How The Victim Of One Of History’s Worst Political Hecklings Survived The Internet

Ben Konop wanted to be mayor of Toledo. Some guy in a Budweiser hat wanted him off his front yard. Together, they produced Internet gold.

The setting was a campaign stop during the summer of 2009. Konop attempted to give a speech on the street where his mother grew up. As soon as he began to speak — with a crowd of supporters standing behind him — a man nearby began to boo. And boo. And boo. The heckling, an incessant monotone, was captured in all its annoying glory on camera. The moment made its way inevitably on to YouTube.

It became one of the biggest (and arguably one of the first) viral political moments in history. And it remains something of a cult classic among political reporters, who speak of it with the same awe that sports writers reserve for last-second upsets in college football. Roughly 850,000 people have watched Konop being booed. Even “South Park” lampooned it.

Six years later, Konop sat down with the Candidate Confessional podcast to discuss that moment and how a chance interaction, just three and a half minutes in length, can affect a campaign, a candidate, and, of course, a human being.

“Honestly, I don’t lose a lot of sleep over it,” Konop said. “A. You have no control over it. B. In my analysis, which obviously is completely biased, the way I handled it, while not maybe the textbook way a politician handles a heckler was, I think, in a fairly gentleman fashion. And you know, honestly, in the big picture, things worked out pretty well.”

At the time of his torment, Konop was a Lucas County commissioner running for mayor. The campaign had begun to feel like a miserable grind full of phony pomp and lame schtick. On that June day, he held one of those events that struck him as inherently contrived. His opponent was the former fire chief and there’d been a scandal over how he’d labeled hydrants. A woman’s house had burned down because of bad coding. So Konop held a press conference outside of a house with a fire hydrant nearby. To add a touch of homespun nostalgia, they chose the block where his mom had grown up.

Before he started, Konop got word of a guy sitting out on his porch “who thinks some of our supporters stepped in his flower bed and is upset.” He proceeded anyway.

“Booooo. Booo. Boo Ben Konop. Boo. Ben Konop. Booo,” the heckling began.

And it kept on going.

“Boooooooo. BOOO Ben. Go somewhere else. Run for mayor somewhere else.”

“I didn’t really think much of it except this is going to screw up our little press clip basically,” Konop recalled. “Honestly, I didn’t think it was that big a deal. I just needed him to be quiet for five minutes.”

At least for a few days, Konop’s instincts were right. The incident really wasn’t a big deal. Outside a mention or two in the local press, no one picked it up.

And then, Konop got a call from a friend. “He’s like, ‘Man, this thing is going viral. It’s crazy,'” Konop recalled.

The video had taken off. Both Konop and his campaign initially tried to turn it into something positive. They organized a beer summit with the heckler, hoping that it would paint Konop as magnanimous or high-minded. If covered the right way, they thought it might even give them a small bump in the polls.

But that bump never came, and Konop lost.

He took a break from politics, becoming a journalist for the Toledo Blade where he covered the Detroit Tigers and followed around Bob Dylan on a concert tour in Asia. But he didn’t stay away long. In 2011, Konop moved to Washington, D.C., to work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

He doesn’t dwell much on his viral moment, he says, though he suspects it will “live on for eternity.” And as for his tormentor — the Budweiser-cap-wearing-boo-bird — he ran into him after the campaign and “had cordial interactions.”

“I ended up dating a girl after this who I believe was the maid of honor in his wedding,” Konop said.

Listen to the podcast above or download it on iTunes. And while you’re there, please subscribe to, rate and review our show. Make sure to tune in to next week’s episode, when our guest will be former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), discussing his 2014 run for the Senate.

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/how-the-victim-of-one-of-historys-worst-political-hecklings-survived-the-internet/

WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Fargo

The transition from big-screen to small-screen isnt an easy one to navigate. For decades, television networks have attempted to cash in on the name-recognition of hit movies to create a “sure thing” television series. Few have been successful. For every M*A*S*H or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there are far more Ferris Buellers Day Offs, Gung Hos, or Casablancas. Fargo is an exception to the rule.

Created by Noah Hawley, who is executive producing FX’s X-Men series Legion, the anthology show is the ultimate tribute to Joel and Ethan Coen’s unique style of storytelling in that it contains dozens of nods and references that Coen aficionados will instantly recognize, yet easily stands on its own as a one-of-a-kind accomplishment. Like much of the Coens’ work, including Fargo itself, the series is best described as a black comedy, but its also got elements of horror, drama, and sci-fimaking it a space where anything can happen.

