The Nigh Seen Creeder

Thanks to Creeder Reader DH for sending us this clip of Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) opining on the evils of socialized medicine:

"Iowa will make the difference. If Barack doesn't win Iowa, it's just a dream."

-- Michelle Obama

To borrow a line from George Plaster, you can bank this:

It doesn't matter whether Obama wins Iowa or not. The Clinton Machine is revving into high gear ... and tain't nothin' gonna stop it.

Here's what I envision for Osama, er, Obama:

He'll come in third in Iowa, behind Hillary Clinton and John Edwards; he'll come in a distant second behind Hillary in NH, the high-water mark of his campaign; he'll "suspend" his campaign when Hillary bests him in high-stakes states like California; and his swan-song will be a prime time speech at the Democratic convention, during which delegates will be driven to tears and foot-stomping by his Oprah-esque, style-over-substance oratory -- you know, touting "hope" and "promise" and "commitments" and "children" and "families" and "peace" and "love" and "bomb Pakistan" and other such horse puckey.

Rich Galen has an excellent take on Bud Shuster's sandbagging of Rep. Marsha Blackburn:

"I will not impugn Shuster's motives because I don't know what they were - although I am willing to speculate that the words 'Guest host for Keith Olbermann' enter into it.

"What I will do, though, is suggest most strongly that Shuster is guilty of practicing faux journalism at its worst. This isn't 'gotchya' journalism. This is on the level of a grossly unprofessional and ugly Three-Stooges-Whoop-Whoop-Nyuk-Nyuk fraternity prank.

"It has nothing to do with attempting to enlighten or inform viewers. It has everything to do with embarrassing someone to score a cheap political point or worse yet, score even cheaper news-room points."

Several months ago, I asked Creeder Readers to ponder this question: What will Hollywood do when every movie in existence has been re-made? Answer? Start re-making "classic" television shows. To wit:

"NBC has tapped filmmaker Doug Liman to produce a Transformers-inspired reworking of the 1980s hit action-drama Knight Rider, Variety reported.

"The network is readying a two-hour backdoor pilot for the series, with tentative plans to air it as a TV movie later this season. Liman is open to the idea of directing, assuming his feature schedule allows. If the TV movie clicks, a new-model Knight Rider could be on the air as early as next fall, the trade paper reported. ...

"The new show will explore the idea of 'evil' cars to offset the heroic talking K.I.T.T. car of the original series, which starred David Hasselhoff.

"The original Knight Rider aired on NBC from 1982 until 1986, with Hasselhoff playing crime fighter Michael Knight. Glen Larson created the original series for Universal Television. (NBC and Universal Media Studios are owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)"

"Ron Paul is a pencil head, leading a jacquerie of wicked idiots." -

- Richard Brookhiser

From the October 8 National Review:

The latest Evans-Novak Political Report says Fred Thompson may already be dead in the water, and concludes that the GOP presidential sweepstakes is fast becoming a Romney vs. Rudy contest (I said as much on the Nightly Daily):

"Unless we see a surge by Thompson, Gingrich, Sen. John McCain or Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney could win Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada -- the first three contests. That could propel him into first place in the national polls and improve his position in Florida and South Carolina (where he currently trails in polls). Romney could enter Super Tuesday February 5 as the frontrunner."

However, Rudy Giuliani "is on the rise in Iowa polls, and outpolls everyone but Thompson in South Carolina. Giuliani's greatest asset may be the front-loaded primary schedule, because he also leads in Florida and California."

A new Strategic Vision poll shows Mitt Romney has a big lead over his GOP opponents in Iowa:

Romney, 30 percent
Rudy Giuliani, 17
Fred Thompson, 13
Mike Huckabee, 8
John McCain, 6.

NHayes1979 recently contacted me regarding two posts at A Man's Gotta Eat in which I extolled the virtues of hunting doves (here and here). Unfortunately, I deleted NHayes' original e-mail. Here's the gist of it:

Dove-hunting is barbaric; people who hunt doves do so in order to collect "trophies"; and the members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are working hard to rid the globe of all hunting activities (whether such efforts extend to animals hunting other animals, NHayes didn't say.)

Here was my response to NHayes:


NHayes1979:

Upon reading your imbecilic e-mail, I was reminded of a quote once uttered by Francois de la Rouchefoucauld: The height of cleverness is to be able to conceal it. You, sir, should have quit while you were ahead.

Your ignorance was exposed when you suggested that hunted doves are saved as "trophies." I've yet to meet anyone who did not eat the doves he or she had hunted and killed. If you're going to malign someone, at least know the basics about those whom you're maligning.

I'm always tickled by folks like you who proclaim a deep concern for the great outdoors and the creatures that dwell there. I'd be willing to bet that your outdoor experiences have been limited to yardwork and an occasional trip to the zoo. The average hunter has more respect for - and does more to protect - nature than you or your PETA brethren, indeed.

Cordially,

Joltin' Django


NHayes1979 responded thusly:


"And you, sir, if you are so clever, should be able to recognize satire. I am unimpressed with your French name and phrases."


I dispatched this e-mail over the weekend:


NHayes1979:

Many a dipshit has attempted to hide his or her idiocy by shouting "satire" (Al Franken comes to mind). The mere fact that you are "unimpressed" by my name and utterances is conclusive proof that I'm doing something right.

Cordially,

Joltin' Django


Methinks NHayes finally gave up. I hope not. I'm having fun lambasting him/her!

D. Michael Lindsay says Harvard may be experiencing its own Great Awakening:

"For my book about faith among the nation’s elite, I interviewed dozens of leaders who went to Harvard as undergraduate or graduate students. Those who were on campus during the 1960s and 1970s talk about how little 'God talk' could be heard on campus. One leader told me the evangelicals on campus were 'running scared intellectually.' Campus ministry groups were small, and evangelicals rarely sponsored campus-wide events. Sure, there were evangelical students, but they were not prominent as a group. And evangelicals everywhere had a reputation for being anti-intellectual.

"Times have changed. The Reverend Peter Gomes, Minister of Harvard’s Memorial Church, says, 'There are probably more evangelicals [on Harvard’s campus today] than at any time since the seventeenth century.' The Ivy League’s desire for diversity opened new doors for religious students. Evangelical groups today sponsor campus-wide forums, Bible studies, and debates about the relevance of faith to everything from science to international affairs.

"In part, this can be attributed to the growing number of Asian-American students. On many Ivy League campuses, they have come to dominate evangelical groups. At Yale, 90 percent of the Campus Crusade for Christ members are Asian American; in the 1980s, the same chapter was 100 percent white. In fact, the growing presence of Asian-Americans on elite campuses may be the single largest demographic factor in evangelicalism’s ascent at places like Yale and Harvard.

"Regional diversity has also been important. Harvard made a concerted push to recruit talented students from all over the country, and it now draws students from parts of the country where evangelicalism is vibrant—the South and Midwest. This, coupled with the fact that evangelicals are less likely than other religious groups to abandon their faith when they head off to college, has created an upsurge of evangelicals on campus.

"But the story is not all explained by demographic change. Evangelicals have launched a series of initiatives aimed at creating more evangelical influence at Harvard. These have included special scholarship programs for students, support for evangelical ministries, and even an endowed chair in evangelical theological studies at the Harvard Divinity School. I talked with one evangelical philanthropist who has supported initiatives like these, programs that have led to what Alan Wolfe has termed 'the opening of the evangelical mind.' I asked what she would do, if she had her wish, to make the evangelical community more thoughtful and intellectually respectable. She replied directly: 'what we’re doing.'"

It's disappointing to learn that doctors are now climbing aboard the single-payer healthcare bandwagon. More accurately described as a government system, the single-payer concept has few virtues and is laden with problems.

The idea that a single-payer system will be less of a financial burden on Americans is patently ludicrous. Consider Canada's system of government-run healthcare. The high taxes needed to finance the massive system have pushed the average Canadian's tax burden to 50 percent of income.

