'The Taqwacores'

I'm not convinced this is going to work. Punk is revolutionary, and for Muslims the revolution wants to dethrone Western hegemony. Won't know for sure until I see it, but the burka-clad punker doesn't inspire confidence. At LAT:

There's a burka-clad Riot Grrrl who scribbles Patti Smith lyrics on her wall and puts forward the notion that a woman doesn't necessarily need to make her face visible to qualify as an outspoken feminist. Another electric guitar-playing skateboarder character tests the limits of his faith by chugging beer and declaring, "I'm not big on the 'Islam is one way' approach."

The Taqwacores generally reject specific tenets of Koranic dogma: that homosexuality is a sin, that masturbation amounts to "self-harm" and that a man is justified in beating his wife to discipline her.

But outside of mashing-up of punk with Islam, "The Taqwacores" presents compelling ideas about how modern Muslims worship in this country. The film presents Islam as a dynamic faith that's endlessly argued and debated — and in one case, straight-up revised when a character crosses out a verse in the Koran — to fit unruly American lives in the post- 9/11 world.

"The point of the film was to portray Muslims in this whole new way," the director explained. "There's a notion that Muslims are zombies; they only regurgitate what they're told by the leaders of their community. But there's a huge spectrum. We're showing an extreme of it."

I'll believe it when I hear denunciations of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Democratic Activists Criticize Possible Compromise by Obama on Tax Cuts

Puff Ho has been leading Memeorandum all day, but I checked Daily Kos this morning and folks there were pushing back against the administration.

And here's this from WaPo:

Democratic activists Thursday sharply criticized White House officials after a published report indicated that President Obama is likely to back a temporary extension of tax cuts for households with income over $250,000 a year.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, top Obama adviser David Axelrod said: "We have to deal with the world as we find it," in noting that the White House might compromise with the GOP on the issue. He said that White House officials have long opposed a permanent extension of the tax cuts on upper-income Americans. However, Obama aides also have repeatedly said that they have not ruled out backing a temporary extension of those cuts as part of a compromise with Republicans.

Both parties want to keep the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 for households with income below $250,000 a year. But the GOP wants all the cuts extended permanently, while Obama says the cuts for income over $250,000 do little to improve the economy and would increase the deficit.

Liberal groups cast Axelrod's comments as official capitulation on the issue, even as White House aides emphasized that his position was not new.

"Sign our petition telling President Obama that Americans want him to fight the Bush tax cuts for millionaires - and that Democrats will keep losing if he keeps caving," the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, a liberal group, told its members in an e-mail.

Republicans said that they still want to make all the tax cuts permanent, including those for income over $250,000 a year. In response to the controversy, Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio), said that Republicans hoped the White House would "show leadership by convincing Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to stop these tax hikes permanently in the upcoming lame-duck session."

Abu Hussein Obama!

From Amir Taheri, "Why Hamas Loves Bam."

Unreal.

RELATED: "In Indonesia, Where Israelis Can't Enter, Obama Tells Jews Where They Can't Live."

Veterans Day 2010

From the Marine Corps:

The nation's elite fighting force celebrates its 235th birthday on November 10th, 2010. Since the inception of the Marine Corps in 1775, thousands of brave men and women have answered a call to serve our country and protect its freedom.

And at Hardin County News-Enterprise, "America's Veterans Deserve Our Honor and Praise":

Today is Veterans Day, the holiday that honors military veterans for their service to the nation.

The tradition of setting aside a day to remember veterans dates back to the first World War. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the “war to end all wars” came to an end. Since that time, America has designated one day a year to honor those who strive to ensure the liberty the founding fathers sought to establish in a fledgling nation.

Throughout history, our veterans have endured numerous hardships – altered lifestyles, separation from family and friends, trepidation of war. All made sacrifices so that we could enjoy the freedoms we have today. Whether the nation is at war or peace, the contributions of veterans cannot, and must not, be forgotten.

Today, all across the nation, grateful Americans will celebrate and pay tribute to the men and women in uniform, and rightfully so. Residents will fly flags, play patriotic songs, march in parades and detail through countless speeches the heroic deeds of veterans who have given their all to defend freedom and democracy.

RELATED: At NYT (of all places), "Communities Embrace Veterans of Vietnam War." And more Veterans Day stories at the link.

