Reese wanted George to hear a song they often play on their show that Drew and I had written in 2009 called “A Hero’s Creed” – a tribute to all the 9/11 first responders and our military members fighting the war on terror.  There was a line in the original version that said “Eight years have passed…no attacks on our land…we owe it to those who heed the call.” Sadly, since the new administration moved into our nation’s capital, we can no longer say that.

We needed to update the song, so we did.  Somehow, however, through a slight miscommunication regarding our updating of the song, Gadi was under the impression we were working on a brand new 9/11 tribute song and would have it ready in time for his 9/11 Tribute show on 8 Sep.  We knew we had to write a new song for Gadi’s show.

—–

It did not take long for us to come up with the concept for the song:  a young girl who lost her father – one of the 343 firefighters who died when the towers collapsed – who is now a young woman looking back with sadness on all that she lost that day and a determination to follow in her Dad’s footsteps and serve her country in uniform…knowing one day she would meet him again.

In just one week (a record for us), Drew and I took that concept, crafted the lyrics together in real time (Google Docs is great for collaborating online), and developed a basic melody.  I sent my raw vocals to him and had no idea what the track would sound like when he got finished with it, but knew he would more than do it justice.  I heard it for the first time a few hours before Gadi’s show Thursday evening.  I smiled as tears rolled down my cheeks.

As we pause to remember those we lost that day – the innocent civilians and the first responders – and those who have died since then fighting the war on terror, let us also lift up the youngest victims in prayer – the children left behind.

Godspeed brothers and sisters…we will never forget.

Fish’s main point is that in the new True Grit, purposely there is no relationship between physical heroism and virtue. To the professor physical heroism is displayed by almost everyone in the new film, “‘good’ and ‘bad,’ and the universe seems at best indifferent, if not hostile.” He sees young Mattie Ross as far more heroic for her acceptance of the world as random and brutal, Jeff Bridges Cogburn’s heroism is merely an after thought. The professor didn’t in the least misunderstand my desire to instead see the kind of heroics John Wayne displayed in the original film when he takes on the outlaw gang single-handedly with his “Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bitch!” charge to glory.

Justifiable violent responses to real life threats are often not random. America has always had common men heroes and well trained professionals who can reach down deep into themselves and find the kind of inner courage needed to risk life and limb to save the life of another or stand up to the evil and power hungry. The elitist left who for the time being control most of the public debate on popular culture would have us believe that all is relative. Despite the current “no tolerance” foolishness in American schools, sometimes you have to hit back, and hard, or else the bully will take far more then just your lunch. You’re own personal dignity is indeed something worth fighting for.

A lying scumbag like Michael Moore might ridiculously offer up that al Qaeda terrorists are as brave or braver then our own and is awarded and feted for his cowardly idiocy. Physical bravery in the service of recognizable evil, whether it be Hitler’s SS or the Taliban and al Qaeda, irrevocably negates that supposed bravery, one that is also further negated by extremist brainwashing. Flying jets into civilian occupied buildings, suicide bombings – especially those directed at civilians and throwing acid into the faces of Muslim school girls isn’t brave, it is every bit as evil and perverted as Hitler’s death camps and Saddam’s torture chambers.

Professor Fish points out that in the new True Grit, there is no score card for the after life, “…in which damnation and/or salvation are distributed, as far as we can see, randomly and even capriciously.” Really…? God may be forgiving, but Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Manson, and others most certainly have a special place in hell that is personally reserved for them.

Which leads me back to John Wayne: Why do the liberal elitists and academics deny a healthy society’s need for the kind of physical courage John Wayne best represents in our popular culture?  Most heroes in today’s films wear tights and sport some sort of super-human power in fantasy fare with no relation to the real world. Yet, just last year Wayne still ranked third in the annual Harris poll of most popular American movie stars, where he has been in the top ten every year since the poll’s creation in 1994.

