9/11: Six years later

Haven't gotten to watch much news lately, especially in the last 24 or 48 hours leading up to today, and that's probably a good thing. There's virtually nothing that can happen in the realm of U.S./world news that doesn't twist itself into an exercise of Flame George Bush. Been that way for quite a while now. Sadly, the anniversary of one of our country's worst days isn't immune to the frothing, blind hatred some hold for one man.

The scary thing, for every American, is that these people now basically control one of our two major political parties. How did this happen? It's really simple. Too many of us are stumbling about in a fog of ignorance fashioned by a laziness or unwillingness to become educated to the truth.

In short, we've succumbed to the constant drumbeat of the kook wing of the Democrat Party. These socialist lunatics have shrieked and spewed their vile filth every day for more than six years. The leading Lib politicians, beholden to these nutcases, have taken their misrepresentation of facts in front of cameras every day for six-plus years, and the mainstream media has been more than willing to let them say whatever they want, about anything they want, whenever they want without challenging even the most blatant bullshit.

And too many of us have succumbed. I see it everywhere I go. The uneducated have been thumped so hard for so long with this crap that they do little more than nod in agreement. Can we all say "brainwashed"?

I didn't know what I was going to blog on the sixth anniversary of 9/11 ... or IF I was going to blog. But I've been spending some time on a forum on a different Web site recently, and someone yesterday started a thread remembering Sept. 11, 2001 ... a where were you? kind of thing. It slowly disintegrated from people describing their mornings six years ago into a Bash Bushfest. And it's really pretty nauseating to see how many people can be so utterly ignorant. I'm not talking about the drummer, either. I understand that those people ... the moveon.org'ers and their kin ... have cashed in their chips at the table of reality. It's the people who've surrendered to the mantra of the madness who really get my shorts in a bind.

To wit: The first diversion from the path of rationality on this forum thread was the oldest form of Bush Bashing: He stole the 2000 election. I suggested this person educate herself before making such an ignorant assertion. No reply. Then someone else jumped overboard. And another. Before long, there was a virtual choir made up mostly of Nodders who couldn't offer a retort.

Quick! Who won Florida originally (and I'm not talking CBS exit polls)? Anyone? OK, what specifically did the Supreme Court ... the left-leaning Supreme Court, I should point out ... rule after all was said and done? Any clue at all? Or have we forgotten? Apparently a good number of us have (if we bothered to pay attention in the first place), because otherwise, we'd point out to these wackjob Libs that facts show who attempted to steal the election. And his name wasn't George Bush.

And if those facts aren't enough for anyone, I'll point them to a series of stories a month or so later in the New York Times, the most liberal newspaper in the history of journalism, which concluded that no amount of recounting would have resulted in an Al Gore victory.

But we've been beaten down for so long with the Bush Stole The Election bullshit that many of us accept that as fact. And a good number of us do so because we're too freakin' lazy to find the truth.

Of course, this forum thread soon made its way to Iraq. It's always Iraq. I'm waiting to read, any day now, how the recent housing market crisis wouldn't be happening if we weren't in Iraq. All it takes, after all, is one Lib to say it, and it becomes the day's news.

Anyway, this subject branches off in so many misguided directions now, it's laughable. The War For Oil seemed to be the most popular in this case, though. That and the Bush Lied; Iraq Had Nothing To Do With 9/11 crap.

Where's the oil then and why are we paying up to $3 a gallon for gas if we went to war to steal Iraq's oil? Oh, wait, I know! Bush is hiding it all under the White House. Yeah! That's it!

Wonder what he's gonna do with it when he leaves office?

And someone, please, anyone ... produce for me one quote, one transcript ... ANYTHING! ... that shows any member of the Bush administration said the reason we went into Iraq had anything directly to do with 9/11. That claim isn't a simple twisting of the truth. It's a complete fabrication.

But the Sheep simply went "baaaaah."

The coup de grace, though, was still to come: 9/11 Was An Inside Job. I guess every lardass fruitcake filmaker has his share of fanatic followers. It's to be expected. And these nutcases, of course, cling to theories hatched by equally disturbed individuals.

I'd be willing to bet, in fact, that there are people who could pick apart virtually any event in the history of the world and concoct a conspiracy based on one- or two-pronged conjecture, all the while ignoring a torrent of contradictory data. Hell, the media makes that practice part of its daily routine.

Those people, I simply try to avoid, because there's something fundamentally wrong with their wiring to begin with.

But it's the Nodders, the Sheep ...

I just really don't understand how so many people can live in their uneducated worlds ... blinded by ignorance, indifference or whatever the hell it is.

I'm not sure I could be any more disappointed or any more afraid of what that means to our future.

And it's for that I grieve most on this sixth anniversary of a day which, I fear, eventually will pale in comparison of what's to come simply because we couldn't take the time to open our eyes and see it.

(Imported from Sept. 11, 2007)

Path to another 9/11?

Path To 9/11 gets four stars but probably not for the reason most who know me think. This is something everyone should watch (it still can be viewed free on ABC's Web site), not once but as often as needed to keep fresh in mind that there are fanatical people in this world who are committed to one thing and one thing only.

It's too bad so many remain mired in political agendas, finger-pointing and outright nutball conspiracy mindsets -- or worse, the uninformed state of denial in which none of this is real. That serves one purpose: to distract attention from what every American, every person on this earth who values his or her own life, needs to focus upon.

This movie/docudrama/whatever offered a stark reminder of one very sobering fact. In any life and death struggle (i.e. war), the side that is most committed to its cause wins. These fanatical freaks with their twisted version of Islam are more than willing to die for their purpose. Can more than a fraction in this country say the same?

Hell no, they can't. We're more concerned with doing what's "right" ... we can't listen to the enemy's phone calls, trace their bank records, look in laptops or address books or even use means far short of what common sense should tell anyone is actually extreme in questioning those who are captured. We've spent billions upon billions on intelligence-gathering methods, training that ensures we have the most capable people in place to do a job and the equipment to do that job, yet we tie their hands at every turn.

If Team A and Team B line up to play a football game, and Team A is given a strict set of rules while Team B is allowed to do whatever it pleases, who wins? Well, Team B isn't playing by any rules in this case while Team A does little more than bicker in the huddle.

That we have not endured another episode on the level of 9/11 is part testimony to the hard work that's going on behind the scenes (and I mean WAY behind the scenes, as virtually nothing positive is reported these days) and part fluke. I say fluke, because the circumstances by which America was hamstrung before 9/11 largely remain in place -- we are shrouded in an environment of CYA because there's just too damn much concern with rules that rightly (in most cases, anyway) govern a civilized society day by day but should not have a thing to do with fighting a war.

Path To 9/11 didn't make me despise Bill Clinton's administration any more than I already did. It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

But it reminded me that we're at war with a global enemy whose intent is to kill as many of us as possible by using any means available. We're not going to talk them down. So we damn sure better get in the game.

(Imported from Sept. 12, 2006)