You Might Be a Nerd....

if you watch Dancing With the Stars and the only "celebrity" you recognize is Tucker Carlson.

Obsession

I attended a screening of Obsession:Radical Islam's War Against the West last night. I saw a brief note about it in the local paper, so I headed over. I was lucky to get in. The auditorium, which seats about 300, was packed. I was by myself, so I got to slip into the last empty seat. The paper made it sound like some local poly/sci professor was screening it for his class, but in fact, the event was sponsored by the Unity Coalition for Israel. Hence the large turn out.

Frank Gaffney also spoke. He mentioned that the producers were still trying to get a distribution deal which is why the movie hasn't been released on video and is still being screened in auditoriums and passed around Samizdat style. He thought they were close to a deal. I hope so. This movie deserves at least as large an audience as Fahrenheit 9/11 had. Hmmm. Think ABC will be willing to take on the Dems again?

The movie was excellent, although much of the information won't be news to LGF readers. It dealt effectively with separating Islamofascists from the general Muslim population both by having a disclaimer of the "most Muslims are peaceful" variety and including the comments of three anti-Islamist Muslims in the film.

There was plenty of discussion from Western analysts, such as Caroline Glick and Daniel Pipes, but by far the most compelling commentary came from the Islamists themselves. There were suicide-bomber inductions, goose stepping troops and music videos (?!) from Iranian TV featuring George W. Bush on screen while the singers chanted "Satan, Satan." But the really bone-chilling clips were the ones that didn't need translation. A British imam in London explains why it's fine to kill the unbeliever. British jihadis in Pakistan explaining, in perfect English, why they would be happy to kill British soldiers.

As a matter of fact, after the film, Gaffney took two separate questions on why we haven't nuked Iran yet. To paraphrase, he said "How much would it help to nuke Iran? The enemy is among us."

Hard to Believe

On 9/11/01, I slept late due to a colicky three-month old. I flipped on the radio and caught the tail-end of the action. A reporter was telling the radio host that she could no longer see the building. It was gone. The host tried to clarify. "You can't see it because of all the smoke?" "No," the reporter replied, "it collapsed. It's gone." I made haste to the TV to see what was gone.

Today, I was reminded of how incomprehensible the events of that day seemed. Since I missed it the first time around, I watched a little of CNN's replay of their coverage. I tuned in just before the second plane hit. It was odd listening to the anchors try to digest the second strike. Anyone watching the video could see clearly what had just happened. Yet the anchors, probably not watching the feed, thought that the first plane inside the North tower had exploded. They couldn't accept what their producer was telling them until they ran back the video and saw it for themselves. They they went on about a possible glitch in the navigation system leading the planes into the towers.

What had just happened was simply unbelievable.

Frank Gaffney at JCCC

On Sept. 11, Johnson County Community College (Kansas), is showing the film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. In addition, Frank Gaffney, author of War Footing: Ten Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World will be speaking and taking questions.

I wanted to see that film since I first heard about it, but thought I would have to wait for the video. Apparently, they're having trouble getting a distributor (surprise). I also happened to grab Gaffney's book off the "New Book" shelf at the library a few weeks ago and am finding it quite interesting. If I go into skim mode, I think I can finish it by Monday night.

Mortgage Moms?

Are went meant to take seriously these media characterizations of each election cycle's most important group of swing voters. "Soccer Moms" seemed possible, "Security Moms" seemed obvious (to me, as I was one), but "Mortgage Moms":

In a year when politics is being roiled by angry debates over the Iraq war and immigration, it might seem odd to imagine the midterm elections being waged over
square footage and closet space. But these are parts of a lifestyle that Sharon Condit, a deputy clerk of court, describes as dogged by a sense of limits: "We have dreams of this future, but we can't get it right now."

Mortgage rates hit a four-year high of 6.80 % in July and are now back down to 6.44%. That high is about .1 percent higher that we paid 8 years ago on our first house, and the current low is about .1 percent higher than we paid for our most recent house. Sure, lower is always better than higher, but is .1% really crushing people's dreams?

But wait. More from the article:

A less obvious but powerful variable is the interest paid by people carrying credit card debt or mortgages whose monthly payments vary with interest rates. People buffeted by these trends have given rise to a new and volatile voting block.

Okay, so this isn't really about mortgage rates. It's about people who used low interest rates to buy a lot of stuff or leverage themselves into houses they couldn't otherwise afford. But I guess "Adjustable Rate Mortgage Mom" just isn't catchy enough.

Intolerance of Intolerance

Mia recently discovered on-line computer games. She loves to play them, although she often misses the point. Yesterday, she was playing one based on Arthur, a show for elementary school kids. Arthur's friends have demanded that he settle a debate. One likes Mozart and the other likes Binky (a pop band). You have three choices, side with one of the friends or choose the more enlightened path of telling the friends that neither was better, musical preference is just a matter of taste.

Well, Mia is five. She picked Binky because she thought the name sounded funny. Her punishment, well Arthur's punishment, for being a proto-fascist and deigning to designate one form of music superior to another was to stay home from the Yo-Yo Ma concert while the rest of the characters went, even the Binky fan.

This is not an anti-PBS rant. The topic of that post would be the snotty little sayings Mia has picked up from watching some of those shows. I just found it amusing that an exercise transparently designed to teach children respect for the choices of other, would display so little respect for her choice. Don't worry, Mia. You have 13 years of education ahead of you to ensure you learn the proper responses to these questions.