John Wayne films like Stagecoach, They Were Expendable, The Sands of Iwo Jima, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man through Rio Bravo, The Shootist and yes, True Grit showed true to life heroics that represented America in a particular time and place. The men Wayne played weren’t super human, but possessed hard earned skills and a well defined moral compass. As Wayne’s character in his last film The Shootist tells a teenage Ronnie Howard, “I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted and I won’t be laid a hand on. I do not do these things to others and demand the same of them.” Sounds like a damn good way to conduct yourself to me.

Far better then the elitist left, Middle America recognizes the values that Wayne’s celluloid bravery represents. The seriously wounded and bitter Vietnam Marine Corps vet Ron Kovik damned John Wayne’s Sergeant Stryker in Born on the Fourth of July. Yet, far more seriously wounded American heroes from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some suffering the loss of multiple limbs or first degree burns over ninety percent of their bodies, often react first with concern for their fellow soldiers and then a stoic “I guess I just had a bad day at the office.” Where do such amazing Americans come from today? Most often, though not exclusively, they come from traditional backgrounds and the South and rural West where John Wayne’s films are still shown to appreciative children and grand children.

Two years ago I was standing behind the chutes at a college rodeo in Cody, Wyoming with one of the rodeo committee members when we overheard two young bull riders talking about John Wayne’s excellent 1972 film The Cowboys, which had just played again on cable. It’s a film that in no small part is famous for Wayne actually being killed on screen, after beating the hell out of a murderous rustler leader while defending his very young trail hands.

“Two bad they had to kill the Duke off like that,” the one nineteen-year-old rodeo hand offered up. To which his fellow bull rider replied, “Maybe, but you know he did the right thing. He reminded me of my dad and grandpa, that’s how they would handle that kind of deal.” You won’t hear that kind of sentiment in Brentwood or on the upper West Side, but behind the bucking chutes at a rodeo in Wyoming waiting to get down on a 1500-pound bull, it’s about as normal as a really great slice of apple pie at the local diner.

Recently in the Los Angeles Times, Kim Darby, who played Mattie in the original film, told a wonderful story about a major star photo shoot on the Paramount lot soon after the filming True Grit ended.  The shoot included, Clint Eastwood, Barbara Streisand, and John Wayne. “I was sitting on the curb a ways away watching,” she said.  “The Duke stepped out of the picture and he said, ‘Hey, kid.’ He put out his arms and lifted me up and brought me over and put me in the center of the picture. How wonderful is that?” Wayne was the biggest movie star in the world at the time and Darby was still yet unknown. While Wayne was the ultimate representation of courage on movie screens, off screen he was also the most generous and giving of super stars, as well.

A nation and culture that denies physical courage in their own legends, fiction, and popular culture also denies the same bravery in real life, very much to its own peril, if not its own destruction. Go rent one of Wayne’s really good films, maybe even the original True Grit, and show it to your kids. His virtues on and off the screen need to be kept alive.

—–

Alvi has a running under-commentary about the on-going ubiquitous Iraq war, which was strangely (and refreshingly) undefined and unfocused. Certainly a critical view of America’s actions underscored the shots of bombed out hotels, of guard checks, and most of all, of the stories told by the band members. “Firas” (who knows if these were real names, given security issues) the bass player, spoke the best English and thus became the central character; “Tony,” the lead guitarist, though hyped as a spectacular talent, was barely average by western standards. “Marwan,” the drummer, and “Faisal,” the second vocalist that Alvi talked to (the first having fled to Syria) offered occasional pity comments. According to Marwan, “if you can teach every prisoner to play drums . . . you’re gonna have good citizens. . . .” (Here in the United States, I think we have tried that by having them do laundry or make license plates. Not sure if that’s worked yet.)