Populated by the same oddly accented, seemingly-good-but-perhaps-slightly-simple kind of characters that made the movie Fargo so memorable, and quotable, both seasons of the TV show have focused on what happens when an everyday person accidentally stumbles on a crime. In Season 1, that everyday person is pretty much anyone who walks into the path of Lorne MalvoBilly Bob Thorntons pitch-perfect sociopath who might be fun to have a beer with. In Season 2, its a young coupleEd and Peggy Blumquist, played by Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunstwho get embroiled in a crime war when they try to cover up what any normal person would consider an accident.

Because the show is so densely packed with nuance, storylines, and characters (not to mention a dream list of actors, including Martin Freeman, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Oliver Platt, Adam Goldberg, Glenn Howerton, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Stephen Root, Jean Smart, Ted Danson, Bokeem Woodbine, Brad Garrett, Nick Offerman, Kieran Culkin, and Bruce Campbell as Ronald Reagan), its hard to give much detail without giving too much away. It’s better you watch for yourself, particularly before Season 3which features Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Carrie Coon, David Thewlis, Michael Stulhbarg, Jim Gaffigan, and Ewan McGregor playing two charactersdrops in the spring. Heres how to binge-watch Fargo. (Go Bears!)

Fargo

Number of Seasons: 2 (20 episodes)

Time Requirements: While dedicated binge-watchers could easily complete both seasons in a single weekend, Fargo is the kind of show that deserves a digestion period. Its so nuanced and layered that it can sometimes take a minute to connect the dots of the storyand because of that, watching just one to two episodes per night is ideal. Stick to a single hour, and youll be done in less than three weeks. Opt for two episodes per night, and 10 days will have you caught up and ready for Season 3.

Where to Get Your Fix: Hulu (Season 1), Amazon, iTunes

Best Character to Follow: Because it’s an anthology series, theres little character crossover from Season 1 to Season 2. As such, were going to cheat a little here and give you two charactersone for each season. Though Deputy Molly Solverson (Tolman) does Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson proud as an eagle-eyed detective, its sociopath Lorne Malvo (Thornton) in Season 1 that makes the story tick. Hes very much a nod to No Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh, in that youre never quite sure what his motivation isif theres any motivation at all. Hes brilliant and calculating, but can change personas in a flash and, even when hes acting psychotic, theres something oddly charming about him. It’s the kind of role that’s exactly in Thornton’s wheelhouse, and made more interesting because he embodies it.

When it comes to actors of a certain age, few can play the good guy as believably as Patrick Wilson, which allows his character, Lou Solverson, to bring a bit of calm into what is an out-of-control power struggleboth between two criminal enterprises and two competing law enforcement departments. But whereas Solversons character stays true to what we first see him to be, its Kirsten Dunsts Peggy Blumquist that gets to have all the fun (well, from an acting standpoint) in second season. Shes a young wife who is tired of living in the pastthough she doesn’t seem to live too much in reality, either. Still, flightiness and all, its hard to not to be charmed by her transformation from stuck-in-a-rut townie to self-actualized badass. Even though she makes all the wrong moves, shes still always able to see the positive. Both Dunst and Wilson received Golden Globe nominations for their rolesas did Thornton, Tolman, Freeman, and Hanks in Season 1and all for good reason.

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip: For shows with smaller episode counts, we often advise against skipping any… before pointing out the weakest one or two episodes. Fargo is that rare series that truly does not waver in its quality. Plus, each episode is packed with information and forward movement in terms of the narrative, so it also requires your full attention. Sure, there are a few episodes that we can (and, in just a second, will) point to as standouts, but there’s not a single episode you should skip.

Seasons/Episodes You Cant Skip: If you want to start with just a single season of Fargo, you can really start with either one and not be lost. (Though its good to start from the beginning.) Because its an anthology, each season is a self-contained unitthough the stories are connected. In fact, it’s one of the few series that makes going back and watching the whole thing a second time a great ideabecause youll pick up on references in both seasons that you hadnt noticed the first time around. Which is a long way of saying: Dont skip a single episodeespecially these…

Season 1: Episode 1, “The Crocodiles Dilemma” You simply cannot watch (or understand) the first season of Fargo without watching its first episode. It starts out very similarly to the moviecomplete with a (fake) disclaimer that the events depicted within the show are all truewith a long stretch of snowy highway and a death. It introduces us to the main antagonist, Lorne Malvo (Thornton), plus bored insurance salesman Lester Nygaard (Freeman), anxious police Deputy Molly Solverson (Tolman), who is trying to figure out why a man wearing only boxers would be frozen to death in the middle of a field, and single dad/cop Gus Grimley (Hanks), whose frightening encounter with Malvo sets the story in motion.

