My Remembrance of September 11, 2001 [Revisited]

The following is my annual repost of my personal remembrance of September 11, 2001, with slight revisions and additions. . .

Today is the day when we look at the calendar, and nearly flinch. September 11, 2001 is distant to us in many ways, but now--amazingly--for the 15th time, we've all looked at that calendar page and have been taken back to where we were that morning.

I'm republishing my personal account of what happened to me that day, written in the early days of my blog. My story is no more special than yours, I know. But on a day when the date is sure to be used by many for political purposes, I wanted to have one post up that just remembers the day.

Photo of United Airlines Las Vegas-based Flight Attendants'
memorial service at Sunset Park, September 2001
(Originally published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal)*

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 11, 2007

Posts I've made today, and earlier in this blog's short history, have discussed or are related to 9/11. I'd rather not let the day go by without giving you the reader--and me the blogger--a little more, minus the political rhetoric.

I've become a deeply cynical person, you might say, at least as it regards politics. This is particularly true lately. But on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 I wasn't thinking about any of that. Everyone who witnessed that day has their own story. Mine is no more relevant than yours, and is surely less traumatic than many.

I awoke that morning at my usual time, somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45 am. I had finished my morning ritual, and was just buttoning up my clothes when the phone rang. It was our friend, Larry, an American Airlines flight attendant, and he was crying. "Two planes have just hit the World Trade Center," he managed between sobs. This was startling news, but not yet sufficiently alarming for me to change my routine.

I passed the phone to The Other Half, and turned on the bedroom TV. There it was, and the slight alarm turned to a sinking feeling. This was big. We quickly learned that it was both United's and American Airlines' planes that hit the buildings, causing high alarm in the room, and on the other end of the phone. The Other Half, and our next-door neighbor/friend, were [and still are] both United flight attendants. And the neighbor was on a trip at an unknown location. My heart sank, and I nearly sobbed myself--with relief--that my partner was right there in the room with me, accounted for.

Not fully realizing the impact of what had happened, I began my journey to work. I switched on the radio, and was very shortly informed that the Pentagon was on fire. They did not yet know the cause. When I pulled into the parking lot at work, the radio announcer said that a plane was believed to have crashed in Pennsylvania. There was an erroneous report about an explosion somewhere else (maybe the White House?).  I said out loud, "the sky is falling." I fully expected at that point that a wave of attacks would continue throughout the morning. Thankfully, that did not come to pass.

Shortly after my arrival at work, The Other Half called, and told me one of the towers had fallen. Not long after, we heard the same about the other. We imagined the worst, that the buildings had fallen over, smashing all below. Thankfully, again, as bad as it was, it could have been worse.

We didn't get much work done that day. Someone went home and got a TV, and we spent much of our time in front of that fuzzy little picture. Later that day, we found that most of our friends, and their colleagues were accounted for. Our neighbor was stranded in New Orleans for over a week. We had quite the celebration upon his return.

The following days were surreal. I'd never seen Las Vegas without planes in the sky, and believe me, you notice. We watched hours upon hours of TV News, of course, like everyone else. And the casinos around town knee-jerk fired lots of people. We feared for our town.

Several days later, The Other Half went to a memorial service at Sunset Park, due east of McCarran Airport, with the Las Vegas United Airlines base crew. During the service, the first plane in days landed, flying right over the park. There was a swelling of spontaneous applause, as you'd imagine.

We were very lucky. We knew people who had friends-of-friends-of-friends who died that day, but fortunately (for our little world), were spared personal losses. One friend was quite well acquainted with one of the [United 93] pilots, and we had his wife to our house, but that was the extent of our direct contact. United, of course, had a very rocky ride of it, as did American. Many of the flight attendants left town, or left aviation. Las Vegas, predictably bounced back.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008:

Las Vegas isn't feeling very bouncy this September 11th. Tourism is down, layoffs are widespread, hours (mine included) have been cut at many jobs. United Airlines and American Airlines are seemingly always under threat of going out of business. The neighbor moved to Florida not long after September 11th. The Other Half and I were married this year, and are doing well despite job worries. Whatever happens on November fourth, I think it will bookend 9/11/2001, and hopefully all of this will seem like a bygone era.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009:

Things in Las Vegas haven't perked up much in the last year. We have, of course, moved from the Bush Era on into the Obama Era. It remains to be seen how that will play out. I'm not a lock-step liberal by any stretch, but I'm willing to give the President time and space.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010:

Still waiting for the economy to pick up in Las Vegas, personally and city-wide. We lead the pack for foreclosures, unemployment and several other "worst of" lists. We did place first in a "best roads" in the US story, so that's something. All of these woes are put at the feet of: a) Barack Obama, if you are a partisan conservative, b) George W. Bush, if you're a partisan liberal, c) Harry Reid, if you're Sharron Angle, or d) the snowball effect of many factors, with blame to be shared by both political parties. I'm going with the last one. But I do have to wonder what the state of the economy and the United States in general might have been like if that clear blue skied Tuesday in September 2001 had been just an ordinary day.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011: 

Wow, 10 years. There are parts of that day that seem eerily recent. And then you remember everything that has happened since. Our two (main) wars--started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11--are still going on in one form or other. The economy noted in the updates above, hasn't improved much. Las Vegas is hanging in there, but a bit beaten and battered. And as I noted in 2010, this economic pickle might have been a bit different were it not for that one day. Maybe we still would have had a housing bubble, maybe the bankers and corporate fat cats would've still been crooks. But the whole deficit/debt sideshow might've been in  much, much better shape. Ugh. I wish things were a bit rosier for the 10-year anniversary of that rotten day. Maybe the 20? Or dare I wish it, the 11th or 12th?

