Fear and Loathing in My Sunday Coupons

Opening up the Sunday newspaper has never been so frightening. To my surprise the Sunday adds for Betty Crocker, Best Buy and Sears included a free DVD of the documentary movie smash Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. The free sampler of the latest right-wing attempt to make us forget the other scary issues troubling Americans was apparently included in newspapers in various battleground states. I've read several posts in the blogosphere about the give away including this one at Popular Progressive that indicates up to 28 million copies were sent out in the morning paper.

Some simple checking of the movie credits on the internets reveals the backer of the project is 501(c)(3) group The Clarion Fund. The fund's website has very little information but, the motto of the group, "National Security Through Education" is prominently displayed. One only wonders what that could mean. Without having to delve any further than the movie website you can kind of guess the direction the producers of this "film" are going:

Almost 70 years ago, Europe found itself at war with one of the most sinister figures in modern history: Adolf Hitler. When the last bullet of World War II was fired, over 50 million people were dead, and countless countries were both physically and economically devastated. Hitler’s bloody struggle sought to forge the world anew, in the crucible of Nazi values. How could such a disaster occur? How could the West have overlooked the evil staring it in the face, for so long, before standing forcefully against it?

Even Glenn Beck is quoted as calling the film "...without exaggeration one of the most important films of our time". Sorry Glenn, they lose me the minute they parade out the case that radical Islam rivals the Nazi conquest of Europe and the Holocaust. Yes I'm concerned about Al Queda inspired groups and their resurgence in South Asia and the danger they pose to us at home and abroad. I'm not fucking stupid either. I'm not convinced that kaffiyeh-wearing men armed with Kalashnikovs are an absolute existential threat to the United States. That dubious honor may belong to our very own political leaders who have been frittering away our freedoms with flawed legislative maneuvers and numerous presidential signing statments.

Anyway we've seen this handy work before. Forget all the other issues that matter because certain death certainly awaits you if the Democrats win. In 2004 it was the "Al Queda wolves are hunting us down" commercial. In 2006 it was the infamous "stakes are high" nomenclature and complimentary televsion adds. Last year it was the Frank Gafney documentary that was rejected by PBS. This year's menu includes Obsession and the upcoming new release The Third Jihad. Can't wait for that one. It looks like fear is still the "little black dress" as Al Franken referred to it in his book The Truth. It goes with any occasion.

My curiousity may get the best of me and I may indulge it by watching the DVD. I may say "thanks but no thanks" and mail it back to the Akron Beacon Journal subscription office.

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