Season 1: Episode 4, “Eating the Blame” A flashback gives us some insight into how Stavros Milos (Oliver Platt)who Malvo is protecting from being blackmailed but blackmailing at the same timebecame the Super Market king of Minnesota. Grimley, struggling with the fact that he made a huge mistake by letting Malvo go when they first met, comes face-to-face with him a second time and isnt about to make the same mistake again. At the same time, Malvo uses his one call from jail to continue his campaign against Milos, and has roped Don Chumph (Glenn Howerton), a personal trainer and wannabe blackmailer, into helping him.

Season 1: Episode 6, “Buridans Ass” Recent widower Lester Nygaard, who Solverson suspects of killing his wife, slips out of the hospital to point the finger in another direction, while Malvo continues to torment Milosgetting Chumph to do the dirty work, then finding a way to cut him out of the plan. Solverson and Grimley join forces to try to get to the bottom of whats going on, but find themselves lost in the midst of a white-out with near-fatal consequences.

Season 1: Episode 9, “A Fox, a Rabbit, and a Cabbage” Its not a year later and much has changed for the main characters, but Solverson still isnt satisfied as neither Nygaard nor Malvo is behind bars. A chance encounter leads Pepper (Key) and Budge (Peele)whose reputations have been sullied and now have a lot to proveto Solverson, who shares her theory of what happened the previous year and gains their trust and support. Meanwhile, Nygaard runs into Malvo in the most unexpected of places and, feeling emboldened by a new life, decides to grow a backbone. Bad move.

Season 2: Episode 1, “Waiting for Dutch” Season 2 takes us back to 1979 with what seems like an entirely new cast of characters, until we meet State Trooper Lou Solverson (Patrick Wilson), the father of Molly, who is a crossover character from Season 1 (where he owns a diner and is played by Keith Carradine). Here, he finds himself in the middle of a war between two crime syndicatesFargos Gerhardt family and a group of badasses (Woodbine and Garrett) from Kansas City. As in the first season, an everyday couplebutcher Ed (Plemons) and hair stylist Peggy Blumquist (Dunst)find themselves in the middle of this war when Peggy accidentally hits the youngest Gerhardt with her car and, rather than call the police, tries to hide the evidence.

Season 2: Episode 6, “Rhinoceros” The Blumquists many bad decisions have come back to haunt them, as Ed has a price put on his head and is nearly killed when his butcher shop burns down. But Peggy, who Sherriff Hank Larsson (Danson) suspects is “a little bit touched,” sees this tragedy as a chance to self-actualize and start a new life. Reality sets in when Ed is arrested, and a couple of Gerhardts show up at her house. Karl Weathers (Offerman), the towns only lawyer, arrives at the police station (barely standing) to help Ed out, but it turns into a standoff with the Gerhardts demanding the return of their man, and that Ed be sacrificed.

Season 2: Episode 8, “Loplop” Having captured the leader of the Gerhardt gang, Peggy seems to be adjustingand even enjoyinglife on the run, with a hostage in tow. But, much to Eds dismay, the Gerhardts dont seem all that concerned with getting their man back, so he makes a call to the Kansas City guys to see what he can do. At the same time, the police are on their trail.

Season 2: Episode 10, “Palindrome” One wouldnt necessarily say that either season of Fargo ends on a “happy” note, but after much bloodshedand at least one UFO sightingthe war between the two crime factions seems to have come to an end. And Solverson can come home to his wife, Betsy (Cristin Milioti, who is wonderful) and daughter Molly (here played by Raven Stewart) and contemplate the future. The one that, if you watched Season 1, you already know.

Why You Should Binge: With so many popular series currently in their tenth or more season (see: The Simpsons, Greys Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory), its nice to be reminded that economy can be a good thing. The TV-watching world is catching on to that, as anthology series like American Horror Story have been gaining in popularity. Bottom line: Why spend 266 hours watching all of Criminal Minds when you can watch one of televisions very best crime series in less than a week?