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012:

In my yearly updates, I see I've gotten away from "not being political." Sorry about that, but what can you do? Everything is political these days. In 2012, our household actually is better off than we were four years ago, with everything except housing values looking up. Everyone is looking toward November's election, but very little has been made this year about 9/11, other than that this year is the first (oops) second time it's happened on a Tuesday since that fateful day. Though American Airlines is in bankruptcy this year, but United seems to be doing well with its Continental merger. In good news, the Iraq War is over. Still don't know what that had to do with 9/11. And sadly, Captain Dahl's widow died this year, oddly enough at the house of a friend of ours. So, at eleven years and counting, it's kind of a mixed bag. Here's to the day when we have to think about it to remember how many years it's been.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013:

President Obama spoke last night, on the matter of what to do about Syria. The proximity to September 11, and our botched response to it weighs heavy over the whole thing. Then again, it also informs us about overheated, foolish reactions. Also, we have to keep in mind that last year, we were attacked in Benghazi,. Hopefully this year's anniversary will go by without anything like that. This year makes a dozen years, which means we're getting well into a time where high school kids probably don't remember much about the day as it happened. Their entire worldviews are of the "post-9/11" variety.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014:

Again, President Obama spoke last night on the matter of what to do about ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria. We're not able to get out of that region it would seem, even 13 years later. And think about this: every school-aged child, and most college freshmen have spent their entire academic careers in  "post-9/11" world.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Since last year, The Other Half (who has since left United) and I have moved across the country. This is something we'd have been unable to afford to do at any other point in these updates. Which says that there has been economic improvement, at least in our household. The stock market has been rather shaky in recent weeks, but after an extended upswing, that seems inevitable. We're most of the way through the "Obama Era" now, and despite the FOX "News" doom and gloom, we seem to be better off in most ways.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Here we sit, on the 15th anniversary, with the added worry: if something happened today, how would it affect the election? Conventional wisdom says--though it's counter-intuitive--that an attack would favor Donald Trump. I have no idea why people would react that way, but it seems to be the general consensus. If find that worry almost as troublesome as the worry of an actual attack. I really think that Trump as president would be a calamity, a terrifying situation, one that puts us in danger of other attacks. So, I sit here in the Eastern time zone hoping that we slide into afternoon with no events. And then through the day. Fingers crossed. And toes, and other parts. . .

* Full disclosure: photo contains an image of my husband, our friends and his co-workers.

My Remembrance of September 11, 2001 [Revisited]

The following is my annual repost of my personal remembrance of September 11, 2001, with slight revisions and additions. . .

Today is the day when we look at the calendar, and nearly flinch. September 11, 2001 is distant to us in many ways, but now--amazingly--for the 14th time, we've all looked at that calendar page and have been taken back to where we were that morning.

I'm republishing my personal account of what happened to me that day, written in the early days of my blog. My story is no more special than yours, I know. But on a day when the date is sure to be used by many for political purposes, I wanted to have one post up that just remembers the day.

Photo of United Airlines Las Vegas-based Flight Attendants'
memorial service at Sunset Park, September 2001
(Originally published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal)*

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 11, 2007

Posts I've made today, and earlier in this blog's short history, have discussed or are related to 9/11. I'd rather not let the day go by without giving you the reader--and me the blogger--a little more, minus the political rhetoric.

I've become a deeply cynical person, you might say, at least as it regards politics. This is particularly true lately. But on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 I wasn't thinking about any of that. Everyone who witnessed that day has their own story. Mine is no more relevant than yours, and is surely less traumatic than many.

I awoke that morning at my usual time, somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45 am. I had finished my morning ritual, and was just buttoning up my clothes when the phone rang. It was our friend, Larry, an American Airlines flight attendant, and he was crying. "Two planes have just hit the World Trade Center," he managed between sobs. This was startling news, but not yet sufficiently alarming for me to change my routine.

I passed the phone to The Other Half, and turned on the bedroom TV. There it was, and the slight alarm turned to a sinking feeling. This was big. We quickly learned that it was both United's and American Airlines' planes that hit the buildings, causing high alarm in the room, and on the other end of the phone. The Other Half, and our next-door neighbor/friend, were [and still are] both United flight attendants. And the neighbor was on a trip at an unknown location. My heart sank, and I nearly sobbed myself--with relief--that my partner was right there in the room with me, accounted for.

Not fully realizing the impact of what had happened, I began my journey to work. I switched on the radio, and was very shortly informed that the Pentagon was on fire. They did not yet know the cause. When I pulled into the parking lot at work, the radio announcer said that a plane was believed to have crashed in Pennsylvania. There was an erroneous report about an explosion somewhere else (maybe the White House?).  I said out loud, "the sky is falling." I fully expected at that point that a wave of attacks would continue throughout the morning. Thankfully, that did not come to pass.

Shortly after my arrival at work, The Other Half called, and told me one of the towers had fallen. Not long after, we heard the same about the other. We imagined the worst, that the buildings had fallen over, smashing all below. Thankfully, again, as bad as it was, it could have been worse.

We didn't get much work done that day. Someone went home and got a TV, and we spent much of our time in front of that fuzzy little picture. Later that day, we found that most of our friends, and their colleagues were accounted for. Our neighbor was stranded in New Orleans for over a week. We had quite the celebration upon his return.

The following days were surreal. I'd never seen Las Vegas without planes in the sky, and believe me, you notice. We watched hours upon hours of TV News, of course, like everyone else. And the casinos around town knee-jerk fired lots of people. We feared for our town.

Several days later, The Other Half went to a memorial service at Sunset Park, due east of McCarran Airport, with the Las Vegas United Airlines base crew. During the service, the first plane in days landed, flying right over the park. There was a swelling of spontaneous applause, as you'd imagine.

We were very lucky. We knew people who had friends-of-friends-of-friends who died that day, but fortunately (for our little world), were spared personal losses. One friend was quite well acquainted with one of the [United 93] pilots, and we had his wife to our house, but that was the extent of our direct contact. United, of course, had a very rocky ride of it, as did American. Many of the flight attendants left town, or left aviation. Las Vegas, predictably bounced back.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008:

Las Vegas isn't feeling very bouncy this September 11th. Tourism is down, layoffs are widespread, hours (mine included) have been cut at many jobs. United Airlines and American Airlines are seemingly always under threat of going out of business. The neighbor moved to Florida not long after September 11th. The Other Half and I were married this year, and are doing well despite job worries. Whatever happens on November fourth, I think it will bookend 9/11/2001, and hopefully all of this will seem like a bygone era.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009:

 

Things in Las Vegas haven't perked up much in the last year. We have, of course, moved from the Bush Era on into the Obama Era. It remains to be seen how that will play out. I'm not a lock-step liberal by any stretch, but I'm willing to give the President time and space.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010:

