The Nigh Seen Creeder

Joltin' Django is on his way to Atlanta. The Nigh Seen Creeder will return Wednesday, January 2.

The purpose of my visit to Atlanta is to attend Drivin N Cryin's New Year's Eve show at the Roxy. In my humble opinion, Drivin N Cryin is the best rock 'n' roll band to ever come outta North Georgia. Yeah, I know, R.E.M. hails from Athens; but R.E.M.'s been sucking big-time since about 1998 (I could say something incredibly tacky, but I shall refrain). DNC has never, ever sucked. I'll whip any man's ass who says they have/do.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Day.

"This is leftism’s great strength: it’s all white lies. That’s its only advantage, as far as I can tell. None of its programs actually works, after all. From statism and income redistribution to liberalized criminal laws and multiculturalism, from its assault on religion to its redefinition of family, leftist policies have made the common life worse wherever they’re installed.

"But because it depends on -- indeed is defined by -- describing the human condition inaccurately, leftism is nothing if not polite. With its tortuous attempts to rename unpleasant facts out of existence -- he’s not crippled, dear, he’s handicapped; it’s not a slum, it’s an inner city; it’s not surrender, it’s redeployment -- leftism has outlived its own failure by hiding itself within the most labyrinthine construct of social delicacy since Victoria was queen."

-- Andrew Klavan

This's what's been cookin' over at A Man's Gotta Eat:

Culinary quote of import
En-chee-la-das!
Ancient Donelsonian secret
Svenska Köttbullar
Mmm! I smell bacon!

The average American knows pretty much two things about Abraham Lincoln: (A) He was president during the War Between the States, and (B) he freed the slaves. Mention Lincoln's first inaugural, in which he proposed a constitutional amendment to protect slavery in the South, or his wartime abuses, such as his suspension of habeas corpus and his forced deportation of an opposition Member of Congress, and you'll get raised eyebrows at best and shrugged shoulders at worst. "But, but ... the man freed the slaves!" you'll be told.

This past Sunday, presidential wannabe Ron Paul did something that no candidate in recent memory has ever done: he dissed Abraham Lincoln. On national television. Lincoln's decision to raise troops to force the Southern states to stay in the Union was a "mistake," said Paul. Why he didn't just say that he wasn't going to debate something that occurred 150 years ago is absolutely beyond me. Indeed, a presidential candidate who can't parry a non-consequential query isn't worth two cents as far as I'm concerned.

I don't entirely disagree with Paul's assertion that Lincoln made a mistake in 1861; however, I'm smart enough to know that a presidential candidate who suggests that any part/portion of Lincoln's war effort was wrong is going to come across as a nut ... and a big nut, at that. If there's one president Americans admire universally it's Abraham Lincoln. (Paul should've thrown in some disparaging words about George Washington and Princes Di and made it a hat-trick.)

The Campaign for Working Families had this to say about Ron Paul's Meet the Press performance:

"Ron Paul’s performance on Meet the Press Sunday was a disaster. Host Tim Russert forced Paul to concede that he too had loaded up spending bills with 'earmarks' that would benefit only his district. He then tried to argue, disingenuously in my view, that he was justified in doing so because he would later vote against the bills, knowing full well that they would pass. But this hypocrisy was the least of Paul’s problems.

"Before the interview was over, he said he would vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if it came up today, admitted that he had called Ronald Reagan, 'a dramatic failure,' and insisted we shut down the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security and withdraw all U.S. troops from everywhere in the world. Our enemies must be praying he wins!

"But the real kicker was his attack on Abraham Lincoln – the first Republican president in our nation’s history. According to Paul, Lincoln should have just bought the slaves. I can’t remember the last time, if ever, a Republican presidential candidate managed to attack both Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln in one interview, but Paul managed to pull it off.

"The real mystery is why anyone who loved Reagan could support this guy who is the exact opposite of what Reagan stood for."

In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, geologist M.A. Kauffman makes more sense in 155 words than Al Gore's made using 155,000. To wit:

"If one wants to join the crowd promoting carbon dioxide-caused global warming ('Geochemists Chart Carbon Dioxide Levels at 650,000-Year High,' Dec. 14), delving into geological history doesn't promote the cause well. Historically, high CO2 levels have been a symptom of warming, not a cause.

"There have been periods when atmospheric CO2 levels were up to 16 times what they are now, periods characterized not by warming but by glaciation.

"Yes, you might have to go back 650,000 years to match our current atmospheric CO2 level, but you only have to go back to the Medieval Warming period that occurred from the 10th into the 14th century to find an intense global-warming episode. This was immediately followed by drastic cooling of the Little Ice Age.

"Neither of these events was caused by variations in C02 levels, but were most likely the result of variations in solar irradiance caused by changes in the sun's magnetic field."

This has to be one of my favorite stories from 2007:

"Disneyland announces plans to close the It's a Small World attraction to deepen its water channel after the ride's boats start getting stuck under the loads of heavy passengers. Employees ask larger passengers to disembark -- and compensate them with free food."

Priceless!

Robert Novak says the GOP establishment is moving toward John McCain:

"Sen. John McCain, given up for dead a few weeks ago as he ran a cash-starved, disorganized campaign, today is viewed by canny Republican professionals as the best bet to win the party's presidential nomination. What's more, they consider him their most realistic prospect to buck the overall Democratic tide and win the general election. Indeed, if Mike Huckabee holds on to actually win the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, the road forward could be clear for McCain."

Amnesty, "Gang of 14," nay to tax-cuts ... it'll be SO hard for me to push the button for John McCain in November 2008. I'll vote for him over whichever statist the Democrats choose; but, God, what a bitter pill, er, button to, well, you know.

The October 2007 Washington Monthly magazine announced on its cover that al-Qaeda in Iraq is a "myth." In the ensuing essay, Andrew Tilghman had this to say:

"[I]nterviews with numerous military and intelligence analysts, both inside and outside of government, suggest that the number of strikes the group has directed represent only a fraction of what official estimates claim. Further, al-Qaeda's presumed role in leading the violence through uniquely devastating attacks that catalyze further unrest may also be overstated."

When it comes to assessing the security situation in Iraq, I really couldn't give two squirts about what an egghead writing for the "premier Progressive monthly" (James Carville's words) has to say. Indeed, a recent report issued by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point more or less destroys every canard set forth by one Andrew Tilghman. Read the CTC's report here.

Thank God for the folks at the CTC. They're doing Uncle Sam's work, and then some.

The following "Christmas gift" was sold on eBay for $415. All I can say is ... I wish I'd thought of it!

"I will be spending the Christmas holiday in Poland in a tiny village that has one church with no bell because angry Germans stole it. Aside from vodka, there is not a lot for me to do.

"During the course of my holiday I will send three postcards to one person of your choosing.

