"Go to the patch and pick me an ale!"

Cool weather here in the Midwest means pumpkins.

I mention this because there seems to be an exorbitant amount of pumpkin beers on the shelves these days.

According to the website Beeradvocate.com

Often released as a fall seasonal, Pumpkin Ales are quite varied. Some brewers opt to add hand-cut pumpkins and drop them in the mash, while others use puree or pumpkin flavoring. These beers also tend to be spiced with pumpkin pie spices, like: ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and all spice. Pumpkin Ales are typically mild, with little to no bitterness, a malty backbone, with some spice often taking the lead. Many will contain a starchy, slightly thick-ish, mouthfeel too. In our opinion, best versions use real pumpkin, while roasting the pumpkin can also add tremendous depth of character for even better results, though both methods are time-consuming and tend to drive brewmasters insane (end)

There are 189 examples reviewed on their website at: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/style/72/?start=0

I've enjoyed a couple of different examples and will give them a C+ (nothing special to me).

Of course, here is a photo of what can happen if you drink too much of this stuff.

Unknown photo source, but a classic!

Bowie “Off to Notre Dame to cheer on the Fighting Irish” of Greenbriar

The Feast of The Guardian Angel

Today is the Catholic Feast of the Guardian Angel. Of course the concept of a Guardian Angel is not exclusive to Catholic Christians. Angels have fascinated humans since we stood upright and began to think instead of react. Many faiths embrace angles, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhist (Devas) and Hindu (Spirit Beings). And of course Angels have become a central focus in non-traditional spiritual beliefs too. Not unlike discussions of late, is their a God, and if so, what form does this supreme Spirit take, the Guardian Angel opens up a wide degree of interpretation. The image above struck me as the perfect Guardian Angel for the Knights of Moleskine, Spirit and Ale. This is how many view the Archangel Michael, the warrior who defends us from the powers of evil.

Of course, then there's the Guardian Angel that is nurturing, more feminine, who watches over us as children, keeping us safe and secure during a scary night.

Then, the Guardian Angel that is without body, omnipresent, detached but always present. It seems to me that like everything else, our Guardian Angels take on the persona that we project on them. Like beer, sometimes we're in the mood for a mellow lager, sometimes a hearty stout, sometimes a hoppy ale; so too our Guardian Angel, sometimes mellow and nurturing, sometimes a hearty warrior, sometimes a bitter yet satisfying aftertaste.

The picture above was taken by me behind the altar at the Dome, the home of the nuns of St. Benedict in Ferdinand, Indiana. I have always embraced this image as one of my favorites of my Guardian Angel. A warrior, yet approachable, open and wise. I have this image as my main background on my iPhone. Of course, it in reality is a reflection on how I view myself.

I came to believe in Guardian Angels long before I became a Catholic Christian. One night after late studies on my return home from University to my trailer in the woods overlooking Kentucky Lake, I fell asleep at the wheel, literally. When I awoke my car was driving itself through the woods, steering to avoid one tree after the next until it came to a crashing halt, perfectly wedged between two trees. Not a scratch on my body, yet my car was totalled. The freaky thing was, watching that wheel moving, like unseen hands where steering it away from harm.

I finally made it to my bed that evening and just as I was getting ready to go to sleep a rainbow of light appeared at the end of my bed. Instead of being frightened, an overwhelming calm came over me and I went right to sleep. I knew that I was being watched over.

What is your experience in this spiritual realm? Do you believe in Guardian Angels? Why or why not? A new debate begins....

Sir Hook the Warrior Angel of Warrick

Imagine There Is No Heaven

Upon learning that I am still deciding what form ( my present favourite being the God Particle inside the atom ) , or if indeed at all, I believed in God, a friend in a noisy Oxford tavern the other night asked me, visibly surprised, "so you don't believe in goodness?".

It took me a while to decipher the correlation. Religious people are often quick to point out that anyone who doesn't believe in God must be immoral - the usual argument being that if there is no absolute morality handed over to us mortals from a personal god, there is no source to derive our morality from.

"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere.... Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behaviour should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." - ALBERT EINSTEIN

Interestingly Ole Albert would probably be shocked to find out that atheists are discriminated against in seven state's of America's constitutions. For example:

Article 9 Section 2 of Tennessee's State Constitution
"No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state."

Article 6 Section 8 of North Carolina's State Constitution
"Disqualifications of office. The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God."

Not that I ever plan to become a politician, but that's beside the point. I can see that most of this nonsense comes from the popular misconception that only hell fearing religious people can lead a moral and ethical life ("such person will be held morally accountable for his acts, and be rewarded or punished therefore either in this world or in the world to come").

As the atheist Dave Silverman points out: What a sad world it is when people can seriously say that humans need to fear eternal damnation in order to do good. Atheists do good, not out of fear of reprisal, but because it's the right thing to do.

Its a shame I never had all this contra bar-guement to hand, instead of just a cold foaming pint of ale, and a collage of points badly made, but being a good knight, and in my KMSA capacity of understanding diversity through knowledge, when I got home I prodded around a few articles online that would maybe help me combat such a question again.

Consider these:

Slavery was not only acceptable 200 years ago, it was considered a good deed by many, and defended using the bible. The bible was also used to justify the Holocaust, the Crusades, and the Spanish Inquisition.

As late as the last century, religious Hindus ritually cremated widows alive along with their dead husbands.

Hitler was a Catholic, and Jeffrey Dahmer said grace before he ate his victims. On the other hand, Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford were all atheists.

While atheists make up 8-10% of the population at large, they only make up 1% of the population in prison.

It seems then that there are plenty of religious people who are dangerous, thieving, lying, hating, killing, adulterous scum. Not to say that religious people are bad people and atheists are somehow better - all I'm proposing here in the spirit of KMSA debate, is that ethics/morality in a person is not a product of religious belief, it comes from within. Anybody can choose to lead a moral and ethical life, or the opposite, regardless of whether they are theists or atheists.

Madalyn Murray (later O'Hair), wrote a document used in the court case Murray v. Curlett, 1961-APR-27. It reads, in part:

"An Atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist knows that heaven is something for which we should work now - here on earth - for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist thinks that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue, and enjoy it. An Atheist thinks that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to know a god. An Atheist knows that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He knows that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end to troubles in the hereafter. He knows that we are our brother's keeper and keepers of our lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now."


Of course in truth he might just proffer his empty beer glass and say " Its Your Round then "


Sir Dayvd ( ...next week on the D of O channel...can rich people ever be holy?.. ) of Oxfordshire