It's a given that rationing follows any attempt to provide "free" universal healthcare. According to Vancouver's Fraser Institute, the median waiting time for angioplasty in British Columbia is 12 weeks; it takes eight weeks to receive radiation for breast cancer in Ontario; and it takes 12 weeks, on average, to undergo prostate surgery in Quebec. One would think Canada's system would have improved over the years; but the average waiting times have increased from 9.3 weeks in 1993 to 14 weeks in 2000. Who can blame Canadians for heading south to pay for prompt treatment in U.S. hospitals?

Finally, it's been suggested that market-based reforms of the U.S. healthcare system have failed. The sad fact is that free-market solutions have been watered down or dismissed outright by statist legislators (see medical savings accounts). The U.S. system remains a patchwork of third-party arrangements and government aid.

Instead of lurching toward socialism, doctors should be in favor of enacting a health-care system that gives American's choice and control over their healthcare.

I'll bet Katie Holmes' parents wish they could go back in time and have Tom Cruise whacked:

"Tom Cruise is laying out plans to build a huge underground bunker at his Telluride, Colorado estate. It will have a state of the art air purification system and will be large enough with enough equipment and supplies for at least ten people to survive for years. That’s not crazy or anything.

"According to the drug-fueled ramblings of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, there was a big attack 75 million years ago in which this Xenu guy made billions of people line up by volcanoes and terminated them with hydrogen bombs. All of our problems stem from this one incident, claim Scientologists, and our memories and psychological problems are made up of the fractured souls of the people who were killed. We would all have god-like knowledge and ability if only we could free ourselves of the trauma of that event. This is something that Scientologists are brainwashed to believe they have achieved once they surrender enough time, money, common sense and free will. Only when they reach the highest level of the cult, or Operating Thetan 3, are Scientologists told the story about the volcano genocide, but thanks to the wonder of the Internet you get it for free.

"I wasn’t able to dig up much about Scientology’s teachings on the end of the world, and maybe you can help shed some light onto this matter. According to Wikipedia, Xenu is supposedly trapped in an alternate universe forever, kind of like those three villains stuck under glass and floating in space in the Superman movie. He could come back though, and only the super rich deluded folks like Cruise and Travolta will be prepared.

"Concern for the survival of one’s family in the event of a nuclear attack or massive world war is only natural, and maybe if I had a quarter of a billion dollars I would consider setting up a giant underground bunker too. I really doubt it though. The only preparations I made on December 31, 1999 were getting an outfit and having my nails done for a New Year’s party. Stockpiling water and supplies for the millennium just wasn’t high on my to-do list.

"Maybe if Cruise could pop some lithium every day he wouldn’t be so worried about the end of the world. Along with providing ease of mind and more stable moods, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper, too. L. Ron Hubbard must have realized that prescription medication would help his most devoted followers figure out what bullshit he was preaching, so he decided to make psychiatrists enemy number one. The guy was crazy like a fox."

What's new at A Man's Gotta Eat? Here 'tis:

Fifth Quarter, RIP
Charlie Trotter's at 20
A world without Twinkies?
One fine-looking egg roll!

"Michael Ray McWherter, 51, son of former Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter, is forming an exploratory committee to run for the United States Senate," NashvillePost.com reports.

So, how bad does Lamar Alexander whip Michael Ray McWherter's ass in 2008? I say:

Alexander 58, McWherter 41.

Who wants to put money on it?!

Disturbing news story from GOPUSA:

"Nearly 10,000 foreigners from states sponsoring terrorism have obtained permanent residency in the United States in the past seven years, congressional investigators say.

"The State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs did not implement a recommendation to bar aliens from those countries, says the report from Congress' Government Accountability Office. ...

"Of countries designated by the State Department as sponsors of terrorism, over 2,700 people from Cuba have come into the United States through the program, as have 3,100 Iranians, 3,700 Sudanese and 160 Syrians.

"Fraudulent visa activity in other countries in the program also is a problem.

"The GAO report cited a 2002 cable from the embassy in Dhaka in Bangladesh highlighting the ease with which people can obtain genuine identity documents in any assumed identity, including passports.

"This, said the cable, creates an open door that would enable terrorists wishing to enter the Untied States to gain legal status."

Last week, I reported that early reviewers of Maureen McCormick's upcoming memoir, Here's the Story, revealed details of girl-on-girl sexcapades between McCormick and her Brady Bunch co-star Eve Plumb. Turns out it was a bunch of bunk:

"The book publisher for Maureen McCormick, who played Marcia Brady on the 1970s sitcom "The Brady Bunch," is shooting down rumors that she had a lesbian on-set affair with co-star Eve Plumb, who played her younger sister Jan.

"The story of the alleged lesbian affair started circulating the Internet Friday, and was picked up by at least one newspaper on Saturday. ...

"But the book's publisher said, though there are plenty of other revelations in the book, a lesbian affair is not one of them.

"'We are verifying that it is not true,' said Debbie Styer, senior vice president of group publicity at William Morrow, the book's publisher. 'The real story of what happened in [McCormick's] life and behind the scenes of the show will all come out when the book comes out.'"

Oh, well. It's looks like I won't have to gain an appreciation of the Brady Bunch after all.

I was fortunate enough to see the Les Paul play at a jazz club in NYC a few years ago. In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Mr. Paul listed his top-five favorite albums recorded by jazz guitarists. Tops on his list? An album by Django Reinhardt, the individual after whom I was named. To wit:

"Guitarist and inventor Les Paul's legacy as a musician rivals his contributions to music technology. With the jazz trio he formed in the 1930s and, later, with then-wife Mary Ford, Mr. Paul scored numerous pop hits. Meanwhile, his experiments in that era with solid-bodied electric guitars and multitrack recording methods have had a lasting impact on the sound of popular music, from jazz to rock. At age 92, Mr. Paul has found his fret work slowed by arthritis, but he still performs every Monday night at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York. 'It's been very healthy to keep working,' he says. During a recent preconcert rehearsal, we spoke with Mr. Paul about some of the guitarists whose playing he has admired the most.

"Django Reinhardt, The Classic Early Recordings in Chronological Order (2000)


"Although a burn in 1928 prevented this Gypsy jazz player from using two of his fingers, his intricate solos helped turn the then-humble guitar into a lead instrument. 'His playing was so unique,' Mr. Paul says. 'He and I became very dear friends.'"

The state of race relations in Louisiana seems to be of great concern to the members of the mainstream media these days. With that in mind, reckon how come the following story has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media?

"A federal appeals court has rejected a second appeal from the New Orleans district attorney over a ruling that said he violated the civil rights of dozens of white employees when he fired them and replaced them with black workers after taking office in 2003.

"The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned aside a request by Orleans Parish prosecutor Eddie Jordan to have the full court review the case.

"Earlier, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit upheld the verdict against Jordan, that, with interest, means Jordan's office owes the ex-workers and their attorneys about $3.5 million.

"In 2005, a jury rejected Jordan's contention that he filled key positions with political supporters and did not discriminate based on race when he took over from longtime District Attorney Harry Connick Sr. in 2003.

"In his appeal, Jordan had argued that jurors did not have enough evidence to reach that conclusion.

"Plaintiff attorney Clement Donelon said that Jordan's only remaining option is to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. Because of the latest ruling, Donelon says a stay on collecting the verdict will expire Sept. 26.

"Donelon said that he is prepared to seize assets of the district attorney's office, including its payroll account. Donelon said the office does not have insurance to pay the verdict. Jordan is not personally responsible for payment."

Exactly four years ago this week, the liberal-led U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of California’s Assault Weapons Control Act and refused to recognize an individual -- rather than a collective -- constitutional right to bear arms.

Federal Appellate Judge Alex Kozinski was one of six judges dissenting from the decision -- and his passionate and informed dissenting opinion is simply magnificent.

