Mojitos... best cocktail known to man

Jeremy1012 wrote:

Not a big cocktail fan, unless you count JD & Coke, and I straight up LOATHE anything with Tequila in it but I quite like Frisky Bisons and had a hell of a time after drinking an Irish Carbomb once. And by hell of a time I mean I nearly got arrested.

eyedclaar wrote:

Dunk, Dunk, Dunk...

Word of advice bro, don't admit mojitos are your favorite drink, especially here in America, and certainly don't admit that while wearing your kilt.

TrixieCat wrote:

Me too!
dorks...:cool:

I saw the premade ones in the cooler at the store and thought 'ick'.

eyedclaar wrote:

I'd fight Hemingway. He was a boxer and wouldn't know shit about the ground and pound. And then he'd have earned that mojito.

Actually I'm a big fan. I love his writing style and the fact that he liked cats. Of course, he was also a pussy sport hunter so you take the good with the bad. He killed himself just a few miles from where I used to live.

BetterThanYou wrote:

mojito's aren't bad. i like the bacardi mojito's with pommegranate (sp?)

my favorite drink of all time though is a white russian. once, at a wedding reception, i was drinking a shit-ton of them and at one point the bartender asked me if i ever had a 'cocaine lady'. i said i never heard of it, what was it. he said it's like a white russian on steroids. so i ordered one. couldn't tell you everything that's in it, but i did see quite a few bottles being tipped into the glass, along with the vodka, kahluah (again, sp?), and cream. after shaking it up, he popped open a pepsi and poured just a bit of it into the drink. damn good drink. i've since asked bartenders when i'm out if they know how to make one and i keep getting the same puzzled look. bums me out, but i still have the white russians to rely on.

dunkman wrote:

Controversies

[edit] Slave Trading

Drake accompanied his second cousin Sir John Hawkins in making the third English slave-trading expeditions, making fortunes through the abduction and transportation of West African people, and then exchanging them for high-value goods.[citation needed] The first Englishman recorded to have taken slaves from Africa was John Lok, a London trader who, in 1555, brought to England five slaves from Guinea.[citation needed] A second London trader taking slaves at that time was William Towerson whose fleet sailed into Plymouth following his 1556 voyage to Africa and from Plymouth on his 1557 voyage. Despite the exploits of Lok and Towerson, John Hawkins of Plymouth is widely acknowledged to be the pioneer of the English slave trade.[citation needed]

Around 1563 Drake first sailed west to the Spanish Main, on a ship owned and commanded by his uncle John Hawkins, with a cargo of people forcibly removed from the coast of West Africa. The Englishmen sold their African captives into slavery in Spanish plantations. These profitable activities (which he continued) undermine the tendency to view Drake as simply an untarnished English hero. Although slavery was legal throughout the world at the time, its expansion by Hawkins and Drake is now widely seen as a great blot upon their records. In general, the kidnapping and forced transportation of people was considered to be a criminal offence under English law at the time, although legal protection did not necessarily extend to slaves, non-Protestants or criminals. Hawkins' own account of his actions (in which Drake took part) cites two sources for their victims. One was military attacks on African towns and villages (with the assistance of rival African warlords). The other was privateer actions against Portuguese slave ships. Britain's slave trade later came to be regarded as a terrible stain on the moral history of the nation, and Drake's role in laying the technical, legal and political foundations for the slave trade cannot be overlooked.

[edit] Conflict in the Caribbean

During his early days as a slave-trader, Drake took an immediate dislike to the Spanish, at least in part due to their Catholicism and inherent mistrust of non-Spaniards. His hostility is said to have increased over an incident at San Juan de Ulua in 1568, when, while delivering his African victims, a Spanish fleet took him by surprise. Although he was in an enemy port, it was conventional for the Spanish to 'surrender' for a few hours in order to purchase control of the kidnap victims. Thus it was unusual for a fleet of enemy warships to appear out of the blue. Drake survived the attack largely because of his ability to swim. From then on, he devoted his life to working against the Spanish Empire; the Spanish considered him an outlaw pirate (see also Piracy in the Caribbean), but to England he was simply a sailor and privateer. On his second such voyage, he fought a battle against Spanish forces that cost many English lives but earned him the favour of Queen Elizabeth

The most celebrated of Drake's adventures along the Spanish Main was his capture of the Spanish Silver Train at Nombre de Dios in March 1573. With a crew including many French privateers and Maroons — African slaves who had escaped the Spanish — Drake raided the waters around Darien (in modern Panama) and tracked the Silver Train to the nearby port of Nombre de Dios. He made off with a fortune in gold, but had to leave behind another fortune in silver, because it was too heavy to carry back to England. It was during this expedition that he climbed a high tree in the central mountains of the Isthmus of Panama and thus became the first Englishman to see the Pacific Ocean. He remarked as he saw it that he hoped one day an Englishman would be able to sail it -- which he would do years later as part of his circumnavigation of the world.

When Drake returned to Plymouth on August 9, 1573, a mere thirty Englishmen returned with him, every one of them rich for life. However, Queen Elizabeth, who had up to this point sponsored and encouraged Drake's raids, signed a temporary truce with King Philip II of Spain and so was unable to acknowledge Drake's accomplishment officially.

Though considered a hero in England in his own time and regarded as a significant historical figure; Spanish history perceives him as a mere pirate who mercilessly plundered Spanish New World shipping and harbours. Drake, "el Draque", as he was referred to by the Spanish, was used as a bogeyman for centuries after his "vicious" raids.[18]

[edit] Atrocities in Ireland

In 1575 Drake was present at Rathlin Island, part of the English plantation effort in Ulster when 600 men, women, and children were massacred after surrendering.[19]

Francis Drake was in charge of the ships which transported John Norreys' Troops to Rathlin Island, commanding a small frigate called "Falcon", with a total complement of 25. At the time of the massacre, he was charged with the task of keeping Scottish vessels from bringing reinforcements to Rathlin Island. The people who were massacred were, in fact, the families of Sorley Boy MacDonnell's followers.[20]