The Nigh Seen Creeder

Get on your knees and thank God tonight that you do not live in Rhodesia, er, Zimbabwe:

"With inflation estimated at 200,000 percent -- easily the highest in the world -- Zimbabwe's currency is barely worth the paper it's printed on. (The largest Zimbabwean note, 10 million dollars, can't buy more than a couple of sodas.) Foreign currency runs this economy now, mainly the U.S. dollar and the South African rand, nearly all of it traded on the black market."

If the predictions published in the 1982 Omni Future Almanac had come to pass, you and I would be freezin'-off our asses right now. Check this out:

"Some scientists cite 2000 as the approximate year when the carbon dioxide 'greenhouse' effect will be recognized as having raised global temperatures significantly. Some environmentalists predict that CO2 pollution will create a canopy over the earth that will prevent heat from radiating into space. Most experts doubt that this effect will occur. Instead, many scientists are worried about a widespread, gradual cooling trend that could take hold by this year. If earth is indeed cooling, this climate change could signal the eventual onset of a new Ice Age that would slowly freeze much of the populated world by the year 12,000."

We're all freezin' to death, now, ain't we, Al Gore?!

Last week, I was told by a feller in one of my fantasy baseball leagues that I am a "bandwagoner" because I'm a native Nashvillian who happens to be a Boston Red Sox fan. I've done a lot of things in my life - some noble, some stupid - but I've never, ever jumped on a bandwagon of any length or sort ... and I let that guy know it.

I began playing organized baseball when I was 7-years-old. My very first baseball coach was a man named Tom Carrington. He was from Boston, and he was a HUGE Red Sox fan.

During the course of my first baseball season, Coach Carrington availed himself of every opportunity to tell his young charges that Ted Williams was the best baseball player of all time. I soaked in every thing he said about Ted Williams, and since I lived in a city with no major league team, it didn't take long before I started telling folks that I, too, was a Red Sox fan.

It was not until I was 10-years-old that my love affair with the Boston Red Sox truly began. Coach Carrington again became my head coach that baseball season, and I immediately struck up a friendship with his son, Roger, who joined my team that year.

Coach Carrington kinda made me his pet player that season, mainly because I was a rare 10-year-old who could throw a curve (I'd been taught to do so by my surrogate brother/next door neighbor, who was five years older than me). Makin' me his pet certainly worked, 'cause I was the only kid from my team to make the all-star team that year.

Something else Coach Carrington did during my tenth year was make me a hardcore Red Sox fan. Not only did he tell me about the Sox at every turn during practices and games, he took great joy in showing me his large collection of Sox-signed balls and cards during sleep-overs with his son.

When my birthday rolled around that summer, the Carringtons gave me a HUGE Carl Yastrzemski poster -- the same Yaz poster that was visible in the Cheers bar during the duration of that classic TV show. To make room for my Yaz poster, I had to take down an Return Of The Jedi poster. Thus, career as a sci-fi geek came to a quick end (thank you, Coach C!).

Not long after getting the Yaz poster, I asked for, and received, my official Major League Baseball cap ... Red Sox, of course. I also embarked on an effort to procure as many Ted Williams and Carl Yaz baseball cards as I could. I was a certified Red Sox fan at that point, and there wasn't going to be no lookin' back!

I continued playing baseball until I was 18. If'n I hadn't decided to grow-out my hair and replace my baseball bat with an electric guitar, I probably would've played ball when I was in college. One of my last official acts as a participant in an official baseball league was to take instruction from Scott Cooper at a baseball clinic in Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Cooper was a Red Sox prospect at the time, and big things were expected from him.

Scott Cooper didn't make it, obviously, but he certainly made an impression on me. The bat and ball he signed were prominently displayed in my bedroom when I was still living with my parents; and I immediately found a place for his stuff in my home office when I purchased my first house.

Now, if an "almost made it" Red Sox player's signed memorabilia can find a place in my home -- alongside other signed items (Yaz, Dewey Evans, Jim Rice, Roger Clemens, etc.) and 50+ Red Sox-themed books -- don't that kinda certify me as an Official Red Sox Fan?!

I do, and forever shall, love the Boston Red Sox. Even though I was born in Nashville, Tennessee.

So there.

I've been telling you for months how Social Security and Medicare are leading the United States toward a looming fiscal catastrophe.

Yesterday, the Heritage Foundation released a chart which shows that Social Security and Medicare will both soon become insolvent ... without massive tax increases (just like I said):

Did you ever see the movie Clerks? If not, it's about a couple of slackers who work in a convenience store. There's a scene in which a guy comes into the store looking for some lost keys. He asks if anyone's turned in a set of keys, and this is the response he gets: "No time for love, Dr. Jones." Key-seekin' guy walks away shaking his head. "Fuckin' kids!" he says as he walks out the door.

Whenever I read stuff like this, from Captain Capitalism, I think about that "Fuckin' kids!" quote:

"I'm sitting at the coffee shop working on the housing crisis book. I go to the coffee shop because I get sick of being couped up in my house and need a change of scenery. I also go to the coffee shop because the people here are more or less middle aged and quiet. And while the occasional mom will come in with her toddler ... I am left in relative peace.

"Until now, for a group of as far as I can tell, high school girls have entered the coffee shop and are now talking as if they're all from Fresno Valley in California, when in fact we're in Minnesota.

"And thus the writing comes to a screeching halt and I hear nonsensical blather about Jimmy, and Bobby, and Steve and is she going out with him, LIKE OMG, you're kidding!

"And every sentence is spoken with the tone of a question. ...

"Regardless, now I sit here and listen to these kids and wonder how at the age of 16 or 17 I could have ever thought I was the one with the problem. These kids are insane today. ...

"What scares me though is if when I'm 45 I'm going to look back at 33 year old women and then say, "what the heck was I thinking? They have a MySpace page? And they watch American Idol? And Lost?" ...

"In any case my point to all you younger, yet more mature for your age, junior deputy, aspiring or otherwise economists out there, realize that in being an economist (official or otherwise) you are a bit wiser than your contemporaries and that chances are any problems you have arising from courting people your own age are not due to you, but the likelihood everybody else is insane."