Still waiting for the economy to pick up in Las Vegas, personally and city-wide. We lead the pack for foreclosures, unemployment and several other "worst of" lists. We did place first in a "best roads" in the US story, so that's something. All of these woes are put at the feet of: a) Barack Obama, if you are a partisan conservative, b) George W. Bush, if you're a partisan liberal, c) Harry Reid, if you're Sharron Angle, or d) the snowball effect of many factors, with blame to be shared by both political parties. I'm going with the last one. But I do have to wonder what the state of the economy and the United States in general might have been like if that clear blue skied Tuesday in September 2001 had been just an ordinary day.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011: 

 

Wow, 10 years. There are parts of that day that seem eerily recent. And then you remember everything that has happened since. Our two (main) wars--started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11--are still going on in one form or other. The economy noted in the updates above, hasn't improved much. Las Vegas is hanging in there, but a bit beaten and battered. And as I noted in 2010, this economic pickle might have been a bit different were it not for that one day. Maybe we still would have had a housing bubble, maybe the bankers and corporate fat cats would've still been crooks. But the whole deficit/debt sideshow might've been in  much, much better shape. Ugh. I wish things were a bit rosier for the 10-year anniversary of that rotten day. Maybe the 20? Or dare I wish it, the 11th or 12th?

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012:

In my yearly updates, I see I've gotten away from "not being political." Sorry about that, but what can you do? Everything is political these days. In 2012, our household actually is better off than we were four years ago, with everything except housing values looking up. Everyone is looking toward November's election, but very little has been made this year about 9/11, other than that this year is the first (oops) second time it's happened on a Tuesday since that fateful day. Though American Airlines is in bankruptcy this year, but United seems to be doing well with its Continental merger. In good news, the Iraq War is over. Still don't know what that had to do with 9/11. And sadly, Captain Dahl's widow died this year, oddly enough at the house of a friend of ours. So, at eleven years and counting, it's kind of a mixed bag. Here's to the day when we have to think about it to remember how many years it's been.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013:

President Obama spoke last night, on the matter of what to do about Syria. The proximity to September 11, and our botched response to it weighs heavy over the whole thing. Then again, it also informs us about overheated, foolish reactions. Also, we have to keep in mind that last year, we were attacked in Benghazi,. Hopefully this year's anniversary will go by without anything like that. This year makes a dozen years, which means we're getting well into a time where high school kids probably don't remember much about the day as it happened. Their entire worldviews are of the "post-9/11" variety.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014:

Again, President Obama spoke last night on the matter of what to do about ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria. We're not able to get out of that region it would seem, even 13 years later. And think about this: every school-aged child, and most college freshmen have spent their entire academic careers in  "post-9/11" world.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Since last year, The Other Half (who has since left United) and I have moved across the country. This is something we'd have been unable to afford to do at any other point in these updates. Which says that there has been economic improvement, at least in our household. The stock market has been rather shaky in recent weeks, but after an extended upswing, that seems inevitable. We're most of the way through the "Obama Era" now, and despite the FOX "News" doom and gloom, we seem to be better off in most ways.

* Full disclosure: photo contains an image of my husband, our friends and his co-workers.

Should President Obama Pardon Bush/Cheney for War Crimes?

Image found at TrueActivist

Every so often, in politics, there is a really interesting play on the table. Something you didn't expect. Something that may accomplish part of a long-held goal, but possibly in a roundabout way. That's happening right now, though the odds are long that it would ever happen.

Just about everybody agrees that the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney administration authorized "enhanced interrogation techniques" in the years following September 11, 2001, and that they were. . .extra-legal. Most people agree that these techniques went over the line, and I'd be willing to guess that a majority consider them outright torture. Where a partisan divide appears is in whether or not we care that we tortured people.

One could argue that a patriot should care. The United States of America is not supposed to commit war crimes with impunity, torture with no oversight, or imprison without due process. Especially at times when we're burning for vengeance, or just plain scared. Those are the times when our laws, our treaties, our moral compasses, our humanity and our Constitution need to be vigorously defended and adhered to. If not, exactly what are we defending?

Image from the (hopefully ironically titled)
WeMeantWell.com

So, while we quibble about how much over the line GWB & Co. went, we know they crossed it. Many of us think of them as outright war criminals. But we're also aware that--even though the other side can impeach a sitting president for lying about a trifle--there is no political stomach for trying and convicting any of those involved for said crimes. Which gives zero incentive for future presidents to follow even the most serious of laws. And the clock is running. Can we really expect the next president, or the next, to act on something so far in the rear view?

And act how? No way there's a trial or trials. It's just not going to happen. But someone has come up with a novel solution: Have President Obama pardon them all. It's a radical solution. It lets everyone off the hook. There might even be international blowback just for that. But it also brands them all as war criminals. Exonerated, but criminals, nonetheless. It's an asterisk that will be in every history book. And it would potentially act as a deterrent from a future president from crossing that line. Every person who wants to be president has an outsized ego. They do not want to be branded a war criminal, no matter how power-hungry they are.

All of that said, I think there's close to a zero chance that Obama would do it. I think personally, he'd love to. But I'm not sure the political will of the party apparatus is even there for that. Which is a pity. But think about this: should the GOP follow through with their "Operation: Kill Obama's Legacy" plan in the next two years, this could be in his back pocket.

[Excerpt]
 

Maddow: Pardon Bush for Torture To "Make It Clear Crimes Were Committed"



RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC: Tonight, the head of the national ACLU has just published this op-ed in the New York Times. It calls for President Obama to issue a pardon to former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials for overseeing torture as the U.S. policy for years. . .

Read more at: Real Clear Politics

My Remembrance of September 11, 2001 [Revisited]

The following is my annual repost of my personal remembrance of September 11, 2001, with slight revisions and additions. . .

Today is the day when we look at the calendar, and nearly flinch. September 11, 2001 is distant to us in many ways, but now--amazingly--for the 13th time, we've all looked at that calendar page and have been taken back to where we were that morning.

I'm republishing my personal account of what happened to me that day, written in the early days of my blog. My story is no more special than yours, I know. But on a day when the date is sure to be used by many for political purposes, I wanted to have one post up that just remembers the day.

Photo of United Airlines Las Vegas-based Flight Attendants'
memorial service at Sunset Park, September 2001
(Originally published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal)*

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 11, 2007

Posts I've made today, and earlier in this blog's short history, have discussed or are related to 9/11. I'd rather not let the day go by without giving you the reader--and me the blogger--a little more, minus the political rhetoric.