Michelle Malkin Hammers President Obama's Jihad Junket to Indonesia

I was watching and tweeted during the broadcast.

Via Gateway Pundit:

Also, at Atlas Shrugs, "Operation Fetal Position."

The Gettysburg Address Revisited

Via American Digest:

Why Left-Wing Women Hate Women on the Right

From Lisa Richards, at NewsReal:

Left-wing feminists are furious that conservative women are wildly popular. It’s completely unnerving to them that Sarah Palin, a well-educated athlete with a political resume (but considered illiterate because of her western accent, marriage, children, and home state) is the most popular woman in America, even with leftists who obsessively cover all things Sarah. After all, aren’t women supposed to lock-step like a bunch of politically enslaved vote-only-Democrat drones, support abortion, demand better pay (but insist minimum wage stay intact) and sue bosses who fire female incompetents? This is America for heaven’s sake! Women are not supposed to think for themselves, that’s the job of the Democrat Party!

And then came 2008 and Sarah Palin, followed by Michele Bachmann, Nikki Haley, Christine O’Donnell, Linda McMahon, Carly Fiorina, Meg Whitman, Sharron Angle, Angela McGlowen, Star Parker … should I stop? This might be too much for anti-female-unless-she-hates-men-and-unborn-babies leftist women to bare.

Bachmann and Haley won, the other GOP ladies lost, much to the glee of left-wing feminists like The Nation’s Betsy Reed who declared:

This result should not come as a huge surprise, given that the GOP Year of the Woman was always mostly hype, fueled by a potent mixture of Republican propaganda, Democratic hysteria and the mainstream media’s fondness for loopy ladies.

As opposed to Nancy Pelosi who did wonders elevating women’s political status with her spoiled demands for military jet-set vacations and claims of not knowing anything about intelligence reports. And let’s not forget Hillary’s contribution to women’s equality–accepting her serial molesting husband’s philandering actions, something feminists allegedly abhor.

Leftists do nothing to elevate women, yet they demand women vote one way and only one way. When women break that iron grip, saying no thank you, I can think and vote for myself, radical feminists turn against women like a pack of rabid grizzlies.

Case in point is Amanda Marcotte, who described Nikki Haley’s win as “the second most telling example of the ‘mama grizzly curse.’”

More at the link.

Boehner to Fly Commercial as House Speaker

At the video, after the discussion of failed Speaker Pelosi, and from Fox News:

Presumptive House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that he will not use the military jet provided to current Speaker Nancy Pelosi to fly from D.C. to his home district each week, but will board the same airlines as everybody else.

Pelosi had claimed after she became speaker in 2007 that a military aircraft was offered to her in light of position as second in line to the presidency. But Boehner said he's not so concerned.

"I've talked to our security folks about the security involved in my new role. Over the last 20 years I've flown back and forth to my district on commercial aircraft and will continue to do that," Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

Affirmative Action Bake Sales

Great discussion with Megyn Kelly and John Stossel:

Plus, "JOHN STOSSEL: Get Your Affirmative Action Cupcakes Here!"

1979 on 'The Sound'

It's 1979 today on The Sound's 10 at 10!

I was a senior in high school in '79. This set brought back a lot of memories, from this morning's drive time:

10:02 - Dance The Night Away by Van Halen

10:06 - Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd

10:12 - Roxanne by Police

10:15 - Just The Same Way (live) by Journey

10:19 - London Calling by Clash

10:22 - Breakfast In America by Supertramp

10:25 - Is She Really Going Out With Him by Joe Jackson

10:29 - Highway To Hell by Ac/dc

10:32 - Don't Bring Me Down by E.l.O.

10:42 - Ballroom Blitz by Sweet

10:46 - Lay It On The Line by Triumph

10:50 - Nights In White Satin by Moody Blues

10:58 - Here I Go Again by Whitesnake

Joseph Nye and the Future of American Power

Probably no scholar has written as much on the nature and longevity of American power as has Joseph S. Nye Jr. of Harvard University. Professor Nye has a forthcoming book, The Future of American Power, and his essay, "The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective," is the lead article at the new Foreign Affairs special edition, "The World Ahead." Here's the introduction:

The twenty-first century began with a very unequal distribution of power resources. With five percent of the world's population, the United States accounted for about a quarter of the world's economic output, was responsible for nearly half of global military expenditures, and had the most extensive cultural and educational soft-power resources. All this is still true, but the future of U.S. power is hotly debated. Many observers have interpreted the 2008 global financial crisis as the beginning of American decline. The National Intelligence Council, for example, has projected that in 2025, "the U.S. will remain the preeminent power, but that American dominance will be much diminished."

