Here at It’s A Fine Day For A Beer, it is our firmest political conviction that people should think for themselves, make informed decisions, and vote as they see fit. We encourage open minds and respect differences of opinion in politics just as we do with people’s particular tastes and preferences in beer. This is something that we hope has been made abundantly clear in our Election Day missive, our writeup on the final day of the Democratic National Convention, and anyplace else where politics may have intersected with our love of quality beer.
It is not our place to tell you what to believe or how to vote – and regardless, we would hope that you would take your cues on such fundamental and serious matters from someplace other than a web site devoted to the enjoyment of beer.
That being said, we are not without our own personal biases, opinions, assumptions, and beliefs – some undoubtedly to the left of mainstream, and others as clearly to the right.
As has been noted before, we are also not without advertisements. The minimal support of click-based and commission-based advertising dollars (and it is minimal) is a necessary part of existence. Some of these ads are of our choosing. Others are contextual advertisements largely out of our control.
Yesterday, our own private beliefs collided uncomfortably with some of this contextual advertising, as a handful of “Vote Yes on Proposition 8” ads appeared on the site. For those outside of California or somehow unfamiliar with Prop 8, it was, in a nutshell, a proposed amendment to the California state constitution which would eliminate gay marriage rights. This is, of course, a controversial issue (the ballot measure narrowly passed). It’s one which elicits a visceral response from many on both sides. And it is an issue over which we both expect and can accept some sincere disagreement.
However, “Yes on Proposition 8” is categorically not a position that was ever endorsed, officially or otherwise, by this web site or any of the countless people on its editorial staff. We want to make that clear to anyone who may have seen the ads.
(Of course, so long as they are intruding upon our state of beery bliss, we don’t necessarily oppose any clicking upon such ads that you may choose to do. We’d be happy to see funds diverted from their cause to ours.)