After boldly declaring that some anti-Second Amendment judges deliberately misread the Second Amendment in order to enforce their prejudices, Judge Kozinski finished with these ringing words that cut to the heart of why the Second Amendment is so very important to a free people:

"The majority falls prey to the delusion -- popular in some circles -- that ordinary people are too careless and stupid to own guns, and we would be far better off leaving all weapons in the hands of professionals on the government payroll. But the simple truth -- born of experience -- is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people. Our own sorry history bears this out: Disarmament was the tool of choice for subjugating both slaves and free blacks in the South. In Florida, patrols searched blacks' homes for weapons, confiscated those found and punished their owners without judicial process. In the North, by contrast, blacks exercised their right to bear arms to defend against racial mob violence. As Chief Justice Taney well appreciated, the institution of slavery required a class of people who lacked the means to resist. See Dred Scott v. Sandford, (1857) (finding black citizenship unthinkable because it would give blacks the right to "keep and carry arms wherever they went"). A revolt by Nat Turner and a few dozen other armed blacks could be put down without much difficulty; one by four million armed blacks would have meant big trouble.

"All too many of the other great tragedies of history -- Stalin's atrocities, the killing fields of Cambodia, the Holocaust, to name but a few -- were perpetrated by armed troops against unarmed populations. Many could well have been avoided or mitigated, had the perpetrators known their intended victims were equipped with a rifle and twenty bullets apiece, as the Militia Act required here. If a few hundred Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto could hold off the Wehrmacht for almost a month with only a handful of weapons, six million Jews armed with rifles could not so easily have been herded into cattle cars.

"My excellent colleagues have forgotten these bitter lessons of history. The prospect of tyranny may not grab the headlines the way vivid stories of gun crime routinely do. But few saw the Third Reich coming until it was too late. The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once.

"Fortunately, the Framers were wise enough to entrench the right of the people to keep and bear arms within our constitutional structure. The purpose and importance of that right was still fresh in their minds, and they spelled it out clearly so it would not be forgotten. Despite the panel's mighty struggle to erase these words, they remain, and the people themselves can read what they say plainly enough:

"'A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'

"The sheer ponderousness of the panel's opinion -- the mountain of verbiage it must deploy to explain away these fourteen short words of constitutional text -- refutes its thesis far more convincingly than anything I might say. The panel's labored effort to smother the Second Amendment by sheer body weight has all the grace of a sumo wrestler trying to kill a rattlesnake by sitting on it -- and is just as likely to succeed."

Judge Kozinski knows, from personal experience, the helplessness of unarmed people in the face of brutal tyranny -- a native of Romania, he fled that country to escape the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu.

There are two federal circuits in conflict over the meaning of the Second Amendment (the Ninth and the Fifth). The stage may be set for a momentous Supreme Court decision at some point in the very near future.

The full text of Judge Kozinski's dissent can be found here -- it starts on page 2, and ends on page 6 of this pdf file:

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/019661EF3BAAF4C488256D1D00793D3A/$file/0115098o.pdf?openelement

Karl Dean - aka Bill Purcell, Jr. - will be sworn-in as Metro-Nashville's sixth mayor today. Regretfully, I won't be in the new Public Square to witness the occasion.

Regular Creeder Readers know that I'm less than impressed with Mr. Karl Dean. Indeed, I'm of the opinion that Nashville needed another liberal, Yankee-born mayor like it needed an outbreak of TB or smallpox. (Maybe I'm being a tad hyperbolic, but I really detest Karl Dean.)

That said, Mayor-elect Dean's "administrative" team is already in place. My ears perked up when I heard that a Mr. Toby Compton has been chosen to serve as Dean's Legislative Director. Why do I give a rip 'bout Dean's director of things legislative? Well, I'll tell you ...

I remember running into Toby Compton at various Republican gatherings 'round Nashville from, oh, 1997-2002. What I really remember is this:

At a fancy pants GOP get-together at the Opryland Hotel during the 2000 election, Compton and I discussed the pros and, well, pros of supply-side economics. I remember said discussion very well because Compton and I talked about mutual friends who'd attended David Lipscomb University. I came away, if you will, from said conversation with the impression that Monsieur Toby Compton was a big-time/dyed-in-the-wool/card-carrying Republican.

Now, seven years later, it seems that Mr. Compton has abandoned the Republican Party. I mean, would a true Republican serve as a senior aide to an individual who's not only a Democrat, but who identified himself as a "liberal" in a law review article in which he also said gun control is a good idea? Anyone who gives two squirts about the GOP knows that the answer is a big "no."

When Toby Compton next shows up at a GOP confab, grab him by the collar and drag his ass to the door. If'n you don't think you can do it, call me ... I'm an expert at ass-dragging so-called Republicans.

Update:

Wow. Joltin' Django has been catching a lot of hell for stating that it's wrong, wrong, wrong for a Republican to abandon his political principles/political party to accept a job proffered by a liberal, Yankee-born politician.

I stand by everything I said in Karl Dean's token "Republican". You see, I come from the Lee Atwater school of GOP politics. What I learned from Mr. Atwater is this: Whenever a Democrat kicks the GOP 'tween the legs, that Democrat gets kicked between the legs ... over, and over, and over again. The last thing a Republican does is get hip-joined with said Democrat. Indeed.

I said it before and I'll say it again: Piss on any Republican who sells his or her political soul for big money in service to a Democrat with a sh**y haircut.

When I was a kid, I hated - and I mean hated - The Brady Bunch. If I'd known about Marsha and Jan's behind-the-scenes sexcapades, I would've tuned in each and every time the Bunch hit the tube!

"Maureen McCormick, best known as Marcia Brady from The Brady Bunch, reveals in her new book that she and co-star Eve Plumb, Jan Brady, built up a romance on set which led to some sexual escapades backstage.

"'The most explosive comments will be how the then-blonde, blue-eyed cutie developed a crush on Eve Plumb, which led to some sexual play. This book will certainly come as a shocker. While Maureen is not a lesbian, she reveals there were some sexual hijinks going on behind the scenes. It’s bizarre because she played such a virginal character on the show.'"

Excellent article from today's Patriot Post:

"Earlier this year, I wrote a column titled (Murder in Black and White), which detailed the torture, gang-rape and murder of a young couple, Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Their five attackers—four men and a woman—dumped his battered body by a train track and threw her charred remains in a trash bin.

"The point of that grim essay was to highlight the mainstream media’s disparate treatment of interracial crimes.

"Indeed, there are some 17,000 murders committed in the U.S. each year, but this double murder was clearly far more barbaric, far more monstrous than most. Yet it never made a headline more than 20 miles from the crime scene—not on NPR, not on CNN or the networks, not in The Washington Post, not in The New York Times.

"Was the MSM’s lack of interest in this case race related, given that the two victims were white and the five defendants are black?

"Yes.

"How do I know?

"Consider this case in point: Last week, six white West Virginia lowlifes were charged with the kidnapping, torture and sexual assault of a 20-year-old black woman, Megan Williams. This was a brutal crime, to be sure, but Megan Williams is alive today, having been rescued by local sheriff’s deputies. Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, as we know, were not nearly so fortunate.

"Within 24 hours of the arrests in the West Virginia case, stories were headlined on CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times - even the BBC - and numerous reports have been filed subsequently.

"Was the MSM’s acute interest in this case race related?

"Yes.

"In fact, no sooner had Williams’s attackers been arrested than the FBI and federal prosecutors joined the investigation to determine if the victim’s civil rights were violated, or if her assault qualified as a 'hate crime.'

"To this day, however, searches of the massive news archives of CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times for the names 'Channon Christian' and 'Christopher Newsome' render exactly zero references to their names in any news story—that’s nil, naught, zip and zilch.

"There is nothing unusual about the racial component of the Christian and Newsom murders. Indeed, while blacks represent just 12 percent of the U.S. population, black perpetrators are convicted by their peers in more than half of all murder and manslaughter cases. In other words, per capita, black-on-white crime is far more prevalent than the inverse.