Power is the ability to attain the outcomes one wants, and the resources that produce it vary in different contexts. Spain in the sixteenth century took advantage of its control of colonies and gold bullion, the Netherlands in the seventeenth century profited from trade and finance, France in the eighteenth century benefited from its large population and armies, and the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century derived power from its primacy in the Industrial Revolution and its navy. This century is marked by a burgeoning revolution in information technology and globalization, and to understand this revolution, certain pitfalls need to be avoided.

First, one must beware of misleading metaphors of organic decline. Nations are not like humans, with predictable life spans. Rome remained dominant for more than three centuries after the peak of its power, and even then it did not succumb to the rise of another state. For all the fashionable predictions of China, India, or Brazil surpassing the United States in the next decades, the greater threat may come from modern barbarians and nonstate actors. In an information-based world, power diffusion may pose a bigger danger than power transition. Conventional wisdom holds that the state with the largest army prevails, but in the information age, the state (or the nonstate actor) with the best story may sometimes win.

Power today is distributed in a pattern that resembles a complex three-dimensional chess game. On the top chessboard, military power is largely unipolar, and the United States is likely to retain primacy for quite some time. On the middle chessboard, economic power has been multipolar for more than a decade, with the United States, Europe, Japan, and China as the major players and others gaining in importance. The bottom chessboard is the realm of transnational relations. It includes nonstate actors as diverse as bankers who electronically transfer funds, terrorists who traffic weapons, hackers who threaten cybersecurity, and challenges such as pandemics and climate change. On this bottom board, power is widely diffused, and it makes no sense to speak of unipolarity, multipolarity, or hegemony.

In interstate politics, the most important factor will be the continuing return of Asia to the world stage. In 1750, Asia had more than half the world's population and economic output. By 1900, after the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States, Asia's share shrank to one-fifth of global economic output. By 2050, Asia will be well on its way back to its historical share. The rise of China and India may create instability, but this is a problem with precedents, and history suggests how policies can affect the outcome.

I've highlighted the second to last quote above, because it caught my attention. I can recall, almost twenty year ago, Nye offered the same basic analogy, in an article from Spring 1992 at Foreign Affairs, "What New World Order?":

No single hierarchy describes adequately a world politics with multiple structures. The distribution of power in world politics has become like a layer cake. The top military layer is largely unipolar, for there is no other military power comparable to the United States. The economic middle layer is tripolar and has been for two decades. The bottom layer of transnational interdependence shows a diffusion of power.

The top of the international remains unipolar with the concentration of military power in the United States. But I'm interested in how in 1992 Nye spoke of economic "tripolarity" but today mentions "multipolarity" going back from more than a decade ("tripolarity" was a hip term at the time, as Japan and Germany seemed to be emerging at "the new superpowers.") And the bottom layer --- now a chessboard and not a layer cake --- is transnational relations, which implies much larger system effects from non-state actors such as al Qaeda (clearly a nod to the dramatic importance of the global war on terrorism in U.S. foreign policy over the last decade).

Overall, I have little disagreement with Nye's analysis. The one thing that really concerns me, and perhaps more so that it does Nye, is the impact America's long-term debt burden will have on the sustainability of U.S. power. He writes later in the essay, for example:

On the question of absolute, rather than relative, American decline, the United States faces serious problems in areas such as debt, secondary education, and political gridlock. But they are only part of the picture. Of the multiple possible futures, stronger cases can be made for the positive ones than the negative ones. But among the negative futures, the most plausible is one in which the United States overreacts to terrorist attacks by turning inward and thus cuts itself off from the strength it obtains from openness. Barring such mistaken strategies, however, there are solutions to the major American problems of today. (Long-term debt, for example, could be solved by putting in place, after the economy recovers, spending cuts and consumption taxes that could pay for entitlements.) Of course, such solutions may forever remain out of reach. But it is important to distinguish hopeless situations for which there are no solutions from those that could in principle be solved. After all, the bipartisan reforms of the Progressive era a century ago rejuvenated a badly troubled country.

