The Drinking Liberally family would like to extend a most-enthusiastic CONGRATULATIONS! to Ted and Saskia of Lexington, Kentucky. The two were married last month after having met in 2007 at -- you guessed it -- their local Drinking Liberally chapter.

How did this come to be?

Mellow Mushroom pizzeria, downtown Lexington. Chance meeting at a gathering of our Drinking Liberally friends. Lots of pizza, eye gazing, and political sparring, um that means flirting. That was December 2007. Many beers and political debates later, the happy couple wants to get married, and we hope you will join us in celebrating the nuptials...

You can read more about how they met, see pictures of the wedding and even send your own well-wishes by visiting their wedding page at http://www.mywedding.com/webecoolenwright/index.html.

On behalf of everyone at Drinking Liberally, we'd like to raise our glasses and toast Ted and Saskia as they begin their wonderful life together.

Did you meet your special someone at Drinking Liberally? Know someone else who did? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

On President Obama's 49th birthday,
America celebrated with a gift of equality.

A Federal judge threw out Prop 8,
thus affirming the right of Americans
to marry the people they love.

And as heterosexuals wake up today,
their own marriages are the same as yesterday.
For better or for worse.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President.

Now, let's fight to protect more equal unions
...and thus work for a more perfect Union.

Toast the decision & the future newlyweds
as you sip and share, drink and debate
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

Chelsea Clinton is so definitely getting married in Rhinebeck today. All the signs point to it -- like the one two miles down the road from Astor Courts (the presumed wedding locale), which reads: "Chelsea and Marc -- congratulations from Rhinecliff's Morton Memorial Library! Stop in for your wedding gift -- your own free-for-life library card!!!"

What better way for the happy couple to become card-carrying members of the "un-Hamptons?" And in this era when sub-literate slogans and mindless mantras have dumbed down our political discourse, it's a timely reminder that a century or so ago, Republican Vice President Levi P. Morton valued literacy so much that he chose to honor the memory of his daughter Lena, who died tragically young, by erecting the Morton Memorial Library. (Excuse me, the Morton Memorial Library and Community House -- apparently he valued community, too -- must have been a closet socialist.)

I happen to be the proud owner of a Morton Memorial Library card myself, because our humble Hudson Valley hovel is across the street from the library, and a quick bike ride to Astor Courts, where I've been many times.

So, how does a scruffy activist with soil-encrusted fingernails get to set foot in such a swanky setting? Well, "Dutchess County" may have the ring of royalty, but really, most folks in this neck of the woods -- including Astor Courts owner Kathy Hammer, who painstakingly restored the historic Stanford White pavillion -- are actually pretty down-to-earth. No red carpet for the glitterati, here; just greener pastures for the literati. Give us the life of the mind over the mindless life, any day.

Kathy frequently hosts fundraisers for Democratic candidates and graciously opens the doors of Astor Courts to artists, writers, activists, scholars, architects, students, and others who share her appreciation for this architectural gem and her passion for progressive causes.

As she told the New York Times in a 2008 article about the restoration of Astor Courts aptly titled "A Fixer Upper to End Them All," "We are using it the way it was intended, as a social gathering place."

Chelsea Clinton's wedding won't be the first time Kathy has played host to hundreds: In 2006, she threw a fundraiser for 400 Planned Parenthood supporters, and during the 2008 election season, she invited 350 neighbors to a screening of Pete Seeger's documentary, The Power of Song in Astor Courts' cavernous indoor clay tennis court.

Kathy has also become a champion of local and sustainable agriculture. Back in 1904, Astor Courts "was part of a gentleman's working farm," sending produce and meat down to the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. One of Kathy's goals is to revive Astor Courts' agricultural heritage and promote our local Hudson Valley Farmers.

I should think she must be thrilled that Chelsea and Marc are rumored to be sourcing the food for their wedding from some of our fabulous local farmers. And I'd love to give them a shout-out, too, if only I were allowed.

But all I can say is that Chelsea's choice to make the menu mostly vegan, including the wedding cake, is maybe the best PR break an advocate for a plant-based diet could ask for. And the inclusion of pastured beef will do wonders to spread the grass-fed gospel.

I can, at least, share a few of my favorite things about Astor Courts:

1. The indoor swimming pool, reportedly the first-ever indoor swimming pool in the U.S. With its arched, robin's egg blue ceiling and giant windows overlooking the surrounding woodlands, it blows Hearst Castle's indoor pool out of the water.

2. The natural light that floods Astor Courts. Stanford White designed it to let in so much natural daylight that you barely need to flip a switch all day. There's an enormous skylight in the entrance hall which Kathy rescued from ruin and restored to its original glory.

3. The photographs. Astor Courts' walls display an extraordinary collection of early 20th-century American photography that would be the envy of any museum.

4. Brooke Astor's awesome library. The legendary philanthropist and socialite revered the written word, just as Levi P. Morton did.

I hope Chelsea and Marc share that passion, too, and will accept our hamlet's humble gift of a lifetime library card. I've got a couple of suggestions for how they can put it to good use:

For Marc, I recommend Woody Tasch's Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered, because it's high time we put unfettered capitalism out to pasture, and Woody shows the way.

