Looming National Crisis

[Flying Lobster]

Forget the sub-prime mortgage market collapse, the high cost of oil, and the looming prospect of inflation or recession (Republican heaven??).

A friend in the Brew pub business tells me that the microbrewery business is in peril. The reason? Farmers have responded to skyrocketing demand for ethanol fuel crops and converted acreage over to more profitable crops. Only the major brewers like Fartweiser that own their own hop fields are relatively secure.

This threatens the mental security of a majority of American males--perhaps it's time to consider invading Canada (they are probably hiding their fields, after all).

marc

[jimrooney]

Ok... I'll have to be Mr Killjoy here.
Though this is a very relevant topic for hang glider pilots (any pilot for that matter)... shouldn't this be in "general discussion"?

Jim-topic-nazi

[Flying Lobster]

Isn't beer drinking an essential part of post flight debriefing for most male pilots (but yes, I do recognize that not ALL pilots drink beer, and I apologize for implying they do--just MOST of them that I know)? An essential component for good story-making!


<B> </B>

marc

[mcelrah]

I would note that a fermented grain product, later distilled, is also an important post-flight debriefing aid for a certain female pilot I know. Anyway, shortages of items like hops and barley will result in higher prices, imports from hop-growing in the Euro (@ $1.50= E 1.00) zone, etc., so the cost of flying is going up not only in terms of fuel to get up to initial altitude (auto or tug) but also attitude-adjustment chemicals. Moreover, I remember Rob Kells explaining to a couple of us that the only factory producing large-diameter, thin-walled aluminum extrusions (think leading edges) is in Europe, so try not to crash. And don't think carbon-fiber will hold steady: the Navy is buying ships with carbon-fiber superstructures at 1200 tons per...
"Work is the curse of the drinking class." - H.L. Mencken (Baltimore)
"Religion is the opium of the masses." - Lenin
"Television is the opium of the middle class." - anonymous
"Opium is the television of the elite." - anonymous

- Hugh