"These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me.

"The postcards will not be coherently signed, leaving your mark confused, guessing wildly, crying out in anguish.

"'How do I know this person? And how does he know I had a ferret named Goliath?'

"Your beloved friend or relative will try in vain to figure out who it is. Best of all, it can't possibly be you because you'll have the perfect alibi: you're not in Poland. You're home, wherever that is, doing whatever it is you do when not driving your friends loopy with international prankery."

"True conservatism is the antithesis of ideology. It is the negation of ideology. For conservatism is grounded in the past. Its principles are derived from the Constitution, experience, history, tradition, custom, and the wisdom of those who have gone before us -- 'the best that has been thought and said.' It does not purport to know the future. It is about preserving the true, the good, the beautiful. Conservatism views all ideologies with skepticism, and the more zealous and fanatic with hostility."

Patrick J. Buchanan, Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart

Last week, Shelby County Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas filed a complaint in Chancery Court to block a Kwanzaa celebration to be hosted by County Commissioner Henri Brooks in the Shelby County Commission chambers. In response, Brooks - a former state representative who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in the State Capitol because slavery once existed in the United States - said she was appalled that so much "ignorance" surrounds the celebration of Kwanzaa. I couldn't agree more.

How many people know of the true origins of Kwanzaa? Not many, I assure you. So, when you come across Kwanzaa "greeting" cards at the grocery store, or Kwanzaa wrapping paper at Target, pause for a moment and reflect upon this:

"Every year school children across the United States are forced to celebrate Kwanzaa by their politically correct, union backed teachers. So, every year I try to write a piece reminding people about what a media backed scam Kwanzaa really is -- all of the makings of a Hallmark 'holiday,' i.e. a 'holiday' solely designed to get you to buy crap.

"Kwanzaa did not come about until the 1960's. It was founded by a felon named Ron Karenga. Mr. Karenga spent time in prison for assaulting and torturing two black women. According to one of the the women in a Los Angeles Times article, the two women 'were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Ms. Davis's mouth and placed against Ms. Davis's face.'

"Let's also remember Mr. Karenga's own words. He noted, 'People think it's African, but it's not. I came up with Kwanzaa because black people wouldn't celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that's when a lot of Bloods were partying.' You be sure to remember that quote when your child is forced to celebrate it at school. Be sure to also remember Mr. Karenga called Jesus 'psychotic' and called Christianity a white religion black people should shun." (Emphasis mine)

The Nigh Seen Creeder will return Wednesday, December 26.

In the meantime, enjoy the following editorial, which has been published annually in the Wall Street Journal since 1949 ...


"When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

"Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

"But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression -- for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

"There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

"Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

"And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

"So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

"But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

"Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

"Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

"And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

"'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.'"

Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


UPDATE:


I would be remiss if I failed to mention ...

Next to opening presents and passing out on the couch in a turkey-fueled haze, my favorite part of Christmas Day is watching A Christmas Story over, and over, and over again on TBS (DirecTV channel 247). Well-written, poignant, and uproariously funny, ACS will always be my favorite Christmas-themed movie -- mainly because of dialogue like this:

The Old Man [Reading the newspaper]: Did you hear about this guy who swallowed a yo-yo?
Mother: Swallowed a yo-yo?
TOM: Yeah, this clodhopper down in Griffin, Indiana.
M: There's the silliest things in the newspapers.
TOM: What do you mean "silly?" Tha-that's real news! That's not like that politics slop!

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a fascinating piece about a young blogger, Yoani Sánchez, who's tempting fate by daring to tell the world what life is like inside Communist Cuba (visit her blog here).

Ms. Sánchez's blog should be required reading for those liberals who've managed to convince themselves that Cuba is a paradise in which all citizens are well-fed, well-educated, and, well, kept well by Cuba's amazing system of free health care.

Here're some highlights from the WSJ article:

"Ms. Sánchez has done this cloak-and-dagger routine since April, publishing essays that capture the privation, irony and even humor of Cuba's tropical Communism -- 'Stalinism with conga drums,' as she and her husband jokingly call it. From writing about the book fair that blacklisted her favorite authors to the schoolyard where parents smuggle food to their hungry children, Ms. Sánchez paints an unflinching, and deeply personal, portrait of the Cuban experience. ...

"The problem is, saying what you think in Cuba can be dangerous. In 2002, Cuba imprisoned dozens of journalists who declared themselves dissidents and published criticisms of the regime -- many are still there. Most Cubans are so afraid of being labeled a critic that they are reluctant to utter the words 'Fidel Castro' in public. Instead, they silently pantomime stroking a beard when referring to their leader. ...

"The blog reads like her interior monologue as she goes through her routine in Havana: Collecting the daily ration of bread (one bun per person per day), taking her son to school, and running errands -- often trekking on foot to avoid riding the "camel," a bus pulled by a soot-belching tractor-trailer cab. ...

"A recurring feature is her 12-year-old son's school. Recently, he participated in a military shooting exercise there. Her son enjoyed playing soldier, but she was outraged. In another entry, she described how parents congregate at the schoolyard at lunchtime to secretly pass food to their children who don't get enough to eat. She described her sadness at seeing children whose parents who don't turn up and will go hungry. ...

"Writing her blog is one way to shed her 'internal policeman,' Ms. Sánchez says. 'I am trying to push the limits, to find the line where the internal limits end and the real limits begin.' She thinks more Cubans are pushing nowadays too. Lately, in bread lines and other informal gatherings, she's witnessed Cubans publicly complaining about things like corruption, low wages, or the decaying health system." [Emphasis mine]

Some outfit called Progressive Nashville was pissin' and moanin' about the high cost of food yesterday. ("Progressives are good at pissin' and moanin', aren't they?) I dispatched this message late last night:

How come you "progressive," i.e., statist sorts aren't blaming George W. Bush for the "worldwide" increase in food prices? Better judgement gettin' to you?

That said, I addressed the cost-of-food-is-rising issue in November 2006. I said:

"Tyson Foods, the world's largest meat processor, is warning investors and consumers that rising corn prices are leading to increased retail prices for chicken, beef and pork.

"Now, the whole meat product-increase situation has got me to thinkin'; and I have a few questions for anyone who cares to answer 'em for me. To wit:

"How come I can't find a poll in which 20 percent of Americans blame the Bush Administration for the rising cost of meat? (A Gallup poll conducted over the summer indicated that 20 percent of the voting public blamed President Bush for high gas prices.)

"When should we expect congressional hearings seeking to expose nefarious price-gouging schemes initiated by the meat industry's corporate honchos?

"When will Senator Harry "Sleepin' at the Ritz" Reid and Representative Nancy "Madame Moonbat" Pelosi flout common sense and suggest that America should dip into its "Strategic Meat Reserve" ... ?

