Hipsters' PBR Obsession Driving Up Prices Of Cheap Beer: Study

HuffingtonPost

Cheap beers are becoming less cheap, and for that you can thank hipsters.

A recent study by Restaurant Sciences found that your everyday, low-cost beers like Budweiser, Miller Light and Coors Light are getting pricier, a trend the firm attributes to the rise in popularity of Pabst Blue Ribbon -- a favorite among your bearded, flannel shirt-wearing friends.

Basically, as Chuck Ellis, the head of Restaurant Sciences, put it, PBR has become "quite fashionable." This has allowed bars and restaurants to get away with charging more for the beer's low-price peers.

"I believe the single biggest driver in sub-premium beer price increases is indeedspecifically PBR," Ellis told the New York Daily News.

PBR did not respond to a phone call from The Huffington Post Friday afternoon.

So how much more are you really paying? The study found that the prices of popular "sub-premium" beers have increased up to 6.8 percent in the nation's eating and drinking establishments over the past seven months (see chart below).

And it's not only beer that's getting pricier. A study out earlier this month, also by Restaurant Sciences, found that the cost of spirits and cocktails has also gotten significantly more expensive.

If this beer news makes you really angry at hipsters, you're probably not alone. Arecent poll from Public Policy Polling found that only 16 percent of Americans have a favorable view of hipsters. Even more, 27 percent of Americans say hipsters should be taxed for being “so annoying.”

Hat tip: Gothamist

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:



The Top 20 Selling American Craft Breweries





3 of 21





thepintglass.wordpress.com





• 
  
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Nex

Florida Teen Expelled, Charged With Felony For Lesbian Relationship

By Judd Legum 

Kaitlyn Hunt (Credit: Free Kate Facebook Page)

A Florida family says their 18-year-old daughter was charged with a felony and expelled from high school as a result of a consensual, same-sex relationship with another student.

Kaitlyn Hunt started dating a female classmate at the beginning of the school year when she was 17 and the girl she was dating was 15. According to an account posted to Facebook by Kaitlyn’s mother, in February, just after Kaitlyn turned 18, she was arrested on felony charges at the behest of her girlfriend’s parents. The specific crime was “sexual battery on a person 12-16 years old.”

Kaitlyn’s mother believes the charges were motivated by anti-gay animus:

They were out to destroy my daughter, they feel like my daughter “made” their daughter gay. They are bigoted, religious zeolites [sic] that see being gay as a sin and wrong, and they blame my daughter.

But Kaitlyn’s problems did not end there. Her girlfriends’s parents appealed to the school board and had her expelled from Sebastian River High School. Kaitlyn’s mom reports that the State Attorney, Brian Workman, has offered Kaitlyn a plea deal of “of two years house arrest and one year probation.” Kaitlyn has until next Friday to accept the plea deal or face a trial.

The family has started a petition calling on the state attorney to drop the charges against Kaitlyn.

TP

Man Destroys N66.8million Car Just Because He Was Angry With Dealer (See Photos)

A man in China hired three people to destroy his Maserati — worth almost half a million dollars — because he was angry with the car dealer last Tuesday.

The owner, identified only as Wang, paid the men to trash his $423,000 Maserati Quattroporte, worth N66.8million naira at the Qingdao International Auto Show.

According to Car News China, Wang claimed the dealer had replaced faulty parts in his vehicle with used parts; he also accused both the dealer and an insurance company of fraud.

The men hired to decimate the Maserati used sledgehammers to batter the windows and body. They wrecked the flashy vehicle in front of hordes of press and bystanders gathered outside the Auto Show

NaijaUrban

Bangladesh Factory Safety Accord: At Least 14 Major North American Retailers Decline To Sign

The deadline to sign onto the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh passed on Tuesday, and at least 14 major North American retailers declined to participate.

The agreement, which demands a five-year commitment from participating retailers to conduct independent safety inspections of factories and pay up to $500,000 per year toward safety improvements, has seen greater support abroad than in the U.S.

Major European retailers -- for example, Marks & Spencer and Carrefour -- have joined the agreement. Others who've signed on include companies recently involved with factory disasters in Bangladesh, such as Swedish retailer H&M and Italian fashion house Benetton. A 2010 factory fire at a facility that made cardigans for H&Mkilled 21 people, and Bennetton had a supplier in the Rana Plaza factory that collapsed last month, killing more than 1,100 people.