Best Scene”Pepper and Budge on the Scene”:

Given the huge cast of characters, plus the various storylines in each season, choosing a “best” scene is damn near impossible. Lorne Malvo transforming into Pastor Frank Peterson when he’s being questioned by the police is what makes Thornton a one-of-a-kind performer. But one of the things that makes Fargo different is the truly innovativeand cinematicapproach it brings to television. Yes, weve heard this “cinematic” argument for many other shows, many of them deserving of what might be the highest compliment. But Fargo takes it to the next level; its regular use of split screen gives the viewer a birds-eye-view on everything thats happening (one camera might show whats happening in the front of a house, while another shows the back) and also provides a visual metaphor for what’s happening in the story (a split in the screen might indicate a fracture in a relationship).

In one of Season 1s most breathtaking moments, what could have been a gore-filled scene instead took a more subtle turn where the violence is heard and fully understood, yet not seen, giving the viewers imagination a workout. Its bookended by the comedic influence of Key and Peeles FBI agents Pepper and Budge, who always seem to get distracted at the very moment their jobs require undivided attention.

The Takeaway:

Albert Camus was fond of pointing out the absurdity of life, and famously that, “Basically, at the very bottom of life, which seduces us all, there is only absurdity, and more absurdity. And maybe that’s what gives us our joy for living, because the only thing that can defeat absurdity is lucidity.” No, thats not a lazy way of ripping off another writer in an attempt to summarize the seriesbut it could very easily serve as the show’s tagline. In fact, Camus even gets a couple of direct shout-outs in Fargo, including a second season episode titled “The Myth of Sisyphus.” Anyone familiar with that 1942 essay knows that its essentially a metaphor for the futility of life and the lack of control we truly have over what happens to ourselves and the people around us. And that the only way to combat the seeming pointlessness of it all is to embrace whatever challenges come our way and accept them as the path thats been laid out for us.

In the land of Fargo, strange things happen. Bad things happen. Tragedy strikes. There are deaths, and there are births (though the former far outweighs the latter). There are moments of sadness, and laugh-inducing incidents. And through it all, the series enormous cast of characters weather the challenges and persevere (well, the ones who live to tell the story at least), as they move forward and prepare for whatever life has in store for them next. Stated more simply: Thats life.

If You Like Fargo, Youll Love: If you haven’t seen the 1996 Coen brothers’ movie upon which the series is based, that’s your first mistake: Fargo the series perfectly captures the darkly comedic tone of Fargo the movie, which was nominated for seven Oscars (including Best Picture) and won two (for Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay). Its about a sad-sack car salesman who hires some guys to kidnap his wife in order to get some money from his father-in-lawand its small-screen sendup is full of subtle nods and references. (Jos Feliciano, anyone?)

On the small screen, its really not hyperbolic to say that Fargo has sort of created its own genre. Which isnt to say that it doesnt share elements with some other series: Like Breaking Bad, its a look at what happens when seemingly “good” people suddenly find themselves on the other side of the law; the two shows also share a very precise type of pacing where the story unfolds in a way that keeps you guessingand watching. So it stands to reason that it shares a lot of the same characteristics (plus one Bob Odenkirk) with Better Call Saul, too.

For sheer strangeness and creating a world in which anything can happen, Twin Peaks is yet another kindred television spirit.

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/wired-binge-watching-guide-fargo/

Sir Mix-A-Lot Opens Up About The ‘Empowering’ Message Of ‘Baby Got Back’

Some artists write songs hoping they’ll be hits. Others, like Sir Mix-a-Lot, write songs hoping they’ll become much more.

In the early ‘90s, Sir Mix-a-Lot became a household name thanks to his now-iconic rap, “Baby Got Back.” As he tells “Oprah: Where Are They Now Extra” in the above clip, his motivation for writing the song actually came from an epiphany he had after seeing a beer commercial. 

“You had the Budweiser girls cute, but basically all hair. They were basically [shaped] like stop signs,” Sir Mix-a-Lot says. “That’s where I realized … ‘There’s another beautiful that, for some reason, is not being talked about much.’ I wanted to talk about it.”