"However, the contrast in how the MSM reported these two cases betrays a prevalent white-supremacist mindset among liberal journalistic scribes.

"By discounting the newsworthiness of black-on-white crime such as the murders of Christian and Newsom, and at the same time trumpeting the newsworthiness of white-on-black crime such as the assault on Williams, the MSM is, in effect, insisting that white people should be held to a higher standard than black people. In doing so, the MSM is essentially saying, 'It isn’t news when blacks prey on whites, because we expect them to behave like vicious animals, but it is headline news when whites prey on blacks, because we expect whites to be more civilized.'

"Additional evidence of this underlying media hypocrisy is substantiated through the MSM’s coverage of race-baiting opportunists who inject themselves into racially charged criminal cases.

"For example, if a racially motivated hate group like the KKK showed up to protest on behalf of white defendants in a white-on-black crime, they would rightfully be skewered by the media. However, when racially motivated haters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson show up to protest on behalf of defendants in a black-on-white crime, they are canonized as civil rights saviors.

"In fact, this week Sharpton and Jackson, with more than ten thousand of their ilk in tow, swamped the small town of Jena, Louisiana, to protest charges against six black youths (the so-called 'Jena Six') for brutally beating and stomping a white classmate -- charges that were reduced from attempted murder to aggravated battery.

"'You cannot have justice meted out based on who you are rather than what you did,' Sharpton argues, implying that because the defendants in Jena are black, and there was racial tension among the youths, the charges are unjust. 'This is the most blatant example of disparity in the justice system that we’ve seen. You can’t have two standards of justice.' (Unless, of course, you consider Sharpton’s fabrication of the Tawana Brawley rape hoax a 'blatant example of disparity in the justice system.')

"According to Jackson, 'Across this country, there are two justice systems -- one for blacks and one for whites. Black young men are not more likely to commit crimes than whites, but they are more likely to be stopped by police, more likely to be arrested if stopped, more likely to be charged if arrested, more likely to be jailed if convicted, more likely to be charged with felonies and more likely to be tried and imprisoned as adults.'

"Actually, black youth are far more likely to commit crimes than white youth, and for that reason they are more likely to be stopped by police (including black police officers), more likely to be arrested and, if charged, convicted (often by black-majority juries).

"District Attorney Reed Walters refuted the claims of Sharpton and Jackson, saying, 'This case has been portrayed by the news media (emphasis added) as being about race and the fact that it takes place in a small Southern town lends itself to that portrayal, but it is not and never has been about race. It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions.'

"It is worth noting that neither Jackson nor Sharpton offered a word of sympathy for the actual assault victim.

"Remarkably, Jackson complains, 'This isn’t just a Southern problem. A study of five states in the Northwest and Midwest showed that blacks are incarcerated at ten times the rate of whites.'

"Indeed, this is not 'just a Southern problem,' but, in fact, a cultural problem. Too many black men do not take responsibility for themselves or their families, in part because racists like Jackson and Sharpton have inculcated black folks with the notion that they are 'victims' of white folks.

"Of course, since Jackson fathered a child out of wedlock with an aide (and then paid her $40,000 from his 'nonprofit' Rainbow/PUSH Coalition for 'moving expenses'), he is not really in a position to advocate for responsible fatherhood.

"Hoping that the Louisiana 'injustice' will jumpstart racial strife across the nation, Jackson insists, 'In Jena, the protest will begin, but it won’t end there. This situation is explosive—not only in Jena but across the country.'

"Meanwhile, back in West Virginia, the NAACP has arrived on the scene to 'monitor' justice in the Williams case, and no doubt Sharpton and Jackson will follow.

"However, still no word on when 'journalists' at NPR, CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times will headline the torture, gang-rape and murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom."

This is good:

"So, how does it feel, boyo? Working at Starbucks, putting off getting that killer tat so you can send some cash to end the War in Iraq and maybe impeach Chimpy McBushitler. You give up valuable time you could have spent grooming your soul patch or creating mystical Celtic weavings in your underarm hair passing out literature on behalf of Democrat candidates. You feel important. The candidates go to your freakfests and pay attention to your theories and ideas.

"Then, finally, your team is in power and you gotta know this war is going to end yesterday with a Truth Commission just waiting in the wings. Who knows. Maybe Al Gore will be given the presidency for two terms as compensation for Bush v. Gore.

"But it doesn't play out that way. Just yesterday Harry Reid admits that he doesn't have the votes to do anything about Iraq until next summer. Maybe. At the earliest. If he can get around to it.

"And what gives with this 60 vote stuff?

"Then today the Senate votes 72-25 to condemn MoveOn for the ad they bought in the New York Times labeling General Petraeus as General Betray Us. 72-25. They can't muster 60 votes to end the war but they can find 72 votes to condemn MoveOn for exposing Bush's sockpuppet.

"Feeling good about yourself, boyo? How's that self-respect doing? Oh, did I mention, they want you to send more money to help end the war.

"Even dim bulbs buy a clue eventually."

The next time you hear someone using NASA-supplied data to piss and moan about "global warming," remind them 'bout this:

"This seems destined to be ignored by today's climate change obsessed media: Scientists from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies - the very organization now presaging gloom and doom at the hands of global warming - predicted a new ice age back in 1971.

"Think this will be a focus of tonight's evening news broadcasts?

"Regardless of the answer, the Washington Times wonderfully reported Wednesday:

"'NASA scientist James E. Hansen, who has publicly criticized the Bush administration for dragging its feet on climate change and labeled skeptics of man-made global warming as distracting 'court jesters,' appears in a 1971 Washington Post article that warns of an impending ice age within 50 years.'"

Gov. Romney tells us why HillaryCare sucks (subscription required to read the entire article):

"Some of the details have changed, but at the heart of Sen. Hillary Clinton's new health-care proposal are the same flaws that sunk her first version. They flow from her distrust of markets, from her distaste for profit-motivated private enterprise, and from her consequent faith that Washington knows best.

"The truth is that the American people know best, and when a sector of the economy is not working as well as it might, you should look to give the people more influence, to unleash competitive forces, and to welcome private ingenuity. The last thing you should do is apply more government. But that's just what HillaryCare Version 2.0 does. ...

"For example, Sen. Clinton proposes the creation of an entirely new government-run Medicare-like program for the uninsured. Inevitably, lobbyists will go to town adding coverage mandates, setting rates and re-shaping plans to fit the wants of their clients. The better path is the market path. Let the multitude of private companies compete for the consumer's dollar -- the quality and the cost will be much better than what the government could ever cobble together."

Here's what's new at A Man's Gotta Eat:

Hey, Macanudo!
Priest Lake's finest meat-and-three (update)
Joltin' Django cooks, bistro-style
Heard about the $75 hamburger?

John Stossel tells us what we can expect when HillaryCare, ObamaCare, EdwardsCare, or whatever form of socialized "care" is shoved down Americans' throats (or up their keisters). Be sure to click all the links:

"One basic problem with nationalized health care is that it makes medical services seem free. That pushes demand beyond supply. Governments deal with that by limiting what's available.

"That's why the British National Health Service recently made the pathetic promise to reduce wait times for hospital care to four months.

"The wait to see dentists is so long that some Brits pull their own teeth. Dental tools: pliers and vodka.

"One hospital tried to save money by not changing bed sheets every day. British papers report that instead of washing them, nurses were encouraged to just turn them over.

"Government rationing of health care in Canada is why when Karen Jepp was about to give birth to quadruplets last month, she was told that all the neonatal units she could go to in Canada were too crowded. She flew to Montana to have the babies.

"'People line up for care; some of them die. That's what happens,' Canadian doctor David Gratzer, author of The Cure[: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care], told 20/20. Gratzer thought the Canadian system was great until he started treating patients. 'The more time I spent in the Canadian system, the more I came across people waiting. ... You want to see your neurologist because of your stress headache? No problem! You just have to wait six months. You want an MRI? No problem! Free as the air! You just gotta wait six months.'"