I've become a deeply cynical person, you might say, at least as it regards politics. This is particularly true lately. But on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 I wasn't thinking about any of that. Everyone who witnessed that day has their own story. Mine is no more relevant than yours, and is surely less traumatic than many.

I awoke that morning at my usual time, somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45 am. I had finished my morning ritual, and was just buttoning up my clothes when the phone rang. It was our friend, Larry, an American Airlines flight attendant, and he was crying. "Two planes have just hit the World Trade Center," he managed between sobs. This was startling news, but not yet sufficiently alarming for me to change my routine.

I passed the phone to The Other Half, and turned on the bedroom TV. There it was, and the slight alarm turned to a sinking feeling. This was big. We quickly learned that it was both United's and American Airlines' planes that hit the buildings, causing high alarm in the room, and on the other end of the phone. The Other Half, and our next-door neighbor/friend, were [and still are] both United flight attendants. And the neighbor was on a trip at an unknown location. My heart sank, and I nearly sobbed myself--with relief--that my partner was right there in the room with me, accounted for.

Not fully realizing the impact of what had happened, I began my journey to work. I switched on the radio, and was very shortly informed that the Pentagon was on fire. They did not yet know the cause. When I pulled into the parking lot at work, the radio announcer said that a plane was believed to have crashed in Pennsylvania. There was an erroneous report about an explosion somewhere else (maybe the White House?).  I said out loud, "the sky is falling." I fully expected at that point that a wave of attacks would continue throughout the morning. Thankfully, that did not come to pass.

Shortly after my arrival at work, The Other Half called, and told me one of the towers had fallen. Not long after, we heard the same about the other. We imagined the worst, that the buildings had fallen over, smashing all below. Thankfully, again, as bad as it was, it could have been worse.

We didn't get much work done that day. Someone went home and got a TV, and we spent much of our time in front of that fuzzy little picture. Later that day, we found that most of our friends, and their colleagues were accounted for. Our neighbor was stranded in New Orleans for over a week. We had quite the celebration upon his return.

The following days were surreal. I'd never seen Las Vegas without planes in the sky, and believe me, you notice. We watched hours upon hours of TV News, of course, like everyone else. And the casinos around town knee-jerk fired lots of people. We feared for our town.

Several days later, The Other Half went to a memorial service at Sunset Park, due east of McCarran Airport, with the Las Vegas United Airlines base crew. During the service, the first plane in days landed, flying right over the park. There was a swelling of spontaneous applause, as you'd imagine.

We were very lucky. We knew people who had friends-of-friends-of-friends who died that day, but fortunately (for our little world), were spared personal losses. One friend was quite well acquainted with one of the [United 93] pilots, and we had his wife to our house, but that was the extent of our direct contact. United, of course, had a very rocky ride of it, as did American. Many of the flight attendants left town, or left aviation. Las Vegas, predictably bounced back.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008:

Las Vegas isn't feeling very bouncy this September 11th. Tourism is down, layoffs are widespread, hours (mine included) have been cut at many jobs. United Airlines and American Airlines are seemingly always under threat of going out of business. The neighbor moved to Florida not long after September 11th. The Other Half and I were married this year, and are doing well despite job worries. Whatever happens on November fourth, I think it will bookend 9/11/2001, and hopefully all of this will seem like a bygone era.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009:

Things in Las Vegas haven't perked up much in the last year. We have, of course, moved from the Bush Era on into the Obama Era. It remains to be seen how that will play out. I'm not a lock-step liberal by any stretch, but I'm willing to give the President time and space.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010:

Still waiting for the economy to pick up in Las Vegas, personally and city-wide. We lead the pack for foreclosures, unemployment and several other "worst of" lists. We did place first in a "best roads" in the US story, so that's something. All of these woes are put at the feet of: a) Barack Obama, if you are a partisan conservative, b) George W. Bush, if you're a partisan liberal, c) Harry Reid, if you're Sharron Angle, or d) the snowball effect of many factors, with blame to be shared by both political parties. I'm going with the last one. But I do have to wonder what the state of the economy and the United States in general might have been like if that clear blue skied Tuesday in September 2001 had been just an ordinary day.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011: 

Wow, 10 years. There are parts of that day that seem eerily recent. And then you remember everything that has happened since. Our two (main) wars--started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11--are still going on in one form or other. The economy noted in the updates above, hasn't improved much. Las Vegas is hanging in there, but a bit beaten and battered. And as I noted in 2010, this economic pickle might have been a bit different were it not for that one day. Maybe we still would have had a housing bubble, maybe the bankers and corporate fat cats would've still been crooks. But the whole deficit/debt sideshow might've been in  much, much better shape. Ugh. I wish things were a bit rosier for the 10-year anniversary of that rotten day. Maybe the 20? Or dare I wish it, the 11th or 12th?

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012:

In my yearly updates, I see I've gotten away from "not being political." Sorry about that, but what can you do? Everything is political these days. In 2012, our household actually is better off than we were four years ago, with everything except housing values looking up. Everyone is looking toward November's election, but very little has been made this year about 9/11, other than that this year is the first (oops) second time it's happened on a Tuesday since that fateful day. Though American Airlines is in bankruptcy this year, but United seems to be doing well with its Continental merger. In good news, the Iraq War is over. Still don't know what that had to do with 9/11. And sadly, Captain Dahl's widow died this year, oddly enough at the house of a friend of ours. So, at eleven years and counting, it's kind of a mixed bag. Here's to the day when we have to think about it to remember how many years it's been.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013:

President Obama spoke last night, on the matter of what to do about Syria. The proximity to September 11, and our botched response to it weighs heavy over the whole thing. Then again, it also informs us about overheated, foolish reactions. Also, we have to keep in mind that last year, we were attacked in Benghazi,. Hopefully this year's anniversary will go by without anything like that. This year makes a dozen years, which means we're getting well into a time where high school kids probably don't remember much about the day as it happened. Their entire worldviews are of the "post-9/11" variety.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014:

Again, President Obama spoke last night on the matter of what to do about ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria. We're not able to get out of that region it would seem, even 13 years later. And think about this: every school-aged child, and most college freshmen have spent their entire academic careers in  "post-9/11" world.