Sir Mix-a-Lot wrote the rap, with lines like, “I like big butts and I cannot lie” and “So, Cosmo says you’re fat. // Well, I ain’t down with that.” Each line, he says, was written to serve one calculated purpose.

“I said, ‘How do I write this track and kind of diss the norm in a funny way?’” he says. “I didn’t want women to look at Cosmo as the goal … Don’t look at Cosmo and say, ‘I’ve got to get that physique so they’ll put me in pictures.’ Don’t worry about them! Baby, you are beautiful, you are gorgeous, you can do what you want to do. The hell with them.” 

I realized ‘There’s another beautiful that, for some reason, is not being talked about much.’ I wanted to talk about it.

Though its array of sexual lyrics made “Baby Got Back” a controversial track at the time, it still climbed to the top of the charts and struck a chord with female fans.

“It’s kind of an empowering song by accident,” Sir Mix-a-Lot says. “Every line in that song was written with that in mind: Pick at the establishment not too much, not too over the top and lift the sisters up. Constantly elevate them, even at the risk of dissing yourself.” 

This was particularly important, he points out, given the way a majority of black women were portrayed on television in those days.

“They were maids, servants, they played hookers or they would assimilate to another culture,” he says. “I didn’t like that. It bothered me a lot.”

Sir Mix-a-Lot wanted to celebrate real women’s lives and shapes, but he says he also wanted to be careful not to preach. “When I wrote ‘Baby Got Back,’ I wanted to make sure that I said those things without offending anybody,” he says.

The song was a definitive success, winning a Grammy and solidifying its place in pop culture history. Sir Mix-a-Lot certainly succeeded in getting his message out there through song.

“The people that needed to hear it got it immediately,” he says. “It worked well enough.”

Another inside look at making music:

Brian McKnight breaks down the “politics” behind a hit song

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/sir-mix-a-lot-opens-up-about-the-empowering-message-of-baby-got-back/

The Muddled Link Between Booze and Cancer

A couple years ago, a researcher named Curtis Ellison took the podium in a crowded lecture hall at Boston Universitys School of Public Health to tackle a question that had divided the universitys public health community: whether moderate drinking should be recommended as part of a healthy lifestyle. Ellisons take? I mean, its so obviously yes, he told the crowd.

Youve heard Ellisons pitch before: A glass a day can make for a healthier heart and a longer life. On stage, he told the story of Jackrabbit Johannsen, a famed cross country skier who lived to be 111. Johannsen had four pieces of advice for a long and healthy life, Ellison said: Dont smoke, get lots of exercise, dont drink too much. He paused. On the other hand, dont drink too little, either. The crowd erupted in laughter and applause.

But Ellison wasnt going unchallenged. Watching from the other side of the stage was Tim Naimi, a public health professor at BU who studies binge drinking in the same building as Ellison. He was there to argue the less attractive position: Drinking is distinctly unhealthy. And not in the typical ways you might associate with alcoholism, but in the sense of increased cancer risk—even for moderate drinkers.

Alcohols potential health benefits may have been oversold by industry-funded research, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

For folks within the realm of public health, thats no surprise. The World Health Organization has recognized alcoholic beverages as a Group 1 carcinogen since 2012, meaning evidence supports a link between alcohol and increased cancer risk. This past March, Jennie Connor, a preventative and social medicine researcher from New Zealands University of Otago, published a review of studies looking at the correlation between drinking and cancer, concluding that there is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites in the body and probably others. Her analysis credits alcohol with nearly 6 percent of all cancer deaths worldwide.

Connors use of the word cause separates her from most alcohol researchers and cancer advocacy groups in the US, where the conversation revolves around a more delicate term: risk. American consumers and researchers are both uncomfortable—or at least unfamiliar—with the idea of alcohol as health threat. When the American Institute for Cancer Research put out a survey to measure public perception of various cancer threats, less than half of respondents believed that alcohol was a risk factor for cancer. Which is odd, because 56 percent thought GMOs were, even though theres no scientific proof that they are.

To be fair, the science around how alcohol impacts the body is still nascent. Ellison and Naimis debate wasnt a mock trial: The public health community is split among people who think alcohol has its benefits and those who caution against its risks. The WHOs designation puts alcohol in the same category as processed meats and sunlight: Theyre carcinogenic, but that label doesnt tell you how much is how carcinogenic. Consumers are faced with the conflicting message that moderate drinking can actually increase their level of good cholesterol and decrease their risk of heart disease, which kills more people in the US than anything else.

