A Gay Muslim Surreptitiously Films His Own Hajj March 26, 2015 But first, in response to yesterday’s post: Bob: “Really? Hillary, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Elizabeth Warren — if they are president and we are attacked … God help us all. We can only hope that the remaining 98% of the voting population that is not uber-liberal will do the right thing.” ☞ This strikes me as unconvincing. You couldn’t have had any less liberal guys in the White House than George W. Bush and Dick Cheney — willing, even, to torture. Yet they first failed — badly — to prevent the attack . . . and then, after 15 Saudis leveled the World Trade Center and wounded the Pentagon, they invaded . . . Iraq — and failed to kill Bin Laden. I don’t doubt they meant well; it just turned out disastrously. So many lives wrecked. So many tax dollars wasted that could have gone to strengthen our country. But wait! Guess under which president Bin Laden was killed? And under which President far fewer American lives have been lost? Barack Obama! Nor is President Obama a liberal fluke. Most people think of FDR as the original liberal — but an effective commander in chief (remember World War II?). Left-leaning Harry Truman dropped two atom bombs. John Kennedy, a Harvard liberal, faced down Khruschchev and got the missiles removed from Cuba. So, Bob, as much as one might admire the reckless bravery of a John McCain, or the boundless self-confidence of a Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or George W. Bush, I wouldn’t leap to the conclusion that a liberal — who champions the interests of those in or striving to enter the middle class (and, yes, even the downtrodden) — would be a push-over if we were ever again attacked. Thoughtful, perhaps. Wise, perhaps. Cagey or nuanced or far-sighted, perhaps. But not necessarily weak. A SINNER IN MECCA Parvez Sharma — a gay Muslim — risked his life making his second documentary. (The first, “A Jihad for Love,” won awards and has been screened everywhere from the U.S. State Department and film festivals in the West to the darkened rooms of Muslims in countries where the consequences, if discovered, could be dire.) It premiers at the HotDocs festival later next month. Read the story here. Wow.