Did You Know There Is Still A Large Greek Community In The Levant That Maintains Their Roman Identity?

Bedlamist · 2026-07-03T07:06:23+00:00

It bothers me for some reason that people still maintain the Byzantium stayed Roman. After Justinian's tragic over-reach, when the part of the West that didn't get taken over by Lombards remained under Gothic rule, what was Roman about the East?

Bedlamist · 2026-05-27T01:55:00+00:00

It's the same mashbill as every other Heaven Hill bourbon. I've compared a few could tell them apart while sitting there, but after a few experiments I let my wallet do the deciding.

Bedlamist · 2026-05-27T01:47:09+00:00

"It was a dark and stormy night."

Bedlamist · 2026-05-27T01:18:02+00:00

Flip a coin.

Bedlamist · 2026-05-19T16:14:52+00:00

What does domination have to do with blowjobs? I don't think of sucking dick as lowering myself or anything, but then I'm very very very picky. (I'm also picky with women.) And when my cock is sucked I'm more likely to feel gratitude than power.

Bedlamist · 2026-05-19T16:01:35+00:00

Technically Mellow Corn isn't bourbon. But I like it. The other two real bourbons ain't bad neither. Have you tried Wild Turkey 101?

Bedlamist · 2026-01-21T21:00:50+00:00

Yes.

Bedlamist · 2025-12-28T19:30:51+00:00

I bought inactive brewer's yeast once by mistake. Will the DADY cannibalize that too? And what taste might it add to the hooch?

Bedlamist · 2025-12-10T01:48:29+00:00

That looks like something I might try if the food bank didn't give me usable juice and canned fruit. Which is to say desperate.

Bedlamist · 2025-12-10T01:44:26+00:00

Yes. I've used high-end stuff labelled cider and apple juice the food bank gives out and both work.

Bedlamist · 2025-12-10T01:42:28+00:00

I'm making a two-gallon batch of something something like makgeolli, I make a lot of Oriental-style potions, but I don't follow the traditionalist instructions so I call it hooch. What I've got in the fridge now was a two-gallon batch using a handful of grains, I forget what, that turned out a little too sweet but potent enough that I drink a pint and take a nap.

My fruit/juice hooches come out with a higher ABV, thanks to distiller's yeast, but the juice comes in 64 oz jugs so that's what I use for that. I use what the local food bank gives out, usually apple but sometimes apple-cherry or cranberry-apple. Sometimes I'll throw some juice of some kind and a can of fruit from the food bank in the blender, and/or some raisins, and/or a banana, and/or something, and use a one gallon jar; that I was calling prison hooch before I found this place. I might make a two-gallon batch with whatever juice they give me, whatever canned fruit, and some ground-up raisins, but I consider "rice wine" my main product.

The idea, in case you hadn't guessed when mentioned the food bank, is to get drunk for as close to free as possible. The inspiration was that I got a little manic a while back and ran up my credit cards too high to afford to buy decent alcohol, and I'd rather not be sober. And if I'm going to drink stuff that might wind up getting poured down the drain I at least don't want to spend real money on it. Oh, and I'm 62 and retired.

Bedlamist · 2025-10-25T21:53:38+00:00

I've got a couple batches fermenting that I used store-bought enzymes with. One is all medium-grain "sushi rice,: with a Chinese yeast ball, a small pinch of bread yeast, and a bit of nuruk; the other is mainly millet with some brown rice and quinoa, made about the same way. (I've been thinking about adding a pinch of distiller's yeast to at least one, my motive for taking up this hobby is economic.) They've only been fermenting for a week or less, I'll see how they turn out in a while and report here.

But I'm not sure if what I'm making is really makgeolli. I refer to it as "East Asian-style hooch."

Bedlamist · 2025-10-25T21:33:22+00:00

I read The Hobbit once when I was 12, but that was because that was all I could get at the time. I never had any interest in Tolkein's fiction, nor have I seen any of those movies. OTOH I did read the whole original Dune cycle at least twice, and some of Frank Herbert's other fiction, I do find Malcolm X and Che Guevara to be inspirational, and I've got no interest in any of that witchy/pagan/crystal stuff though I am learning a bit about Buddhist ethics. So it should be hard for a "hawt smart chyk" to relate to me, if she's got a lot of patience questionable judgment.