Lots of us drink and wed really like to believe drinking is good for us, says Naimi. But the research around that has really fallen apart in the last couple years. Since Ellison made his confident statement into that mic two years ago, Naimi and many of his peers have gone on the offense against the studies that support alcohols potential health benefits, saying they may have been grossly oversold by industry-funded research—in the end, distracting consumers from the realities of cancer risk.

Bias in Booze Science

In late 1991, Ellison went on 60 Minutes to share the good news about red wine and heart health, and the idea took off. Underlying his claim were years of observational studies that compared moderate drinkers to non-drinkers. A handful of studies found that the moderate drinkers were actually healthier than the non-drinkers.

But in recent years, alcohol scholars like Connor and Naimi have criticized those studies for whats become known as a sick quitters bias. Some of the groups of non-drinkers that were compared to moderate drinkers were actually groups of former alcoholics or people who were too sick to continue drinking, so they were generally sicker than the healthier moderate drinkers. When Naimi adjusted the results in a meta-analysis that took the bias into account, the study still showed that moderate drinkers were better off than non-drinkers when it came to heart health—but not by nearly as much as originally thought.

Ellison says recent studies have gotten more sophisticated about eliminating those selection problems. But thats not the only source of bias in the literature. In the summer of 2014, the journal Addiction published a scathing editorial that outed Ellison for receiving unrestricted educational donations from the (alcohol) industry. That money had supported his work at BU, along with his leadership of a peer group that wrote positive reviews about studies highlighting the potential health benefits of drinking.

It wasnt the first time the journal had called out the often-cozy relationship between alcohol academics and industry. Trade organizations like the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents alcohol companies and is the largest alcohol lobbying arm, often work hand in hand with regulators and researchers. Some researchers go on to work for their industry connections, like Samir Zakhari, a former director at the US National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (the National Institutes of Healths alcohol research division). After he retired from the NIH, he went to work for the Distilled Spirits Council.

The council, for its part, doesnt buy the newer research that highlights the link between alcohol and cancer. Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the DSC, says that many of those meta-analyses are flawed, skewed by cherry-picking data points.

The Trouble with Analyzing Alcohol

Those biases are a direct challenge to the validity of science on alcohol and health. But even if they didnt exist, the nature of drinking still makes it extraordinarily difficult to come up with reliable results. Health risks, including those for cancer, are based on a complex interplay of variables—lifestyle factors, age, genetic predispositions—and they play out differently in each individuals body.

People who drink a bit of wine each day, for example, tend to sit down and drink it with meals. And theyre predominantly wealthier, more privileged consumers—making them predisposed to better health, says Ellison. Beer drinkers also tend to be more susceptible to binge drinking, he says.

Those factors can be difficult to separate from alcohols isolated effect on the body. Were not studying beer or wine specifically, says Ellison. Were studying people who drink them. Even low calorie beers come with a lot of empty calories, says Kenneth Portier, who directs the statistics and evaluation programs at the American Cancer Society. Drink enough of it and it can put you in that other risk factor: obesity.

Ellison doesnt deny that there is a link between alcohol and cancer—he just thinks its only relevant for heavy drinkers. But that starts a whole new debate: What exactly constitutes moderate drinking, and how do you study moderate vs. heavy drinking in study participants with vastly different body sizes, metabolisms, and socioeconomic backgrounds? In order to guide people in making informed decisions, researchers will need resources from somewhere outside the alcohol industry to conduct randomized studies that can isolate alcohols impact on the body over the course of decades.

Still, the less-than-perfect current evidence suggests that about 15 percent of breast cancer deaths are alcohol-related, says Naimi. Nearly 20,000 cancer deaths are attributable to alcohol every year in the US alone, he says, and were not even the worlds biggest drinkers. Simultaneously, the craft beer market has grown into a $22.3 billion industry and AB InBev and SAB Miller, the worlds two largest alcohol companies, are in the midst of a mega merger. If there was ever a time to come to a consensus about what exactly alcohol does to our bodies, it would be now.

Shaping the Message

Connors analysis of existing alcohol research was a turning point for the conversation on booze and cancer. But once youve decided that alcohol is a substantial public health risk, you still need to convince drinkers of that fact. And its a lot easier to tell people drinking is good for them than to explain how and why it isnt.