For Chelsea, who may be craving a mental health break after all the hoopla and hype, I suggest Maya Rodale's just published, perfectly timed A Groom of One's Own?

Like Chelsea, Maya belongs to a legendary American family -- she's the great granddaughter of J.I. Rodale, pioneer of the U.S. organic farming and gardening movement, whose motto was "Healthy Soil = Healthy Food = Healthy People."

Maya is Rodale's director of communications, but when she's not promoting sustainable agriculture, puttering in the family garden or whipping up wholesome comfort food with her mother, Maria, she's writing ripping yarns about the winding, wayward path of true love.

In real life, Maya's walking down the aisle soon with her own dashing world-traveller and tech genius, Tony Haile. Here's wishing both these couples a happy, healthy future filled with delicious, fresh, locally grown veggies!

A leak in the Gulf that's taken 100 days to plug
spilled away our country's faith in off-shore drilling,
spreading new concerns & new ideas about energy policy.

A leak in the media about Afghanistan
may be even harder for the military to plug,
& as it gushes new evidence about the war
may spread new concerns & ideas about our mission.

Meanwhile, an economy that continues to leak jobs
won't be plugged by half-measures or deficit-mongering.
Can the Obama Administration stop that leak
before it gushes away our faith in our President?

We can stamp & fume and damn the leaks.
Or we can respond, work & dam the leaks.

Either way, a little leak can lead to big change.

There will be no leaks coming from our liberal libation
as we share ideas, hopes, frustrations & insights
with fellow like-minded lefties over a a drink or two
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

Nearly two years after the titans of Wall Street
brought our economy careening & crashing,
Washington actually passed financial reform.

It should've been inevitable but was near impossible
as the sluggish centrists & sellouts of the Senate
seemed to serve Wall Street over Main Street
& as the industry of excess lobbied for its life.

And while there's no doubt the financial industry
will find ways to evade any authority,
to grab with greed & rebel against regulation,
for this moment, at least, we made it happen.

The people won.

In the face of new measure, will Wall Street reform?
Or with new exotic investments, will it simply re-form?

That may be up to us.
Passing reform is one step.
Now let's make it stick.

Come out tonight to toast the new reforms
& share ideas on strengthening them
as you share a drink or two & a night of fun
with your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

The Senate must have been watching the World Cup
& taking notes on how to do business.

Soccer players constantly run, run, run --
& Senators are constantly running for re-election
while running away from any tough choices..

The athletes play as much defense as offense
& the Senators are often in defensive mode,
obstructing reforms, deflecting progress.

And in both soccer matches & the Senate,
not a whole lot is accomplished,
so everyone's ecstatic when one goal is achieved.

Yet, soccer starts are beloved around the world...
while Senators are distrusted in all corners of the country.
That's because soccer players are doing their damn jobs.

Why can't the Senate learn that tip from the World Cup?

Now, if only we could drown our Inhofe
with some in-Senate vuvuzelas...

World Cup may be over, but refill your cup
with liberal libations as we discuss & debate
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

If you're at all familiar with what we do here at Living Liberally, this excerpt from Matt Lambash's Weekly Standard coverstory (that's right, the conservative magazine) should not surprise you:

As [Living Liberally founder Justin] Krebs writes, Drinking Liberally “has never been about drinking .  .  . it’s about progressive politics in a social setting.” It’s about all of us being “in this together.” It’s not just about “how you vote on Election Day.” It’s about “how you vote with your wallet every day.” It’s not just about “what you chant at a rally, but what you laugh at or rock out to on your iPod.” It’s about saying “it’s about” a lot, and then saying something real meaningful afterwards. Like this: “Living like a liberal is never just about making politics personal, but about making personal politics public.” It’s about alliteration.

As Lambash puts in plain terms, the goal of Living Liberally as a whole has been empower our every day activities by giving the more purpose and meaning. Indeed, despite the mocking tone this article takes, that's the task laid before readers of Krebs' new book, 538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal.

Luckily for us, Lambash decides to celebrate America's independence this past 4th of July weekend by summoning the bravery to put himself to the test. As a born again Liberal, he sheds his conservative garb and gives in to his most vulnerable "liberal tendencies, all of which are on Krebs’s list," before attempting to make at least some of the changes prescribed by each of the sections of Justin's book. And if you can wade through all the cliche, sarcasm and derision crammed between the margins, you may even discover Lambash inadvertantly celebrating some aspects of the Liberal lifestyle and enjoying a little liberal-living in spite of himself.

But the burning question remains: will our conservative protagonist survive this epic transformation? Check out this 'playful' piece at the Weekly Standard to get a glimpse for yourself. Then, grab a copy of Kreb's book 538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal to see what changes can be made in your own life.

You can help Justin promote 538 Ways by contributing to his book tour, here.

If correctly identifying your problems is the first step to solving them, I'm afraid we'll all be peeling tar balls off our heels before we get a handle on the BP blowout.

