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Truth In Labeling

June 4, 2022 by 9 Comments

This is a story about Texas. It doesn’t have anything to do with the recent NRA Annual Meeting, Uvalde, or gun control. Rather it is about a product coming from Texas for which they are building a good reputation. That product is whiskey.

In my past trips to the Houston area, I have come home with whiskey produced by Balcones (Waco) and Rio Brazos (College Station). The former is actually distilled in Texas while the latter is a blend of Texas and non-Texas bourbons. Both were purchased at Spec’s which is a Houston-area chain of liquor stores. If I remember correctly, Spec’s was recommended to me as the go-to place by Mark Gillespie of the WhiskyCast Podcast.

Thus, on this trip to Houston for the NRA Annual Meeting I was determined to come home with some more great Texas bourbon. I bought two bottles of bourbon from two different Spec’s locations

The first bottle was purchased at Spec’s near the Alameda Mall in South Houston. I was approached by a young clerk who offered to help as I was studying the selection. I explained that I was looking for Texas whiskey. He highly recommended the Lone Star 1835 Limited Release Single Barrel bourbon. I deferred to his advice and bought it. In retrospect, I should have examined the bottle just a little closer.

Looking at the front of the bottle it has the Lone Star, a cannon, and 1835 which is when the citizens of Gonzales told the Mexican Army who wanted their cannon to come and take it. Doesn’t that just scream Texas to you!

The back of the bottle continues the Texas imagery. It says, “each sip offers a boldness reminiscent of the independence Texas is known for. Come and take it.” Then the three little words which follow dash that image all to pieces: Distilled in Kentucky. WTF?! It seems Spec’s has a history of hawking this bourbon heavily.

I was pissed when I saw that. I was pissed at the cluelessness of the young clerk and I was pissed at myself for not reading the label. I know what sourced bourbon is and oft time it is good. That said, this is not Texas bourbon distilled from Texas corn and aged in the heat of Texas. I’m sipping a sample of it now and it is OK. The finish is not that great. I find it a bit metallic.

As well-known bourbon writer Chuck Cowdery wrote about their bourbon:

But that’s not what Texans care about, I reckon. They don’t much care what some government regulators in Washington think either. They care about Texas grains, Texas yeast, and Texas water. They care about Texas-distilled whiskey maturing in the Texas heat. They care about Texas jobs. And they don’t buy whiskey that says “Made in Texas’ when it’s not.

Just like they don’t buy salsa made in New York City.

Since I had decided attending the NRA Board meeting would have been a waste, I had some time before I had to return my rental car. I decided to give Spec’s another chance. This time I drove into downtown Houston to their flagship store on Smith Street.

From Market Watch – Julie Soefer.

This time I was very specific with the clerk that the whiskey had to be distilled in Texas. We discussed Balcones, Still Austin, and Shire Oak among others.

Shire Distilling is out of Brookshire, Texas which is west of Houston. As you can see on the back of the bottle, it is “certified Texas whiskey“. This certification comes from the Texas Whiskey Association and means that everything from “grain to glass” was done in Texas. In other words, the grain was grown in Texas, the fermentation of the mash was in Texas, the distilling was done in Texas, the aging was done in Texas, and the bottling was done in Texas.

The difference between the two bourbons is like night and day. The Shire Oak is barrel strength and has a lot of flavor. It might not be as old as the Lone Star 1835 but the aging in the heat of Texas really pulls something out of the charred oak. The real kicker is that they were priced within a few bucks of one another.

My point in this post is that you have to study the label and look for the clues. If the whiskey is distilled in a state other than that of the producer or bottler, it must be disclosed. The Treasury’s Tax and Trade Bureau approves all labels for alcoholic beverages and has specific requirements. I’m OK with sourced whiskey as many are excellent. My point is that is not cool to confuse the origin of a whiskey with a lot of verbiage and that is especially true of Texas whiskey.

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Screwing With The Protestors In Houston

June 2, 2022 by

When the Tonight Show was hosted by Jay Leno, he had a feature called “Jay Walking” where he would talk to people on the street and ask questions. Well, Brandon Herrera who is a “social media influencer” just updated that a bit in Houston during the NRA Annual Meeting. You see across the street from the George Brown Convention Center were a bunch of anti-gun protestors. As you know from an earlier post them, they were oh so polite.

Brandon, who goes by TheAKGuy on Twitter, really screwed with them. He asked them to sign a petition supporting the Firearms Policy Coalition and asked them if a Federal background check should be required in gun stores. We all know that this is already Federal law and has been since the enactment of the Brady Act.

The people who are going to watch this video are gun people. They are not gun control people. They hate gun control. Thus, I found it funny that the ad that ran in the middle of this video when I watched it was from gun control group Sandy Hook Promise. I think they got taken as much as the protestors.

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More Thoughts On NRA Expo Attendance

June 2, 2022 by 1 Comment

An astute reader who was at the NRA Meeting in Houston sent me a set of pictures. They were all taken as the exhibition was closing on Sunday afternoon. The pictures are of leftover 2022 convention programs. This has me pondering about the real numbers for attendance at the exhibition.