A new Reuters/Zogby poll shows that a paltry 11 percent of Americans view Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

So long as Congressional leaders keep pulling stunts like this ...

"As noted in the Washington Times, there are several pieces of legislation (in the form of amendments to other bills) that, if passed, would grant amensty to millions of people currently in the U.S. illegally. It is quite apparent from these actions that the Senate does not listen to the voices of grassroots Americans. ...

"First is an effort by Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin to grant amnesty to illegal alien students under his 'Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.' This bill would 'grant legal status to illegal aliens who arrived here before the age of 16, have lived here at least five years, graduated high school and finished at least two years of college or military service.'

"Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) noted in Congressional Quarterly that the so-called 'DREAM' act "would allow states to provide college benefits to illegal immigrants" and that the measure could benefit '1.3 million illegal immigrants.'"

... it won't be too awful long before Congress' approval rating falls to within the margin of error.

It would appear that Quentin Tarantino hates network television as much I do:

"Quentin Tarantino has turned down the opportunity to direct an episode of the hit TV show Heroes -- because he's never watched the series.

"QT told The Sun that 'They were trying to get me to do one. I haven't even seen the f***ing show. What the f*** is Heroes?'"

I guess Joltin' Django, aka the Nigh Seen Creeder, has finally arrived ...
 
About 1 a.m. last Tuesday, for the first time since I started this blog a little over a year ago, I was threatened with physical harm.  The threatening individual didn't contact me via an anonymous "comment" post.  Oh, no.  He was stupid enough to contact me via e-mail, which allowed me to quickly deliver a direct response. (I say "he" because "jayson" was included in the e-mail address to which I sent my response.) 
 
Mr. Jayson didn't take me to task for any particular musing I've posted.  He simply ranted about Republicans and President Bush -- with a great many four-letter words thrown in for, ahem, amplification -- and said I was an idiot for supporting Republicans and President Bush.  Jason ended his e-mail with this (I'm copying and pasting directly from his e-mail):
 
"you think your so smart with your alias and your free website
 
you should have eyes in the back of your head because anyone online can be found"
 
This is a portion of my reply to Mr. Jayson, which I'm posting in case there are other Mr. Jaysons who're contemplating sending me threatening e-mails:
 
"I do not have eyes in the back of my head.  What I do have is a constant traveling companion who does not take kindly to anyone who threatens my person.  His full name is Nine Milli Meter, nickname o' Ruger, and he can put the fear of God into anyone who comes face to, er, barrel with him."
 
A week has now passed; Jayson has not responded.  If and when he does, I'll let you know.  (Oh, and you might wanna pray for him.  God will have more mercy on him now than I will when he comes looking for me.)

In case you haven't heard, Sally Field made as ass of herself at the 59th Primetime Emmy® Awards. Rising to accept an award for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series, Field said, and I quote:

"At the heart of [her character] Nora Walker, she is a mother," Field said. "May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised, and to especially the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait – wait for their children to come home for from danger, from harm’s way and from war. I’m not finished. I have to finish talking ... if the mothers ruled the world there would be no goddamn wars in the first place."

John Hawkins tells us that women are just as adept at war-making as men:

"Would the world really be a more peaceful place if women were in charge?

"Well, you know, it's not as if there has never been a woman in charge of a country before.

"For example, prominent women leaders include Margaret Thatcher in Britain (Falklands War), Golda Meir in Israel (The War of Attrition with Egypt), Queen Elizabeth the first (War with Spain), you can go on and on like this...

"The reality is that if you can't handle going to war, then you're not qualified to lead a nation. So, women leaders -- the ones that are worth a bucket of spit anyway -- will go to war if need be, because that's what the job requires.

"So, a world run by women? I doubt if it would be one bit less peaceful and quite frankly, it might be much more violent given that women tend to be much more emotionally volatile than men."

Rachel Lucas puts to rest Sally Field's claim that females are paragons of docility:

"Jesus H. Christ.

"I remember the first time I encountered this sort of opinion - that if women were in charge, humanity would live in peace. I was 11 or 12 years old and read it in a book, and I swear to god, I actually laughed out loud. I remember thinking, this fool has obviously never met any females.

"It starts in about 4th grade, when girls start engaging in what can only be called a war of attrition via emotional abuse. They form evil little cliques and set about utterly destroying each other’s self-esteem and pride. I got glasses when I was 11, and the first dozen people to call me 'four-eyes' were girls. When I didn’t start growing boobies as early as some of the others, it was the girls who snickered at me on the playground and called me President of the Itty-Bitty Titty Committee. There was a fat girl in my neighborhood back then, and guess who shunned her and called her “pig” and 'lardbutt' on the bus? Not the boys. (Granted, they just ignored her. But which is really worse?)

"Then you move on to the nightmare-scape called junior high school, where the females carefully hone their craft and the sabotage is raised to a whole new level of hate. During my soul-ripping years there, I had one boy who 'bullied' me but there about five girls who did, and they were ten times meaner about it. Sneaky and manipulative. At least when boys pick on you, it’s all out in the open. Girls? Oh god no. They use subterfuge and reconnaissance. Girls will pretend to be your best friend just to discover your weaknesses, which they’ll then employ to bring you down.

"Like the bitches in my 7th grade homeroom class. For reasons known only to Satan, a group of them decided they hated a girl named Cassie, who lived near me and was actually a really sweet kid. These girls befriended her for a while, let her into their 'friend'ship ring of evil, and then suddenly one day when she walked in, they completely ignored her. I remember her crying later at lunchtime, and I heard that she’d told them that her stepdad drank beer in the evenings and now those little snots were telling the whole school he was an alcoholic. That rumor never died.

"But that’s nothing. Wait until high school, when the competition for boys gets serious and the rumor-mongering takes on apocalyptic proportions. This is when the girls start calling each other sluts just because they like the same guys. There was a cheerleader at my high school who got pregnant in 11th grade and she went from being the one all of us envied to the one we all called dirty, dirty names. The boys never really said anything but the girls, oh sweet Jesus, we were brutal. On the bathroom wall, someone wrote in lipstick, 'Tiffany is the WHOREleader! Keep your legs closed SLUT.'

"Sugar and spice, my ass."

Read the rest here. It's good!

Today is Constitution Day. You can read about this new holiday -- celebrated only since 2004 -- here.

Unfortunately, our schools are doing very little to help students gain a greater appreciation of the U.S. Constitution:

"Constitution Day is here and many teenagers know little about commemorating the document's signing.

"A study being released [today] by a foundation that focuses on journalism and the First Amendment found that 51 percent of high school students questioned had not heard of the day when they are required by law to learn about the Constitution.

"The occasion is usually observed on or around September 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.

"Just one in 10 students could remember how his high school marked the day last year, according to the study, paid for by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami."

Reckon how many of the schools that're not celebrating Constitution Day celebrate Kwanzaa -- a pseudo-holiday invented by a former convict, who was a self-proclaimed Marxist to boot? I'll reckon a bunch.

Educators are adept at promoting multiculturast claptrap, and telling students what they should eat and drink, but are failing to adequately educate students about our nation's founding document.

"Several thousand anti-war demonstrators marched through downtown Washington on Saturday, clashing with police at the foot of the Capitol steps where at least 160 protesters were arrested," the Associated Press reports.

Here's a couple of pictures from the march (courtesy of Age of Hooper):



I can't be the only one who finds it disturbing that the establishment press has failed to acknowledge the outfit responsible for organizing the most visible anti-Iraq War rallies.

Saturday's anti-war demonstration was sponsored by International ANSWER. It was the umpteenth demonstration sponsored by ANSWER; and practically every media outlet in the country said nary a word about who was sponsoring the demonstration -- for the umpteenth time.

ANSWER, which stands for Act Now to Stop the War and End Racism, is an auxiliary of a Marxist-Leninist organization, the Workers World Party, which in its past history has supported the Warsaw Pact invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Chinese massacre in Tiananmen Square. Not one major U.S. news service mentioned the fact that a Communist front group sponsored Saturday's protest.

Can you imagine what would happen if an organization affiliated with, say, the John Birch Society or the Ku Klux Klan organized a large pro-war rally? Do you think the media would remain silent 'bout that? If you do, I have a Keebler elf in my closet I'm willing to hire out to you for light yard work.

UPDATE: Thanks to Creeder Reader Brian for pointing out that a contingent of Ron Paul supporters was on hand for Saturday's march. To wit:


I understand that 99 percent of Ron Paul's supporters are against the Iraq War. But what exactly are they hoping to gain by marching alongside nutbuckets during a rally sponsored by a Marxist front group? Perhaps someone will e-mail me with an answer or two.

The Nigh Seen Creeder regularly receives e-mails from a spirited band of self-proclaimed libertarians. The September issue of Commentary magazine has an essay which I think will be of interest to libertarians of all stripes. A sample:

"On the one hand, libertarians make a fetish of freedom; it is their totalizing goal. On the other hand, libertarians depend on the family -- an institution that, in crucial respects, is unfree -- to produce the sort of people best suited to life in a free-market system (not to mention future members of their own movement). The complex, dynamic economy that libertarians have done so much to expand needs highly advanced human capital -- that is, individuals of great moral, cognitive and emotional sophistication. Reams of social-science research prove that these qualities are best produced in traditional families with married parents.

"Family breakdown, by contrast, limits the accumulation of such human capital. Worse, divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing leave the door wide open for big government. Dysfunctional families create an increased demand for state-funded food, housing and medical subsidies, which libertarians reject on principle. And in courts all over the country, judges who preside over the manifold disputes occasioned by broken families are forced to be more intrusive than the worst mother-in-law: They decide who should have primary custody, who gets a child on Christmas or summer holidays, whether a child should take piano lessons, go to Hebrew school, move to California, or speak to her grandmother on the phone. It is a libertarian's worst nightmare.

"A libertarian, according to Brian Doherty [author of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement], 'has to believe' that 'the instincts and abilities for liberty . . . are innate,' that we possess "an ability to fend for ourselves in the Randian sense and to form spontaneous orders of fellowship and cooperation in the Hayekian sense." But this view of the relationship between the individual and society is profoundly and demonstrably false, especially when applied to the family.

"Children do not come into the world respecting private property. They do not emerge from the womb ready to navigate the economic and moral complexities of an 'age of abundance.' The only way they learn such things is through a long process of intensive socialization -- a process that we now know, thanks to the failed experiments begun by the Aquarians and implicitly supported by libertarians, usually requires intact families and decent schools.

"Libertarianism did not have to take this unfortunate turn. Ludwig von Mises himself warned that the attempt (of socialists) to undermine the family was a ploy to strengthen the state. Hayek, too, grasped the family's role in upholding the free market. Coming of age in Europe around the time of World War I, he stressed the state's inefficiency but also warned, more generally, of the limits of human reason. 'Hayek's economics was rooted in man's ignorance,' Mr. Doherty writes; so were his political views, which included both an enthusiasm for freedom and a Burkean respect for customs and institutions.

"It is difficult to say why this aspect of libertarianism has faded away, but the sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset once provided a partial answer. In Europe and elsewhere, he observed, modern radicals have tended to be of a Marxist, collectivist bent; in America, with its peculiar Lockean legacy and Jeffersonian ideals, radicals have gone to the other extreme, searching for absolute freedom. It is a quest that has left little room for the confining demands of family and other unchosen social bonds.

"Libertarians come in many flavors, of course, but they share certain enthusiasms beyond free-market economics. They are often great consumers of science fiction, with an avid interest in space travel. And they have an almost unlimited enthusiasm for biotechnology, especially for advances that might allow us to manipulate our natures and extend our lives. Taken together, these elements constitute what might be called the libertarian dream -- the dream of shaping your own meaning, liberated from family, from the past, from tradition, from biology, and perhaps even from the earth itself.

"Such utopian ambitions are difficult to satisfy or even contain in the mundane world of American politics. For some time to come, they are likely to make libertarianism the natural home of assorted cranks and crazies, and thus to continue to provide fodder for its at least partly deserved caricature."

Read the entire essay here.

From RedState.com:

U.S. Senator John Ensign lays it right on the line:

"Democrats have allowed, and tacitly encouraged, this extreme liberal group to define what their party stands for and they are doing nothing to stop it. That silence you hear from the other side of the aisle is because of one simple fact: because ‘they’ are one in the same -- Moveon.org and the Democrat Party."

Read the rest here.

Here's what's new at A Man's Gotta Eat:

Mary B's dumplings are mighty fine
Blizzard of Heath!
Have a pint, mate!
What's new? Bluegrass Brew!

I don't know why I watch C-Span's "Washington Journal." Each and every time I tune in, some preening, unlearned leftist jackass calls in and makes me madder than a hornet. (The folks at C-Span should do their viewers a favor and hire a good call-screener.)

This morning, someone from Maryland called C-Span to say this to God and country: "[George W. Bush] is the most partisan president in history. He has never reached out to Democrats or attempted to build consensus." I nearly tore the front section of the Wall Street Journal in half when I heard that.

President Bush has reached out to - and collaborated with - Democrats in Congress throughout his term in office: He signed McCain-Feingold, which was pet legislation for Democrats during the 2000 campaign; he allowed Ted Kennedy to remove vouchers from the No Child Left Behind Act; he's championed amnesty for illegal immigrants (another pet project for Democrats); he supported a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients, which represents the largest expansion of a federal program since LBJ's Great Society; and during the run-up to the Iraq War, he agreed to the Democrats' demand that no military operations in Iraq would begin until Congress passed pro-war legislation, which it did.

What has President Bush gotten for his "build consensus" efforts? Firm kicks between the legs on an almost daily basis, that's what. Democrats convinced themselves that Bush's operatives "stole" the 2000 presidential election. They were further enraged when Republicans gained control of the U.S. Senate 2002 and when President Bush was re-elected in 2004. To punish the president for getting their goat in 3 consecutive national elections, the Democrats arose - and continue to arise - in hyper-partisan opposition to practically everything the Bush Administration said or did.

President Bush has done his level best to "reach across the divide." The Democrats have done their level best to see that the president retrieves his hand with a few fingers missing whenever he reaches out. For Mr. Mayland Shipdit - nay, for anyone - to assert that today's toxic political environment is a result of President Bush's failure to "try to build consensus" is to propagate a tall tale of the first order.

The latest polling from Georgia shows Fred Thompson with a commanding lead over the rest of the GOP presidential pack:

Fred Thompson - 32 percent
Rudy Giuliani - 17
Newt Gingrich - 9
John McCain - 8
Mitt Romney - 6
Mike Huckabee - 6
Sam Brownback - 2
Tom Tancredo - 2
Ron Paul - 2
Duncan Hunter - 1
Undecided - 15

If I'm havin' trouble keeping the squirrels out of my tomato plants next year, I'm gonna get me one of these:


"While there's certainly a variety of options to keep watch and protect your property from curious intruders, the latest branch of vCrib gives a new meaning to being on guard. Crafted by the designer of the Virtual Crib home automation software, the USB BB gun sports automatic firing, manual reloading, and the ability to fire based on commands given remotely on a PC. Moreover, the weapon actually packs a webcam on the barrel, allowing users to login via computer, tilt / swivel the gun with simple mouse flicks, and fire away if you spot any intruders within its broad line of sight. It shouldn't need mentioning that we'd make absolutely sure our landlord was cool with mounting a remotely-controlled weapon in the window, but if you need to take home security into your own hands (without actually being at home), be sure to click [the link below] to see this controversial creation spittin' hot fury."

Bobby Eberle tells us why Democrats in Congress are so reluctant to criticize the nutbuckets at MoveOn.org:

"As Gen. David Petraeus gave his testimony on Capitol Hill regarding the progress in Iraq, the left wing fringe group MoveOn.org ran a full page ad in the New York Times which accused the general of 'cooking the books for the White House.' Leading Democrats joined in, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying, 'He's made a number of statements over the years that have not proven to be factual.' MoveOn.org and these Democrats are banking so heavily on failure in Iraq to deliver them more ballot success that they are now calling an honorable military man a liar before he even spoke a word.

"When given a chance to repudiate the MoveOn.org ad, the Democrats have refused. As reported by the Washington Times, 'Capitol Hill Democrats rejected a call for votes in both chambers to condemn the attack newspaper ad, run by MoveOn.org, saying Republicans are trying to take attention off what they call the president's failed Iraq policy.'

"Failed Iraq policy? The general just gave a report saying the troop surge is working and that America can soon move to reduce troop levels. Despite this, the Democrats are so fearful of losing support from their core constituents that they would rather embrace the claims of an angry fringe group and bash an honorable military man." [Emphasis mine]

Left-wing nutbuckets have a new reason to admire the hell out of Fidel Castro: El Presidente says the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job. To wit:

"Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the U.S. government misinformed Americans and the world about 9/11, echoing conspiracy theories about the terror attacks against the United States six years ago.

"In an essay read by a Cuban television presenter on Tuesday night, Castro said the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers.

"'Today one knows there was deliberate misinformation,' wrote Castro, who has not appeared in public since July of 2006 when life-threatening surgery for a secret illness forced him to hand over power to his brother Raul Castro.

"'Studying the impact of planes, similar to those that hit the Twin Towers, that had accidentally fallen on densely populated cities, one concludes that it was not a plane that crashed into the Pentagon,' Castro said."

"'Only a projectile could have caused the geometrically round hole that allegedly was made by the plane,' he said.

As I stated last month, this year's election offers slim pickings for liberty-lovin' conservatives like moi.  To be honest, it's slim pickings every election year. I cannot understand why a city the size of Nashville, with a vibrant business community and a half-dozen vibrant educational institutions, churns out unaccomplished Democratic politicos and first-class nitwits each and every time an election rolls around.

When will Nashvillians have the opportunity to vote for a truly visionary mayor?  Where's Nashville's Rudy Giuliani, who promised to get über-tough on crime ... and did?  Where's Nashville's Brent Schundler or Stephen Goldsmith, who promised to take on liberal advocacy groups and public sector unions to push for education reform and privatization of public services ... and did?

That said, I'm takin' this opportunity to announce that I, Joltin' Django, will be votin' for neither Bob Clement nor Karl Dean today. Let me explain my decision:
 
Bob Clement - When Clement was running for re-election to the U.S. Congress in 1992, he ran a television ad in which he made this statement:  "Government cannot be all things to all people.  What government can do is create jobs."  Any first-year economics student can tell you that the government does not create jobs.  The government can enact legislation that helps the free market create jobs; but the government itself has very little - if anything - to do with job growth.   Clement's ignorance 'bout a basic economic principle proves that he has no business sitting in the mayor's office.

Karl Dean - Dean Term One would in actuality be Purcell Term Three.  The last thing Nashville needs is a Purcell clone serving as mayor.  Why?  To say that Mayor Purcell has been a mediocrity is an understatement.  His only major accomplishments are dozens of unnecessary sidewalks and a not-so-subtle attempt to run the Nashville Sounds out of town.  With a Mayor Dean, it'll be same old **** with a different bad haircut.
 
Furthermore, one of Mr. Dean's early television ads featured what has to be the most ridiculous political statement in an election season chock-full of ridiculous political statements.  Dean said, and I quote: "Drop-outs who return to school should be treated like heroes."  Does that mean he wants to give returning drop-outs a big gold medal?  Or, perhaps, Dean wants to give 'em a ticker tape parade through the halls of the school to which they return.  (And what about the kids who go to school every day, stay out of trouble and graduate on time?  I mean, if returning drop-outs are heroes, what are the stay-in-school kids? Demigods?)

As for the council-at-large election, here's why I ain't votin' for none of the bozos who made the runoff: 

Ronnie Steine - Steine has a pair the size of basketballs to think that he deserves another term on the Metro Council. Anyone who's read his interview with the Nashville Scene knows that the man has been less than forthcoming about his shopliftin'/thievin' past. Do I want a closet kleptomaniac representing the entire county in the Metro Council? HELL no.
 
Megan Barry - If Barry's only half as left-wing as her husband, she's still way too left-wing for me.  I fear that if Ms. Barry is elected, it'll just be a matter of time before she goes all nutbucket and introduces a resolution to impeach the president or legislation to make Nashville a "sanctuary city" for illegal aliens.  Mark my words ...

Charlie Tygard - On his "official" campaign Web site, Tygard says he wants to "invest in programs that ... keep Nashville healthy." What the hell does that mean? Is Tygard trying to say that he wants to create programs to force the citizens of Nashville to jog and eat their vegetables?  As of this writing, Tygard has not responded to my inquiries for clarification.
 
I have another reason for just saying no to Charlie Tygard:  Tygard not only voted to allow low-rent apartments to be built in my neighborhood (despite the protestation of homeowners who feared the increased traffic and other "ailments" associated with such low-rent housing), he more or less stated at a community meeting that racist rubes were the main group opposing the construction of said low-rent apartments -- despite the fact that an equal number of black and white homeowners attended the community meeting to say "no" to low-rent housing in their neighborhood. 
 
J. B. Loring - When I was in high school, I wrote a song about our 110-year-old principal in which this line was used four times: "He's so old, he farts dust."  Whenever I see one of Mr. Loring's yard signs, I can't help but think back to my dust-fart song. 
 
Saletta Holloway - Saletta Holloway was my district councilwoman for eight years.  During those eight years, I reckon I had at least two-dozen conversations with Ms. Holloway.  I came to this astute conclusion about the, oh, second time I conversed with the woman: Saletta Holloway is a fool.  Don't take my word.  Simply ask anyone who regularly watched the televised proceedings of the Metro Council circa 1995-2003 if Ms. Holloway didn't often engage in unlearned, incoherent speechifying.  

Jerry Maynard - Maynard told the Tennessean that the best way to deal with illegal immigration in Nashville is to be "tolerant."  Yeah, that's a world-class plan to address an issue that is of foremost concern to an overwhelming majority of the citizens in this city.   Anyone who spouts leftist claptrap with that much ease isn't worthy of being elected dogcatcher, let alone councilman-at-large.
 
That said, I have news for those folks who think that I'm opposin' Jerry Maynard for petty political reasons:
 
Mr. Maynard was publicly censured by the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility for continuing to practice law while his while his law license was suspended for failure to comply with continuing legal education requirements. That's strikes two and three for one Jerry Maynard.

Luvenia Harrison Butler -  Ms. Butler says her top priority if elected will be "working to get full funding" for Metro schools.  Davidson County currently spends a little over $9,200 for each pupil in public school -- more than any school district in the state of Tennessee.  Metro schools suffer not from a lack of funding, but instead suffer from a misalocation of resources.  The only people who still believe that pouring more money into the school system is a good idea are union hacks and their stooges in the Democratic Party (with a few Republicans who should know better thrown into the mix as well).

Ronnie Greer - At an at-large candidates' forum on August 28, Greer said he's of the opinion that enough money has been given to Metro schools during his two terms as a district councilman; and, as the Tennessean reported, Greer added that Metro-Nashville Public Schools' "resources haven't always been properly allocated." I'm almost inclined to go vote for Ronnie Greer based on that statement alone (see above). Mr. Greer, however, is one of five district councilmen who skirted Nashville's voter-mandated term limits law by running for an at-large seat this year.

If there's one political issue about which I am extremely passionate, term limits is definitely it. (A dog-eared, heavily annotated copy of George Will's Restoration, the bible of the term limits movement, is sitting on my desk as we speak.) I simply cannot - nay, I will not - vote for anyone who violates the spirit, if not the letter of, a law that was approved, and re-approved a couple of times over, by the voters of Nashville.

