As usual, Andrew McCarthy offers a bracing dose of reality over at NRO as he coolly assesses where we are today, nine year after Sept. 11, in the ongoing struggle  between Islam and the West. Read and don’t weep — read it and get mad.

If only the fantasy were true: If only there actually were a dominant, pro-American, echt moderate Islam, an ideology so dedicated to human rights, so sternly set against savagery, that acts of terrorism were, by definition, “un-Islamic activity.” Imagine an Islam that, far from a liability, proved an asset (indeed, an indispensable asset) in combating the threat against us. Imagine that we could accurately call the threat mere “extremism” — no “Islamic” (or even “Islamist”) modifier being necessary because the “extremists” truly were a tiny, aberrant band, fraudulently “hijacking” a great religion…

What excruciating truths have we yet failed to grasp on this ninth anniversary of 9/11? The first is that such an Islam does not exist. The second is that, despite this fact, American foreign and domestic policy continues to proceed as though it does exist — and as though it were the only real Islam. That is, nine years after Islamists made their commitment to our destruction as unmistakable as possible, nine years after the non-occurrence of all the wonderful things that would certainly have happened if the Islam of our dreams were the Islam of our reality, our national-security strategy is still steeped in fiction.

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If I’d known my fall and winter season would consist of zero 10-hour beach days, only two games of beach football and a single surf session, I would have for sure given those ACORN videos a little more thought.

Yep, September 10, 2009 hit me like a freight train; that day marked only my second trip to NYC. The first trip was a 6-hour visit a few weeks earlier that consisted of my dashing around the city in stilettos and trashy clothes gathering footage of ACORN workers acting shady.

Wake up, America

Needless to say, this go-around was a little different. Now, producers were interrogating me over at the Fox New Headquarters and I was having my hair and makeup done by professionals. All while watching myself in leather top and giant hoop earrings on multiple television screens, and begging God  that I could keep  my cool on national television with Glenn Beck.

That was the beginning of a raucous adventure, a whirlwind of a week between Sept 10-16 that’d make any type-A curl up in a ball and beg for mercy, and might’ve led to my insanity had I allowed myself to get caught up in the chaos it caused. But I was so absorbed in the moment and focused on getting the ACORN videos, and the truth of our story, out to the public that nothing fazed me. Plus, all the new experiences and people were extremely intriguing and I wanted to be sure and soak it all in. (more…)