As noted in an earlier post, the official total of attendees was 61,254. This was the lowest number of attendees since 2006.

Now look at this first photo. The label on the box says the box holds 90 programs and that it was box 147 of 417. Assuming that this was the only order of the programs, the NRA has 37,530 printed to give out.

Now look at the next set of pictures taken at the various entrances to the exhibition hall.

A very rough estimate has at least 32 unopened boxes of 90 each. That is 2,880 program. Let’s assume that number of loose programs not handed out is another 900. That adds up to about 10% of the ordered programs were not handed out and are now wasted. Rounding up, this leads me to assume that maybe 34,000 programs were handed out.

On the one hand you have the people who didn’t take a program. On the other hand you have those who picked up a program on more than one day. I was in the middle in that I picked up a program on the first day and used it for the whole three days.

My rough observation going in and out of the hall numerous times daily is that more than half the people took a program. That leads me again to be suspicious of the official number of attendees as the numbers are just not adding up. I could be wrong and I will cheerfully admit it.

It is not that I don’t trust the NRA but there are people who have a vested interest in fudging the numbers. Unfortunately, many of those people are in positions of authority.

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Wayne Gets Punked At Meeting Of Members

June 1, 2022 by 1 Comment

I was one of only about a hundred people that sat through the whole NRA Meeting of Members from beginning to end. I say that not to pat myself on the back but to say I saw what I’m about to show in real time.

The first resolution considered was to commend Wayne LaPierre for his leadership of the NRA past, present, and future. It was submitted by a Charles Beers (spelling?) from upstate New York. While there were people that opposed it, the Friends of Wayne including board members planned to use the discussion of it to run out the clock and to condemn anyone who had not drunk the purple Kool-Aid.

Jeff Knox was ruled out of order when he pointed out the bylaws forbid awards but Charles Cotton and the parliamentarian decided a resolution commending Wayne was not an award.

Here is where it gets interesting. So interesting in fact that it made the Washington Post, Newsweek, and many other publications.

As Stephen Gutowski of The Reload reported on Twitter at the time:

NRA member Jason Selvig says he’s tired of the left wing media spreading misinformation about LaPierre. Says he gets wrongly blamed for mass shootings. He says thought and prayers could stop shootings. He starts loudly chanting thoughts and prayers. Seems like some kind of stunt.

Well, it turns out it was a stunt. I will admit I thought the guy was a little strange. However, after listening to almost an hour of praise of Wayne nothing really seemed that strange.

Jason Selvig is one half of the comedy duo The Good Liars. They tend to poke fun at conservatives.

The video below that has been posted on Twitter has been watched over 8 million times.

While I may vehemently disagree with Mr. Selvig’s politics, I am enough of “an enemy within” and a “son of a bitch traitor” to enjoy the fact that Wayne got punked. I only wish the video contained the end where he was trying to get everyone to chant “thoughts and prayers”.

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I Think I’ll Pass On This Suggestion

May 31, 2022 by 3 Comments

Facebook will often make suggestions on people to “friend”. It may be that you and that person share a number of mutual friends, have common interests, or the like. While responding to a new friend request this weekend, I got this suggestion yesterday.

I am going to have to pass on that one.

The list of reasons why I’d never friend him could go “to infinity and beyond” to quote the great philosopher Buzz Lightyear.

I’ll keep it classy and leave it at that.

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NRA Annual Meeting Attendance

May 30, 2022 by 1 Comment

Stephen Gutowski of The Reload has a tweet up with the official attendance.

With all due respect, I think the key word in Stephen’s tweet is “claims”. I have been to every NRA Annual Meeting that has had an exposition since Charlotte in 2010. This had the least people by far. Friday had really light attendance. It picked up on Saturday as one would expect and was so-so on Sunday. I never had trouble walking the aisles of the George Brown Convention Center on any day. I never got pulled along with the crowd nor blocked at intersections. Every vendor I asked about business said it was slow.

I have attended numerous SHOT Shows where the attendance is in the 60-70,000 range and they all seemed more crowded than this show.

As I said in the comments section in a reply to Old NFO, I saw a lot less of “new media” than in the past. There were a few podcasters, a handful of the professional gun press, and very few of the bloggers I’ve gotten to know over the years. There really were not that many of the mainstream media for that matter. I did have some fun conversations with Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the LA Times and Andrew Schneider of Houston Public Radio.

I did not get the chance to attend any of the seminars or workshops. There were some by historian Martin K. A. Morgan that I would have liked to hear. I believe he did ones on the weapons in the Battle of Hue as well as in the Russo-Ukranian war.

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A Concealed Carry Fashion Show – The Horror!

May 30, 2022 by

My friend and fellow co-host of the Polite Society Podcast Amanda Suffecool has been producing a concealed carry fashion show for a number of years. It showcases a number of holsters, purses, and other gear that allow you to conceal your handgun. The event is always fun and the “models” are just average people.

