It's a little silly that national publications feel the need to make lists of the best whatever in America. While I imagine a magazine like Food & Wine does have the ability to visit bars all over the country, they are always going to be working off a limited sample size. I wouldn't even feel comfortable saying what the best bar in Arizona is and I've lived in the state and gone to a lot of bars across the state. There's probably an amazing place to drink in Kingman or somewhere that I'll never step foot inside simply because it's not on my radar. I can tell you twenty great bars in the state, but my idea of what's the "best" will always be based on incomplete information.

Food & Wine's list of the 50 "best" bars in America, besides its super annoying presentation in slideshow form, shows off the limitations of the concept. According to the magazine, it would appear San Francisco is essentially the only place in America worth drinking, with New York, LA and Chicago predictably dominating the remainder of the mentions with a few other cities getting a mention for some sort of balance. However, I've had drinks in several of the SF bars mentioned (although F&W left off my favorite bar there, the shockingly affordable 15 Romolo in North Beach) and while many of those bars make a great cocktail, a drink from Scott and Co. is competitive with any of them and at a much more affordable price. I'm probably severely biased in thinking that Tucson bars like Scott and Co. and the bars of Hotel Congress should be included, but I'm imagining that there are great places in other cities that are missing from the list simply because the Food & Wine staff is in the Bay Area quite a bit and can tack on their $15 drinks to an expense account.

It's definitely an argument of semantics to care whether a list is titled "the 50 best" or "50 very good", but as purveyors of information, we're supposed to be telling the truth at the end of the day. Why make a statement that can't be said definitively, even if it's not great for your site's SEO?

Last month, I mentioned my love for a brief and very strange clip of teenagers dancing with sharp objects to Eurodance music. Well, it turns out that clip was merely a teaser for a new music video from electro-dancehall act Major Lazer, seen above. While I think I might prefer the music from the first video, the longer version is still quite entertaining, even if it isn't a glimpse into a weird backwoods sword dancing subculture, as I might have once hoped.

Presidential candidate Jim Terr has informed us that he'll be joining Project White House 2012, although he says aim to have "a couple of affairs and rehabs between now and January 9."

You, too, can run for president in Arizona. Find out how here!

• Nathan Saxton
• Action from the 2011 Desert Cup at Hi Corbett

While I'm clearly wildly biased as the sort of person who actively seeks out opportunities to watch Major League Soccer matches on television on a regular basis, I'm very excited for the 2012 Desert Diamond Cup (renamed due to new casino-based sponsorship) coming to Kino Stadium February 22 through March 3. The expanded event was announced in September, and now there are teams attached: one of last year's participants, Red Bull New York and three newcomers to Tucson, the New England Revolution, Real Salt Lake, and the current MLS champions, the LA Galaxy. Two other teams will hold some of their spring training here, but will not participate in the tournament itself. Great news for local soccer fans, for sure, and even better news for me, since I enjoy heckling LA Galaxy star, Landon Donovan.

The new Bisbee Breakfast Club is open at 4131 W. Ina Road. If you like breakfast, burgers and big portions, a visit might be in order.

You can check out the menu over here.

I haven't been entirely kind to Josh Brodesky's work for the Star in the past - I did try to coin a neologism based on his name, after all - but when the guy isn't getting worked up about seemingly minor aspects of Tucson's bureaucracy, he's a really good writer, and his piece on Steve Vihel in today's paper is a good example of that. Vihel was a close friend of several of my friends, so when he passed, I saw several tributes to him on Facebook that made me wish I knew him better. Brodesky's written tribute to the local bike-shop-owner convinced me that I really missed out by not knowing the guy. I can't imagine that column was easy to write, but it's an excellent remembrance of a life cut too short. Well done, Josh.

[Arizona Daily Star]

Ai Bistro, a student-run eatery inside the Art Institute of Tucson at 5099 E. Grant Road, No. 100, is holding it's semester finale dinner tomorrow and it's all-you-can-eat! It sounds like some downright crave-worthy food is on deck, too. I'll post the menu after the jump.

This week, Eric and Arnie from Heroes and Villains discuss "Ghostbusters #1", which conveniently picks up the narrative following the second film. However, it doesn't appear that the comic comes with a theme song by Bobby Brown, so I'm not exactly sure how to feel about the whole thing.

A read-through of the leaked guidelines used by the California U.S. attorneys to make a federal case against MMJ doesn't really seem to raise the hairs on the back of my neck much.

Despite recent raids and threats for more in California, the guidelines, which were posted Dec. 7 on the NORML blog, are mostly pretty ho-hum. NORML doesn't say where it got the information, which is effectively a checklist the U.S. attorneys use in deciding to prosecute.

The targets appear to be high-volume grow and distribution systems (more than 200 kg - about 500 pounds - per year or with more than 1,000 plants) or those close to schools or in other verboten areas. Involvement in separate crimes, such as money laundering or the use of guns, also can trigger federal involvement, which should come as no surprise.

Considering that there are more than 750,000 MMJ patients in Cali and more than 800 dispensaries in L.A. alone, it seems to me the feds are being pretty tolerant. Lest we forget - every single MMJ dispensary in the nation is in violation of federal law and subject to a raid.

Every time an MMJ operation is raided, people start throwing their arms up in outrage and trashing the federal government for F*cking With The Dream. I think diversion to illegal use is a huge issue for California, so I guess I don't resent the federal government keeping the reins on a bit.

And the system we might someday have here if our fine Gov. Jan would get a clue and allow it, is much more structured than the one in Cali. With more state regulation here, it seems likely that the feds would spend their hard-earned cash cracking down to the west, where dispensaries have propagated faster than Starbuck's.