Band members addressed the extreme difficulty they had in even practicing in a city in which every block had either a check point or was controlled by one militia or another. Then there was the electric power issue: during the one concert Alvi filmed (in front of perhaps 20 people, all males), the electricity went out after a few songs. Alvi himself quickly experienced the impossibility of carrying normal western-style interviews in war-torn Baghdad. His crew paid $1400 U.S. dollars a day for two drivers, two shooters, a translator, an armored SUV and a second vehicle, which he thought was a steal under the circumstances. Most of the filming came from hand-held cameras; much of it from the windows of the SUV or in isolated apartments or alleys. Even getting from one block to the next in 2006—before the surge—was difficult, and Alvi found that talking to ordinary Iraqis at that time was impossible. They trusted no one, and the western reporters hid in the hotels, sending Iraqi camera crews out to get footage and report back, whereupon the brave journalists would do voice-overs as if they were there.

The most amazing aspect of “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” is that, however representative or unrepresentative Acrassicauda was, they were hardly a jihadist anti-western band. Under Saddam, merely “head-banging” could land you in jail! Acrassicauda sported “Metallica” and “Slipknot” t-shirts; learned their music from American and British metal bands (whom they loved); listened to bootleg American tapes; and flat-out admitted, “we’re not a politic [sic] band. . . . we stay out of politics . . . .” Firas noted “I don’t give a f –k about the news. . . . I’m trying my best to get out of the country [to where] I can have peace.” When Alvi first contacted the group, Saddam Hussein was still in power, and the band members recalled that they were only allowed to play a concert if they wrote a special song to Saddam, which they did. It had “shit lyrics” they agreed: “Following our leader Saddam Hussein, we’ll make them fall, drive them insane.” Come to think of it, the lyrics in Van Hagar weren’t all that terrific, either. By the way, the band’s name, Acrassicauda, is Latin for “black scorpion.”

Indeed, the absence of a jihadist or even Islamic tone to anything was stunning. Instead of praying before playing (as many Christian bands do), Acrassicauda gave a rousing football-type cheer: “Acrassicauda—let’s go!” Firas observes “I’m Sunni, my wife is Shiite,” and suspected “someone else” was causing the violence in Iraq,” though he didn’t name the U.S. “I got nothing against religion,” he said, “I’m a Muslim but I’m not that straight.” During the entire movie, there was not a single Allahu Ackbar or discussion of jihad, paradise, the Great Satan, or holy war. Firas also observed that “people” came into Iraq from “Turkey, Iran, everywhere,” by which he meant al-Qaeda terrorists.

In the end, Alvi’s would-be story of an Iraqi heavy metal band ends up like that of most American rock bands. Unable to practice or play (or, in the U.S., pay the bills), Acrassicauda goes to Damascus where they eventually break up. Perhaps one lesson of “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” is that without the USO, it’s damned tough to have “normal” entertainment in war zones, regardless of the style of music being offered. But Alvi perhaps could have gone much deeper with the more important theme of how these Muslims looked so much like American Christian youth who had fallen away from the church for secular pursuits. And still more important, there is an unexplored question of whose culture is more powerful—the fundamentalist Islam of the mullahs or the freedom, in whatever its lyrics and musical form, embodied in the West.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad (2008), Produced by Eddie Moretti and Suroosh Alvi, directed by Eddie Moretti and Suroosh Alvi, VBS/Vice Films (148 minutes).

After reading ”The Looming Tower,” I look forward to the HBO premiere of the film (reportedly set for sometime this Fall) and hope that the liberal politics of Mr. Gibney do not diminish the film’s value as an educational and informative motion picture that will create more awareness of the history of Al-Qaeda.

When Wright’s non-fiction book about Al-Qaeda was released four years ago, many critics praised it. A New York Times review noted that “’The Looming Tower’ is not just a detailed, heart-stopping account of the events leading up to 9/11, written with style and verve, and carried along by villains and heroes that only a crime novelist could dream up. It’s an education, too…” Hugh Hewitt (conservative radio show host, who, in full disclosure, works with me at Salem Communications) was quoted in the transcript of a 2006 interview with Wright as saying that the book is:

“…so comprehensive, that no matter what someone’s politics, they’re going to have to walk away from this saying this is a truly extraordinary and fair and balanced account.”

For those who have not read ” Tower,” the book is  a fascinating account of the foundation and growth of Al-Qaeda, a detailed depiction of events and incidents that ultimately led up to the attacks of September 11th. One of the great qualities of this book is that it examines the goals and the obstacles of both Al-Qaeda and the government agencies working to protect our nation’s security. Looking back at the history of the terrorist organization, it is easy to see how Al-Qaeda’s previous attacks foreshadowed the destruction they caused on September 11th. For instance, Wright wrote about the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania noting that:

Al-Qaeda’s first documented terrorist strike bore the hallmarks of its future actions. The novelty of multiple, simultaneous suicide bombings was a new and risky strategy, given the increased likelihood of failure or detection.

Wright went on to write the following about the organization:

Death on a grand scale was a goal in itself. There was no attempt to spare innocent lives, since the concept of innocence was subtracted from al-Qaeda’s calculations.

In the book, Wright also focuses on the intelligence failures in the United States that were heavily criticized after the 9/11 attacks and he writes knowingly about “a bizarre trend in the U.S. government to hide information from the people who most needed it.”

This film coming to HBO sounds like a great opportunity for the station to tell a compelling story from Wright about the history of Al-Qaeda. One hopes that controversial filmmaker Alex Gibney, who also worked on the film, does not detract from the success of the production. Gibney is well-known for a lot of high-profile documentaries that he has worked on in the past. An Esquire article from earlier this year noted that in some of his earlier films, Gibney has told…

…the stories of the spectacular thieves at Enron (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, nominated for an Academy Award), American torturers in the war on terrorism (Taxi to the Dark Side, winner of the Academy Award), and… Jack Abramoff …

With taking on such subjects, Gibney has proven that he is not afraid to steer into controversial political battles.

In fact, Gibney has contributed numerous far-left pieces to “The Huffington Post” on many controversial subjects. In one article he wrote, “The Bush administration will go down in history as the Torture Team,” adding that “the Bush administration spent its time…trying to rewrite its own legal definition of torture so that it could use the techniques without having to use the T-word (Donald Rumsfeld’s phrase) which doesn’t poll well.”

In another piece, Gibney asked if former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was stupid and compared him to Gollum from “Lord of the Rings,” noting that Gollum is “a creature pulled hopelessly and inexorably by the lure of power.” 

“My Trip to Al- Al-Qaeda” has the potential to be a great and compelling motion picture but it would likely alienate any fair-minded viewer if Gibney’s strong ideology overwhelmed the story Wright wants to tell. (Several years ago, HBO’s film “Recount” about the 2000 presidential recount made that mistake and received criticism for its harsh and unflattering portrayal of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, an aspect of the film that turned off conservative viewers, including myself.) 

The ongoing war against Al-Qaeda is a long and complicated one that does not receive the level of attention it should from the mainstream media. If this new film proves as engrossing, exciting and blatantly appealing as the book, it could bring more attention to Lawrence Wright’s non-fiction book and the ongoing threat posed by this terrorist organization.

One hopes that Gibney’s liberal political ideology does not stand in the way of that respectable purpose.

The answer….

It’s a trick question, and unicorns rule.

But if you asked a British judge, he would choose the evil jackass.

This week, a tribunal ruled that the leader of an al-Qaeda terrorist cell that tried to blow up British citizens won’t be deported – because then his human rights would be violated. He wasn’t charged with anything, so he’s free to go, but not home – because he may get roughed up by Pakistan’s security services.

Now, the judge made this call despite the fact that Abid Naseer still poses a deadly threat. And here lies the comedy: Justice Mitting said that even though it would be “conducive to the public good that [Naseer] should be deported,” the risk of him being tortured back home was just too great.

So, having to choose between the public and the fiend putting the public in danger, the judge chose the fiend. He put the human rights of terrorists above the human rights of their targets.

Now I can almost hear the defense. “Look, we can’t send this man to a torture chamber. We shouldn’t lower our standards because our enemies lower theirs.”

