The unfortunate facts about veteran poverty
- Nearly one in seven homeless adults are veterans.
- More than 4 in 10 homeless veterans are unsheltered.
- 1.5 million veterans are at risk of homelessness
- Almost half of homeless veterans were African American in 2008.
- 30.2 percent of veterans ages 18 to 24 were unemployed in 2011.
- More than 33,000 veterans were housed since 2009 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs in permanent, supportive housing with case managers and access to VA health care
- 1.2 million veterans used mental health services in 2010.
Mitt Romney has threatened to eliminate housing assistance, which would be devastating for millions of veterans and families struggling to get back on their feet.
Find out more at our sister site Half in Ten
FBI Wants Backdoors in Facebook, Skype and Instant Messaging
The FBI has been lobbying top internet companies like Yahoo and Google to support a proposal that would force them to provide backdoors for government surveillance, according to CNET.
The Bureau has been quietly meeting with representatives of these companies, as well as Microsoft (which owns Hotmail and Skype), Facebook and others to argue for a legislative proposal, drafted by the FBI, that would require social-networking sites and VoIP, instant messaging and e-mail providers to alter their code to make their products wiretap-friendly.
The FBI has previously complained to Congress about the so-called “Going Dark” problem – the difficulty of doing effective wiretap surveillance as more communications have moved from traditional telephone services to internet service companies.
Under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, passed in 1994, telecommunications providers are required to make their systems wiretap-friendly. The Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA in 2004 to apply to broadband providers like ISPs and colleges, but web companies are not covered by the law.
They intend to destroy the social compact: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc. These basics of a minimal safety net are “socialism,” which, a reader told me, “is killing America.” They aim to ramp up the redistribution of income to the wealthiest through tax and, yes, stealth industrial policy. To implement theocratic laws and, if the courts intervene, continue to change the judges and even the Constitution. What has happened in places such as Arizona and Oklahoma will be coming to Washington. This is not just rolling back the New Deal and the Great Society, but the Nixon administration. At the same time, the corporate elites, particularly fossil fuels, finance, for-profit health care and Big Pharma, will get an irrevocable hold over the federal government. Government will not shrink much; it will grow as military adventures are launched in Jesus’ name and the national security state expanded even further to control the “evil liberals.” Austerity will happen, and much worse than we’ve seen so far. When reality bites, who they gonna blame? “Evil liberals.” The Republicans are dead serious — this is no mere red meat for the duhs and ignos.
History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.
Martin Luther King Jr. (via cognitivedissonance)
Avery Mephistopheles Rare Beer Tuesday & More!
Tomorrow is Tuesday and you know what that means: CBX are bringing you something extra awesome on the growler station at 5pm! Tomorrow’s feature is 2010 Avery Mephistopheles! This is a 15.95% ABV Imperial Stout that is as complex as they come. Hints of dark fruits, espresso and everything else dark and delicious can be found in this beauty! Finding this beer in its draft form is not easy these days, and they’re happy to have it as their special this week. They will be filling 32oz growlers ONLY of this beast. Quantity is limited and we don’t know how long it’ll last, so please get there as close to 5pm as possible to get your fill! New Arrivals/Back In Stock (bottles & cans)
Aviator Hogwild IPA
Aviator Hot Rod Red
Harpoon Summer Can
Lion Stout
Rogue Mom Hefeweizen
Widmer Brothers Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout 2012
Augustiner Edelstoff
Augustiner Maximator
Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye
Bear Republic Pete’s Brown
Bear Republic Racer 5
Bear Republic Red Rocket
Cuvee Des Trolls Cuvee Speciale
Dogfish Red & White
Konig Ludwig Weissbier
Oud Beersel Oude Kriek
Palmetto Espresso Porter
Sam Adams Dark Depths Baltic IPA
Southern Tier Mokah
Stoudts Gold Lager
Thirsty Dog Siberian Night
Victory Summer LoveFollow them on facebook and Twitter for real time CBX updates. Their complete bottle/can inventory can also be found by clicking the ” Inventory/Shipping ” tab on their website.
Cheers!
The Charleston Beer Exchange14 Exchange Street
Charleston, SC 29401
843-577-5446
BeerExchange.com
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![fuckyeahdrugpolicy:
The slow death of prohibition | BBC News (March 2012)
When prohibition came into force, in 1920, saloons across the country were boarded up and the streets foamed with beer as joyful campaigners smashed kegs and poured bottles down the drain.
But far from ending corruption and vice, as opponents of the “demon rum” had hoped, prohibition led to an unprecedented explosion in criminality and drunkenness.
Thousands of speakeasies selling illegal liquor, often far stronger than legal varieties, sprang up across the country - and gangsters such as Al Capone fought bloody turf wars over the control of newly created bootlegging empires.
National prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, but it never quite died out.
When alcohol regulation was handed back to individual states, many local communities voted to keep the restrictions in place, particularly in the southern Bible Belt.
Today there are still more than 200 “dry” counties in the United States, and many more where cities and towns within dry areas have voted to allow alcohol sales, making them “moist” or partially dry.
[…] Methamphetamine and prescription pills like Oxycontin, dubbed “hillbilly heroin”, have taken over from bootlegging and the distillation of moonshine as the main source of profit for local criminals.
Bootleggers once “ran wild” in the area, according to Paul Croley, but with the growing availability of legal alcohol in wet towns, any profit made from smuggling booze across county lines has largely evaporated.
Local law enforcement largely turns a blind eye to bootleggers now, and few cases make it to court.
“It is simply somebody driving up the interstate, bringing beer down here and selling it to people. That’s it. It’s not the Dukes of Hazzard,” says Croley.
But the churches argue that alcohol is a “gateway” drug, and is still offered for sale by bootleggers alongside more dangerous substances.
full article
The shadow of prohibition still hangs](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m37wekhbEC1qc1ca1o1_500.gif)
The slow death of prohibition | BBC News (March 2012)
When prohibition came into force, in 1920, saloons across the country were boarded up and the streets foamed with beer as joyful campaigners smashed kegs and poured bottles down the drain.
But far from ending corruption and vice, as opponents of the “demon rum” had hoped, prohibition led to an unprecedented explosion in criminality and drunkenness.
Thousands of speakeasies selling illegal liquor, often far stronger than legal varieties, sprang up across the country - and gangsters such as Al Capone fought bloody turf wars over the control of newly created bootlegging empires.
National prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, but it never quite died out.
When alcohol regulation was handed back to individual states, many local communities voted to keep the restrictions in place, particularly in the southern Bible Belt.
Today there are still more than 200 “dry” counties in the United States, and many more where cities and towns within dry areas have voted to allow alcohol sales, making them “moist” or partially dry.
[…] Methamphetamine and prescription pills like Oxycontin, dubbed “hillbilly heroin”, have taken over from bootlegging and the distillation of moonshine as the main source of profit for local criminals.
Bootleggers once “ran wild” in the area, according to Paul Croley, but with the growing availability of legal alcohol in wet towns, any profit made from smuggling booze across county lines has largely evaporated.
Local law enforcement largely turns a blind eye to bootleggers now, and few cases make it to court.
“It is simply somebody driving up the interstate, bringing beer down here and selling it to people. That’s it. It’s not the Dukes of Hazzard,” says Croley.
But the churches argue that alcohol is a “gateway” drug, and is still offered for sale by bootleggers alongside more dangerous substances.
The shadow of prohibition still hangs