PVH, parent to Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, signed the accord, along with Abercrombie & Fitch, which agreed just hours before the deadline. That leaves plenty of U.S. retailers absent from the agreement, according to the Worker Rights Consortium, an international labor monitoring group. However, some retailers, like Walmart, claim they are working on separate initiatives to improve conditions and workplace safety in Bangladesh.

Here are 14 North American retailers manufacturing goods in Bangladesh that have not signed the safety accord:



Companies That Haven't Signed Bangladesh Safety Accord





1 of 15

AP





• Next

HuffingtonPost

How Jonathan indirectly Funds Terrorism, and Waste Public Funds, By Adeolu Ademoyo

Adeolu Ademoyo

Recently, the Nigerian state was forced to covertly admit that there was indeed a contractual relation of   $40 million with an Israeli firm, Elbit Security Systems, to monitor Internet and computer activities of Nigerians. However, President Jonathan’s retinue of official and unofficial spokespersons have maintained a covert duplicitous disposition on this. They first questioned the veracity of the news only to claim that the contract is justified! They must have been watching the body language of the presidency while hoping that the bad news would go away and perhaps the presidency would quietly continue with the treacherous and unpatriotic contract out of public glare. 

There are some questions Mr. Jonathan’s official and unofficial spokespersons and the Presidency did not answer. Those questions are:  Was $60 million dollars involved in the contract? If so, why did Elbit systems report $40 million? Why can’t President Jonathan hand this money over to the Nigerian Academy of Science and Nigerian Society of Engineers with the marching order to them to provide a Nigerian and an African-centered Cyber defense and intelligence mechanism within a year? I submit that to avoid these questions is to wrongly accept the dubious view that peoples of African descent are genetically inferior to other races; that they are incapable of any scientific endeavor. I challenge anyone who defends the Presidency on this unpatriotic contract to refute this submission.

Paradoxically, as if to justify the contract, something happened. Within the same time frame that Elbit, the Israeli firm was informing us of this contract, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, President Jonathan’s adviser on amnesty on Niger Delta creek terrorists, was informing the American audience that insecurity would return to the Niger Delta if President Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015. Insecurity means terrorism. In a normal republic, the president would have demanded the immediate resignation of Mr. Kingsley Kuku for such open subversion of the republic. But Kuku is still there being paid from the sweat of the taxpayers he threatened with insecurity and terrorism-which means President Jonathan is in full support of Mr. Kingsley Kuku’s statement. This is sad and unacceptable from a President.

Shortly, after Mr. Kuku’s public disclosure, one of the terrorists Mr. Kuku was supposed to have amnestied -Mr. Asari Dokubo –followed with an orchestrated video saying regardless of democratic process, if President Jonathan is not re-elected, insecurity would return to the land. With Dokubo’s video, the distinction between Kingsley Kuku, the President’s adviser and Asari Dokubo, the thug and terrorist became blurred! It did not cross the mind of this thug and terrorist Dokubo that in a democracy anyone-including an incumbent, his principal and mentor, President Jonathan, can be electorally defeated.  Both Dokubo and Kuku did not appeal to President Jonathan’s programs and manifesto. Rather, they both appealed to violence and insecurity-in other words terrorism- as the tool.

Strangely, our President is quiet. By keeping quiet, President Jonathan has acquiesced to the support of a terrorist like Asari Dokubo and by extension has become a candidate of a terrorist in the 2015 elections. Hence, in view of the fact that President Jonathan’s government is amnestying the creek terrorists to guard oil pipeline (as he is hoping to do with the OPC ethnic militia in the west) one is a bit confused about the meaning and value of President Jonathan’s amnesty program to the creek terrorists and Mr. Kuku’s job description.  While Mr. Kuku and Mr. Dokubo have   a right to their opinions on the return of terrorism to the land, the question for Mr. Kuku and Mr. Jonathan is: why will Mr. Dokubo who has been amnestied with public money bounce back as a renewed and re-invigorated terrorist? Did we waste public funds in amnestying Mr. Dokubo and his consortium and franchise of creek terrorists? Is the presidency by other means using amnesty money to fund terrorism? The proposed questionable oil pipeline security contract to OPC ethnic militia to “police” and “guard” south western oil pipelines is instructive here. These are serious and grievous considerations in the republic.