I'll have more on this, but see, in the current issue, Roger C. Altman and Richard N. Haass, "American Profligacy and American Power." And Niall Ferguson, from March/April 2010, "Complexity and Collapse: Empires on the Edge of Chaos."

Hot Shots Calendar 2011

Via Theo Spark:

Order at Help for Heroes.

V for Vendetta Hacker Strikes at Washington State University

At Wired:

And at Chronicle of Higher Education:

In V for Vendetta, the protagonist V is a revolutionary fighting a fascist British regime in a dystopian future. V broadcasts a video message calling the British public to action on November 5 in honor of Guy Fawkes’s 1605 attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and assassinate King James I. The film ends in a violent explosion—which had some university officials worried that the V-masked hacker might be threatening to do something similar.

Here's the text: "V's Speech To WSU" (c/o Computer World, "V for Vendetta Hacker Broadcasts Video at Washington State University").

Horny? Just Go to the Airport

At According to Nikki:

I think I am against legalized molestation. The jury is still out, but in all fairness I think it's a bad idea even in the name of national security. In my roller-coaster brain, it seems to me that our politically correct world has taken us here. We can no longer narrow down and label our enemy. Reality and truth are not permitted in political correctness, only appeasement and lies. We have to make equal the suspicion bombing field by groping old ladies, housewives, old men, young boys and girls and maybe even puppies. Really TSA? Our choice is either let us take a nude photo of your wobbly bits or let us feel you up when going on vacation? Work hard and prepare to get the goods felt when you want to relax. This is why I hate vacationing, it's seriously too much work. I can stay home and get my jollies and not have to pack my life into one 50 pound suitcase only to have it man handled at the airport. Good-bye Hawaii. Good-bye Vegas. It's not worth it to me to get groped or viewed like a porn star all to prevent some ARAB guy from blowing up an aircraft. See what I said right there? An Arab. A Muslim. Middle Eastern folk are the ones trying to blow us up.

More awesome commentary, at the link.

Video c/o American Digest.

Four Million U.S. Hispanics Would Migrate Permanently

And almost 10 percent of those would migrate to Canada, no doubt to get in on the racist anti-racist diversity bonaza now available in Canuckistan.

At Gallup:

Gallup's survey suggests that U.S. Hispanics who would like to migrate are more likely to be struggling, foreign-born residents who are ready to give up the American dream and move home or try again somewhere else. These findings not only have implications on the national debate about immigration reform in the United States, but also on the immigration policies and economies of other countries to which these potential migrants would like to move.

Amnesty International Demands Obama Prosecute Bush for Admitting to Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind KSM…

At Weasel Zippers, "The far-left standing up for mass murdering Islamic terrorists, nothing new…"

Frontier Records' 30th Year Anniversary Concert

One of my students came in wearing a "Middle Class" shirt yesterday. I mentioned that I knew the bass player back in the day, and she said "I saw them last night, at the Frontier Records anniversary."

Check OC Weekly for a report.

Proposed Cigarette Product Warning Labels

At the FDA (and at WaPo):

Commentary at Weasel Zippers, "Nanny State Gone Wild – New Graphic Cigarette Warnings From the FDA."

I don't know. Maybe some folks are so stupid they actually need these warnings. Besides, what would folks like egghead JBW do without some Nanny Statism to gripe about? Get rid of warning labels and marijuana laws in one fell swoop!! Then everyone would have equal opportunity to death!

Added: At Doug Ross, "The FDA's 10 Most Terrifying Proposed Cigarette Warning Labels."

MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Calls for Violent Revolution

From Dylan Ratigan's introduction to communist cartoonist Ted Rall: "Are things in our country so bad that it might actually be time for revolution? The answer is obviously 'yes.' The only question is, 'how to do it?'"

I wrote on this previously, "Cartoonist Ted Rall Calls for ‘Proletarian Dictatorship’ in the U.S."

But Dylan Ratigan's endorsement is getting some major play across the 'sphere. At Big Journalism, "MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Promotes Book Advocating Violent Revolution." And from Ed Morrissey, "MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, Ted Rall Call for Violent Revolution?" Actually, no need for that question mark at the end there.

The New House of Representatives in Ten Seconds

Via Invincible Armor: