Thursday, September 11, 2008

Seven

UPDATE: below

My usual September 11th posts take about ten days to ponder, and three or four to write. I didn't prepare this year, and so didn't plan any post. That changed last night.

We went out for dessert, and the waiter saw my book. He slowly and carefully pronounced each word of the title--War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism, by Douglas J. Feith. Then:
You know, I think it never happened. I think your government invented it. I mean, the Pentagon. . . there wasn't a plane. No plane was ever found. I saw it in a movie. That's what I think.
Me:
I think you're a crazy idiot. I know that movie, and it's bull. I had two friends aboard that plane. Tell me--if there wasn't a plane, and it wasn't crashed into the Pentagon, then where have Karen and Barbara been for the past seven years?
Waiter:
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you knew people on the plane.
Me:
No, you didn't. Now you do.
I doubt I changed his mind. Rather, I suspect the only consequence was an almost instant migraine--mine. I get them, especially when stressed or angry.

Were I in Washington, I would wear the commemorative ribbon my firm distributes annually in Karen's memory. I might have returned to the church that plays Karen's favorite hymn on September 11th. I could call old friends from past Republican campaigns and swap Barbara stories. And I could chat with the military-minded about heroes who saved lives, but died themselves.

They, and many others, were murdered seven years ago today. Rest in Peace.

Lots of Americans were more directly affected. I thought I was over it. One waiter and one migraine says I'm not.

MORE:

Ted tells Barbara stories (from late 2001)

MORE & MORE:

LawHawk remembers.

MORE3:

XKCD explains why I'm less of a movie fan these days:


source: XKCD

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Carl:

A little late for prayers for you friend, but I find it difficult to believe that, confronted with a person with express knowledge of it, manage to convince themselves that it was all a fake. They may just change their flavor of conspiracy theory to "Bush or Israel sponsored it" but I don't think that's the kind of thing that allows someone to continue believing (even with the lefty preference for feelings over facts) that it did not really happen.

I'll spill a little liquor for your friend's memory.

;-P

OBloodyHell said...

P.S., interesting BS of the day:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1046636620080911

According to Newsmap, as of 3:30am EDT, there are no less than 3150 related articles to this.

Looking back, this is THE big news story of the day, as far as the number of articles being carried about it, and most of them appear to have this "Oh, no, Danger, Will Robinson, Danger, Danger, DANGERRRRRRR!" tone.

All of a sudden, there's a new doomsday in town.

P.S. for those of you who are unaware, there were doomsayers saying that the first atomic bomb was going to "ignite the atmosphere" (how? who knows?) and destroy the planet. Doomsday scenarios in physics are nothing new.

MaxedOutMama said...

I'm sorry, Carl, really sorry. It's one thing to lose friends like that, and it's another thing to face someone who believes the casualties are myths.

"Callous" doesn't quite cover it. But that is leftist lunacy all the way through.

MaxedOutMama said...

If it makes you feel any better, I would have just stood up and slapped the guy. No migraine, but a nice stay in a foreign jail. I hope the migraine doesn't last as long as the jail term.

@nooil4pacifists said...

OBH & M_O_M:

Thank you. Feeling better today.

OBloodyHell said...

> I'm sorry, Carl, really sorry. It's one thing to lose friends like that, and it's another thing to face someone who believes the casualties are myths.

Well, that's possibly being unfair to the guy.

He's an idiot, yeah, but it may just be environmental, over there, more than pure flat-out stupidity. I haven't seen the movie he's talking about, so I can't see if it is truly obviously excrement on a level not requiring an understanding of physics above that of the average bozo -- who, let's face it, thinks of an electron, if they think at all about it, as something about the size of a rosary bead.

And as far as the callousness of it, that's more for the film-makers than him... THEY knew the film they were making was propaganda crap... HE had no reason to assume he was actually speaking to anyone who had a personal loss in the event.

In short, cut him some slack, after you get over the aggravation that there are people misleading people like him about the events. He might not be struggling against his chains, but he might not be a completely willing participant in the lies and BS, either.

Reread Tribes. He's one of the sheep. It does no good to rail against sheep behavior. It's just the way things are. You might as well rail against the continued orbiting of the moon. Sigh, and slog on.

Pessimistic Optimism:
Pessimist by policy, optimist by temperament- - it is possible to be both.
How? by never taking an unnecessary chance and by minimizing risks you can't avoid.
This permits you to play out the game happily, untroubled by the certainty of the outcome.

- Lazarus Long(R. A. Heinlein) -

;-)

Anonymous said...

I don't know how one deals with insanity caused by Islamic religious brainwashing, but we had better figure it out because there is a whole lot of that happening right now. These Islamic slaves want to destroy our freedom and civilization and have us join their Koran-inspired insanity.

And what are we doing to stop Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic maniacs from killing us and freedom?

OBloodyHell said...

> And what are we doing to stop Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic maniacs from killing us and freedom?

Iraq is an important step. By producing an Islamic state where rationalism prevails, it will show people that it's not the Big Bad Satan keeping them down, nor is it the Eeevil Jews, but their own ideologies.

Iraq allows them to adapt their ideologies to fit in sufficiently with the West that it may not come to "Us or Them". Because I know who wins that one -- China.

Next step is Iran. Neutralizing Iran as a threat, to Israel, to the US, and to the world, is going to be The Next Big Thing, probably, subject to events in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Note that I'm not saying war with Iran -- I'm saying that resolving the issues there is going to be rather challenging, one way or another. And a diplomacy backed by both Soft Power and the option for Hard Power is a large part of it. That italicized part makes it damned clear who needs to be running the country for the next 8 years, mind you.

OBloodyHell said...

BTW, in response to the mindless stupidity and sudden concern over the LHC (the OT subject of the second comment), CERN's people have unofficially produced:

The Large Hadron Rap

Amusing and cute. Worth the click.

:o)

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