A teapot museum here, a teapot museum there, and pretty soon it adds up to real money

In his weekly radio address, Bush claimed that the economy was in great shape. For example, retail sales were up in November! Just like every November since the invention of Christmas! Also, “another bit of holiday cheer”: real hourly wages rose by an entire, whopping 2.3% this year. “That may not sound like a lot,” he said, and then tried unsuccessfully to make it sound like a lot.

Then he talked about earmarks. He’s against them. The typical earmark, in his presentation, is “a swimming pool or a teapot museum.” Yes, it was the $400,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum (“Steeped in Surprises”) that broke the budget, just when Bush was preparing to ask for another $100 billion supplemental appropriation for the war (or 250,000 teapot museums). Now let’s see, what would be a good visual metaphor for what that $100 billion will be spent on...