Here's what's new at A Man's Gotta Eat:

Joltin' Django down by the Greek Festival
The benefits of beer
Joltin' Django hearts Hamburger Helper

Doug Patton will make some folks mad by saying this:

"So who can a leftist wacko really love these days? It has to be someone who, first and foremost, hates George Bush. That's a given.

"Then there is the requirement that the United States surrender to al-Qaida and leave Iraq immediately.

"Of course, this person has to view America as a blight on the rest of the world, especially on all the wonderful, peaceful people of the planet, from Native Americans to the North Vietnamese to the Iraqis. Blaming America first for virtually everything is an absolute requirement.

"Environmental extremism is an important part of the agenda, so this political savior would have to spout the PC line on global warming.

"And, of course, capitalism must be regarded as a bane that has brought misery to all who have ever suffered under it.

"But what leader could possibly fill the bill for American lefties? Why, Osama bin Laden, of course. The world's most famous terrorist has delivered a new message, via videotape, much of it to the American people. ...

"Osama bin Laden embodies everything liberal Democrats love in a leader. In fact, if he were standing on the stage at one of their presidential debates, spouting the same ideas he put forth in his latest video, he would be a bona fide hit among their base.

"Yes, the loony left has finally found their candidate."

This should get your blood boiling:

"Colin Bruley was dozing off in his apartment late one night when he heard a young woman screaming for help. He grabbed his shotgun and ran toward his apartment door. He put the gun against a chair by the door, in case he needed it, and went outside to see what had happened.

"The woman yelled that she had been shot. At this point Bruley returned for his gun and ran to see if he could help her. He was joined by other neighbors who found the woman bleeding from the wounds inflicted by a boyfriend. Bruley gave the gun to a neighbor to hold while he administered first aid to the woman, while waiting for police and emergency medical personnel to arrive.

"When it was all over Bruley was covered in the woman’s blood but had done much to save the her life. Word got to his employer; the first thing the next morning he was called to the office and fired.

"Bruley was a leasing agent for the Oaks at Mill Creek, an apartment complex owned by Village Green Companies. He also lived in the complex. The excuse used by the company was that Bruley had violated employee rules which forbids 'weapons in the workplace.' Apparently the company wanted to pretend that Bruley’s private apartment and that of his neighbor are part of his 'workplace' -- something tenants might find a bit disturbing."

Read the rest here.

Nicholas Sanchez has an interesting take on Mitt Romney's chances:

"This frightfully prosaic rash of sexual indiscretions among Republicans has cast an unflattering light on the Party of traditional marriage, and returns us to Mitt Romney and his fledgling presidential campaign. Alone among top-tier contenders for the GOP nomination, Mr. Romney can lay credible claim to being the values candidate who practices what he preaches. What remains to be seen is if this professional financier can make political capital of this asset."

Yesterday, the Club for Growth released an economic white paper on Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson. The sixth in a series of white papers on the pro-growth records of presidential candidates, the report "provides an in-depth look at Thompson's strengths and weaknesses, giving the Senator credit for supporting the flat tax and for sponsoring legislation for Social Security personal accounts at a time when few would touch the issue. At the same time, the white paper explores Thompson's enigmatic record on tort reform and takes the southern Senator to task for his instrumental support of McCain-Feingold, questioning why his belief in limited government doesn't extend to government's regulation of political speech."

You can view the entire Fred Thompson white paper here (PDF file).

Here's more from the Club for Growth's press release 'bout Fred Thompson:

"'Fred Thompson's eight-year record is generally pro-growth with an excellent record on entitlement reform and school choice and a very good record on taxes, regulation, and trade,' said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. 'His belief in a limited federal government is demonstrated by his numerous votes against government intrusion in the private sector and increased federal spending. His fondness for Tennessee pork aside, Thompson consistently voted against increased spending and new government projects, at times, one of only a handful of senators to do so.'"

I have a deep disdain for unions of all stripes. Mainly because of **** like this:

"A 16-year-old Albertson's, Inc. employee in San Diego filed federal charges against the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135 after union officials unlawfully demanded she be fired from her job unless she joined the union and paid dues.

"Sixteen year-old high-school student, Danielle Cookson, a front courtesy clerk for the grocery giant, obtained free legal assistance from attorneys at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. The federal charges highlight that UFCW Local 135 union officials are failing to respect employees legal rights and requiring them to join and pay dues to the union as a job condition.

"In late July, UFCW Local 135 union officials sent a “termination notification” letter to Albertsons requesting Cookson be fired from her position. In their demand, union officials ordered Cookson to pay the forced dues within seven days of the notification, or else she would be removed from the schedule and terminated.

"Since she began working at Albertsons in May, union officials have attempted to seize forced dues from Cookson’s paycheck. However, Cookson was never informed of her right to refrain from formal union membership or given proper financial notice of how her forced dues would be spent, as required by Foundation-won court decisions."

Here's a television news report on the same story:

This morning's Wall Street Journal has bad news for politicians who want to increase the size and scope of the welfare state with higher cigarette taxes. Let's hope Governor Bredesen and the tax-and-spenders in the General Assembly are paying attention (subscription required to read the entire editorial):

"Cigarettes have become ever pol's favorite tax target, and last year [New Jersey] raised its cigarette tax to $2.575 per pack - the highest state levy in the nation. Governor Jon Corzine forecast that the tax increase of 17.5 cents a pack would fetch $30 million in revenue to help balance the state's $1 billion deficit. Not quite. A new analysis by the Center for Policy Research of New Jersey finds that the state collected $23 million less revenue from tobacco taxes in Fiscal 2007 than it did the year before. ...

"Something similar is going on all over the U.S., where cigarette taxes have on average tripled in the last decade, but treasuries aren't getting the revenue boost. For consumers, tax-free online cigarettes are only a mouse click away, and these purchases now cost the states more than $1 billion a year in lost tobacco taxes, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Washington state, which levies a tax of $2.03 a pack, loses an estimated $200 million a year to out-of-state purchases, according to the Seattle Times. Californians smoke 300 million untaxed packs of cigarettes a year thanks to the Internet, smuggling and out of state sales. ...

"Patrick Fleenor of the Tax Foundation says states that tax cigarettes at more than $2 a pack "are getting close to that tipping point" where they may start to lose money from further tax increases. This is a special problem for those states - such as California, Maryland and Wisconsin - planning to raise cigarette taxes to pay for expanded government health-care coverage. The new spending commitments will be permanent and rapidly expand, while the revenues from tobacco taxes will decline.

"State cigarette tax collections may fall by an estimated $1 billion more if Congress goes ahead with its plan to raise the federal cigarette tax to $1 a pack from 39 cents in the name of funding an expansion in health-care spending. ... The Heritage Foundation calculates that, to make those numbers add up, some 22 million Americans would have to start smoking over the next decade.

"So, light up, friends. You may kill yourself, but your bad habits will let the politicians continue theirs."

Michael Reagan has a few questions for ol' Fred:

"Fred Thompson's opening shot in launching his campaign on the Jay Leno show was impressive, but now he has to forget the sound bites and the folksy advice and get down to brass tacks.

"To begin with, he has to give the voters in the primary states a good reason to pick him over all the other Republican candidates. He has to tell them not only where he stands on the issues, but also what he plans to do about them.

"It's not enough to say he wants a better America -- after all, everybody wants that. He has to spell out how he plans to get there.

"What is he going to do to give us the smaller government candidates keep promising but never seem to provide?

"What is he going to do to win the war in Iraq and the war against terrorism?

"How does he plan to create a fairer income tax system that rewards hard work rather than punishes it?

"He needs to answer those questions and be very specific in his answers.

"The voters won't want to know how he feels about issues -- they can get all that touchy-feely stuff from the Democrats -- they want to know exactly what he plans to do about them, and how he plans to do it."

Read the rest here.