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.

First Day of School

Mia started at her new Montessori preschool today. I was worried about the fit she might pitch on the first day. For the last two years, while she happily took the bus to the public school, she would cry and cry if I dropped her off. This year, there's no bus and I have to drop her off every day. Luckily, they had a new student open house yesterday, and she had so much fun she didn't want to leave and couldn't wait to go back. So this morning, when I left her in the hall, she was like "Yeah, bye. Whatever." I couldn't believe it. Not a single tear. Well, I might have teared up a little.

The Other Iraq

I see that the Iraqi Kurds' are running an ad campaign on TV. Interesting. I suppose they're worried we're going to leave them undefended. I suppose they're right to be worried. None of the "pull out now" folks ever mention Kurdistan.

Interesting fact gleaned from their website: Not a single coalition soldier has lost his/her life or a single foreigner kidnapped in the Region administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Lieberman's Loss

Looks like I'm not the only former Lieberman Democrat mourning Joe's loss. Brendan Loy has put up quite the missive, divorcing himself from the new Democrats:

So I’ve continued to cling to the label of Democrat, and to the hope that the party could somehow save itself from the tired orthodoxies of its interest groups and the execrable excesses of its far-left wing. I’ve shaken my head at the irrational policies and irresponsible rhetoric coming from so many corners of the party, comforting myself with the thought that while Dennis Kucinich may be a nutjob and Al Sharpton may be a charlatan and Howard Dean may be an idiot and Dick Durbin may be, well, a dick, at least there’s still Joe Lieberman.
...

Well, if there’s no room in the Democratic Party for Joe Lieberman, then there’s no room in it for me.

That's a message I received before the 2004 election, but I admit to feeling, not sad, but perhaps a little wistful. I imagine this is what it feels like to hear that your childhood home has burned down. Sure, you haven't lived there in 20 years and you never intended to go back... but still. It's another tie to the the past permanently cut.

And, of course, I feel bad for Lieberman. If Brendan in this distraught, imagine how Joe must feel.

Perhaps We Watch Too Much TV

Mia often asks me to write words on a sheet of paper so that she can type them on the computer. Today she started off with the usual: Flower, Winnie the Pooh, Thomas. But pretty soon she was requesting Tool Belt Diva, Barkitecture and (I swear I'm not making this up) Fox News Live.

She loves to watch HGTV. She may be the only kid in America that says "Mamma, can we watch a home impwovement show?" But I may have to cut her off. Last week I heard her saying "I feel so sexy." After a moment of horror, I realized she was parroting one of those god-forsaken diet commercials they run all day.

$74 A Barrel

My mom owns a small patch of land in western Kansas, the remains of the her grandparents family farm. An oil company has bought the drilling rights for the farm. If they strike oil, she gets a small percentage. I guess that's the up side of $74 a barrel. I hope the down side isn't having to camp out on the farm when Kansas City gets nuked.

Timing Is Everything

The History Channel is running Countdown To Armageddon tonight.

War, Pestilence, Famine and Death. In that order.

Pleasant dreams.

Did WWIII Start While I Was At Target?

I just got home from shopping, checked the news and saw that Hezbollah rockets have hit Haifa for the first time ever. A "sharp escalation." One Israel is bound to take very seriously.

Remember The Day After, that 80's nuclear war? The scene I remember most was students registering for class while a TV in the background reported the escalating crisis. They had no idea they would be dead before the start of the next semester. But, of course, you keep living your life right up to the point where you can't. What else are you going to do?

"Disproportionate act of war"

Check out this nuanced comment from France:

France criticized Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, including the attack on the airport, as “a disproportionate act of war.”

If states fought wars proportionally, wars would never be won. Every war escalates beyond the original act of violence. If it didn't, it wouldn't be a war. But it wouldn't be peace, as the French presume. It would be a Hatfield and McCoyesque eternal feud. Much like we've seen in Israel for the last fifty years, except Israel doesn't pick off random Arabs in response to random violence against its citizens.

Tell It To Lieberman

Must be seen to be believed. John Dean interviewed by Keith Olberman. Dean has a new book out claiming that nearly all "authoritarian personalities" are found among conservatives. There is so much wrong in this interview I don't even know where to start.

Conservatives need to gin up an enemy to inspire unity. Conservatives march in lock step with the leader. Conservatives are very aggressive in helping out their "authority figure". Nope, none of that would ring a bell with Lieberman (or more significantly, the citizens of North Korea, Cuba, China, Cambodia or the Soviet Union).

Also, I'm not sure how conservatives can be blindly following their leader and yet there be so many factions within conservativism that the movement can only be held together by hatred of an enemy.

And, by the way, Bush is intentionally provoking terrorism to supply the bogeyman he needs to do his dastardly deeds (didn't quite catch what those were supposed to be).

Wow. Just Wow.

Via The Real Ugly American.

Uh-Oh

This can't be good news if you're Lebanese: IDF issuing callup orders for reservists. Also from the article:

A very high ranking military officer said that if the soldiers were not returned in good condition, Israel would turn Lebanon back 20 years by striking its vital infrastructure.

Defense officials said that Defense Minister Amir Peretz has instructed the IDF to take all the necessary steps to retrieve the kidnapped soldiers.

After IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz concluded his security briefings in the Kirya in Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon, a senior IDF officer said the military was preparing for a large operation against Lebanon. Communities along the northern border had been instructed to prepare accordingly.

Lots more at the Jerusalem Post and Hot Air.

Lieberman Derangement Syndrome

I suspect a new strain of BDS is a work. Apparently, anyone kissed by Bush also evokes the deranged fury of the far-left. You know they're peeved when they break out the giant paper mache puppets:


This obsession with a kiss on the cheek has to be diagnosable. Granted, I wasn't thrilled to see Bush walking hand-in-hand with Saudi Prince Abdullah, but I got over it without pharmaceutical assistance.

(Via this HuffPo post where you can check out a fine example of LDS, complete with commenter accusations of "dual loyalty")

Update: Lieberman is a JFK Democrat:

In addition to being a standard-bearer for the party's tradition of equal opportunity and upward mobility, Kennedy was a muscular internationalist who understood that force was sometimes necessary in order to protect the nation's freedom and security. [snip]

... if Lieberman is defeated, a disastrous message would be sent to the nation that centrist hawks are unwelcome in the Democratic Party.

"Message sent and received," said the former Democrat. (Via the Influence Peddler)

It Was Bound To Happen

I took Mia to the Toy and Miniature Museum over the weekend. At one point the docent, a 300+ pound gentlemen, approached us. Mia, with her usual bluntness asked "Who are YOU?" He replied "I'm a guy who walks around in here." Now Mia has some speech difficulties, but what she said next was clear as a bell: "Why are you so fat like that?"

While I was, quite literally, paralyzed with horror, the docent replied "I was just made like that." Mia got back in his good graces by promptly responding "I'm little, I was made like that." I'm glad she had a reply, because I was speechless.

Small Tent

I talked to my favorite liberal Dem yesterday. We were chatting amiably about politics when I mentioned that I had always considered myself a Joe Lieberman Democrat but had started voting Republican since it became apparent that Joe Lieberman is the only member of the Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic Party. She replied, with no trace of irony, "We're trying to get rid of Lieberman."

So she desperately wants the Dems to win elections because she is sincerely committed to liberal ideals. But she sees no problem with purging all those conservative Dems who haven't already voluntarily deported themselves to the Republicans.

Update: Lots more on the move to oust Lieberman at The Influence Peddler. (Via Ace)

Garden Trains

With no moving to do this weekend, we were free to check out Kansas City's Garden Railroad Tour. Since last year's tour, we've acquired a G-scale train and about 10 feet of track that we run on the deck, but we aspire to something like this:




It's a time consuming and potentially expensive hobby. Most of the practitioners seem to be retired. It may be 30 years before we can really get rolling with it ourselves, but it sure is fun to check out other people's layouts.

The Eternal Move Draws To A Close

The buyers closed on the old place over the weekend and all our worldly possessions are piled up in the corners of our new place. So I think we're done. Now for the unpacking, the furniture rearranging, the decorating and, of course, the weeding.