But Kuku and Dokubo are not alone in this threat to the republic.  Both Mr. Kuku and Mr. Dokubo’s comments only gave a creek face to Mr. Adamu Ciroma and Mr. Lawal Kaita’s prior comments from the savannah shortly after the 2011 elections.  Ciroma and Kaita savannah subversive proclamations are fillips to Kuku and Dokubo creek sabotaging response. The only difference is that Mr. Ciroma and Mr. Kaita are “old School”. They did not use video format the way Dokubo has done. But while the MEND and other creek terrorism franchise is cognate to Kuku and Dokubo, Boko Haram savannah terrorism franchise is cognate to Ciroma and Kaita.  However, even when Ciroma and Kaita may be “old fashioned”, Abubakar Shekau the video “leader” of Boko Haram is analogous to Asari Dokubo. Both are trendier and more contemporary. They now use YouTube for visual effect. I guess soon they will start using facebook and tweets to showcase their “trendy” terrorism franchise. More importantly, while Ciroma and Kaita are precursors to Kuku and Dokubo, Farouk Aliyu is a more recent entrant to the use of freedom of speech to give public face to terrorist threat to the republic.

And talking about funding, Boko Haram, which recently uploaded another YouTube to claim responsibility for the killings in Baga and Bama in Borno state, has not found time to upload YouTube to deny that it collected 500 million naira to free French hostages. At the ethical level, given Boko Haram’s claim to Islam and given that all   religions enjoin us to say the truth, and given that truth saying is an ethical issue, we are surprised that Boko Haram is running away from being “bold” and “courageous” as usual. It seems Boko Haram is not bold and courageous enough on question of simple ethics i.e. to say the truth about the alleged 500 million naira it reportedly collected. One wonders why a “religious” group will be “courageous” to kill but is not courageous to tell the truth and be ethical as taught by religions. Terrorists of all hues must have a funny notion of the virtue of courage and boldness. It may be that Boko Haram is finding it difficult to hold onto a righteous ground hence it is praying that the news go away.

However, in an open democratic republic, the news of the blood money may not go away so soon for if there is a collector of blood money, there is a payer. So who paid this money to Boko Haram? This may be one out of the numerous reasons the President of the Republic; President Jonathan is hiring Elbit, the Israeli firm for intelligence gathering even when the real question is whether   we need an Israeli firm to be able to see the connection between Boko Haram and MEND/ creek terrorist franchises, and the franchises’ public faces like Messers Kuku, Aliyu, Ciroma, Kaita and Dokubo who have used their freedom of speech to subvert the republic and the nation’s democracy? This is because if Asari Dokubo and, his sponsors are right that there is a connection between Ciroma, Kaita and Aliyu’s comments on one hand and Boko Haram’s terrorism on the other, by that same   Dokubo and sponsors’ logic, there is a connection between Kuku and Dokubo and their sponsors on one hand and the Niger Delta creek terrorism on the other hand.

Looking back, the president of the Republic, Mr. Jonathan once lend credence to all these when he confirmed   with his own mouth that there are members of Boko Haram terrorist group in his presidency. That also implies that there are members of the Niger Delta creek terrorist groups in the presidency.  This is a question for citizens in the republic to engage and not for a foreign company-Elbit- whose interest is legitimately and purely economic. Such economic interest will never be Nigerian nor will they be African. We citizens of the republic are the only ones that can make Nigerian and African interests the core center of our lives, not a foreign company.  Fellow citizens, what do you think?

PremiumTimes

Article of Faith: Coincidences Don’t Exist, By Femi Aribisala

Femi Aribisala

God is not a coincidental God.

My DVD player has a slow-motion application.  When you press it, you see the film you are watching in slow-motion.  That way, you are likely to notice things you would otherwise have overlooked.  When I first met the Lord, he set my life to slow-motion for the first two to three months so I could see things I had not noticed before.  Suddenly, I discovered that everything about my life followed an ordered pattern.  There was discernibly a guiding hand to all the things happening around me.

I would ask the Lord a question and wait for him to answer; and he answered every time.  But what was fascinating was the way he answered.  In some cases, he answered directly in my mind.  But more often than not, he used the things around me to answer.  I would turn on the television and he would use someone on the screen to speak to me.  Someone would come to visit me and would answer my question without my asking.  I would open my bible and the answer would speak to me from one of the pages.

On one occasion, I asked the Lord a question while driving.  When I looked up, the answer was there; boldly written on a billboard.  I then wondered whether the billboard was a vision or whether it was really there.  So I went back again on the same route.  When I got there, the billboard was right there, with the same message on it.  Apparently, it had been there for a while.  But why was it that the exact time I asked the Lord the question was the exact time I drove past the billboard?  Did I ask the question or did the Lord cause me to ask it at that particular time?  Your guess is as good as mine.

