Bye-Bye BUD-ie

Budweiser, Anheuser Busch, being owned by some company in Belgium? Are you kidding me?Does it make anyone else sick? I mean, I'm not a big Bud drinker myself, but I'm fed-up with American icons being bought by foreign companies ... and being sold in the first place for that matter. Is it all about the buck? Ugh.

Does anyone remember in Pretty Woman, when Edward (Richard Gere) is explaining his business to Vivian (Julia Roberts)? He is a corporate raider who takes buys a company's stock then breaks it up and sells it off piece by piece. Viv says, "...so you don't build anything and you don't make anything?" She was kind-of confused and disheartened by that.

This Bud thing just reminded me of that. I know that Bud will still be made here, but I can't help but feel a little disheartened and confused either. Maybe its because I live in Hershey and have heard reliable rumors that all their chocolate making jobs are moving to Mexico. Maybe its because I lived in Pittsburgh, PA - the one time heart of the steel world (and steel was the heart of the building of this country), with mills running up and down each barge-filled river for literally miles and miles. Today, there is not one functioning steel mill in Pittsburgh ... but they have turned some of the cites into nice shopping centers! What are Pittsburghers now? Doctors, Lawyers and the people who serve them. Maybe its because my home town is now a ghost town and I hear of the good-ole days of the Viscose and Talon and the more recent good-ole days of the tool and die era - when a regular guy could get a good paying job and really have the American dream.

Sorry for the rant.