But why not.

This is war. And in war, you protect the innocent, and eliminate the enemy.

But these days, the war on terror is soaked in the rhetoric of tolerance – now defined by a circus of bureaucrats struggling to find the correct terms for this misunderstood group of angry men. We want to win their hearts, while they just want to impale ours.

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobic Arizonan.

Tonight we have: 

Remi Spencer

Ann Coulter

Paul Provenza

When Leftists are winning the day, they’re just plain arrogant. When Leftists are losing, they’re a helluva lot of fun to watch. Case in point: Alec Baldwin’s latest incomprehensible attack on Republicans courtesy of HuffPo. Here are my favorite snips, but read the whole thing and count the number of times you say, ”huh? — whuh?” Don’t make it a drinking game, though. Suicide’s illegal:

The Pentagon wastes more money on more crap that you and I don’t need and gets it wrong, on a policy level, more often than not since 1960 (I’ll give them a pass on Korea, due to all the Cold War anxiety at the time).

How nice… Baldwin gives the Pentagon a pass on Korea… I’m sure a wave of relief swept through the Military Industrial Complex. “Hey, you can exhale now, the ‘30 Rock’ guy says it’s okay…” And don’t you just love when a Leftist decides to get all bent over government waste? It’s always the military, always the most successful — by a long shot — of our government agencies.

The health care industry wastes untold billions, then passes those costs on to insurance companies who then exploit your fear and pass them on to you. Fear of Al Qaeda. Fear of getting sick without insurance and, therefore, access to effective medical care.

“Fear of Al Qaeda”…?

Huh?

Oh yeah, that’s right… Yesterday a letter arrived from United Health: “Vote against ObamaCare or be beheaded by terrorists.”

Health care reform means less money for insurance companies. Thus less money for the GOP. We should pass this bill for that reason alone.

You have to appreciate the honesty of that statement. ObamaCare’s not something anyone can defend. It’s not as if Baldwin’s about to give up his Cadillac Health Coverage to join us in line for Chemo should Obama and Pelosi win the day. So all he can do is fling HuffPoo and hope some of his hateful nonsense sticks. At the end of the day, however, Baldwin’s personal policy decisions — like many of his brethren — really do come down to what will hurt the other side, not what’s best for America or the poor. It’s all about The Hate.

So why the crazy public rant?

Frustration.

Before their very eyes hopeandchange is going down in a big flaming ball of empty suit, and frustration levels on the Left are on the rise.  Even Baldwin’s online hostess, the True Believer Dennis Miller calls “The Smart Gabor,” is publicly thinking “uh,oh.”

As Obama’s public opinion polls plummet lower than a gaff-tastic presidential bow and everything the Left believes in fails to create jobs, make the world love us or convince Independents to climb aboard the Socialist Train to Ruin — as Obama limps his way towards Worst President Ever status and 2010 looms — we can only hope to see alot more of this.

So, denying the role militant Islam played in the Fort Hood atrocity is like staring at a shark bite and thinking, “bicycle.”

When a fundamentalist kills thirteen innocent people while shouting “allahu akbar,” Islam isn’t just a small player – it’s got a starring role. And now that U.S. intelligence admits Hasan tried to contact al Qaeda, it should make it increasingly hard for anyone to say otherwise.

I say it “should,” but it won’t.

Look at the news.

Over at Time, thoughtful types speculate over a “secondary trauma” that could have driven Hasan to kill. Never mind terror – one news network tells us we should focus more on “a backlash against Muslim soldiers.” On a major website, they want us to ponder the “next McVeigh.” And our very own Homeland Security secretary says she’s hard at work preventing “a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment.”

And that’s the drill: concern over crimes that have never happened, as opposed to the terror that has. When Americans are murdered in cold blood, the first step in our screwed-up world is to chant, “backlash.” Never mind that backlash concerns may have allowed this massacre to occur in the first place. Hasan exhibited more signs than a horoscope – yet fears over appearing politically incorrect kept him around.