"All kidding aside, the spike in prices for meat products, due to increased corn prices, is no different from this past summer's spike in gasoline prices, which was caused by a worldwide increase in the price of oil. Americans may not (don't) know it, but they are receiving a valuable tutorial in basic economics: growing demand, coupled with supply pressure, will increase the cost of goods and services."

In the United States, the jump in prices for meat, dairy, and a whole host of prepared foods (such as those made with corn syrup) can, for the most part, be blamed on one particular thing: Ethanol. It has become more profitable for farmers - due to subisdies supported by "Green" Democrats and farm state Republicans who should know better - to grow corn for ethanol than for livestock feed and assorted food additives.

What can "progressives" do about the increasing cost of food? First, you can stop trying to conjure up the ghosts of Karl Marx, William Jennings Bryant, Harold Ickes, Sr., John Kenneth Galbraith, and Bernie Sanders (ooops, he ain't dead yet!). Those sombitches never offered a single substantive idea to cure shortages or tame inflation. Second, you can contact every federal elected official and tell them to STOP ETHANOL SUBSIDIES NOW!

Progressives of the World ... unite, er, just do it!

According to Bill Clinton, his wife, Hillary Rodham (Clinton) is a "world-class genius." Oh, really? I wonder ...

Would a world-class genius, and supposed über-feminist, stay married to a man with a 20-year record of skirt-chasing and serial philandering?

Would a world-class genius continue to propagate the canard that her husband's irrefutably, er, documented affair with an intern half his age was the result of a "right-wing conspiracy?"

When billing records miraculously appear in an office years after they were subpoenaed, would a world-class genius say, in effect, "Duh, I don't know how they got there" ...? Seems like a genius could come up with a better excuse than that.

Do world-class geniuses use statements a political opponent made in kindergarten as source material in attack ads?

We could play this game all day ...

I've known some world-class geniuses in my day, President Clinton. Some of 'em are friends of mine. Your wife, sir, is no world-class genius.

I underwent a very, very minor surgical procedure at the Southern Hills Surgery Center today. Right now, I ain't feelin' very good.

The Nigh Seen Creeder will be back in full force on Saturday, December 22.

These're some of the latest posts over at A Man's Gotta Eat:

Le meilleur pain congelé
Hoagie hamburger? No, thank you ...
Sauce me!
Gimme my Dickel!
What will they think of next?
Joltin' Django's Big Boy Burger
Haricots rouges et riz à ma maison (redux)

This can't be good news for the Hillary Rodham (Clinton) campaign:

"Forty percent of Americans say they would vote to keep Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton from winning the presidency, more than twice the total for their No. 2 'anti-' pick, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

"In a new Fox 5-The Washington Times-Rasmussen Reports survey, 64 percent of Republicans, 42 percent of third-party or independent voters, and 17 percent of Democrats said the candidate they most want to keep from the White House is Mrs. Clinton."

Four in 10 Americans are already agin' HR(C), and you have to figure - assuming she wins the Democratic nomination - that another 1 in 10 will be persuaded by GOP attack ads to not vote for her. That's a 50 percent anti-Hillary vote right there. I can only assume Senator Rodham (Clinton) is hoping that she'll be able to win the presidency without convincing a majority of Americans to vote for her ... you know, like her husband had to do (twice).

For months pundits and politicos insisted that Mitt Romney needed to make "The Speech" to allay fears about his Mormonism. I can only wonder why those same folks aren't shouting and screaming for Ron Paul to distance himself from the growing gaggle of racists who've embraced his campaign.

Earlier this week, a post on the National Alliance's Web site celebrated Ron Paul's fundraising prowess; and if that weren't bad enough, today brings word that Paul is refusing to return a campaign contribution from an avowed white supremacist:

"Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has received a $500 campaign donation from a white supremacist, and the Texas congressman doesn't plan to return it, an aide said Wednesday.

"Don Black, of West Palm Beach, recently made the donation, according to campaign filings. He runs a Web site called Stormfront with the motto, 'White Pride World Wide.' The site welcomes postings to the 'Stormfront White Nationalist Community.'"

Ron Paul doesn't have a snowball's chance to win the GOP nomination next year, let alone the presidency. Perhaps that explains why the story hasn't received that much attention. If the denizens of the mainstream media want to be fair and balanced, however, they need to give the "racists for Paul" story as much attention as Mitt Romney's faith, Rudy Giuliani's friends and Fred Thompson's wife.

"I would have got 5,000 [hits]"

-- Pete Rose explaining, on Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller, what would've happened had steroids been prevalent when he played baseball

The Bush Administration recently announced that the shortfall between the promises the government has made on Social Security and Medicare is $45 trillion over the next 75 years. What a shock.

Earlier this year, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the Japan Society of New York that the aging U.S. population will present a "daunting challenge to the nation's economy." Bernanke's comment was a profound understatement. Here's why:

According to a recent study in Investor's Business Daily, by 2040, 46.8 percent of government outlays will be public health care benefits to the elderly. If Democrats follow through with their promise to make more seniors eligible for prescription drugs, it's conceivable that Medicare will consume half the nation's budget by the time today's workers retire

Because politicians are loath to limit benefits, tax hikes will be necessary for Medicare to survive. Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says a payroll tax hike of 4 percent is necessary to ensure Medicare's solvency through mid-century. I'm afraid that's a conservative estimate. The confiscatory payroll taxes needed to fully fund Medicare will soon provoke cries of outrage from liberals and conservatives alike.

As Alexander Tytler warned in the eighteenth century, "Democracy ... can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy."

I'm afraid the coming Medicare crisis will soon prove Tytler a prophet.

Interesting:

"The real problem with Christian conservatives’ support for Huckabee isn’t the bogeyman of religion intolerance. Rather it’s that Huckabee is not a conservative at all. The former Arkansas governor has tried to rehabilitate his dismal record on taxes by embracing a crackpot talk-radio panacea called (in perfectly Orwellian language) the 'Fair Tax.' Huckabee says he’ll abolish the income tax and IRS and institute instead the 'fair tax,' which is notionally a national sales tax of 23 percent—but really, as Bruce Bartlett points out, 30 percent: 'If a product costs $1 at retail, the FairTax adds 30%, for a total of $1.30. Since the 30-cent tax is 23% of $1.30, FairTax supporters say the rate is 23% rather than 30%.' Want to pay 30 percent more on everything you now buy? Then the 'Fair Tax' is for you. The rate is so high because, like every fraudulent tax reform, it’s revenue neutral. For most Americans, it would be a tax hike, since sales taxes are regressive, affecting the middle class and poor more than the wealthy, while our current income tax is progressive, disproportionately hurting the rich. Progressivity is unjust, but why should a middle-income family of four in, say, Arkansas, pay more taxes so that George Soros and Warren Buffet can catch a break? Ask Tax-Hike Mike."