Things that are familiar to us are perceived as less risky, says Portier. Most of us have been around alcohol our whole lives and we know people who drink and theyre not dead.

It becomes even more difficult to construct a coherent public health message when consumers hear conflicting information. For each drink a woman has per day, her relative risk for breast cancer alone can increase by about 7 percent, says Susan Brown, whos in charge of health education programs at Susan G Komen. But people are often surprised and disappointed that theres an association between alcohol and breast cancer, she says. Many times, they’ve heard that moderate drinking is good for them. That may be confusing or masking the message, she says.

So right now, health groups like Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society simply emphasize drinking in moderation. In public-health speak, thats defined as one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men (think of a drink more as a glass of wine or a bottle of fairly light beer, rather than a double martini).

But for most consumers, the concept of moderation is most closely tied to the phrase drink responsibly, an alcohol industry catch phrase that reminds customers not to drink too much—without actually defining how much is too much. I worry sometimes that the breweries are trying to change the perception of risk to benefit their own equation, says Portier.

Thats where policy comes into play. In the UK, for example, the Department of Health changed its alcohol guidelines from saying it was safe to drink moderately to acknowledging that there are a number of serious diseases, including certain cancers, that can be caused even when drinking less than 14 units weekly. While the risk for moderate drinking was low, they write, there is no level of regular drinking that can be considered as completely safe.

Related Video

Fun With Powdered Alcohol: You Can Stop Being Scared Now

Look back at the public health messages around tobacco and youll notice they all share a common, simple message: stop smoking. There was no level of moderation that was considered risk-free, so there was no conversation around moderation. Alcohol, on the other hand, has a much more complex message: dont drink too much, make sure you understand what too much means for you, and mitigate the risk of drinking by assessing any other risk factors you may have in your life. Not exactly great fodder for a catchy PSA. But in a world where drinking is so closely tied to culture, it may be the best option.

It all comes down to perception of risk and how you want to live your life, says Portier. Someone who is at a higher risk for heart disease than cancer, for example, may feel more inclined to have a glass of red wine each night than someone who has a strong family history of breast cancer. People should make their own decisions about how much they drink, says Naimi. But I certainly think that people deserve to be more aware of this than they are now.

To get there, Naimi goes back to the idea of conducting long term, comprehensive, randomized studies. Thats something both sides are anxious to see more of. Zakhari, the alcohol expert who works at the Distilled Spirits Council, says its crucial to look at alcohol consumption over a long period of time, since cancer usually develops very slowly. These studies always ask women, how much did you drink last week, last month, last year, he says. But what they were doing last week or last month or last year has nothing to do with the initiation of cancer 20 years earlier. Its like someone has food poisoning today and the doctor asks them what they ate for Christmas in 1980.

Not that help isnt on the way—sort of. According to the Wall Street Journal, AB InBev and Diageo (another heavyweight alcohol producer) are planning to work with a handful of other alcohol companies to pay for a randomized study that will look at the health implications of drinking. Itll be run by the NIAAA, the same government division where Zakhari once worked.

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/07/the-muddled-link-between-booze-and-cancer/

The Ted Cruz merch store is the best place on the Internet

Republican presidential hopeful and soup aficionado Ted Cruz is many things to many people: a liar to Donald Trump, an anointed prophet in the eyes of Glenn Beck, the cause of death for five young adults in northern California between the late 1960s and early ’70s. But one thing he has yet to receive praise for is perhaps his strongest asset: his on-point merch game.

Candidates running for president of the United States are required to hock as much merchandise as possible as a show of good faith to the gods of capitalism. Like all aspects of campaigning, some are just better at it than others.

Bernie Sanders, for example, has raked in millions of dollars from small donors despite having a weak offering on the merch front that has mostly failed to capitalize on the most iconic images to arise out of his campaign. HisBirdie Sandersstickers were a limited offering only available to a few donors at the right time while the Vermont senator never once touched the Jumpman Bernie Sandersmotif. This could be because Sanders just isn’t that into capitalism (he prefers a moral economic model) or it might be that he’s just not a big T-shirt guy.

Ted Cruz, on the other hand, is all in when it comes to politically charged novelty items. There’s seemingly nothing the Texas senator won’t put his name on. The Ted Cruz store is the online equivalent of pulling off of the highway and walking into a small-town truck stop that sells T-shirts with jokes that only the locals understand but are amusing just the same.

Currently, Cruz is pushing his spring gear the hardest. His store prominently features a $75 BBQ pack that includes a spatula, cooler, and beer kooziewhich has also been rebranded as a beer “Cruzie,” because of course it has.

It’s part of a larger collection of tailgating and sports-themedparaphernalia that seem to focus primarily on football even though it’s the only major sport not currently in play. By kickoff of the 2016 football season, Cruz could already be out of the running for president.

Always the clever marketer, Cruz has opted not to specifically mention football despite selling a jersey that looks suspiciously like one that a football player might wear and a foam ball that is shaped an awful lot like a football.

In a true stroke of genius, he’s even labeled the beer holders with the phrase “Are You Ready for Some Cruzball?” It’s a question Cruz probably asks his friends every Sunday, thinking it to be a hilarious play on words, though no one has ever once answered “yes” when asked.

The best of Cruz is yet to come, however. On Friday, he unveiled his Trumpertantrums packa one-piece and bib for your favorite liberty-loving toddler that reads “Enough with the Trumpertantrums already!”

Whining so much youre getting tired of whining? Get your #TrumperTantrum starter pack now: https://t.co/61dK4xyGQX pic.twitter.com/a8s0qTl7oq

Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 16, 2016

It doesn’t appear to be a thing Ted Cruz has ever actually saidaloud, but was probably a zinger that he thought of three hours after a debate and decided it needed to go somewhere.

If you want people to know your baby is part of the #NeverTrump movement, you’re going to have to wait; the Trumpertantrums pack is available for pre-order only at the moment.

The Trump gear is Cruz’s true bread and butter when it comes to his merch, which is a great bit of hustle. It’s hard to sell Cruz to most people but it’s pretty easy to sell them on Anyone But Trump.

His campaign’s best bit of shade against the frontrunner is its Trump University shirt, which sports the slogan “I Applied to Trump University and All I Got Was This Shirt.” The shirt has been available since the March debate in which Cruz tried to make Trump’s failed and fraudulent school a central issue because the man just intuitively understands the importance of branding synergy.

Some have made the case that Cruz’s ability to wrangle delegates shows his competency as an executive and speaks to his qualifications to be president, but based on his merch game, he’d be the finest regional manager Spencer’s Gifts has ever hadthough the sex toy section would probably be lackingunder his leadership.

Illustration by Jason Reed (Licensed)

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/06/the-ted-cruz-merch-store-is-the-best-place-on-the-internet/

Warrant issued for ‘affluenza’ teen serving probation in deadly drunk driving crash

FILE – This Dec. 2013 file image taken from a video by KDFW-FOX 4, Ethan Couch, who killed four people in a drunken wreck in 2013, appears for his court hearing in Fort Worth, Texas. Couchs family has settled with some, but not all, of the victims suing them. Court records indicate the family has settled three lawsuits brought against them, including suits involving three of the four people who died. But at least four other lawsuits have not been settled. (AP Photo/KDFW-FOX 4, File) (The Associated Press)

Texas authorities are searching for the teenager who killed four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck near Fort Worth, then claimed as part of his defense that he suffered from “affluenza.”

The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday that Ethan Couch’s attorneys say a juvenile probation officer has been unable to contact Couch, 18, or his mother for several days. Reagan Wynn and Scott Brown said a judge has issued a “directive to apprehend” Couch or his mother, with whom he was living.

Couch was 16 when he drunkenly rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people in 2013, killing four. Two years ago, he was given 10 years’ probation after his attorneys asserted Couch’s wealthy parents coddled him into irresponsibility. Prosecutors wanted a maximum sentence of 20 years in state custody.

A “directive to apprehend” from a juvenile court is the equivalent of an arrest warning. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office says that Couch faces a prison sentence of up to 10 years if he is found to have violated the terms of his probation.

The Dallas Morning News also reported that authorities are looking into whether Couch is one of several young men who appear in a video of several young men playing beer pong. The person who posted the video online Dec. 2 accused Couch of violating his probation, which prohibits him from drinking alcohol, using drugs or driving. He is also required to attend rehab. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from The Dallas Morning News.

source http://allofbeer.com/2017/08/05/warrant-issued-for-affluenza-teen-serving-probation-in-deadly-drunk-driving-crash/

Budget 2017: NHS, families, cars – your questions answered – BBC News