The fact is, in mosques all over the world, the desire to destroy the west continues – and our administration still worries about what you might do. The PC thing? Avoid “connecting the dots,” but stick to the “square peg in round hole” equation: a troubled man feeling hopeless in a weird world, suddenly snaps and kills people.

But it’s more than that. The defiant Muslim living in America has contempt for modern life, your lifestyle, your beliefs. Add to this a rejection of female equality, which pretty much eliminates any chance for a hook-up – and you’ve got a madman on a mission.

I suppose saying all this makes me a right-wing hate monger. But that’s the point. When a man kills Americans in the name of Allah – and you become a bad guy for pointing that out – then it’s time to be the bad guy.

It’s far better than moaning “why do they hate us.”

tonight, Jim Norton (fun!), S.E. Cupp (yum!), Jonathan Hoenig (rich!) and, other stuff!

Yet despite the Daily Star’s perversely hopeful tone, there was no violent reaction in the UK from said fanatics, nor was there one in the United States after the episode originally aired here last Thanksgiving weekend (in a grimly ironic twist, the same weekend as the devastating mass murder and mayhem committed in Mumbai by a band of – wait for it – Muslim fanatics, or as the culturally sensitive media preferred to call them at the time, “gunmen”). So why no Muslim fury over The Simpsons?

In the episode “Mypods and Broomsticks,” Homer Simpson believes a local Muslim couple are terrorists planning to blow up the Springfield Mall. It turns out, unsurprisingly, to be a misunderstanding; no plot is being hatched after all. As a spokesman for London’s Sky1 reassuringly sums up, “At the end of the show, all the issues are resolved and Homer realizes the error of his ways.” In other words, Homer was wrong to suspect Muslims – despite seeing them unload dynamite in their garage, despite hearing them discuss blowing up buildings, despite finding the schematics of the targeted local mall on their computer, and despite the fact that, in the real world, Muslim fanatics do have an impressive track record of blowing up innocent civilians.

The moral of the toon: coming forward to protect your community from a possible terrorist attack by Muslims, even with an abundance of probable cause, marks you as a buffoonish bigot. So, contrary to the Daily Star’s claim, the episode did not poke fun at Islam, but at Homer. Simpsons creator Matt Groening explained to Sky1: “Cartoons deal in stereotypes. We try to be sensitive.” Well, sensitive to the murderous rage of Islamists, anyway, since the episode ridicules the stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists, while stereotyping Homer as an Islamophobic, paranoid, ignorant American.

Thus CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, ever-ready with a quick denunciation of any criticism of Islam or any association of it with terrorism, instead whipped out a statement approving of the episode’s plotline and congratulating the show’s creators “for tackling the disturbing phenomenon of Islamophobia.” If I were CAIR, I’d be much more concerned about tackling the disturbing phenomenon of violent jihad committed by fanatics who have supposedly hijacked my religion (then again, CAIR is currently tackling revelations that it is a Muslim Brotherhood front group committed to replacing American democracy with Sharia and theocracy). What if Homer Simpson had been right, and the Muslim couple intended to murder and maim hundreds at the local mall? I guess CAIR would rather that he keep quiet and stifle his Islamophobia than act on reasonable suspicion, report the possible bombing to the authorities, and save countless lives.

Najibullah Zazi

Admittedly, those are cartoon characters in the service of comedy writers whose aim is to give the topic a light treatment; but they nonetheless reinforce the default PC position that only stupid bigots draw a connection between Islam and terrorism. In the real world, meanwhile, Osama bin Laden and his ilk are busy making that connection themselves, and political correctness won’t save you from them.