Know who ♥ Mike Huckabee? The Democratic governor of Ohio, that's who. Here's what Governor Ted Strickland said 'bout The Huck in Sunday's Cincinnati Enquirer:

"But he's the kind of combination of conservative views in some ways, but very, almost liberal views in other ways."

Reckon the Huckabee campaign will use that quote in any of their campaign advertising?

This past Sunday, the jackass festival popularly known as the Tennessean's "Letters to the Editor" section featured this bit o' left-wing nitwittery from a Mr. Bill Terry:

"As I watched Al Gore's speech accepting the Nobel Prize ... several things crossed my mind.

"It was immediately obvious that here was a man with a high level of intelligence, a great command of the English language, a complete grasp of the problem and the ability to answer complicated questions with knowledge and without a script. Wouldn't it be great if we had a president like that?"

First of all, Al Gore sounded "intelligent" because he was speaking to a bunch of stuffed suits in Oslo, Norway. Put Al Gore in front of a rural audience and he'll sound like he just walked off the set of Hee Haw. (Of course, you're more likely to see Haley's Comet return than you are to see Al Gore in rural America. He's too busy rubbing elbows with MoveOn.org nutbuckets, Hollywood types, and members of the global Hate America Brigade.) I've witnessed Al Gore's cornpone shtick in the flesh.

In 1990, Senator Al Gore made a campaign swing through Murfreesboro, TN. Hoping there would be plenty of people to mock (and there was), a buddy and I trekked on over to Middle Tennessee State University to see Big Al do his thang. About 20 seconds into his campaign spiel, Gore said something about drinking a "Co-Cola." Now, I'd heard my grandfather say "Co-Cola" - meaning Coca-Cola - a thousand times, and I'd never given it a second thought. When Gore said it, however, it sounded like ... well, it sounded like he'd never said "Co-Cola" in his life and was only doing so because he was standing in front of a bunch of rubes.

Gore finished his speech and got a good-sized round of applause (Murfreesboro was still a Democratic stronghold in 1990). As he left the stage, my buddy turned to me and said, "He needs to change his name to Goremer Pyle." Goremer Pyle, indeed.

That said, I wish left-wingers would make up their minds 'bout George W. Bush's intelligence, or lack thereof. In one breath, your typical liberal will tell you that Bush is a not-so-amiable dunce. In the very next breath, the same liberal will tell you how Bush has cagily schemed to steal elections, concoct false intelligence reports, manipulate the media, and subvert the constitution at every turn. Hell, some left-wingers have suggested that instead of leaving Washington when his term expires in January 2009, Bush is going to mount a coup d’état to stay in office indefinitely. You gotta admit ... man'd have to be pretty smart to do such a thing.

I say all this because Al Gore is not half as clever as a lot of liberals make him out to be; and George W. Bush is not as dumb as those same liberals make him out to be. My idea of a perfect world would be one in which we never had to hear such shipdittery ever again.

"A small group of US experts stubbornly insist that, contrary to what the vast majority of their colleagues believe, humans may not be responsible for the warming of the planet Earth," Yahoo! News reports.

"These experts believe that global warming is a natural phenomenon, and they point to reams of data they say supports their assertions.

"These conclusions are in sharp contradiction to those of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which reached its conclusions using largely similar data."

I can just hear the response from Al Gore's sycophants: "The operative word, Django, is 'small.' The consensus in the scientific community is that global warming is caused by human activity."

Sixty years ago, the consensus amongst economists and social scientists was that collectivism and statism were inevitable, and that what was happening in the Soviet Union was the wave of the future. Hundreds of scholarly articles were trotted out to support these claims. Critics of socialist planning, such as Freidrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, were ridiculed for daring to question what the Al Gores of the day said was unequivocally true.

We all know what happened to the Soviet Union; and nobody, except for the editors of the Nation and the members of the Communist Party-USA, actually thinks that allowing the government to control the means of production is good idea.

So, the next time you see Al Gore on the boob tube prattling on and on about "consensus," remember where we heard that one before ...

The guys at PoliticalDerby.com have published a list of what each presidential candidate should request from Santa Claus this year. Here're a few of my favorites:

B. Hussein Obama: "That Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton don’t decide to pull an Oprah and start campaigning for him."

Hillary Clinton: "For every woman who’s ever slept with Bill to endorse her, ensuring Hillary wins the nomination unanimously."

John Edwards: "A mega-scandal involving Hillary, Ellen, Obama, and Larry Craig."

Bill Richardson: "A list of china patterns for Air Force Two."

Joe Biden: "A Festivus miracle."

Mike Huckabee: "Short memories for pocket-book conservatives regarding his tax policies as Arkansas governor."

Mitt Romney: "That Donny and Marie Osmond don’t decide to pull an Oprah and start campaigning for him."

Rudy Giuliani: "A survival kit that lasts until Super Duper Tuesday."

Ron Paul: "For all states to suddenly decide to allow primary votes to be cast online."

John McCain: "For 12 million illegals to voluntarily go home so immigration is no longer an issue."

Fred Thompson: "To actually give a rat’s rear-end whether he wins or loses."

I've been invited to a Christmas party tonight in Paris, TN. The Nigh Seen Creeder will return Sunday, December 16.

After watching yesterday's Democratic presidential debate, Creeder Reader Mr. Jimmy had this to say 'bout John "Pretty Boy" Edwards:

"John Edwards is one of the silliest excuses for a dumbass sumbitch I've ever seen in my life, in my sad dumbass life. He's an insult to all men everywhere. I suspect he puts down a sani-guard when he sits to pee in a public toilet. God is there a more punkass pantywaist sissyboy biyatch in Washington DC today? ... [D]oes he even need a pouch, much less a cup, in his jock? Does he ever even need a jock? Oh God this is the future of politics?!

I responded thusly:

John Edwards is the quintessential Emasculated Male. While I'm not certain as to the size of Edwards' cojones, I think he thinks he has a brass pair the size of basketballs. I mean, the man didn't run for re-election to the U.S. Senate because several polls indicated that he'd lose, badly, to whomever the Republicans nominated; he got his ass dusted by Dick Cheney during the '04 V.P. debate; and he couldn't deliver his home state for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. If the folks in his own state didn't want his dumb ass in any elected office, why should Americans, as a whole, want the dumbass as their president?!

That said, here's how I envision an afternoon at the Edwards Estate ...

