And we should listen to him because Jimmy Carter appointed Paul Volcker to straighten out the inflation problem in the American economy and Volcker gave Greenspan the 3X5 card that said: you bring inflation down by raising interest rates, and you lower interest rates to the point at which inflation is minimal or if the economy slips into a recession. There was no fine print on the card that said: unless you need to help a Republican.

Greenspan did nothing about the tech stock bubble; he was telling people to get adjustable rate mortgages when mortgage rates were at historic lows; he has no clue as to why no jobs are being created; he has made no stand on the budget and trade deficits; he links Medicare and Social Security to justify talking about a problem.

Mr. Greenspan is a totem, not a wise man. Anyone who talks about increasing the rate of savings for Americans by switching to private accounts while knowing that it will increase the deficit should not head a local credit union, much less the Federal Reserve system. As one of my great aunt’s used to say, he has outlived his brain.

The Surname came late to the Russians and they were changed frequently on a whim. Often they relate to the family business, as occurs with Cooper, Carpenter, and Smith in English. Putin indicates perhaps a guide or road builder, while Rasputin is a libertine.

Michael Medved can be translated as “Teddy Bear” in English.

This brings us to out new Secretary of Homeland Security – Mr. Chertoff. Chert could be called a Slavic god. . .of the underworld. Yes, our Homeland Security is now in the talons of a spawn of all evil.

As for our new National Intelligence Director, well, a Black Bridge is better than a Blackadder.

[Update: I surrender – Blackadder is better than the Black Bridge.]

Michael, Melanie, Amy, and American Street all have posts up on this column. Amy’s post also includes a short reference to my local area and it’s religious wackery.

That’s because all of the screeners were busy in Detroit removing fake passports for an art exhibit.

. . .The items belonged to an art group headed by Vienna artist Robert Jelinek, and included what the government described as “fantasy passports”, along with ink pads, rubber stamps and ink. They were taken from Jelinek’s luggage February 9 in Detroit as he headed for Cincinnati. . .

The items were supposed to be included in the museum’s exhibit titled “State of Sabotage”, which focuses on government or corporate power over the individual. . .

Some snarky arty-type put the receipt that TSA left in Mr. Jelinek’s luggage in the space reserved for his objects.

How are fiction writers and satirists supposed to compete with this alternate reality?

My guess is that it is related to the following story: US ‘using spying drones on Iran’.

When a fighter goes into combat mode the pilot dumps external fuel tanks, which lightens the aircraft and improves aerodynamics. If they launched against the drone, the explosion could have been such a fuel tank, or an air-to-air missile that failed to lock on to a target and fell to earth when it ran out of fuel.

And, of course, it has nothing to do with the September explosion which North Korea says was part of a construction project. No, it’s simply coincidence that members of the “Axis of Evil” that are suspected of developing nuclear weapons keep deciding to have large, unannounced “construction explosions”.

Bush is certainly uniting people: Iran to aid Syria against threats.

Syrian Expatriate Affairs Minister Buthaina Shaaban said she was “baffled” by the US reaction to the killing.

The minister said Mr Hariri had been a “great ally” to Syria and his death was “a scandal against Syria and against Lebanon”.

Isn’t it nice that Dubya has managed to convince a secular Ba’athist Arabic country and a theocratic Shi’ia Persian country to subsume their differences and work together.

If you’ve finished your coffee and want something stronger, you might want to drop by the Whiskey Bar and read: Gimme That Old Time Religion, a look at Ibrahim Jaafari, the man who may become Iraq’s Prime Minister.