This year’s event caught the eye of the British newspaper and online site The Daily Mail. They are horrified that it was held just days after the murders at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

From the Daily Mail:

Many models appeared to show that concealed weapons didn’t mean you had to give up fashion as women and men were seen in various styles from secret agent-style suits to cowboy boots and sundresses. 

However, despite the fashionable ways the NRA’s models showed weapons can be concealed, the convention – which boisterously displays guns of all-types throughout Memorial Day weekend – comes after 19 children and two teachers were murdered in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. 

I am guessing the writer never heard Michael Bane say, “You are on your own”, nor believes that you are your own first responder. One gathers they would prefer to what for an unarmed Bobby to appear to save the day. Fat chance at that.

Here is some video from the event.

I recognize a number of my friends and colleagues in amongst the models and emcees. My suggestion is to look at the pictures and forget the rest of the story. I will say there some quite innovative ways to conceal your firearm shown.

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Skipping The NRA Board Meeting

May 30, 2022 by 5 Comments

When I made my travel plans to attend the NRA Annual Meeting, I scheduled my return flight for later on Monday afternoon so that I could attend the NRA Board of Directors meeting. It is scheduled to start at 9am or about a half hour from now.

After having attended the travesty that was the Meeting of Members for the entire time, I came to the conclusion that attending the Board of Directors meeting would be a waste of my time. Moreover, it would just raise my blood pressure and who needs that.

While there will be a move to nominate Lt.Col. Allen West to be CEO and EVP, I have every expectation it will go nowhere. The majority of the Board of Directors are like the disciples of the Rev. Jim Jones of Jonestown infamy. They have drunk the purple Kool-Aid and plan to go down with Wayne LaPierre. So what if the NRA perishes like the People’s Temple at the same time.

I will have more on the Meeting of Members, the Leadership Forum, the resolutions, the exhibition, and more in following posts.

Also, in case you didn’t read it elsewhere, Isaac Demerest won the election for 76th Director against Frank Tait. While I didn’t see the “volunteers” on Friday, they were certainly out in force on Saturday morning. Of the tens of thousands who could have voted, only 564 people could be bothered. The final tally was Demerest, 350, and Tait, 214. Given the age composition of the board, I still would not be surprised if Frank ended up on it before the year is out.

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76th Director And NRA Meeting Of Members

May 28, 2022 by 1 Comment

If you are attending the NRA Annual Meeting on Saturday, I have two reminders.

If you want to vote for the 76th Director, voting opens at 8am and will conclude when the Meeting of Members adjourns. Voting is in Room 330 and you will need to have your member number available. In contrast to the regular board election, any member of the NRA can vote.

The two candidates are Frank Tait and Issac Demerest. Frank ran by petition whereas Mr. Demerest was on the ballot thanks to the Nominations Committee. Bear in mind that anyone who was on the ballot thanks to the Nominations Committee was vetted. By vetted I mean they had to pass the test of being a “Friend of Wayne” and not some one who would challenge the status quo.

Frank Tait, fortunately, will challenge the status quo and has when he tried to become an intervenor on behalf of the members in the NY Attorney General’s dissolution lawsuit. If he is elected as a board member, it should give him the wherewithal to be an intervenor again. I will note that I have not seen the mob of “volunteers” campaigning for Mr. Demerest as one would have seen in years gone by.

The Meeting of Members starts and 10am in the General Assembly Hall. You will need to pick up your credentials in Room 330. I will have a resolution regarding the state of the NRA Headquarters Building which is in shameful disrepair.

I fully expect the powers that be will try to adjourn the meeting as soon as possible. I do know there will an attempt to put resolutions at the top of the agenda which is a good thing and to remove a deadline for the end of the meeting. We need to have people there just like we did in Indianapolis in 2019. The more the better.

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Classy Anti-Rights Protestors

May 28, 2022 by

When I arrived at the George Brown Center for the NRA Annual Meeting this morning, I saw about four protestors. A few hours later, the number had increased to about 100-150 being generous. I could be off on my numbers but they seemed to bunch up along a barrier to give the impression of more.

I heard later that Robert Francis O’Rourke was speaking at an anti-gun rally in the park across from the convention center. It is disturbing that he is trying make political hay while many of the details are still not known and families are grieving. I agree with the Mayor of Uvalde when he called O’Rourke ”a sick son of a bitch.” Fortunately, O’Rourke is behind Gov. Greg Abbott by anywhere from 7% to 10% if the polls are accurate.

The demonstrators across the street were loud, were lead in chants by someone with a megaphone, had a drum, and played it up whenever they saw a TV camera. They also were a bit vulgar as the photo below illustrates.

Behind the sign saying “NRA Go Away” was a protestor with a megaphone who seemed to be the chant leader.

As you can see from that picture and the one below, whenever the media or photographers were there taking pictures, the crowd played up to them.

There were a lot of people attending the NRA Annual Meeting who were filming it and taking pictures with their phones. I know a lot found the whole group of protestors to be more of an amusing circus act than anything else.

It will be interesting to see if they will continue to have their anti-rights protests again tomorrow. If so, I’ll try to get more and better pictures.