Elizabeth Edwards: Hey, John, I'm baking a big meatloaf for dinner! I think I'll whip up some mashed potatoes, too.
John Edwards: Baby, you know red meat upsets my stomach. I think I'll just have some cottage cheese and peaches -- maybe some brown rice.
EE: John, you're so picky! I guess I'll give the meatloaf to that little brown fellow who trims the hedges. What's his name? Geor-gee?
JE: Hor-hay, 'Lizbeth, Hor-hay! He may have brown skin, and he may get his hair cut at a barber shop, but that doesn't mean that he's not a part of these two great Americas! (Murmurs: Well, one's not so great, what, with all the shoppin' at Wal-Mart, living in tract homes, and wearing off-the-rack clothes.)
EE: Oh, I almost forgot ... I got us tickets to the Hurricanes game Thursday night. Right behind the bench!
JE: Hockey?! Blech! All that fighting and hitting. No ... thank ... you. Besides, you know I have my scrapbooking group on Thursdays. This is my week to bring the cucumber sandwiches!
EE: I'll ask Geor-gee, er, Hor-hay, if he'd like to join me. Big strapping man like that must love hockey.
JE: Hush, Honey, Oprah's coming on! George Clooney's her guest! (Murmurs: God, he has great hair.)

What is it they say 'bout many a truth being said in jest ...?!

This picture was taken last Saturday evening at the 7th Annual Andy Roddick Foundation Charity Weekend:


The lucky little bastard dancing with Miss Sharapova won a dance-with-Maria raffle at the above-mentioned charity event.

There are a million tacky comments I could make 'bout that kid. This'n is the one I'll make for posterity: I would not have wanted to be his pillow last Saturday night. Indeed.

At the conclusion of the much Bali-hooed Climate Change Conference yesterday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed world leaders for not doing enough to lower carbon emissions. Then what'd Big Ban do? Fly around the world, naturally!

"Ban Ki-moon has been criticised for planning a round-the-world trip that will generate thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions just days after he leaves the UN meeting in Bali.

"The South Korean has organised a post-conference trip, starting on Sunday, that will see him fly to attend the concert in New York, adding more than 4,300 miles to his itinerary. When he leaves the island after the summit Mr Ban will fly to East Timor, and then to Japan where he will briefly stop before catching another flight to the US.

"The flight from Tokyo to New York takes him the wrong way around the world to arrive in time for the reception of a Korean concert-at Carnegie Hall, where he is the guest of honour. The concert is titled Around The World In Eighty Minutes.

"The UN is expected to announce plans to offset the emissions generated by all agencies involved in the Bali conference by contributing to various environmentally friendly projects."

I like what Lee L had to say 'bout "climate change":

"If you're worried about CO2 emissions, try this free carbon offset ... for the next hour ... don't exhale."

Well said, mate!

While Fred Thompson certainly uncorked the best one-liner during yesterday's GOP debate in Iowa, the consensus amongst bloggers is that Mitt Romney performed best overall. Here's what Captain's Quarters says 'bout it:

"However, it's clear that Mitt Romney won this debate. Huckabee didn't hurt himself, but Romney had eloquence, poise, and serious content in his performance. He looked presidential and sounded even more so. He also seemed spontaneous and good-humored, mixing it up with Fred Thompson and keeping it light. He never really went after Huckabee, choosing more to focus on his own record."

C.R. Scott sends us this pic of Gomer Huckabee:

If Al Sharpton is convicted of fudging on his taxes, I will be shocked, shocked, shocked:

"Federal authorities subpoenaed financial records and employees in an apparent probe of the Rev. Al Sharpton's 2004 presidential bid, nonprofit civil rights group and for-profit businesses, newspapers reported Thursday.

"As many as 10 Sharpton associates were subpoenaed Wednesday to testify before a federal grand jury in Brooklyn on Dec. 26, his lawyer told the Daily News. ...

"Sharpton's associates were told to provide investigators with financial records from the campaign and roughly six Sharpton-related businesses, as well as personal financial documents of Sharpton and his wife, the newspaper said.

"The FBI and Internal Revenue Service are seeking the records, which go back to 2001, according to the Daily News."

Who's ♥in' Mike Huckabee these days? The Democratic National Committee, that's who ...

"Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal.

"The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party's nomination.

"The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source.

"Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the 'glass jaw -- and they're just waiting to break it.'"

Indeed, the Democrats will have a field day just picking apart the statements Huckabee made during his 1992 campaign for U.S. Senate:

"The U.S. shouldn't try to kill Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mike Huckabee declared when he first ran for office. No women in combat anywhere. No gays in the military. No contributions in politics to candidates more than a year before an election.

"His statements are among 229 answers Huckabee offered as a 36-year-old Texarkana pastor during his first run for political office in 1992. In that unsuccessful race against Sen. Dale Bumpers, Huckabee offered himself as a social conservative and listed ''moral decay'' as one of the top problems facing the country. ...

"Some of the words in his answers to the questionnaire are indeed strong.

"Asked about gays in the military, for example, he didn't just reject the idea but added: 'I believe to try to legitimize that which is inherently illegitimate would be a disgraceful act of government. I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.'

"Earlier this year, Huckabee said, 'Nobody's going to find some YouTube moments of me saying something radically different than what I'm saying today.'

"In the questionnaire, he:

"-- Called for the elimination of political action committees and campaign contributions from lobbyists. He also said candidates should not be allowed to receive contributions until one year before an election and said there should be limits on the amount of out-of-state money they could accept.

"As Arkansas governor, Huckabee formed a political action committee based in Virginia to raise money for non-federal candidates that allowed him to travel and raise his profile for a potential presidential run. The Hope for America PAC shut down earlier this year as Huckabee entered the White House race.

"-- Said he would not support any tax increases if elected to the Senate. Huckabee's record of raising some taxes as Arkansas' governor has drawn fire from fiscal conservatives in the presidential race."

My favorite journal of opinion says, "Vote for Romney":

"Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest. While he has not talked much about the importance of resisting ethnic balkanization — none of the major candidates has — he supports enforcing the immigration laws and opposes amnesty. Those are important steps in the right direction."

Read the rest here.

We all know big-box retailers are more economically efficient than municipal governments. John Moser tells us that Wal-Mart, Home Depot, et al. provide more efficient services as well:

"Apparently such chains as Wal-Mart and Home Depot have disaster warning, relief, and recovery systems that tend to be larger, and far more efficient, than those of run by municipal governments. So claims this article, which discusses the response of the chains to the storms that hit the Pacific Northwest last week, not only to clean and repair their stores, but to assist employees and the community at large."

The latest - and most likely the last - addition to my Christmas list this year is a Planon RC800 DocuPen. Here 'tis:


What's a DocuPen? Here's the skinny from Planon's Web site:

"The DocuPen is the ideal portable scanner for scanning - newspapers, magazines, books, notes, photos, receipts, contracts, court documents, sketches, certificates, invoices, medical records, blueprints, maps, and reference materials."

"Our GIs do things that make the most fanciful excesses of adventure movies look tame, but you'd never know it from watching American TV. The only thing a GI can do to get his or her face on television is die or kill a civilian."

-- Jim Morris, Soldier of Fortune, January 2008

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know that Oprah Winfrey was in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina over the weekend campaigning alongside Sen. B. Hussein Obama. Hillary Clinton's campaign trotted out Bill, Chelsea, and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young in response, but, pound for pound (no pun intended), tain't nobody in the Clinton camp who can match Oprah's star power.

I know I've said it in comments on other blogs, but I don't think I've ever said it here: I can't stand Oprah Winfrey, and I have absolutely no use for people who watch her show. "What's so bad 'bout Oprah?" you may be asking. Well, I'll tell you ...

A lot of folks have implied that Oprah is someone who transcends partisan politics. Horse puckey. On more than one occasion, Ms. Winfrey allowed Michael Moore to propagandize on her show with nary a "Perhaps, but" or "Others suggest" in sight. Oprah simply smiled and nodded and encouraged Moore as he trotted out his patented brand of left-wing nitwittery.

Futhermore, during the 2004 election, Oprah held a "voting party" on her show featuring noted political scientists Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Drew Barrymore, Christina Aguilera, and Cameron Diaz. During said show, Ms. Diaz uncorked this bit o' wisdom:

"[W]omen have so much to lose. I mean, we could lose the right to our bodies. We could lose -- if you think that rape should be legal, then don't vote."

Did Oprah say, "Cameron, do you really think rape is going to be made legal?" or "That's the most ridiculous thing I've every heard!"? Nope. She said, and I quote, "It's your voice!"

So much for Ms. Winfrey, what's my beef with her viewers -- or, as I like to call 'em, the Cult of Oprah? Let's see ...

I don't think the average Oprah viewer has the ability to think for herself. (Let's be honest ... 90 percent of Oprah's fans are women.) Think I'm being too harsh? Consider this: Oprah can take 300+ pages of unreadable drek (see The Corrections, A Million Little Pieces, etc.), endorse it in her "Book Club," and immediately create a national bestseller.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If Oprah announced on her show that she regularly self-administers white vinegar enemas, there would be thousands of women across America who'd stock up on enemas and bottles of white vinegar. You know it's true, too!

Update:

My esteemed ami Mr. Jimmy sends us his thoughts 'bout Oprah and her minions:

There is too much cognitive disconnect in this story and what it implies for me to think about. Oprah is worried about the direction the country is going so she endorses Obama and people line up and chant "we love Oprah" and then go sign up as volunteers for Obama, and I'm more concerned about the mindset of anyone whose behavior can be so easily manipulated, minds that can be beguiled to this extent and still not be able to give any reason why they believe Obama is presidential material except that "I understand the difference between the Book Club and a free refrigerator," she said. "I understand the difference between that and this critical moment in our nation's history. . . .[Obama] has an "ear for eloquence and a tongue dipped in the unvarnished truth."

The article continues,"Terri Johnson of Urbandale, Iowa, lined up about two hours before the Des Moines event with three of her five children along. She said she had not been involved much in politics before, but was drawn to the rally by both Oprah and Obama.

'I would have voted for him without her, but it's nice to see Oprah,' Johnson said, joking that she hoped Winfrey would have one of her famous giveaways. 'I'd love to get a car.'"

If this wasn't so scary it would make a great SNL skit!

Somethin's missin'!
Something's got to be brung out!

Here're some recent posts from A Man's Gotta Eat:

Don't get between a man and his mac 'n' cheese!
Oh, Melinda's
Country cooking, French-style
Picnic Pizza keeps on rulin'!
Chicken soup for the Joltin' Django

The U.S. Senate currently has a lot of things on its plate: Troop-funding bills, pending trade agreements with a half-dozen different nations, the subprime mortgage mess, judicial nominations, etc.

So, what's issue #1 for Sen. John "Droopy" Kerry (seen passing the "global test" in the above picture) these days? The fact that many Patriots fans will not be able to watch the upcoming New England-New York Giants game. You see, due to a dispute between the NFL and the nation's major cable companies, the NFL Network is only available to DirecTV and Dish Network customers. Kerry apparetnly thinks this is a matter the U.S. Senate needs to take up.

In a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Kyle McSlarrow, Kerry wrote:

"While the National Football League and a few major cable companies continue to blame each other for the current state of NFL Network carriage, too many American football fans are being held hostage.

"Unfortunately, this disagreement has led to the use of what could potentially be an historic football game as leverage in a negotiation. On Saturday, December 29th, the New England Patriots will play the New York Giants in a game that could determine whether the Patriots become the first NFL team in 35 years to finish the regular season with an undefeated record. Unfortunately, millions of fans outside of the local media markets - including fans living in Massachusetts and New York - will not have access to the network that will broadcast the game. ...

"I urge you to reach an agreement as soon as possible."

Each and every day I thank God that the citizens of Ohio voted right in 2004 ...

The Wall Street Journal's Naomi Riley has written an excellent piece 'bout Mitt 'n' Mormonism. A sample:

"A recent Pew poll shows that only 53% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Mormons. That's roughly the same percentage who feel that way toward Muslims. By contrast, more than three-quarters of Americans have a favorable opinion of Jews and Catholics. Whatever the validity of such judgments, one has to wonder: Why does a faith professed by the 9/11 hijackers rank alongside that of a peaceful, productive, highly educated religious group founded within our own borders?

"Many evangelicals in the GOP view Mormonism as 'a cult,' or at least not a Christian faith. One Southern Baptist leader recently called it the 'fourth Abrahamic religion.' I remember, a couple of years ago, sitting in on an apologetics class at a Christian high school in Colorado Springs, Colo., and hearing the teacher describe a critical moment in the history of the Muslim faith, when the rock that now sits under the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem tried to fly to heaven and had to be restrained by Mohammad. Acknowledging that it sounded a little wacky, the teacher added: 'Well, it's no stranger than that guy who found golden tablets in upstate New York.' The students laughed uproariously at the reference to the Mormons' founding father, Joseph Smith.

"Six years ago, I probably could have counted on one finger the number of Mormons I had met. Having lived most my life in the Northeast, my situation was hardly unique. Then, while researching a book on religious colleges, I decided to spend some time at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. In preparation, I picked up Mormon America: The Power and the Promise by religion reporters Richard and Joan Ostling. The Ostlings offer a comprehensive account of the church's history and theology, as well as helpful descriptions of the Mormons' cultural and political outlook. 'The onetime believers in plural marriage, considered a dire threat to Victorian probity and the entire nation,' the authors write, 'have become the exemplars of conservative monogamous family values.'

"It is hard to disagree. Mormons marry young and have large families. They don't drink, smoke or gamble. The church does not condone homosexuality. Members give at least 10% of their income to the church and often volunteer more than 20 hours a week in some religious capacity. With no professional clergy, the survival of congregations (or 'stakes') is entirely dependent on lay participation. All young Mormon men and many women spend two years as missionaries, their travels funded by their own families. The church stocks soup kitchens across the country and internationally (both its own and those of other faiths) with food from its farms and warehouses.

"Rather than behaving like an insular cult, members are integrated into the society around them, sending their kids to public schools and assuming leadership positions locally and nationally. Once Mormons complete their missionary service, they are not obliged to proselytize, so having Mormons as neighbors doesn't mean a constant bombardment with invitations to join up.

"But many Americans, unless they've actually had a Mormon neighbor, might find all these rosy facts meaningless, feeling deeply uneasy with some of Mormonism's tenets. A lot of what we call religious tolerance depends on social contact, not theological understanding, and there are only about six million LDS members in the U.S., mostly concentrated in the Western states (though increasingly less so). If you press Baptists, they will acknowledge finding Catholics' belief in transubstantiation implausible at best; Jews like me have a little trouble getting over the virgin birth. But we all get along, for the most part, because we know each other and live similar lives as Americans, whatever faith we profess."

Read the entire article here.

Singer Bryan Adams (yes, he's still alive) wants KFC to change the way it kills its chickens:

"'C'mon Everybody,' writes the singer in a letter to John Bitove, the CEO of KFC Canada, 'If Ya Wanna Be Bad Ya Gotta be Good.' Which he then follows with something I didn't make up based on Adams' cheesy song titles: 'I'm writing in the hope that you would be open to ways you could improve the lives and deaths of the birds who end up in KFC Canada's buckets.'"

My pledge: Even though I'm not a big fan of fast food, I'm going to quickly patronize any restaurant that finds itself in the crosshairs of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or one of PETA's nitwit celebrity spokesmen (er, spokespersons -- gotta be PC these days). When church lets out on Sunday, I'm going to make a beeline to the nearest KFC; and everytime I take a bite of extra-crispy, I'm going to hum "Cuts Like a Knife."

Take that, Bryan Adams.

"Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives," a new poll shows.

"The upsurge by the former Arkansas governor has come largely at the expense of Fred Thompson, according to the national survey by The Associated Press and Ipsos." [Emphasis mine]

Back in early August, I said a Mayor Karl Dean would emulate his mentor, Bill Purcell, by doing his level best to run the Nashville Sounds out of town. I received a very snarky e-mail from someone named HMeek in which I was told that it was "unfair" to say what Dean would or would not do before he was even elected.

Earlier this week, the Sounds ballclub announced that it was spending $1 million to build new clubhouses and concession stands at Greer Stadium. When asked to comment on Greer's renovations, Mayor Dean said ... nothing:

"On Wednesday, Mayor Karl Dean declined comment through a spokeswoman about the Sounds' investment in Greer Stadium."

I guess the good mayor has never heard the old adage 'bout silence speaking volumes. Now, HMeek, tell me I'm being unfair when I say Mayor Dean don't give two squirts 'bout the Nashville Sounds.

Do you come from a land Down Under, aka A Land That's Gone Off the Environmental Deep End?! To wit:

"Scientists in Queensland say they have isolated special bacteria in the stomach lining of kangaroos which, if replicated in sheep and cattle, would significantly reduce the emission of greenhouse gas and improve the productivity of farms around the world.

"The research team estimates that methane from cattle and sheep accounts for 14 per cent of Australia's total greenhouse gas emission - second only to coal- and gas-powered power stations.

"It has been estimated that the average bullock produces 250 litres of methane a day or enough gas to fill a 44 gallon drum.

"'By replicating this bacteria not only would they [sheep and cattle] not produce such methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 per cent more energy out of the feed they are eating,' said Dr Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland Government.

"The announcement has been welcomed by the new Labour government in Canberra which this week signed the Kyoto Protocol, binding Australia to cut its 1990 greenhouse gas output by five per cent by 2012. The Australian government has so far spent over A$1bn in greenhouse gas abatement research."

"[T]he surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme amount of violence in Iraq."

-- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, April 19, 2007

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Harry?!

"Citing a 60 percent decline in violence in Iraq over the last six months, Gen. David Petraeus said Thursday that maintaining security is easier than establishing it and gives him more flexibility in deploying forces.

"Armed with charts showing that as of Wednesday, weekly attacks and Iraqi civilian deaths have plunged to levels not seen here since early 2006, Petraeus said the reduction lets him make force adjustments to address remaining problem areas, which would include northern Iraq."

The teen birth rate and births to unmarried mothers have risen for the first time in 14 years. Juli Ponzi observes:

"Not a cheerful or a promising development . . . unless it indicates a reduction in the number of abortions (which I doubt). The widespread availability of birth-control--even to Jr. High students and without the knowledge of their parents--seems to counter the argument that kids need ever-increasing access to and education about birth control in order to promote a reduction in teen birth rates. We’ve done that and now we have more. Hmmmm. Perhaps there are other causes."

What could those other causes be? I'm not sure, but I'll bet George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are somehow responsible (Karl Rove, too).

Is there any party that global-warming nuts won't poop on? Furthermore, is there any human activitity said nuts can point to that DOESN'T contribute to global warming?!

This is ree-dic-u-rous:

"In a campaign that has spread like wildfire across the Internet, a group of Israeli environmentalists is encouraging Jews around the world to light at least one less candle this Hanukka to help the environment.

"The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant damage to the atmosphere.

"'The campaign calls for Jews around the world to save the last candle and save the planet, so we won't need another miracle,' said Liad Ortar, the campaign's cofounder, who runs the Arkada environmental consulting firm and the Ynet Web site's environmental forum. 'Global warming is a milestone in human evolution that requires us to rethink how we live our lives, and one of the main paradigms of that is religion and how it fits into the current situation.'"

According to a story in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required to read entire article), U.S. students are "lagging behind their peers in other countries in science and math, test results show." I know that just shocks the fire out of you.

More:

"The test, the Program for International Student Assessment, was given to 15-year-olds in 30 industrialized countries last year. It focused on science but also included a math portion.

"The 30 countries, including the U.S., make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which runs the test.

"The average scores for U.S. students were lower than the average scores for the group as a whole.

"U.S. students also had an average science score that was lower than the average score in 16 other OECD countries. In math, U.S. students did even worse -- posting an average score that was lower than the average in 23 of the other leading industrialized countries."

So long as America's public schools are controlled by unions who resist reform at every turn, and so long as educrats are more concerned with boosting kids' self-esteem and handing out condoms and birth control pills than ensuring that children actually learn something, U.S. students will be bested by their international peers on math and science tests for years - nay, decades - to come.

According to a new Gallup poll, Republicans have a much higher opinion of their mental health than Democrats. Peter Lawler explains:

"Other variables, such as income, can’t account for ... the difference, and so being a Republican is clearly a significant cause of self-reported sanity. It could be that Republicans are as crazy as Democrats, but have a manly sense of self-confidence that causes them not to notice. Or it could be that Democrats just whine more and are angling for mood brighteners."

