhaul of Food & Dining Magazine website, all the columns I've written since about 2004 (really, that long?) are going to be archived. That's quite scary.

It's also possible that I'll be doing some periodic beer blogging at the web site, so join me in giving it a look see: http://foodanddine.com/

Help us QC the new NABC web site, and taste the Bonfire.

The completely revised and updated New Albanian Brewing Company web site has just gone "live," and if you're willing to take a few minutes and look for the inevitable mistakes and omissions, we'd appreciate it.

www.newalbanian.com

While I'm on the subject, NABC's latest seasonal beer release is here.

Bonfire of the Valkyries is on tap at Bank Street Brewhouse and the Pizzeria & Public House. As with the 2013 release of Solidarity Baltic Porter before it, 22-oz bomber availability for Bonfire of the Valkyries will be limited to our two NABC locations. A small amount of draft probably will be available for outside accounts.

Bonfire of the Valkyries
Imperial Smoked Black Lager
ABV: 8% … IBU: 10

Color: Dark brown/black.

Flavor: Full bodied, with strong, clean dark lager malt character and ample smokiness.

Compare to: Bonfire is an utterly unique Imperial Smoked Black Lager, but it compares with Smoked Porters from Alaskan, Stone, etc.

NABC's web site is temporarily down; stay tuned.

Folks, we're having major issues with the NABC web site at newalbanian.com domain, and as we try to resolve these, make sure to check our Facebook page for updates. I'll provide updates as (a) I understand the issue, and (b) devise a strategy for resolving them.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Albanian-Brewing-Company/327922561149

In personal terms, if you need to send e-mail to me, please use my non-work account: istanbul85(at)yahoo(dot)com until further notice.

"We Back Jack at GoDaddy.com," and other famous campaign slogans.

I get the eerie feeling we've all been here before ...

Like me, please: Campaign page at Facebook is up.

The Facebook "fan" page is up: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roger-Baylor-for-NA-City-Council-At-Large/112117005535055?sk=wall&filter=1.

When permitted to do so, I'll attach a shorter URL. Meanwhile, if you are inclined to support progress in New Albany, knidly reward my candidacy with a "like" at the candidate site above. I will try to be as active as possible there, but given the sum of my sites ... we'll see how it goes. Here is the roster:

The campaign web site at http://www.rogerbaylor.com/ will be more static in nature, with the bare bones, but not as participatory in a social media sense.

Longer form essays and blogging will continue here at NAC: http://www.cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com/

And then, there's my personal Facebook site for rabble rousing and amusement: http://www.facebook.com/roger.a.baylor

"Making S**t Happen at GoDaddy.com," and other famous campaign slogans.

It's what you get when you cross mayoral candidate Irv Stumler's tag phrase with the material currently on his web site, which actually leads nowhere.


Can't that GoDaddy dude just run for mayor and cut out the superannuated middle man?

Grrr.

Am I the only reader having problems with the Tribune's new web site?

I get so many "abort operation" messages while trying to load articles that I'm expecting protesters to assemble outside my house, having mistaken it for a clinic.

It was happening before the changeover. An article would not load at all, but usually I could click refresh a few times and make the page materialize; now that's only occasionally successful.

My habit in such cases is to blame the many ads, bells and whistles that appear on each web page. However, note that I make no claims to expertise when it comes to such matters. I'd merely like to continue linking to the newspaper, but find it annoying that I have to work so hard just to read a damned article.

Anyone else? Universal, or just my laptop?

Help me populate the candidate web site links area.

I've finally gotten around to adding a "political and candidate" links section on NAC's sidebar (right). This is intended to comprise links to candidate web sites pertaining to elections in 2008. Readers are invited to make me aware of links that might be added to this section.