“Mark, this is all very fascinating,” I hear you say,“but doesn’t Obama’s election mean that America is now safer and more ‘well-liked’?” (A concept I previously bashed here) “Won’t our Islamist enemies respond more peacefully and diplomatically to his flaccid ‘open hand’ policy and his many cringe-worthy expressions of pro-Islam sycophancy?” First of all, no less an authority than bin Laden himself has made it clear that he considers Obama no different from his predecessor. Second, since Obama has taken office, over 40 American-born Muslims or converts have been arrested for plotting terrorist attacks here and abroad, including Najibullah Zazi, a Denver-based Muslim who apparently is connected to al Qaeda and at the center of what could have been a catastrophic terrorist plot; Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, for attempting to car-bomb a Dallas office tower; and Muslim convert Michael C. Finton, who planned to blow up a federal building in Springfield (Illinois, not the one in The Simpsons). Even as I write this, Tarek Mehanna and cohorts, apparently desirous “to participate in Islamist holy war,” were arrested in Massachusetts for plotting to attack a mall in the U.S. Are all Muslims terrorists? Of course not; indeed, the fundamentalists have no qualms about targeting Muslims who aren’t onboard with the notion of embracing Sharia and a worldwide Caliphate. But make no mistake, there are untold numbers of Islamists here in America, and many of them want to kill you.

What can you do about it? Join a great activist organization like Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT! for America, buy The Citizen Soldier Handbook: 101 Ways for Every American to Fight Terrorism by my friend Michael Mandaville and put his action items to work, or simply keep your eyes open and trust your instincts. The LAPD recently rolled out a community awareness program called iWATCH, a neighborhood watch service designed to nip terrorist plots in the bud by providing citizens with a hotline to report suspicious activity. Seems a little long in coming - nearly ten years after an alert customs officer arrested Ahmed Ressam at the Canadian border and foiled the “millennium LAX plot” in late December, 1999 - but better late than never. Skeptical, pseudonymous police officer “Jack Dunphy,” pointing out that iWATCH bluntly warns against ethnic profiling, believes the program will be hamstrung by political correctness. He may be right; time will tell. In any case, if only programs of this sort were promoted as frequently on television as Obama’s volunteerism propaganda (which includes nothing about combating Islamic terrorism), Americans would become more conscious of a local role they can play in the war-formerly-known-as-the-war-on-terror.

“The price of freedom,” said Thomas Jefferson, “is eternal vigilance.” Not willful blindness, not political correctness, not naive complacency, but vigilance. While the current administration has its hands full demonizing its critics, winning the praise of dictators worldwide, and embracing anti-American radicals and Sharia supporters, radical Islam continues to wage war against us on our own soil. It’s up to each one of us ordinary Americans, us Citizen Soldiers, to throw off the yoke of political correctness, disregard trumped-up accusations of Islamophobia or racism, and help law enforcement protect our communities and our country from the enemy among us.

This is nothing new, of course. Global warming is the Kevin Bacon of root causes: you can link everything back to it, including “Hollow Man.” Hilariously, you can even blame terror on global warming, even if the current science suggests the globe may be cooling!

But you know what’s causing global cooling?

Global warming.

But you knew that.

So, for this report to work, you need to ignore that for the last 11 years we haven’t seen a bump in global temperatures. You also have to ignore that many terrorists aren’t destitute farmers – some are scientists who might enjoy a good strip club. And then there’s this contradiction: The report mentions how Afghanistan’s horrible agriculture boosts the Taliban; but then later links Taliban success to enormous poppy crops – which, as Schulz can attest, makes a mighty fine heroin.

For fun, let’s say global warming is a confirmed fact. That means there are billions of people on the planet experiencing the same problem – who aren’t resorting to terrorism. Kenya isn’t overflowing with Taliban, and neither is Palm Springs. But the fact is, people who willingly accept the term “man-caused disaster” over the word “terror” will also accept any “root cause” explanation.

So blame it on the weather. In the end, this suggests we’re all capable of being suicide bombers, if the climate warms. But not for me. When it gets balmy, I don’t get bomby.

I get thongy.

And if you disagree with me, then you’re probably a racist.

Tonight, we’ve got Matthew Modine, actress Reshma Shetty, Gregg Jarrett and comedian Jesse Joyce!