* Full disclosure: photo contains an image of my husband, our friends and his co-workers.

The 9/11 Museum has a Gift Shop. So?

Image from source, Think Progress

Honestly, the things people get energized about. Every museum--whether very serious, or more light-hearted--has a gift shop. Sometimes more than one. And often a café or restaurant. I can understand the museum being very cautious and careful about what they sell in the shop, but the existence of a shop at all? We have more pressing things to worry about.

[Excerpt]

Why The 9/11 Museum Has A Gift Shop

There is a gift shop at the 9/11 Museum. Like just about everything else involving the museum, the decision to include a gift shop has been fraught with controversy. The visceral dislike of a gift shop in this space is easy to understand: there’s something about it that feels tasteless at best and heartless at worst. We’re talking about a place that still houses unidentified human remains. Should this also be a place where you can buy “blossom earrings”? . . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Atheist Wants I-Beam Cross Removed from 9/11 Museum

I'm an atheist. But I'm also a realist. I know that even though we're supposed to have a separation of church and state, there are some battles that are just not going to be won, right or not. "In God We Trust" isn't coming off the money, though it doesn't belong there. "Under God" isn't coming out over the Pledge of Allegiance, even though it was only inserted there in the 50s (and how weird is a pledge of allegiance in a free country anyway?). [Story continues below]

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You do have to draw the line somewhere. There is no earthly reason that the Ten Commandments should be in front of a court of law. Religious displays really shouldn't be on display at City Hall (even with multiple other religions and context, it's still unnecessary). And the latter can even come off as a buzzkill. But every so often a grim atheist (they're always just dire) will "fight the good fight" and try to get a court to order such things unconstitutional. It works on the monuments. But the rest always throws judges into contortions worthy of Cirque du Soleil, desperately reaching to find a reason why these things don't constitute a violation.

Such it is with the "cross" at Ground Zero, the crossed I-beams found in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Christians took the cross as a sign of. . .something. Jesus, yes, I know. But what it means isn't clear. That Jesus could've stopped the attack, but didn't? That Jesus "won?" I dunno. But it's kind of like when a fanatic sees the Virgin Mary in a tomato, or Jesus in a splotch on the garage floor. It's not a cross, it's a section of the building, which are--surprise!--crossed all over the place. But it wouldn't be any kind of deal at all, except for the fact that this museum is partially federally funded.

Christians (and very likely the lawyer and/or judge) will deny that the cross is a religious symbol. Clearly, it's just a section of the building! And they'll likely win. But you know the only reason they want it at all, is because it is, or at least has become a religious symbol. The atheist in this case is correct. But he's going to lose.

 

My Remembrance of September 11, 2001 [Revisited]

The following is my annual repost of my personal remembrance of September 11, 2001, with slight revisions and additions. . .

Today is the day when we look at the calendar, and nearly flinch. September 11, 2001 is distant to us in many ways, but now--amazingly--for the 12th time, we've all looked at that calendar page and have been taken back to where we were that morning.

I'm republishing my personal account of what happened to me that day, written in the early days of my blog. My story is no more special than yours, I know. But on a day when the date is sure to be used by many for political purposes, I wanted to have one post up that just remembers the day.

Photo of United Airlines Las Vegas-based Flight Attendants'
memorial service at Sunset Park, September 2001
(Originally published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal)*

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPTEMBER 11, 2007

Posts I've made today, and earlier in this blog's short history, have discussed or are related to 9/11. I'd rather not let the day go by without giving you the reader--and me the blogger--a little more, minus the political rhetoric.

I've become a deeply cynical person, you might say, at least as it regards politics. This is particularly true lately. But on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 I wasn't thinking about any of that. Everyone who witnessed that day has their own story. Mine is no more relevant than yours, and is surely less traumatic than many.

I awoke that morning at my usual time, somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45 am. I had finished my morning ritual, and was just buttoning up my clothes when the phone rang. It was our friend, Larry, an American Airlines flight attendant, and he was crying. "Two planes have just hit the World Trade Center," he managed between sobs. This was startling news, but not yet sufficiently alarming for me to change my routine.

I passed the phone to The Other Half, and turned on the bedroom TV. There it was, and the slight alarm turned to a sinking feeling. This was big. We quickly learned that it was both United's and American Airlines' planes that hit the buildings, causing high alarm in the room, and on the other end of the phone. The Other Half, and our next-door neighbor/friend, were [and still are] both United flight attendants. And the neighbor was on a trip at an unknown location. My heart sank, and I nearly sobbed myself--with relief--that my partner was right there in the room with me, accounted for.

Not fully realizing the impact of what had happened, I began my journey to work. I switched on the radio, and was very shortly informed that the Pentagon was on fire. They did not yet know the cause. When I pulled into the parking lot at work, the radio announcer said that a plane was believed to have crashed in Pennsylvania. There was an erroneous report about an explosion somewhere else (maybe the White House?).  I said out loud, "the sky is falling." I fully expected at that point that a wave of attacks would continue throughout the morning. Thankfully, that did not come to pass.

Shortly after my arrival at work, The Other Half called, and told me one of the towers had fallen. Not long after, we heard the same about the other. We imagined the worst, that the buildings had fallen over, smashing all below. Thankfully, again, as bad as it was, it could have been worse.

We didn't get much work done that day. Someone went home and got a TV, and we spent much of our time in front of that fuzzy little picture. Later that day, we found that most of our friends, and their colleagues were accounted for. Our neighbor was stranded in New Orleans for over a week. We had quite the celebration upon his return.

The following days were surreal. I'd never seen Las Vegas without planes in the sky, and believe me, you notice. We watched hours upon hours of TV News, of course, like everyone else. And the casinos around town knee-jerk fired lots of people. We feared for our town.

Several days later, The Other Half went to a memorial service at Sunset Park, due east of McCarran Airport, with the Las Vegas United Airlines base crew. During the service, the first plane in days landed, flying right over the park. There was a swelling of spontaneous applause, as you'd imagine.

We were very lucky. We knew people who had friends-of-friends-of-friends who died that day, but fortunately (for our little world), were spared personal losses. One friend was quite well acquainted with one of the [United 93] pilots, and we had his wife to our house, but that was the extent of our direct contact. United, of course, had a very rocky ride of it, as did American. Many of the flight attendants left town, or left aviation. Las Vegas, predictably bounced back.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2008:

Las Vegas isn't feeling very bouncy this September 11th. Tourism is down, layoffs are widespread, hours (mine included) have been cut at many jobs. United Airlines and American Airlines are seemingly always under threat of going out of business. The neighbor moved to Florida not long after September 11th. The Other Half and I were married this year, and are doing well despite job worries. Whatever happens on November fourth, I think it will bookend 9/11/2001, and hopefully all of this will seem like a bygone era.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009:

Things in Las Vegas haven't perked up much in the last year. We have, of course, moved from the Bush Era on into the Obama Era. It remains to be seen how that will play out. I'm not a lock-step liberal by any stretch, but I'm willing to give the President time and space.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010:

Still waiting for the economy to pick up in Las Vegas, personally and city-wide. We lead the pack for foreclosures, unemployment and several other "worst of" lists. We did place first in a "best roads" in the US story, so that's something. All of these woes are put at the feet of: a) Barack Obama, if you are a partisan conservative, b) George W. Bush, if you're a partisan liberal, c) Harry Reid, if you're Sharron Angle, or d) the snowball effect of many factors, with blame to be shared by both political parties. I'm going with the last one. But I do have to wonder what the state of the economy and the United States in general might have been like if that clear blue skied Tuesday in September 2001 had been just an ordinary day.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2011: 

Wow, 10 years. There are parts of that day that seem eerily recent. And then you remember everything that has happened since. Our two (main) wars--started in the immediate aftermath of 9/11--are still going on in one form or other. The economy noted in the updates above, hasn't improved much. Las Vegas is hanging in there, but a bit beaten and battered. And as I noted in 2010, this economic pickle might have been a bit different were it not for that one day. Maybe we still would have had a housing bubble, maybe the bankers and corporate fat cats would've still been crooks. But the whole deficit/debt sideshow might've been in  much, much better shape. Ugh. I wish things were a bit rosier for the 10-year anniversary of that rotten day. Maybe the 20? Or dare I wish it, the 11th or 12th?

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012:

In my yearly updates, I see I've gotten away from "not being political." Sorry about that, but what can you do? Everything is political these days. In 2012, our household actually is better off than we were four years ago, with everything except housing values looking up. Everyone is looking toward November's election, but very little has been made this year about 9/11, other than that this year is the first (oops) second time it's happened on a Tuesday since that fateful day. Though American Airlines is in bankruptcy this year, but United seems to be doing well with its Continental merger. In good news, the Iraq War is over. Still don't know what that had to do with 9/11. And sadly, Captain Dahl's widow died this year, oddly enough at the house of a friend of ours. So, at eleven years and counting, it's kind of a mixed bag. Here's to the day when we have to think about it to remember how many years it's been.

UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 11, 2013:
President Obama spoke last night, on the matter of what to do about Syria. The proximity to September 11, and our botched response to it weighs heavy over the whole thing. Then again, it also informs us about overheated, foolish reactions. Also, we have to keep in mind that last year, we were attacked in Benghazi,. Hopefully this year's anniversary will go by without anything like that. This year makes a dozen years, which means we're getting well into a time where high school kids probably don't remember much about the day as it happened. Their entire worldviews are of the "post-9/11" variety.

* Full disclosure: photo contains an image of my husband, our friends and his co-workers.

Facepalm: Michele Bachmann Embarrasses Herself (And Us) One More Time

Michele Bachmann is not running for reelection to Congress in 2014. But that doesn't mean she's going to stop embarrassing herself, or the country. Just take a look at this. Marcus, come get your beard wife! She's doing that thing again!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

FOX "News" Hosts Blame America First

Image from source, NewsCorpse

September 11, 2001 is simultaneously a recent event in American history, and a very long time ago. And it is difficult to put yourself back into the mindset we had and lived with that day, and in the days, weeks, months and years that followed. While we got a little reminder this week with the events in Boston, there were marked differences.

Now, obviously, the events are not directly comparable. We don't know the motives of the two bombers, and we don't even know if they are tied to any particular movement, or if they are just a couple of assholes with their own agenda. The scale of the attack was also much smaller, and the loss of life much more restricted. But if 9/11 hadn't happened, think of how it would have hit us. But beyond the scale, there were differences in how people reacted.

C'mon, admit it. These Chicks took a lot of
undeserved shit.

After 9/11, there was no right, no left. There were no Republicans or Democrats. There may have been a few rogue contrarians, but they were in the extreme minority. Those of us who did not vote for and were no fans of Bush/Cheney held our tongues. For a long time. We may have muttered under our breath (and Bill Maher lost his job for saying something "too soon"), but the general consensus was that we were Americans first, and all else was secondary. This ultimately became opressive, as--I
think--partisan conservatives took this to be the new normal, and expected everyone to play along with their agenda from then on.

So, as people started to chafe at some of the Bush/Cheney policies, and the two wars (particularly Iraq), and many of the new perceived losses of freedom (Patriot Act, Torture, Guantanamo), dissent was met with swift and viscous condemnation. We were un-American. Unpatriotic. "Blame America firsters." People who criticized the Bush Administration were chastened for attacking America, during wartime. The Dixie Chicks weathered a wholly out-of-scale attack by conservatives after a mild insult of Bush one of them uttered on stage. Even as late as 2008, conservatives blasted Barack Obama for not being sufficiently patriotic, for not wearing a flag pin, for not (apparently) standing at attention for the National Anthem, and other things.

Nuge the stooge, conservative hero.

But these days, with Obama in the White House, none of those things matter at all. We are still at war, but there is no attack of the President, his administration, or even the entire government, that is out of bounds for conservatives. They can accuse him of being an un-American, evil, Marxist, socialist, Maoist, communist, homosexual, adulterous, Nazi, statist, Kenyan Muslim who has as his explicit agenda destroying America. Notable celebrities such as Ted Nugent--quite unlike the Dixie Chicks--can come this|close to threatening to assassinate the President, and still draw air, but no condemnation from the right. And after an attack on this country as happened this week, the right is ready and eager to blame the government and the President for it. And then of course, there is FOX "News."