After some time, the Lord switched off the slow-motion and everything went back to normal speed.  But now I know it is up to me to be observant.  Accordingly, I now spend every day of my life on the look-out for God.  I make it my business to know what God is doing in the situations and circumstances of my life.  It is my business to know the purpose he has purposed for me.  Jesus says: “I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4).

Finger of God

Once, the Police arrested my former Business Manager, Ernest Oboh, on trumped-up charges.  I had to go to the station to see what I could do.  Before I left, I said a short prayer asking God for help.  I asked him for the favour of God and the favour of man.

When I got to the Police Station, I spoke to the arresting officer.  The man listened to me intently for a few minutes and then directed that my Manager be released immediately.  Then he gave me his reasons.  He said to me: “I am releasing him for three reasons.  I am releasing him because I have a lot of respect for people who have grey hair, and you have a lot of it.  I am releasing him because I understand you have a doctorate, and I just have lots of respect for people who have doctorates.  I am releasing him because you are a pastor, and I just have a lot of respect for pastors.”

I told the officer: “I am sorry to disagree with you, Sir.  You are not releasing him because of any of those reasons.  You are releasing him because before I came here, I went down on my knees and prayed and asked God to give me favour.”

You see, right from the beginning of that episode, God brought the case to a man whose mind he had already prepared to be sympathetic to me.  All the issues about grey hairs and doctorates were simply the devices of God.  Somebody else could have hated me precisely because my hair was grey, and he could have hated me for having a doctorate.

Strategically-placed helpers

Many years ago, some Liberian refugee members of our fellowship were arrested for “loitering,” and we had to go to the police station to secure their release.  So we knelt down and asked God to take control.  When we got to the Station, we were directed to the office of the Divisional Commander.  Immediately I walked into his office, I saw the kingdom of God.  All over the walls were posters with slogans affirming the supremacy of Christ.

When I sat down, I said to the DCO: “I see, Sir, that you are a Christian.”  In answer to that question, he and I started sharing testimonies about the goodness of the Lord.  This went on for some thirty minutes, after which he suddenly said: “By the way, why have you come to see me?”

I told him some members of our fellowship were arrested for “loitering,” and I wanted to see if I could secure their release.  The policeman was angry.  “For loitering!” he exclaimed.  He not only directed they be released immediately, but that those who arrested them should be locked up.

Don’t panic

Joy Ogwu’s son was going back to the United States from Nigeria.  He had an American passport and a Nigerian passport simultaneously.  He came in with his Nigerian passport, which meant he did not have a Nigerian visa.  But if he tried to leave with his Nigerian passport, they would require him to show a visa for his destination.  That meant he would have to show his American passport.  But dual nationality had then been suspended in Nigeria.  If he only showed his American passport, they would ask him how he got into the country without a Nigerian visa.

It was a “Catch 22” situation.  Joy took the matter to God and asked for his help.  Then she went to the airport with her son.  But on getting there, she had a panic attack.  Perhaps there was someone she knew who could help her?  Perhaps if she spoke politely to the immigration official he would overlook the matter?  Perhaps; perhaps; perhaps.  Finally, the Holy Spirit spoke: “Did you not ask me for help?  So why are you still anxious?”

Remorseful, she stood there in the middle of the airport terminal apologising to God.  She had scarcely finished praying her apologies when someone called her name.  “Professor Ogwu is that you?”  She looked up to see this distinguished military officer standing in front of her with a big grin on his face.  “What are you doing here?” he asked.  “My son is travelling to the United States.”  “Where is he?” the man asked taking charge.  He took charge so completely he ushered him past immigration and literally on to the plane.  Problem solved.

When Joy told her husband what happened, he was unimpressed.  “It was just a coincidence,” he insisted.  Coincidence my foot!  Our God is not a coincidental God.

Femi Aribisala is the fellowship coordinator of Healing Wings. 

PremiumTimes

Article of Faith: God Does Not Forbid Bad Thing, By Femi Aribisala

Femi Aribisala

The report of the Lord is first and foremost a bad report. 

There is a misunderstanding prevalent among Christians, especially those weaned on the “prosperity gospel.”  It is assumed that when the Lord gives a report, he always gives a good report, and that the report of the devil is always bad.  Thus, we say repeatedly in “Naijanese:” “God forbid bad thing.”  However, this comes from fundamental lack of understanding of Jesus’ kingdom dynamics.

