[goldstategop]

Deliverance is a great man vs nature survival classic. The 1972 film though offers no lessons on how to fight jihadism. Nature will never overrun us completely. In contrast, the pathology of Islamofascism has the potential of killing millions given its global reach. As Mark Steyn notes, a Hollywood movie made in 1972 doesn't tell us how to respond to threats pace 2007. Its a different world now.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[samtheman]

As usual, another great piece from MS. As usual, the people who could learn the most from it -- all those "big brains" in the drive-by media -- will never read it, and will look down on it without having read it, and feel vastly superior to it without having considered for even one second any of it's beautifully stated and tightly linked ideas.

And after it was all over, after I got to the end of the piece, I noticed this tacked on by the OC Register:

From the editor: Many of you have expressed concerns about some of the harsh anonymous comments from readers. To remedy that, we are introducing new features. You can create your own blog, publish your news and share your photos with the community. Once you fill out a simple form and leave a verifiable e-mail address, you can set up your profile page. It will display all of your contributions and allow you to track issues and easily connect with others.

How much simpler for them -- and how much more educational for their readers -- if they had just included a link to FR.

[Kozak]

What a great country! In how many other political cultures can a fellow identify himself with a stump-toothed inbred psycho hillbilly homosexual rapist as an applause line?

Best Line Ever.

[Nasty McPhilthy]

I saw a bumper sticker in Hendersonville, NC the other day that read- “Paddle Faster. I Hear Banjos Playing”.

[usmcobra]

All I know is America will be Ned Beatty if Islam-o-fascists have there way with us.

[livius]

Christopher Dickey paints with a broad brush: "On a grand scale they [the administration] could reinterpret the Constitution until it became meaningless." (Monitoring jihadist phone logs being the reinterpretation into meaninglessness, unlike, say, partial-birth abortion, which is merely an ancient constitutional right the founders had cannily anticipated a need for.)

Good article! The left thrives on a delusional paranoia about all the wrong things. There's a lot to paranoid about (namely, the billion or so Muslims out there!), but they prefer to scare themselves with Dick Cheney masks.

[Bommer]

If Cheney is Burt Reynolds, and the rest of America is Jon Voight, and the river is Iraq, who are the hillbillies?

Thats easy! They are liberals. Always looking to F the US up the @ss. Now replace the bow and arrow that Burt Reynolds killed one of the hillbillies with and replace it with a gun, and you got Cheney!

[Mercat]

“it’s the difference between hanging upside down in your dominatrix’s bondage parlor after work on Friday and enduring the real thing for years on end in Saddam’s prisons.”

Sounds like Mark has personal experience of this and assumes his readers do too. Too bad it’s too long for a tag line.

[Lucas McCain]

“James Carville looks like he was sired in the love scene from Deliverance.” —unknown.

[weegee]

The book and the film were written by the same author.

I must’ve missed something here, did the author recently go on record to try to draw comparisons between the book/film and the Iraq (or even Vietnam) war?

Or did his son recently do this?

It is a rape and revenge story as were common at the drive-in in those days. The rape occurs and the perps are hunted down one by one and killed. In some instances the blowback even takes out those standing in the way of that task (for example 1970s Thriller/aka They Call Her One Eye).

The Burt Reynolds character isn’t battling nature, it is man against man. He is singular in his objective.

[sinanju]

Dickey Jr.’s “Deliverance” metaphor in Newsweek goes beyond reaching. “Deliverance” wasn’t remotely a war movie.

[johnny7]

If Cheney is Burt Reynolds, and the rest of America is Jon Voight...

Europe is Ned Beatty?