[Excerpt]

Fox News Hosts Join The ‘Blame America’ Firsters

Shortly after the attacks on 9/11, a stunned nation struggled to explain how such noxious hatred could have formed and congealed into the heinous plot that took the lives of so many innocent people. In a statement that still ranks amongst the most feeble-minded insults to America’s intelligence, George W. Bush proclaimed that “they hate us for our freedom. . .”

Read more at: NewsCorpse 

Dying Iraq War Vet Pens Letter to Bush & Cheney

Even their picture still makes me wince.
Image from HuffPo.

I'm not sure George W. Bush has enough of a conscience to be disturbed by a letter from a dying veteran of his own misbegotten war. I'm positive Dick Cheney doesn't. But it's well worth a read. And now that we've passed the 10-year anniversary of the beginning of that war, it's worth repeating and remembering what a bad idea the whole thing was. How we were lied into it, knowingly and repeatedly. Years later, my Republican parents still insisted that it was a necessary response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. It wasn't, quite clearly. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the attacks. But all of that lying, all of that faux patriotism, all of the posturing and snookering got my parents, even though they couldn't come close to explaining why the Iraq War was a response to 9/11. "We had to do something," they told me. Did we?

[Excerpt]

Tomas Young, Dying Iraq War Veteran, Pens 'Last Letter' To Bush, Cheney On War's 10th Anniversary

Days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Tomas Young, then a 22-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., made a decision repeated by many other Americans around the country: He was going to enlist in the military in hopes of getting even with the enemies who had helped coordinate the deaths of nearly 3,000 men, women and children. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Blast from the Past: Presidential TV Shows!

It's President's Day, and I have a surprise day off from work. So, woohoo, right? But what am I going to do for Blast from the Past this week? And even though I'm off from my regular job, I had quite a bit of weekend part-time work, so I'm brain fried. But how about this? How many TV Shows were there about the President of the United States, and/or the White House? Surprisingly, quite a few. . .


1. The West Wing (1999-2006) - Obviously, this is (so far) the most successful of the bunch. It was supposed to be just about the President's staff, but Martin Sheen was so good at being Josiah "Jed" Bartlett, he became an integral part of the show.

2. Hail to the Chief  (1985) - An attempt to do a sitcom about the first female president (Patty Duke) failed, but maybe Hillary Clinton can pull it off for real in 2016?



3. Mr. President (1987-1988) - Even with the gravitas of George C. Scott as the president, a comedy about the White House just didn't seem to take. It featured Madeline Kahn though, and for that it's worth remembering.

4. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer (1998) - A comedy about the Lincoln White House? Yes, that happened, with Chi McBride as the president's valet, and Dann Florek as Abraham Lincoln.



5. Commander in Chief (2005-2006) - Another series, this time a drama, about the first woman president, with Geena Davis. A good show, with a West Wing vibe about it, but it didn't work.

6. That's My Bush! (2001) - A comedy about George W. Bush sounds like a match made in heaven, particularly with South Park's Trey Parker & Matt Stone at the helm. But, it was very early in Bush's run (there would be much more fodder later), and if it had taken off, they would have had to deal with September 11 and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. A little heavy, don't you think? Featured Timothy Bottoms as Dubya.

It's worth pointing out that there are currently three shows about the executive branch on television at the moment, 1600 Penn with Bill Pullman as prez, The First Family with Christopher B. Duncan, and Veep with Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Vice President. But those shows are not a Blast from the Past, and frankly, this week's edition was laborious and time consuming. So, though there may be more examples of White House-centric television, we're going to have to leave at at six for now!

Happy Monday and happy President's Day!

Benghazi Attack Timeline Shows Quick Response

For weeks now, FOX "News" and the rest of Right Wing World have been trying to turn the September 11 attack on the Benghazi consulate into a scandal. While everyone concedes that what happened there is tragic, and condemnable, the right is trying to make it much more nefarious. According to the Hannitys and Limbaughs of the world, President Obama was practically chugging beer and chomping popcorn as he watched  the attack on his 108" Jumbotron, laughing while it all went down.

Image from source, NBC News.

There really is no logic to the storyline. Why would a President seeking reelection actively allow something like this to happen? It only works if you already believe that Barack Obama hates America, and it is really his agenda to destroy it from within and without. That would be the alternate universe Obama from the Right Wing Bubble. In the real world, sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes our elected officials don't get it right at first, and it is not unusual for story details to change as new things are discovered.

But thinking the story through was never what the right's reaction was about. Do you think your weird Uncle Louie really gives two shits about Benghazi? Or had ever heard about it before a few weeks ago? It's been about coming up with a scandal to pin on President Obama before the election. From the day it happened--while it was happening--the attack has been used politically, by Mitt Romney and by the right. It's worth noting that during and after September 11, 2001, George W. Bush and his administration was given a wide berth. Criticism of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice. . .all of it was widely considered unpatriotic. Only once the Iraq War started to go south was the administration really criticized. And even then, the constant refrain was, "Bush kept us safe." Yeah, except that one time.

Unless and until there is a serious investigation into the terrorist attacks from 2001, I have a hard time taking seriously the faux outrage coming from FOXbots on Benghazi. But it turns out that half the crap they're spewing (and that's being generous) is bogus.

[Excerpt]

New timeline of Benghazi attack notes quick response by defenders

A senior intelligence official has issued a new timeline for the events surrounding the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, indicating a series of tragic miscalculations that left CIA officers exposed at an annex near the consulate -- but no evidence of interference from Washington or of the CIA witholding aid from the State Department, as Republican critics have alleged. . . 

Read more at: NBC News

Willard Has Romnesia, Republicans Do Too

I loved President Obama's new attack on Mitt Romney: Romnesia. It isn't just a cute turn of a phrase, it fits so very well. Romney has shown to have multiple positions on virtually every topic. Sometimes, he debuts a new position right in the middle of a presidential debate! It's such a sight to behold, the President himself was caught flat-footed when presented with the staggering changes of positions during the first debate.

But it isn't just Willard who is afflicted. The entire Republican/conservative/tea bagger conglomerate has a form of amnesia. Remember how after 9/11 we all pulled together? Remember that the Democrats did not attack President Bush during or even long after the terrorist attack? Remember how just saying something mildly against Bush during this time (and for years after) was "unpatriotic," and "attacking the President during a time of war?" Contrast that with how Republicans pounced after the Benghazi attack, and other attacks in the Middle East. Willard was nipping at the President's heels while the attacks were still happening. No right-wing pundit, politician, blogger or you weird Uncle Louie has been shy about blasting President Obama. All of them are seemingly Middle East experts now, and none of them feels the least bit un-patriotic for. . .attacking the president during a time of war. Amnesia. Or hypocrisy. You choose.

Romney & Giuliani in New York

What a pair. Image from source, Yahoo! News.

I'm still unclear on what is so wrong about President Obama "politicizing" his successful deadening of Osama Bin Laden a year ago. I was unaware that the killing of the United States' worst enemy was somehow sacrosanct to Republicans. They're trying hard to make this some sort of backlash issue. And they may succeed. They've got a high batting average for turning faux outrage into real political fallout. But it still doesn't make a lick of sense.

Particularly when Mitt Romney celebrated the anniversary with Rudy Giuliani. Yes, Mr. Noun-Verb-9/11 himself, the lord-god-king of politicizing the War on Terror™. 

[Excerpt]

Romney, Giuliani face heckler at New York City event


Mitt Romney marked the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death by joining former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani at a Manhattan firehouse that served as the city's first response center in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. . .

Read more at: Yahoo! News

One World Trade Center: Tallest Building in New York

Image from Washington Post

When I started hearing the buzz on this story, I thought that One World Trade Center was done. And I thought, "where was the buildup for that?" But it's not. It's just risen past the Empire State Building in height on its way up. Which is kind of a bummer. I mean, it's been almost eleven years. Living in Las Vegas where we (used to) put up mega-resorts in just a year or two. . .well, I just mean, what's taken so long?


[Excerpt]

One World Trade Center becomes New York’s tallest skyscraper
People look up at the One World Trade Center building, which is under construction on the site of the destroyed original World Trade Center in New York City. One World Trade officially surpassed the height of the Empire State Building today to become New York City's tallest building. . .

More at: Washington Post

Iraq War is Finally Over

Welcome home. Image from source, Reuters

If--back when this war started, in George W. Bush's first term--we knew that it wouldn't be over until December 17, 2011, would it have ever been allowed to start? If we knew that there were no WMDs. If we knew that there wasn't even a tangential relationship to the September 11, 2001 attacks? If we knew that we'd lose thousands of soldiers' lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, more than a trillion dollars? And tell me, somebody. . .tell me Republican faithful. . .what did we gain? What did we win? What was all of this for? Can anyone say?

[Excerpt]


Last U.S. troops leave Iraq, ending war

The last convoy of U.S. soldiers pulled out of Iraq on Sunday, ending nearly nine years of war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and left a country still grappling with political uncertainty. . .

Read more at: Reuters

American Airlines Files for Bankruptcy

Image from source, Washington Post

You know what I don't like about this? I mean beside the fact that I have a friend that works for American. It's that the headline sounds like all of the nation's airlines filed for bankruptcy. American Airlines as in all American airlines. And I always wondered if that isn't why terrorists chose AA and United. Both sound like the country's airline industry. And don't forget, when we had anthrax attacks, one of the targets was American Media. Makes you think, right?

Anyway, having United in the family, and seeing how they came out of the hole, maybe AA can as well. Here's hoping.

[Excerpt]


American Airlines parent files for bankruptcy

Saddled with an aging fleet of aircraft and high labor costs, the parent company of American Airlines filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, seeking protection from creditors while it restructures its operations. . .

Read more at: Washington Post

FBI: Suspicious Fliers Were Not 'Making Out'

Helpful tip: don't do a Google
search for "mile high club"
unless you use safe search.
Image from Fiked.

Whew! Well I'll bet you're relieved to learn that! This story morphed from lengthy bathroom visits, to two girls and a guy "making out," to just the two guys gettin' busy. Apparently, they just really, really had to go. In any event, they got a fighter jet escort! Wheee!

[Excerpt]

FBI: Suspicious fliers were not 'making out'
 
It might make a good story, but it appears that none of the three passengers who raised concerns of suspicious activity on a Sunday flight were "making out" in the bathroom.

That's according to FBI Detroit spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold, who tells the Detroit Free Press that none of the passengers using the bathroom went at the same time. . .

Read more at: USAToday

Blast from the Past: Ten Years Ago in Pop Culture

I started this edition of Blast from the Past after having watched hours of 9/ll remembrance and rebuilding. And the whole topic of what happened that day has been hit from just about every angle. Quite frankly, many of us are just emotionally wrung out by the whole thing. So, since this regular Sunday feature of mine has to do with fun things from the past, I thought I'd shine a light on what was going on in pop culture ten years ago. As much for the September 11th anniversary, as just for the curiosity.

Sooo. . .at the top of the pop charts was I'm Real by Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule. The number one dance hit was I Feel Love by Depeche Mode.



And right now, I'm kind of wondering if I was even paying attention at the time. I don't know those songs at all! Okay, so what were the big movies that week? Well, Sunday, Sept. 9 was the Sunday that week, and the number one movie was The Musketeer. It starred Catherine Deneuve. I've never heard of it. The next one? Rush Hour 2 with Chris Tucker. I've heard of it, but wouldn't watch it on a bet. All righty then, we'll go with clips for number one and one of the only other ones on the list I liked, Jeepers Creepers with Justin Long (the Mac guy).



So we've found one thing I like. Okay. Television is a little harder, because the fall TV season doesn't start until late in September. But the number one show going into the 2001 fall TV season was a newbie called Survivor. It was followed by an older show, a medical drama called ER. Okay, now we're in my territory!

Paul Krugman's 9/11 Reality Reminder

Below, I've reposted my remembrance of that very bad day we had ten years ago. And though I tried to strike an almost apolitical tone (and even in the updates, tried to be restrained), that isn't the way I feel about September 11. Not entirely. While I try to find and hold onto that "spirit of unity," and the "we are ALL Americans" sentiment, the truth is, 9/11 was used for some pretty crappy ends.

Below is a direct steal--I admit it--from fellow blogger Joe.My.God. I refer to his posts often, but rarely do I use one almost in its entirety. But I can't do it better, or more pointedly. And since his is essentially a pull-quote from Krugman, I doubt he'd mind the "theft."

[Excerpt]

Quote Of The Day - Paul Krugman

"What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons. A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity? The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it." - Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times. . .

Source: Joe.My.God.