In the kingdom of God, the way up is down.  The Lord kills and makes alive.  He makes poor and makes rich.  He brings low and lifts up. (1 Samuel 2:6-7).  He wounds and he heals. (Deuteronomy 32:39).  Therefore, before the Lord gives a good report, he first gives a bad report.

God’s bad reports

If the report of the Lord were always good, as is commonly assumed, why would Isaiah ask: “Who has believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1).  What is so difficult to believe about a good report?  If the report of the Lord were the same as the prosperity messages prevalent in the churches of today, why were the prophets of God in the bible often beaten up, jailed and killed?  Thus, Jesus lamented: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.” (Luke 13:34).

The truth is the report of the Lord is first and foremost a bad report.  Why else would Jeremiah bring charges against the Lord?  He complains: “O Lord, you deceived me when you promised me your help. I have to give them your messages because you are stronger than I am, but now I am the laughingstock of the city, mocked by all.  You have never once let me speak a word of kindness to them; always it is disaster and horror and destruction.” (Jeremiah 20:7-8).

Because this world is steeped in evil and corruption, the report of the Lord is often bad.  It is usually of God’s anger at the sins of men and of his impending judgment.  But inside that bad report is often buried the promise of a conditionally good report.  Thus, Noah gave the bad report that God would destroy mankind in a flood.  However, he also said those who took refuge in the ark would be saved.  It is the devil and his agents that give good reports which then turn out to be bad.  They are determined to give us a false sense of security.

Let us go back to Genesis to get a foundational understanding of this kingdom dynamic.  God told Adam at the dawn of creation: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17).

This was a bad report and it came from God.  It was a report of certain death as a consequence of disobedience.  Who then gave the good report?  It was the devil.  “The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5).

Whose report did Eve believe?  She believed the good report of the devil and rejected the bad report of the Lord.  Therefore she ate the forbidden fruit and also gave it to Adam, her husband.  Immediately they ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve died spiritually.  Their death was not forbidden by the Lord: their death was decreed by the Lord.

The tendency to reject the bad report of the Lord in favour of the good report of the devil is endemic.  In the case of Adam and Eve, it resulted in their being driven out of the Garden of Eden and denied access to the Tree of Life. (Genesis 3:24).  Today, it results in Christians being denied entry into the kingdom of heaven.

Double-edged sword

Why is God’s good news often hidden in his bad news?  The answer lies in the surgical nature of the word of God.  It is like a double-edged sword. (Hebrews 4:12).  Thus, the Lord asks Jeremiah: “Is not my word like a fire and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29).  Fire consumes the chaff, so the word of God burns and consumes fake Christians.  But fire also purifies, so the word of God purifies true Christians.  The hammer, of course, is used both to destroy and to build.

The same pillar of cloud that brought darkness to the Egyptians provided light for the Israelites. (Exodus 14:19-20).  The same Red Sea which destroyed the Egyptians saved the Israelites.  Similarly, the gospel leads many to condemnation, even as it leads a few to salvation.  Jesus says: “the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.” (Matthew 20:16).

Thus, the word of God is often bad news and good news simultaneously.  But it is usually bad news before it is good news.  Jesus, the word of God, would cause the bad to happen before the good would happen.  Indeed, his speciality would be in bringing the good out of the bad.  Accordingly, Simeon prophesied that Jesus will cause people to fall before causing them to rise: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel.” (Luke 2:34).

Therefore, James counsels believers: “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:10).  Jesus himself also says: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12).

Stumbling-stone

Couched in this manner, the greatest trap of all will be Jesus himself.  Isaiah warns: “He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken.” (Isaiah 8:14-15).  As we run from the bad that following Jesus entails, we miss the good he provides.  Jesus says: “You will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake… But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:9/13).

Accordingly, the gospel is bad news to those who reject its bad report.  But it turns out to be good news to those who accept its bad report.  What is the bad report before the good report of the gospel?  Jesus says: “Whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33).  “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).  “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:33).

Don’t say to this: “God forbid bad thing.”  The rich young ruler came to Jesus seeking eternal life.  The gospel required him to sell all he had, give the proceeds to the poor and then follow Jesus.  But the man rejected the bad news of losing his wealth and, thereby, forfeited the good news of inheriting eternal life.

Even so, those who reject the bad news of the gospel forfeit its good news.

Femi Aribisala is the fellowship coordinator of Healing Wings. 

PremiumTimes