I, Joltin' Django, was in Atlanta, Georgia today takin' care of semi-important business. When I was driving out of Atlantatown, my radio was tuned to a local talking-head who was talkin' 'bout how pre-U.S.-invasion Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were moved to Syria. Indeed, the talkin'-head in question was interviewing a supposed former-Russian intelligence officer who, supposedly, has information to corroborate the Iraqi-Weapons-in-Syria story.

When I got home this evening, I searched in vain for stories regarding former Russian intelligence officers who know about what happened to Iraq's Dub-U-M-Ds. I couldn't find nothing.

Now, the fact that I couldn't find a recent story regarding Saddam Hussein's "stashed" weapons ain't important to me. Inedeed, I still stand -- 100 percent -- behind what I posted four years ago on a Web site that's no longer doing business:

Where are the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? This is the question being asked by a slew of liberal pundits, politicians, and laypeople. According to the New York Times editorial board and every Democrat running for president, Iraq was not a threat to the United States; and we were all misled and deceived by the Bush Administration during the lead-up to the Iraq war.

However, when one digs for information beyond what's been offered by the mainstream media - most of which presents a skewed Upper West Side view of the world anyway - it is apparent that Iraq not only had WMD, but these weapons were dispatched in a most disturbing fashion.

We know that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed large quantities of chemical and biological weapons when U.N. inspectors were kicked out in 1998. According to a report released by the CIA, Iraq possessed 3.9 tons of VX nerve gas, 812 tons of sarin nerve agent, 3,080 tons of mustard gas, and 2,200 gallons of anthrax.

In a 1998 New Republic article, turncoat weapons inspector Scott Ritter confirmed Iraq's ongoing weapons program: "Iraq is not … disarmed. Based on highly credible intelligence, [U.N. weapons inspectors] suspect that Iraq still has biological agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, and clostridium perfringens in sufficient quantity to fill several dozen bombs and ballistic missile warheads. Iraq probably retains several tons of the highly toxic VX substance, as well as sarin nerve gas and mustard gas. And Iraq has significant dual-use industrial infrastructure that can be used to rapidly reconstitute large-scale chemical weapons production."

So, where are Iraq's WMD? Captured Iraqi officials have indicated that all of Iraq's WMD were destroyed in the weeks prior to the U.S.-British invasion. This theory simply begs another question: Why would Saddam Hussein secretly destroy his deadliest weapons knowing that a massive force was ready to overthrow him if he didn't show evidence that he had completely disarmed? To learn what happened to Iraq's WMD, one must search beyond the conventional headlines.

In March 2003, National Review reported, "General Yossi Kuperwasser, head of research at Israeli intelligence, told the Knesset as early as last October [2002] that Iraq was moving WMDs into and building facilities in Syria."

In April 2003, former United Nations chief weapons inspector Richard Butler told the Sunday Times (London), "There is evidence Syria helped hide Iraqi chemical weapons." The Times added, "Mr. Butler said he had seen intelligence during his time as chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq from 1997 until 1999 which seemed to indicate Syria had helped keep Iraq's weapons of mass destruction hidden."

On August 25, 2003, a headline in the International Herald Tribune announced, "U.S. suspects Iraqi WMD in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley." Apparently, the CIA had evidence of large numbers of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebanon in January, but "the significance of this sighting did not register at the time."

And finally, as reported in the Washington Times on September 17, John Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, told a House International Relations subcommittee that U.S. intelligence services are examining "reports that Iraq sent weapons to Syria to hide them from U.N. inspectors and coalition troops."

We're now learning that streams of foreign fighters are entering Iraq from Iran and Syria. Earlier this year, the Bush Administration was criticized when it issued stern warnings against Syrian interference in Iraq. President Bush was on to something though. Syria may play nice when the international press comes calling, but there is every indication to suggest that Syria is actively aiding subversive elements in Iraq. It is highly possible that Iraqi chemical and biological weapons will remain hidden in Syria and Lebanon until Hussein - or his sympathizers - decides to unleash a deadly attack against U.S., British, or U.N. officials in a final display of force.

The daily attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq should convince us all that the war on global terrorism shows no sign of abating. As it becomes clear that other nations are subverting American efforts to rebuild Iraq, we should make it known that we have the resolve to do what's necessary to protect our soldiers - even if that means combat operations beyond Iraq's borders.

Finally, we must ignore the bluster of the leftist naysayers who are convinced that there were no WMD in Iraq. Ample evidence exists to suggest that Iraq had active weapons programs prior to the U.S.-British invasion. Coalition forces should use all means necessary to discover what actually happened to Hussein's weapons of terror. Failure to do so will indeed have deadly consequences.

I recently told you about CQ Press's branding Tennessee as the 6th-most violent state in the nation. Well, according to CQP, Tennesseans ain't just violent, we're fat and nasty, too:

"Tennessee is tied with Michigan and Oklahoma for having the fifth largest percentage of obese adults in America. It ranks No. 6 for having the largest percentage of adults who don't exercise."

And don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

-- Guns 'N' Roses

Got me an e-mail today from the National Republican Senatorial Committee crowing 'bout the fact that Sen. Lamar Alexander will have no serious Democratic opposition come next November.

I'm sure Tennessee's head Democrat, Gray Sasser, read the same e-mail. Let's just hope he didn't burst into tears upon reading it. He likes to cry, you know ...

"One of my fondest political memories is seeing Gray Sasser crying his eyes out during his father's concession speech on election night 1994. Sasser's no doubt a very smart individual, but a tough-talking, tough-minded politico he ain't."

I ain't afraid to admit that I have a crush on Michelle Malkin. Not only is she über-cute, she has impeccable conservative credentials: pro-life, pro-free market, pro-free trade, anti-isolationist, etc.

Remember when I told you about Hillary's most recent shameless fibbing? Well, Ms. Malkin has not only given us her learned take on Hillary's serial untruthfulness, she quoted Seinfeld whilst doing so (now you know why I love her!):

"Seinfeld's George Costanza famously quipped: "It's not a lie if you believe it." This is how a Clinton -- take your pick, Hillary, Bill or Chelsea -- makes it through the day. Better living through self-delusion. Seeking to burnish her foreign policy leadership credentials, Sen. Clinton has repeatedly peddled a harrowing anecdote about dodging sniper fire during a trip to Tuzla, Bosnia, in 1996."

Read the rest here. (And did I mention that I just admire the hell outta Michelle Malkin?!)

Finally, the Washington Post has done something for which I can give them credit. Over at the Post's Web site, you can play Fantasy Electoral College. Pretty clever idea which you can check out here.

And if you're wondering what's up with the title to this post, it's a lyric from an 80s band called Aldo Nova. I would call 'em "one hit wonders," but I'm not sure anything they ever recorded can be considered a hit.

This is just sickening:

"A group of anti-war protesters interrupted an Easter Mass in Chicago [Sunday], stunning parishioners with their shouts during Cardinal Francis George’s homily. They then squirted stage blood on the congregation, leading to their arrest and an angry confrontation in the gathering space outside the hall. As it turns out, the protesters not only were mostly incoherent, but also very, very late.

"Why did they target the Chicago cathedral? Almost three months ago, Cardinal George met with President Bush. The protesters explained (much later) that the Cardinal should have challenged Bush to end the war during that private meeting. They failed to explain (a) how they know that Cardinal George didn’t do that, and (b) why it took them ten weeks to protest the meeting.

"I warned people three weeks ago that the anti-war movement was going to start getting violent. [Liberals have] scoffed at the notion, but assaulting people sitting in church demonstrates that the fringe of the movement has no sense of boundaries, and their frustration at losing in the political process keeps growing."

While the bastards who particpated in the above-mentioned stunt were in church, they should've thanked God that I wasn't there. To say that someone would've gotten the absolute hell beaten out of them is an understatement. If'n just one of the participants had received a good ass-beating, perhaps others would be encouraged to think twice before pulling such stunts in the future.

No canard has found greater purchase in the heart and mind of the mainstream media than the "Saddam had no ties to terrorism" canard. Thank God the Wall Street Journal is all-prepared to tell us the truth:

"Five years on, few Iraq myths are as persistent as the notion that the Bush Administration invented a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Yet a new Pentagon report suggests that Iraq's links to world-wide terror networks, including al Qaeda, were far more extensive than previously understood.

"Naturally, it's getting little or no attention. Press accounts have been misleading or outright distortions, while the Bush Administration seems indifferent. Even John McCain has let the study's revelations float by. But that doesn't make the facts any less notable or true.

"The redacted version of 'Saddam and Terrorism' is the most definitive public assessment to date from the Harmony program, the trove of 'exploitable' documents, audio and video records, and computer files captured in Iraq. On the basis of about 600,000 items, the report lays out Saddam's willingness to use terrorism against American and other international targets, as well as his larger state sponsorship of terror, which included harboring, training and equipping jihadis throughout the Middle East.

"'The rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the region gave Saddam the opportunity to make terrorism, one of the few tools remaining in Saddam's coercion toolbox, not only cost effective but a formal instrument of state power,' the authors conclude. Throughout the 1990s, the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) cooperated with Hamas; the Palestine Liberation Front, which maintained a Baghdad office; Force 17, Yasser Arafat's private army; and others. The IIS gave commando training for members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the organization that assassinated Anwar Sadat and whose 'emir' was Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became Osama bin Laden's second-in-command when the group merged with al Qaeda in 1998.

"At the very least the report should dispel the notion that outwardly 'secular' Saddam would never consort with religious types like al Qaeda. A pan-Arab nationalist, Saddam viewed radical Islamists as potential allies, and they likewise. According to a 1993 memo, Saddam decided to 'form a group to start hunting Americans present on Arab soil; especially Somalia,' where al Qaeda was then working with warlords against U.S. humanitarian forces. Saddam also trained Sudanese fighters in Iraq."

Read the rest here.

I'm still hoping that Hillary Rodham (Clinton) bests B. Hussein Obama for the Democratic nomination -- tain't no way Hillary will win in November. However, I ain't gonna stop reminding Creeder Readers 'bout the fact that telling fibs is something that Ms. (Clinton) can't stop doing. To wit (from www.cwfpac.com):

"We’ve focused a lot in the past week on Senator Barack Obama’s credibility, but we haven’t forgotten about Hillary. It’s not breaking news to say that politicians often exaggerate, but here is an example of Hillary’s disconnect from reality.

"For the past few weeks, she’s told campaign audiences that she faced down death during a visit to Bosnia when she was First Lady. To hear Hillary tell it, her plane 'landed under sniper fire,' the formal greeting ceremony was scrubbed and 'instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.'

"This is all part of her attempt to portray herself as tough, 'ready on day one' and experienced enough to be commander-in-chief. But now several folks who attended the trip with her are all saying that the scene Hillary has been describing didn’t happen. According to the Washington Post, 'A review of nearly 100 news accounts of her visit shows that not a single newspaper or television station reported any security threat to the First Lady.'

"John Pomfret, a reporter who covered the trip, said, 'As a former AP wire service hack, I can safely say that it would have been in my lead had anything like that happened.' In fact, pictures taken of the event on the tarmac show Hillary and Chelsea, surrounded by smiling dignitaries, bending over to kiss a small girl who had just finished reading a poem."

Hillary and Bill lie so effortlessly and shamelessly, I don't know whether to be offended or amused when I read stories like the one mentioned above.

I'll tell you what will really offend me ... the day I wake up with Hillary Rodham (Clinton) as my president.

The Nashville Scene's Jeff Woods saluted U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) for swearing-off earmarks (i.e., pork barrel spending):

"Congressman Jim Cooper has taken a principled stand against those much-maligned congressional earmarks—that is, federal spending earmarked for home-district pork-barrel projects—and he’s refusing to ask for any for Nashville in the next budget."

'Bout the same time Rep. Cooper announced that he was taking a principled anti-earmark stand, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Williamson County) said she was gonna do the same. (Hell, I'm not so sure that Marsha, Marsha, Marsha Blackburn didn't swear-off pork 'fore Jim "No Upper Lip" Cooper did.)

Reckon why the Nashville Scene praised Jim Cooper and didn't praise Marsha Blackburn ... ?

Methinks it has something to do with the fact that "alternative" media outlets like the Nashville Scene are legally prohibited from praising Republicans. Indeed.

'Bout four years ago, a former co-worker branded me an "interesting enigma." What provoked this name-calling? Well, the former co-worker in question knew me to be a tobacco-chewing pro-lifer who could quote from the Simpsons, Quentin Tarantino movies and R.E.M. tunes just as easily as I could quote from An Inquiry Into The Nature And Causes Of The Wealth Of Nations and The Conservative Mind.

When I start doing all that introspection stuff, I start thinkin' that my former co-worker was right. I guess I am an interesting enigma. What I did today simply confirms it.

Yesterday, I was asked by my immediate supervisor if I'd be doin' much-needed work at my office over the Easter weekend. I muttered up some stuff 'bout how I wanted to keep this weekend all observant and such, but what I was really doing was this ...

I'm an opera buff. I have been an opera buff since I was in high school. When I was in 9th grade, my classmates and I witnessed a performance of The Barber of Seville - in the original Italian - at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Most of my classmates were uninterested during the production; but I - who'd received two years of guitar and voice instruction - was completely transfixed by the music and singing. Immediately thereafter, I went out and bought Barber on CD ... and I didn't tell nobody about it.

My interest in opera progressed when I went off to college. During my undergraduate "experience," I had a job at a Nashville-based trucking company. Those years, I was the only person who worked in the office on weekends. Each and every Saturday afternoon, I had the radio tuned to the Metropolitan Opera's broadcast on public radio ... and I sat and listened and just enjoyed the hell out of it.

I can't count the insults I received when co-workers burst in on me when I was listening to the opera. "What the **** are you listening to?" they'd ask. My response was always the same: "Don't like it? You don't have to stand in this ****in' office and listen to it!"

With all that said, I'm gonna tell you that Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is my favorite opera. (Tell me there's a better operatic overture than Tristan's overture, and I'll punch you right in the gut.) Wagner's more "fantastic" storylines get all the attention, for sure; but the love story in Tristan, and the underlying music, is Wagner's most beautiful work -- that's what I say.

Tristan und Isolde was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in NYC today (and it was nationally broadcast on public radio stations 'round the world). I sat in my home office for four hours this Saturday and I listened as James Levine conducted the hell out of my favorite opera. 'Twas a beautiful pre-Easter experience, indeed.

Now my "company" knows why I didn't work today: I was relaxing in my home office listening to today's opera broadcast from the Met.

Let's just hope nobody makes fun of me come Monday morning. That would make me really angry. And tain't a breathing soul on earth who needs to be around me when I'm really angry ...

So there!

'Bout this time last year, I told ya'll about California State Senator Carole Midgen:

"California State Senator Carole Migden -- former voter for a state bill that fines people for using their cellphones while driving -- rear-ended her state-issued SUV into a Honda sedan on Highway 12 in Solano County. While on her phone. The driver of the Honda was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, although the most painful aspect of this story is surely the jaws-of-life-biting irony."

I added:

Midgen, who hails from Pelosiville, er, San Francisco, is a left-winger straight from central casting: She's for gay marriage; she wants to scrap the electoral college; she worked with Moveon.org to sponsor anti-"surge" legislation in the California Senate; she's agin' genetically-modified food; and she thinks children are so put upon that they need a Youth Bill of Rights. Knowing that she's a by-the-books leftist makes her hypocrisy even more delicious.

Sen. Midgen is in the news again -- and it ain't 'cause she won a Helen Roper look-alike contest. She's in the news 'cause she's gotten herself into a peck of trouble:

"State regulators have slapped state Sen. Carole Migden and her campaign managers with a $350,000 fine for 89 campaign spending and disclosure violations between 2003 and 2007, including illegal personal use of campaign funds.

"The state's Fair Political Practices Commission on Tuesday released details of the San Francisco Democrat's transgressions, which also included misrepresenting spending, soliciting donations prior to establishing campaign accounts, and failure to adequately disclose contributions and expenses."

Midgen most likely will be turned out of office following California' legislative primary, which takes place in June. It always gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever left-wing nutbucket crashes and burns. Flame on, Sen. Midgen!

During my undergraduate studies, I was told by a sociology professor that only folks with white skin can be racists. If I knew where I could find that hairhead prof, I'd tell him this ...

I want you to read what Richard Williams - Venus and Serena Williams' father - told an Indian newspaper, and then I want you to tell me, with a straight face, that no person of color can be a racist:

"I'm Black and I'm prejudiced, very prejudiced. I'll be always prejudiced as the White man. The White man hated me all my life and I hate him. That's no secret. I'm not even an American, it just so happens that I was born in America. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don't think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be."

Richard Williams -- the non-American American -- and his daughters have become famous, wealthy, and privileged whilst living in the United States of America. He should be on his knees thanking God that he was born where he ...

I need not say any more. I'm sure most Creeder Readers are smart enough to have already dismissed Richard Williams as a racist idiot.

One of my sainted grandfather's favorite sayings was: Some people have more money than sense.

Whenever I see something like this, I fully appreciate how wise a man my grandfather was.

If you don't want to click the link, please know that it goes to an eBay page featuring a piece of "Obama Miracle Toast" -- that is, a slice of toasted bread with a picture of B. Hussein Obama on it. Hard as it is to believe, there've been 20 bids so far; and the top bidder has pledged to pay $67.60 ... for a piece of bread.

Silenced Majority has some pictures from last weekend's anti-war parade in Minneapolis. In addition to the requisite hairheads, freaks, and far-left nuts this goofy-looking gal was there representin':


The caption near the bottom of her sign says: "Real men don't hurl phallic-like weapons." Hmmmm. I wonder if real men hurl weapons shaped like vaginas? (And I got news for her: Russ Feingold is a "real man" about like Paris Hilton is a rocket scientist.)

Meanwhile, Zombietime has a load of pics from an anti-war rally that took place in San Francisco. Please to enjoy this pic featuring a group of semi-literate nutbuckets:


To borrow a line from Andy Taylor, anti-war nutbuckets are worth more, comical-wise, than a barrel full of monkeys. Indeed.

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal tells us what the Democrats want to do to improve the United States' economic health. If you don't want to read it, I can sum it up thusly:

The American education system can be fixed by prohibiting students from dropping out at age 16.

The AFL-CIO should dictate U.S. trade policy.

Even though Medicare and Medicaid are slowly bankrupting the United States, they should be expanded to cover every man, woman, and child who's not already receiving government-run health care.

The U.S. can become energy independent by creating a vast new bureaucracy of "green-collar" workers.

What really amazes me about Rep. Emanuel's little piece is the fact that concepts like "freedom" and "liberty" and "the free market" are never mentioned. Instead, we hear about a proposed "social contract" between the U.S. government and its citizens.

And just what does the Democrats' proposed social contract provide? Everything. Whatever you want, or whatever you think you need, the government will provide it for you ... and it won't cost you a thing.

I can see why so many people are tempted to vote for Democrats. It's easier than thinking.

Pat Buchanan tells us what's in store for the Dumbocrats:

"Truly, the Democratic Party is now headed for a train wreck. Though Barack seems likely to win more pledged delegates than Hillary, the super-delegates will have to decide whether they want to offer America a nominee whose pastor and mentor embodies the anti-white racism and anti-Americanism that has ever brought the patriotic blood of Middle America to a boil. Wright is not the sort of fellow you want to bring with you into Deer Hunter Country."

Read the rest of Buchanan's article here.

Wanna know why America needs Wal-Mart more than it needs Wal-Mart-hating politicians (See Obama, B. Hussein) ...? Read all about it here.

A sample:

In an address to the Council of Teaching Hospitals in New Orleans [last week], Wal-Mart's senior vice president and president of health and wellness, Dr. John Agwunobi ... confirm[ed] a major milestone for the company's $4 prescription program. Since its launch in September 2006, the program has now saved Americans more than $1 billion ($1,032,573,012.61 as of March 10, 2008).

"In his prepared remarks, Agwunobi will mention that more than 100 of Wal-Mart's $4 prescriptions are used to treat heart disease and diabetes. He ... add[ed]:

"'While $1 billion in savings is an astonishing achievement, the real savings to America -- and its health care system -- are even larger. That's because many of our competitors have also lowered their prices. $4 prescriptions now represent approximately 40 percent of all filled prescriptions at Wal-Mart. Nearly 30 percent of $4 prescriptions are filled without insurance -- significantly higher than the 10 percent industry trend. But more importantly, this program has meant that people can now take the drugs that were prescribed to them. They no longer need to cut pills in half or not take the drugs at all.'"

CQ Press's has released its annual Crime State Rankings report. The report tells us which 15 states are ranked as the most dangerous for 2008. Checkin' in at number six is ... good ol' Tennessee:

"Tennessee residents might sing about love for country and neighbor, but lag behind in showing it. The state earns the No. 2 slot for most assaults."

Tennessee Rankings in Crime (out of 50)

Assault: 2
Burglary: 5
Murder: 10 (tie)
Motor Vehicle Theft: 17
Rape: 19
Robbery: 7

Read the entire report here.

Remember when I said neighborhood associations are "fascistic" ...? I'm sure a lot of Creeder Readers thought I was talking out of my ass when I said that. When they learn that it's becoming increasingly difficult for a feller or gal to dry clothes in his or her back yard 'cause ... well, look at this:

"They say they only want to protect their 'right to dry. And in three New England states, advocates for clotheslines - yes, clotheslines, strung across the yard, draped with socks and sheets - are pushing for new laws to liberate residents whose neighbors won't let them hang laundry outside.

"Homeowners' associations, which enforce bans on clotheslines at thousands of residential developments across the country, say the rules are needed to prevent flapping laundry from dragging down property values."

Now, I ask you:

What's more non-fascistically American than a home - rural or suburban - that features a backyard with a couple-dozen artiles of clothes swaying on a clothesline?

Nothing, that's what.

I shudder to think what Ronald Wilson Reagan would say upon learning that large swaths of Americans couldn't -- "legally" -- dry their clothes in their own back yards.

Shudder, indeed.

A lot of things in this big ol' world bring me great pleasure: April baseball games, antique books, hot dogs, hop-heavy beer, matzo crackers, Clive Barker-penned books ... hell, this could go on for days.

As much as all that crap tickles me, stories like this -- in which the laws of supply and demand are on full, unfettered display -- make me have belly-wracked, laughing pity for folks who see such and still don't know basic economics from a basic hole in the ground:

"The price of wheat has more than tripled during the past 10 months, making Americans' daily bread - and bagels and pizza and pasta - feel a little like luxury items. And baked goods aren't the only ones getting more expensive: Experts expect some 80 percent of grocery prices will spike, too, and could remain steep for years because wheat and other grains are used to feed cattle, poultry and dairy cows. ...

"The wheat market has been pushed higher by a combination of agricultural, financial and energy issues.

"Poor wheat harvests in Australia and parts of Europe and the U.S. have caused China and other Asian countries to buy up more American crops, which are especially attractive because of the weak U.S. dollar. ...

"At the same time, the American crop is shrinking because of federal incentives to grow corn for ethanol. And skyrocketing gas prices make it costlier to get any wheat to market. Those same pressures have also made it more expensive to supply feed grains for livestock."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

Adam Smith was right. Pass it on.

What in the **** is wrong with U.S. Rep. John Duncan (R-Knoxville)?

I have no qualms with Republicans those who've been openly critical of the Bush Administration's handling of the Iraq War -- especially those Republicans who started ramping up their criticism during the dark days of 2006 (see William F. Buckley, Jr.).

That said, I have absolutely no use for Republicans who abandon their conservative economic principles.

Yesterday, Republicans in the U.S. House offered a budget yesterday that, if it had passed, would have replaced the Mondale-esque tax-and-spend Democratic budget. 38 Republicans, including Tennessee's own Jimmy Duncan, joined the Democrats in voting against it. It failed, 157-263.

From the Club for Growth:

"This is a very enlightening vote. These 38 Republicans voted against their own party on the one bill that establishes all of the discretionary spending for a full fiscal year. In other words, it wouldn't be unfair to say that this budget defines what it means to be an economic conservative. And yet, these 38 Republicans voted against it. It speaks volumes about their misguided priorities."

"It speaks volumes about [Jimmy Duncan's] misguided priorities."

Indeed.

Exactly 12 months ago, I said this 'bout B. Hussein Obama's church:

Barack Obama is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL. Anyone who knows anything about the United Church of Christ is well aware of the fact that it is just a shade to the right of the Unitarian-Universalist Association in terms of its fealty to left-wing political causes. Obama would be in pretty good shape, politically speaking, if he simply attended a church with left-of-center political leanings. He should be so lucky.

As the New York Times recently reported, Trinity Church of Christ is "more Afrocentric ... than standard black congregations." Indeed, Trinity's senior minister, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, has been criticized for espousing theological views that "some say are overly Afrocentric to the point of excluding whites."

I added:

If a Republican presidential candidate attended a church that stood behind covenantal statements pledging allegiance to the "White Community" and "White Institutions," the mainstream media's roar would be deafening.

After my original post, I received an e-mail in which I was told that Obama shouldn't be held accountable for things his church's pastor says in the pulpit. That might be true if Obama wasn't on record calling Jeremiah Wright his "mentor." Furthermore, Obama named his book of political musings - The Audacity of Hope - after one of Rev. Wright's sermons. Thus, Obama just doen't go to church at Trinity United Church of Christ. He's a four-square believer in the church's mission and the church's leadership.

Lest anyone continue to think that where Obama chooses to attend church is no big deal, check out this clip of Rev. Wright preaching that Jesus was a black man who was put down by rich white folks, i.e. the Romans. He then calls America the "U S of KKK A." Classy.

"A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." -- Michael Kinsley

Geraldine Ferraro said B. Hussein Obama wouldn't be succeeding in the presidential race if he weren't black, and Obamaniacs everywhere went into fits of apoplexy. I don't understand what they're so upset about. Ms. Ferraro was just telling the truth.

In a speech yesterday, B. Hussein himself had this to say 'bout L'Affaire Ferraro:

"The notion that it is a great advantage to me to be [a black man] named Barack Obama and pursue the presidency, I think, is not a view that has been commonly shared by the general public."

So, B. Hussien, if you were a white man with but three years served in the U.S. Senate, you really think you'd be a presidential front-runner right now? If your last name were Jone, or Smith, or O'Malley, do you really think celebrities like Oprah Winfrey would've jumped on the Obama train? If you do actually believe these things, sir, you are quite delisional, indeed.

Unlike Geraldine Ferraro, I stand by what I just said; and I stand by this, too:

"Honestly, B. Hussein Obama has but three things going for him: (1) his color; (2) his compelling multicultural upbringing; and (3) his silver tongue. If he were a liberal, white Chicago pol with but three years of experience in the U.S. Senate, his campaign would've never gotten past the trial balloon stage."

So there.

I'm a bibliophile who's forever trying to find new nooks and crannies in which to keep books. Never once have I considered storing books in my car ... like this dude:


Let us all wonder how Book Car Guy drives his book-filled car; and let's not try to think about what the inside of his house looks like!

(Thanks to Creeder Reader Dana for the pic)

Once upon a time, the state of New York was widely respected for elevating distinguished politicos to the national stage. One could disagree with the political views of a Jake Javits, a Pat Moynihan, or a James Buckley, but one would have admire them as decent human beings and dedicated public servants.

Beginning in 1998, New Yorkers adopted a terrible habit of electing self-serving fools to statewide office. First came U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a shameless media hound without peer. Two years later, New Yorkers sent a carpetbagging Arkansan, with not-terribly-disguised presidential ambitions, to the U.S. Senate instead of a four-term U.S. Representative from Long Island (you know to whom I'm referring). And then came Eliot Spitzer.

When word came down yesterday that Governor Eliot Spitzer was embroiled in a prostitution scandal, I will admit that my first reaction was barely concealed glee ("Tee-f****in'-hee," I said to myself). If ever a public official was deserving of a fall from grace, it was Spitzer.

During his years as New York's Attorney General, Spitzer not only turned the full force of his office against Wall Street crooks, real and imagined, he went after prostitutes as well. Indeed, in 2004, he indicted dozens of individuals for operating "escort services" in New York City," and that same year he prosecuted several individuals for operating "sex tourism" tours that originated in the state of New York.

That said, it's more than an understatement to state that the hooker-loving Gov. Eliot Spitzer is a hypocrite. Hypocrite or not, I'm pretty sure - nay, I'm quite confident - that if New Yorkers were presented with this electoral choice tomorrow -- Spitzer vs. Generic Republican Candidate for the New York governor -- Ol' Eliot would win by 4-6 percentage points.

You know I'm right. (And it is something in the water ...)

Last month, Sen. John McCain was endorsed by Pastor John Hagee, who heads the 5,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. If you've ever watched more than 10 minutes of programming on religious television network, you've probably seen Hagee in action.

Hagee truly is a sight to behold. He is 400 lbs of fundamentalist fury who doesn't so much preach his sermons as much as he shouts them. And what he shouts can certainly get a feller's eyebrows to raisin'.

Hagee knows everything about the coming Battle of Armageddon - right down to what color uniforms the opposing sides will wear - except for the exact date on which it will occur ... and he can ballpark that down to "soon, very soon."

Hagee often tells his flock that it's not only important to help Jews from all over the world immigrate to Israel, it's extra-important that they be converted to Christianity (thus hastening the End Times you see).

A Nutritionist, Dr. Ted-something, often appears at Hagee's church instructing congregants to eat Biblically - that is, to eschew consumption of the unclean animals mentioned in Leviticus - in order to lead healthy lives. Of course, the extra-rotund Hagee is anything but the picture of perfect health; and his son, Pastor Matthew Hagee, needs but a couple-dozen trips through the Luby's buffet to look just like his old man.

Hagee's most disturbing comments, however, have been reserved for the Roman Catholic Church. He often refers to the Catholic Church as "The Great Whore," an "apostate church," and the "anti-Christ." On more than one occasion he's compared the church to a cult. Now, I don't agree with all of the Catholic Church's theological positions, but I would never resort to calling the church a "whore" or referring to its parishioners members of a cult. (When I think of how many devout Roman Catholics I admire as artists and thinkers, such as William F. Buckley, G.K. Chesterton, and Flannery O'Connor, Hagee's anti-Catholic bellowing become even more offensive.)

Catholic League President Bill Donohue last week called on John McCain to renounce John Hagee's endorsement of him for president of the United States. I'd like to see him do just that, but I'm not going to hold my breath ...

This has been a bad cold, flu, and crud season for Joltin' Django. Just three short weeks ago I was dealing with some sort of stomach virus. I'm now laid up - and have been since Friday evening - with the creeping crud that's been running rampant through my office.

Wanna know how you can tell when I'm really, really sick? Here 'tis: I didn't do any reading yesterday. No books. No magazines. No newspapers. No political Web sites. Nothin'.

All I'm doin' is resting this weekend; thus, the Nigh Seen Creeder should return tomorrow.

"Property rights" has become a concept as foreign to modern Americans as is lye soap. Don't believe me? Well, the following's transpired in recent years with nary a howl from the supposedly enlightened masses:

The Supreme Court ruled - see Kelo v. City of New London - that it was perfectly okay for municipal governments to seize private property and transfer it to another private entity.

Homeowners are required to follow - again, thank the Supreme Court - the fascistic dictats of homeowners' associations. Wanna display a flag, yard-art, or novelty mailbox? Better clear it with your local Association, lest you be accused of doing with your property what you see fit. (Or lest you be fined large sums of money until your property conforms to the )

Homeowners have had it bad as far as property rights are concerned, but their suffering, if you will, in no way compares to what businesses have had to endure for the past, oh, 75 years.

In many states, businesses can't hire and fire at will due to "closed shop" employment rules enacted by state legislators on the union take.

Government forces employers to pay a minimum wage, in some states several dollars above what the prevailing market dictates for certain jobs.

Businesses must wade through mountains of red tape for licenses and zoning variances, and in some cities must jump through hoop upon hoop just to construct an illuminated sign.

Over the past few years, I've paid particular attention to various governments' assaults on restaurants and bars. Indeed, as a self-styled gourmand and barfly, what's going on in the restaurant b'iness is something that interests me deeply. From placing bans on certain foodstuffs -- Chicago and foie gras, New York City and trans-fats -- to outlawing smoking, restaurants and bars are being forced to end practices that made 'em fun to go to in the first place.

As far as smoking bans are concerned, I am certainly responsible enough to decide on my own whether I want to patronize, or work in, an establishment that allows smoking. Each and every time I hear an anti-tobacco nut go on about being able to eat in a restaurant, or drink in a bar, "without having to smell cigarette smoke," I wanna grab 'em by the collar and shout, "There are plenty of places in which you can eat and imbibe that do not allow smoking. Find one. It's that ****in' simple!" Of course, what's simple - and sensible - is the last thing most folks consider in this day and age.

All that said, it always warms my cockles whenever I see a brave band of folks willing to poke a finger in the gov'ment's eye ... especially when the folks in question own a restaurant or bar. This story made its way into my e-mail box over the weeked, and it just tickles the you-know-what outta me each time I read it:

"All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them 'actors.'

"The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away -- and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too.

"About 30 bars in Minnesota have been exploiting the loophole by staging the faux theater productions and pronouncing cigarettes props."

Read the entire story here.

Joltin' Django has worked his arse off for six days in a row. He is very tired. Please to enjoy this Creeder Classic, from December 2006:

Rob Lindsay's impromptu history lesson in today's Nashville City Paper needs a good amount of revision.

The Founding Fathers had no mindset of the separation of church and state in the way that we know of today. The Founding Fathers' mindset concerning the role of religion in American life was very narrowly defined. Indeed, James Madison himself defined it when he wrote the First Amendment.

The First Amendment, plain and simple, prohibits Congress from establishing a national denomination, as was the case in Great Britain when the Bill of Rights was ratified. The federal government cannot make us all Catholics, or all Anglicans, or all anything else.

Mr. Lindsay would have us believe that the Founding Fathers envisioned a public square in which all forms of religious expression are to be suppressed. Not true. In fact, the first bill passed when the U.S. Capitol was completed was legislation allowing the halls of Congress to serve simultaneously as a church building. When Congress began holding regular sessions in Washington, DC, the largest church in the city met in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

Furthermore, if any contemporary politician dared repeat the Founders' religious pronouncements in a public setting, he or she could bank on being portrayed as a religious nut by the ACLU and other leftist outfits. Yet, George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe and others often invoked the Judeo-Christian God as the source of American liberty. One need only read Tocqueville to understand how ubiquitous open religious expression was in the daily workings of our young republic.

I do not ask Mr. Lindsay to interpret the Constitution as I see it. I simply implore him to examine the writings of the great souls who bestowed upon us the single greatest enshrinement of freedoms known to man. Anyone who embarks on such a task will learn that many of the accepted "facts" about our Founding Fathers' religious beliefs are not only wrong, they are outright distortions and lies.

Yesterday, I told a co-worker that if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, a very large chunk of the limousine liberals, hairheads and hipster doofi who've been flocking to B. Hussein Obama will sit out this November's election. "Disillusioned they'll be," I said.

Hate to say I was right, but ... I was right. Check out this comment from DailyKooks, er, DailyKos, from someone calling herself "Granny Doc":

"I would have willingly supported any Democratic nomineee, hoping to put an end to the Republican dominance of government. No longer. Barack Obama has won the primary. Hillary is all but dead. But if the Clinton's, and Mark Penn, and Terry McAlliff think they are going to steal this nomination from the voters in the Democratic Party, they are in for an unpleasant surprise.

"I will work unrelentingly to deny Hillary Clinton the White House because she has shown a complete lack of respect for the Party, the voters, and the process of democracy, itself.

I have just joined the ranks of Clinton haters."

See more Pro-Obama kook anger here and here and here and here and here and here.

As a free-trader and a baseball fan, this just tickles the hell out of me:

"Senator Hillary Clinton vowed Tuesday that if elected president she would enact legislation that would give the New York Yankees a reprieve from what she characterized as the 'unfair and exploitive' trading practices of the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

"Clinton, a self-described Yankees fan, told an audience of supporters that the lower wages paid by the smaller-market clubs gives the teams an unfair advantage over the Yankees, who are compelled to pay high salaries for the team’s superstar players. She vowed that upon assuming the presidency she would immediately ask for a 'time out' for trades between the Yankees and the so-called “parasite” teams for five years, during which time Congress and Major League Baseball would study the harm done to the Yankees from these trades and construct a remedy that would protect the team. ...

"Clinton’s proposal was hailed by Yankees fans as a welcome first step toward correcting the imbalances in Major League Baseball that have hindered the Yankees’ efforts to remain competitive."

Read the whole thing here.

Wheat is selling at record prices, with a bushel fetching $25 last week on the Minneapolis Commodities Exchange (up from the $3 to $7 band in which it traded last year). Over the past two weeks, the cost of a 50-lb bag of flour in New York City rose from $16 to $26. It was $9 in 2006. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that wheat prices will remain high throughout the year.

The nation's major pizza chains are warning that major price increases are inevitable because of rising cost of wheat -- which goes in pizza dough, you know. In New York City, some pizza restaurateurs are warning that they may be forced to raise prices as much as 50 percent to keep up with rising wholesale prices.

How come I can't find a poll in which a quarter of Americans blame the Bush Administration for the rising cost of wheat? (A Gallup poll conducted in 2006 indicated that 25 percent of the general public blamed President Bush for high gas prices.)

When should we expect congressional hearings seeking to expose nefarious price-gouging schemes initiated by Big Pizza?

When will B. Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham (Clinton) propose price controls on wheat so that Americans can exercise their fundamental right to cheap pizza?

All kidding aside, the spike in prices for wheat is due to exploding worldwide demand and poor crop yields. Americans who consume foodstuffs derived from wheat may not know it (no, hell, they don't know it), but they are receiving a valuable tutorial in basic economics: growing demand, coupled with diminished supply, will always lead to an increase in the cost of goods and services.

Adam Smith was right. Pass it on.

"The War on Poverty is over, and the poor lost."

-- Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp

In 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson set up the Kerner Commission to study the racial turmoil that was plaguing the United States in the late 1960s. The commission reported back to the president with solutions for chronic unemployment and poverty in the black community, most of which were new and expanded federal programs.

Forty years after the Kerner Commission warned the country was heading toward "two societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal," the Eisenhower Foundation finds the country has failed to meet the goals laid out by the presidential commission. It has proposed solutions for chronic unemployment and poverty in the black community, most of which are new and expanded federal programs.

Since LBJ declared his War on Poverty, the United States has spent over $6 trillion on anti-poverty programs, with few successes to cite along the way. It simply amazes me that liberal outfits like the Eisenhower Foundation still think that poverty can be ended simply by federal spending and federal spending alone. I'm amazed, but not surprised.

Unfortunately, most liberals really have no clue as to what causes persistent poverty. Contrary to the assertions of the we-haven't-spent-enough crowd, poverty in America is primarily a cultural phenomenon, driven by a shattered work ethic and sexual irresponsibility.

According to a January 2004 study published by the Heritage Foundation's welfare expert, Robert Rector, the typical poor family with children is supported by only 800 hours of work annually, or about 16 hours a week. This number holds true in good economic times and bad, because, as Rector points out, "it is a factor of attitudes toward work rather than the availability of jobs. If the amount of work in these households were equivalent to one adult working 40 hours a week, almost 75 percent of poor children would be lifted out of poverty."

Furthermore, mandating an ever-increasing minimum wage, as the Eisenhower Foundation proposes, will not miraculously enrich those living in poverty. If an individual is only working 16 hours a week, a three or four dollar increase in the minimum wage isn't going to help much. It is the amount of work that matters. If a single mother works full time at the minimum wage, and if she takes advantage of such income supplements as the Earned Income Tax Credit and food stamps, she will not be poor. And if single mothers married and insisted that their husbands go to work, three-quarters of poor children would be lifted out of poverty.

The perfect anti-poverty program has two prongs: restore the work ethic and encourage marriage. I cannot think of one liberal who has endorsed such a measure. Liberals can bicker over how to fashion a program to achieve these goals. However, any weepy liberal who's not talking abut how to increase work and marriage among the poor shouldn't be taken seriously.

I'm gonna have to find me a copy of Mad magazine tomorrow. According to Seton Motley, it's worth having for the cover art alone. He be right. (HT: Club for Growth)

"Those of us on the Right side of things have a profound disdain for what has become known as Che Chic -- the rampant popularity amongst the ignorant and idiotic portions of society (ours and elsewhere on the globe) of the recently retired Fidel Castro's designated Revolutionary hit man, Che Guevara.

"Shirts, hats, and flags bearing the likeness of the Central and South American Communist assassin have adorned the bodies, heads and campaign offices of some of the world's finest mindless.

"So it was with joyous exhuberence that I came upon the current issue of Mad magazine whilst strolling through the grocer's this afternoon.

"For the cover art alone (below), it was indeed an absolute must purchase."

In 2006, Democrats took control of the U.S. Congress when voters sent a large batch of fresh-faced Democratic Representatives and Senators to Washington to clean the place up. Well, according to a new Harris Interactive poll, they ain't doin' such a great job.

According to the poll, only 8 percent of Americans have "a great deal of confidence" in the Congress. Congress's rating is lower than that of the press, law firms, the White House, unions, public schools, and the military.

If we're to believe a growing gaggle of pundits and political prognosticators, Democrats are set to expand their margins in both houses of the Congress this November. Now let me get this straight: Only 8 of every hundred Americans think the Democrat-led Congress is doing a crappy job, so American voters are going to give the Democrats even greater control of the place. Don't make no sense, does it?