"Please stop calling it a leak!" Bill KcKibben pleaded at the Slow Money conference in Shelburne, Vermont last month. A leak, after all, suggests a kind of dribble. A spill sounds like something you might mop up with a towel.

"We've punched a hole in the bottom of the ocean," McKibben added. "Is a knife wound a 'blood leak?'"

We're hitting some fundamental limits, he added, citing the 'thousand year' storms that seem to come every four or five years now, and the fact that we're facing the hottest year on record, so far (and that was before the heat wave that hit the whole Eastern seaboard this past week).

Yes, we need to plug that hole in the ocean floor before the entire Gulf becomes one gigantic dead zone. But there's an onshore contaminant threatening our future, too, and it's called fast money.

Fast money spews from the wells of Wall Street and spatters the globe from Beijing to Bangalore to Bentonville. It creates land-based dead zones filled with underwater mortgages and sinking businesses. Fast money "does violence to the web of relations on which the health of communities and bioregions depend," according to Slow Money founder Woody Tasch.

Tasch shares Bill McKibben's fervent belief that you can't have a truly sound economy unless you practice sound ecology. The subtitle of Tasch's book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, says it all: investing as if food, farms, and fertility mattered.

But don't expect Tasch to declare war on Wall Street. In a statement to the six hundred or so farmers, philanthropists, investors, eco-preneurs and real food rabble rousers (like me) who came to historic Shelburne Farms for Slow Money's second annual conference, Tasch explained why he's not going to pick that fight--or any fight, for that matter:

All of us here, today, recognize that we live in an economy and culture that is addicted to oil. We know that our system of industrial agriculture is, in Joan Gussow's words, "floating on a sea of oil." We recognize the irony that the Gulf oil spill is occurring in what is already a dead zone due to agricultural run-off carried down the Mississippi River.

We recognize, too, the temptation to become Tea-Party-like in our anger and frustration. It is tempting to wage war against BP or Goldman Sachs or McDonalds or Monsanto. But waging such wars makes about as much sense as trying to inject Slow Money into the gusher of fast money, hoping it will somehow "top kill" it...

...let's remember that you can launch a war, but you cannot launch peace. You can launch money into an investment portfolio, but you cannot launch peace of mind. You can launch chemicals into the soil, but you cannot launch fertility. Peace, health and fertility can only be found through what Wendell Berry calls "millions of small acts of care and restraint."

Peace. Health. Fertility. Too bad our current notions of how to keep America secure and prosperous have brought us just the opposite: war, disease, barren seas and soil.

And how do you sell the virtues of "small acts of care and restraint" to a nation that prides itself on living large and thinking big?

Except that we really don't think big, anymore, when we think at all. We have a shockingly defeatist, "can't do" attitude when it comes to tackling our current crises. Hence the mindset that we can't afford a moratorium on deepwater drilling because it will cost even more jobs than BP's disastrous deepwater drilling has already destroyed. We need the oil and the jobs, come hell or high, oily water. As Tasch wrote in his book:

It is not surprising that we find ourselves, today, captive to markets that are themselves captive to the enormous momentum of the economic growth that they have made possible.

What is surprising, however, is the degree of our reticence, our impotence, our unwillingness--in the face of the collision course between unlimited economic growth and the limits of culture and the biosphere to absorb our accelerating levels of extraction, consumption, and pollution--to dare to imagine another way.

The Slow Money conference showcased the socially responsible investors, sustainable agriculture proponents, and ecologically savvy entrepreneurs who have not only dared to imagine another way, but are actively pursuing it.

No, I'm not going to claim that all our problems will be solved by backing the manufacture of such locavore luxuries as organic kale chips and granola bars, or artisanal grass-fed sausage sticks, or (my personal favorite) a chia-based beverage that was delicious in a viscous way.

But I was impressed and inspired by the presentations from a variety of innovators: Midwestern Bio Ag, Terra Green Biologics, and Marrone Bio Innovations, who've found environmentally safe ways to boost soil fertility and control pests; City Fresh Foods, Peoples' Community Market, and Home Town Farms, who are improving their communities' access to fresh, healthy food; and Farmland LP and the Carrot Project, dedicated to fostering the growth of sustainably farmed land. And as a dedicated DIYer, I was delighted to learn about a totally non-toxic but super durable varnish from Vermont Natural Coatings that is made from whey, a by-product of the local cheese industry.

Together, these trail blazers, among others, made a compelling case that nurturing the kinds of small, regionally based businesses that they exemplify could not only create jobs and revitalize our economy, but also address what Bill McKibben called our "social deficit...the ecological and psychic wounds that we've inflicted on ourselves."

As McKibben noted, anything that's "too big to fail" is, by definition, too big, period. That goes not only for our financial system, but every other system we rely on, including our food and energy systems.

How many more fast money blowouts can we afford? Slow Money, on the other hand, is about growing things, not blowing things up, whether it's in pursuit of the coal beneath a mountaintop or the oil at the bottom of the sea.

McKibben ended his keynote by saying that we need to "take very drastic action, now." Is it time to put a cap on capitalism? You can help bring our economy back down to earth literally, now, by signing on to the Slow Money Soil Trust.