According to today's Wall Street Journal, Mitt Romney's upcoming "Mormon" speech will not dwell on specifics (subscription required to read the entire article):

"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said his long-awaited address on religion won't focus on demystifying Mormonism. ...

"The former Massachusetts governor said his address slated for Thursday will concentrate on the 'common heritage of the country's founding fathers' and the 'faith which they had in a creator, not a specific religion.'"

I do not agree with Gov. Romney's decision. But what can I do? I'm simply one the lowest of low-level flunkies in the Romney for Prez campaign.

Blogger Stephanie Stradley says the Tennessee Titans "have the worst name in sports":

"When NFL owner Bud Adams moved his team, he wanted to keep the name Oilers but the folks in Tennessee wouldn't allow it. So in 1998, he put together an advisory counsel to come up with names and had a 'Guess The Name' contest to get more feedback. Later that year, the name "Tennessee Titans" was chosen, meant to reflect, as Adams said, 'strength, leadership and other heroic qualities.'

"Apparently, Adams isn't particularly familiar with the sordid details of Greek mythology.

"Tennessee is a lovely state with beautiful urban centers. To much of the country, however, Tennessee might be considered backwards and hillbilly. So, I am wondering why you would name your team after Greek gods who had, uh er, lots of improper sexual relationships between family members and other bad stuff.

"The best I can figure is that Bud Adams likes alliteration, doesn't know much about Greek mythology, but figured 'Tennessee Tuxedos' was out of the question.

I don't happen to agree with that. I mean, how can anyone not think that the Banana Slugs of UC-Santa Cruz is the worst team mascot of all time? I do, however, agree that the Titans have one of the dumbest logos/color schemes in professional football. Here's a portion of what Stradley has to say 'bout that:

"To add insult to injury, the logo choice of a flaming tack/flaming meatball might also be one of the worst logos in sport too. Adams said, "I feel we have developed a logo that fans throughout the state of Tennessee and around the country will embrace for years to come."

"Of course, if you have seen the clothes that man has worn over the years, you can understand why he thought people might like that logo."

Read the entire column here.

Regular Creeder Readers will recall that I've taken issue with Tennessean columnist Larry Daughtrey's left-wing hackery many, many times. After reading Mr. Daughtrey's latest piece about Sen. Lamar Alexander, which appeared in yesterday's paper, all I can say is: There he goes again (apologies to the Gipper).

Daughtrey says Sen. Alexander is "lucky" because Jackson businessman Mike McWherter bowed out of next year's race for U.S. Senate. Now, did anyone - except for those on the payroll of the Tennessee Democratic Party - really think that McWherter could defeat Alexander? Anyone who did was suffering from political delusions of the first degree. No neophyte politician, regardless of his or her surname, is going to beat Lamar Alexander, perhaps the most disciplined (not to mention one of the best-financed) politicians in the country.

That said, Daughtrey tells us that Sen. Lamar Alexander's campaigns for U.S. President in 1996 and 2000 were "ill-advised." I'm willing to concede that Alexander should've stayed out of the 2000 GOP primary; however, if political winds had shifted only slightly during the '96 primaries, Alexander very well could have been the Republican presidential nominee (and I'm not just saying such because I was an Alexander supporter in that campaign).

Bill Clinton admitted that Alexander was the Republican candidate he most feared in 1996. And why not? Alexander was a former two-term governor from a Southern state who'd made quite a name for himself as a champion of education reform. Furthermore, Alexander had nary a skeleton in his personal or political closet (which Clinton had to envy). Alexander was climbing fast in New Hampshire in Feb. '96 - even showing up in first place in some polls - until he ran into a blitzkrieg of negative television and radio ads, courtesy of Bob Dole's campaign.

Patrick Buchanan surprised everyone by winning the '96 New Hampshire primary, and Alexander finished less than four percentage points behind Dole for third place. Had Alexander responded to Dole's ads earlier and more effectively, he may have sent Bob Dole into an even earlier political retirement.

Finally, Daughtrey says Alexander faced "two shopworn former congressmen in the GOP primary" in 2002. In that primary, Alexander faced only one former congressman: Ed Bryant. It was Bob Corker in the 2006 campaign who faced off against two former congressmen, Bryant and Van Hilleary.

In case you needed any more proof to confirm that most Hollywood types are idiots, check out this story from the December issue of NewsMax magazine:

"To his credit, Brad Pitt continues to lend a hand in the post-Hurricane Katrina efforts.

"But on a recent jaunt to New Orleans, the actor also shared some thoughts that appear to be in keeping with some of Tinseltown's intellect-free activism.

Pitt pointed out some ways in which we can supply folks with heat, water, and electricity for free.

"'The idea that we pay utility bills is absolutely unnecessary. There's the sun, you feel the breeze ... and you've got water right there,' the actor said, according to Thomas Crosby Media.

"'Any one of these can be harnessed and we can integrate ourselves into that ecosystem and not only power our houses, but actually produce energy for other parts of the city," Pitt added."

Uh, Brad ... who's gonna do all that "harnessing?" And do you really think they'll be willing to work for free?

Back in July I asked, "Will Romney answer the Mormon question?" It's taken a few months, but the answer is oui:

"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, striving to be the country's first Mormon president, will give a speech this week explaining his relatively unknown faith to voters, his campaign said Sunday," GOPUSA reports.

"The decision, made after months of debate at his Boston headquarters over whether to make a public address about his religion, comes as the former Massachusetts governor's bid is threatened in Iowa by underdog Mike Huckabee. The ex-governor of Arkansas and one-time Southern Baptist minister has rallied influential Christian conservatives to erase Romney's monthslong lead and turn the race into a dead-heat.

"Romney will deliver a speech called 'Faith in America' at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, on Thursday, outlining his religious beliefs and how they might impact his administration."

Once upon a time, America's universities were places in which students were taught to think. No more. American universities have become institutions in which students are force-fed Marxist claptrap and are indoctrinated by PC hooligans.

If stories like this don't set your blood to boiling, then you really don't give two squirts 'bout what's happening in the good ol' U.S. of A. these days (from the December 3, 2007, National Review):

"The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently won a small victory for freedom of thought. According to FIRE, students at the University of Delaware underwent a series of 'treatments' (the university’s term) designed to inculcate in them, among other things, a new understanding of what constitutes a racist: 'A racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.' In other words: To hell with what you actually think; if you’re white you’re a racist, and if not you’re being oppressed. Thanks to FIRE’s efforts to publicize the program, it has now been canceled. But we trust that more subtle efforts to brainwash students continue in strength — and not just at the University of Delaware."