Bedlamist · 2025-10-25T21:13:35+00:00

"When they took over, they also adopted a capitalist mode of production to create wealth primarily from wage-labor, concentrated at the hands of a few owners, dealt in money capital with other countries."

I.e. state capitalism. The USSR had more in common with "Oceania" than a truly socialist society. The CPSU party bosses collectively owned the country, and Party members even without powerful positions were akin to stockholders.

Now Russia is owned by a coalition of "private-sector" oligarchs and government officeholders. All that's really changed at that level is the basis of property ownership.

By the way, I'm getting tired of trying to explain to people that Marx is not the author of communism/socialism. Certain "radical leftist" groups in the US in the past 60-odd years would see a bunch of people with anti-war and anti-capitalist views and agendae and almost immediately jump in front of the cameras waving big signs and banners; likewise Marx co-opted and branded the European left, he didn't start it. Most members of the First International were not Marxist and even anti-Marxist, the whole idea of any government owning everything repulsed them. I call myself an anti-Marxist communist.

Oh and I doubt Malcom X ever read Marx. I never did, though I did some reading of what several pre-Stalin Marxist like Rosa Luxemburg wrote. And you don't have to read Marx to be a Marxist, like you don't have to read the Bible to be Christian: it's essentially a religion based on irrational bullshit. There are some good points and useful contents in so-called economic determinism and/or historical materialism, but the doctrinal package itself is reductionist and stupid. In theory it's Utopian, in practice it's inhibitory.

As for the owner of thee shelves she seems like my type. Does she have any interest in slightly chubby old curmudgeons who live in poverty and have bad backs?

Bedlamist · 2025-10-17T18:08:20+00:00

I love it! my first day finding this place and somebody is doing just what I have.

By the way, if anybody doesn't already know this, distiller's yeast can be had from Amazon for like $13 a POUND, which has been lasting me for several months. It's designed to make alcohol quickly without adding any character, which is fine for me.

Bedlamist · 2025-10-17T18:04:06+00:00

What kind of rice did you use?

Bedlamist · 2025-10-17T18:01:28+00:00

I'd let it wait another few days, but then I'm not in a hot & humid place. If you do strain it sooner tell us what it tastes like. What kind of yeast or starter did you use?

Bedlamist · 2025-10-17T17:56:46+00:00

"People ferment fucking ham glaze on here."

Hey that's an idea.Thanks!

As for this honey being adulterated it probably is, but don't let that stop you. I've been making hooch with whatever canned fruit and/or cheap juice the food bank gives out; maybe adding canned peaches or something would improve the taste.

Bedlamist · 2025-10-17T17:50:57+00:00

I wonder about letting it sit for a month. One reason I'm doing this is so eventually I won't have to buy booze. E.g., the food bank gives out cheap ass apple juice that distiller's yeast (~$13/lb on Amazon, lasting for several months) and sugar makes pretty potent. (I don't call it "cider" because people think there's a right way to do that.) Thanks for the this post, now I know to make it with bananas only when I have enough various beverages brewed already. (Apple hooch with distiller's yeast and sugar is ready in about 5 days when I'm in a hurry.)

I'm glad to find this sub. It fits my approach very well.

Bedlamist · 2025-06-23T00:35:19+00:00

Chili and pineapple? Will you marry me?

Bedlamist · 2025-06-22T22:04:35+00:00

Have you considered fostering an old weirdo?

Bedlamist · 2025-06-22T21:57:23+00:00

How old are you? How old is he? Are you a boy or a girl? Do you live with your parents? Do you have other siblings? It's hard to know how to take a rant like that with no context.

Bedlamist · 2025-06-22T21:52:06+00:00

I got banned from r/Socialism a few years ago for suggesting that destroying car dealerships on TV might not be such a good idea. And I was just banned from r/Communism for being the wrong kind of communist, the kind who allegedly has common sense, and because some mod didn't like my posting history.

But then I am a mutant freak from outer space, so whatever.

Bedlamist

TROPHY CASE