:: Dragon and Dog ::

:: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 ::

Here's the card I sent myself this morning.

HERE.

Made it nice'n big so my mom could find the link.

Yeah, so, happy birthday to me.I know you may be tempted to take the money you would have spent on a gift to me and donate it to some cheritable relief organization for the New York tragedy victims, but I'll tell you what; I've been a victim of the New York thing making it nearly impossible to vegge out and watch TV without being totally aware of whatgoes on around you. Even on cable channels they pause at commercial breaks and in between shows to say "Our hearts and prayers go out to blah blah blah..." Take that money, and spend it on me. Or spend it on yourself. What the economy needs is for you to spend it. And its my birthday. Or its just plain Tuesday. Whatever. Do the math. Figure it out. Donate your blood, spend your money. I'm sure michael Jackson will be putting together another crappy relief song. You can spend your money AND kind of donate something if you buy it. That is...unless you just get it off Napster or Audiogalaxy. Heh. That'd fucking rock.

Which brings me to another thing. Everyone is all "Oh no! Boo hoo! Thousands dead in New York." Well big deal! Forever we have all considered New york to be the "Big City" a place where you could find anything you like, but at the risk of easily ending up dead. That's right. The big DANGEROUS city. When you go to New York you are advised not to look people in the eye, don't travel alone or after dark, and for godsake stay out of Central Park! So, people in New York are used to having to deal with the possibility of getting capped, mugged, raped, kidknapped, or just mowed over by taxis on the way to work. So now why don't we just add terrorist attack to the already long list of dangerous hazards that go hand in hand with visiting the big bad city, huh? You want to see a real Broadway show ON BROADWAY? Well, you are just going to have to take the risk that somebody might run into the theater with a bomb strapped to his ass and blow you and your Andrew Lloyd Webber loving pals into the ionosphere. Simple fact of life. There are cities 1/1000th the size of New York where you have to worry about catching shrapnel on your walk to the bakery for your family's bread in the morning and you never know if when you return hoime there will be happy smily (hungry) faces or a smouldering crater. At least you get to see the fricking musicals. Count yourselves lucky. Get a helmet. Shut the hell up and go to work.

:: Will 9/18/2001 08:12:06 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Oy Vey! What a weekend!

You poeple think I'm joking when i say its the Scientologists that are responsible for this. Well, I'll have you know that Sunday morning there was Scientologist propaganda plastered to my windshield. COINCIDENCE?
:: Will 9/17/2001 09:30:17 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Oh yeah, so I'm invited today to this thing up the street for all the employees who have birthdays in the month of September. I'm only going because they may give me a present (heh, RIGHT!)
:: Will 9/17/2001 09:32:33 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Now, i wasn't asleep during my history classes in highschool. I never once heard about the Soviet-Afghanistan war. Maybe it was mentioned once or twice, I don't recall. I never took any history classes (well, not world history anyway) in college either. Who the hell takes history classes unless they are going for a degree in History or Poli-Sci? Anyway, what that meant was that I had absolutely no idea what the whole Afghanistan war was about, and how that pertains to what is going on today. Here is a great link which you can check out and, if you have at least four briancells to rub together, you should be able to figfure out why the RUssians went to war with Afghanistan and how it came to be that the US might have helped out the same guys that Bin Laden is supposed to have been fighting for too.

Its a simple timeline but you are all smart kids, you can figure out what was going on.

:: Will 9/17/2001 01:24:00 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I'm having a very busy day, but I figured I would settle this for everyone once and for all. The solution to our airline security problem:
Trained security professionals.
Redundancy.
All pilots will be armed with some sort of firearm or weapon that is designed to imobilize or kill without breaching the integrity of the aircraft.
Pilots will be locked inside the cockpit. I don't think there should even be a door between the cockpit and the rest of the plane. They should have their own door in the cockpit and the only connection to the rest of the plane should be some sort of a one way security hatch. Additional should be on the planes, either in the passenger compartment or in the cockpit as needed. I think the cockpits will have to be made larger to accomodate extra crew and supplies for the pilots.
Skymarshalls on all flights armed with at least three methods of incapacitating or killing hostile elements. and not just a couple marshalls either. There should be at least two in each passenger compartment (first class, business, economy, etc...) and at least one or two that double as flight attendants.

Ok? Now, we could go nuts and do htings like arm all of our plane ventilation systems with emergency knockout gas or some silly shit like that, but what it comes down to is that we have to make our planes very unattractive to terrorists. Perhaps we should install very easily operated airlock systems in the rear of our planes so that hostile forces could be subdued and quickly jettisoned without disrupting the rest of the passengers. Or at least a meat locker so that dead terrorists can be stored (and maybe the not so-dead ones too) until the plane lands.

Ok. So that's the deal. And don't bitch to me about no curb-side check in or that everyone should be given guns. Have you ever fired a gun on an airliner? Does rapid depressurization mean anything to you? No, people will NOT be given guns on planes. Unless they have rubber bullets, in which case I say go for it.

Another thing. They announced that shortly after the news of the first two planes Bush gave the OK to shoot down any airliners that were not responding and had gone off course. Why are we finding this out days later? I'll tell you why. Even though it is the course of action that anybody with half a brain would take, it was important for us to tell the "enemy" that we were that serious, that we would have blown our own people out of the sky if we knew it would save thousands of lives. They are trying to show that Bush is a no-shit kinda guy and that he has the balls to make the big decisions (even though they said that Bush, Chenney, and an assload of other people hemmed and hawed about it for a couple minutes first, so as not to paint him as a power mad fuck-up that he only wishes he had the brains to be).

So thats that.

And now back to our regularly scheduled silence.
:: Will 9/17/2001 03:35:16 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Oh yeah, and as if you coldn't figure it out from before, tomorrow is my 26th birthday. I will have reached 26 years. 312 months. 9494 days (give or take cuz you have leap years). 227856 hours. 13671360 minutes. 820281600 seconds. After that you just start adding zeros. I have spent roughly half of that time either sleeping, reading a book, or taking a a shit to avoid doing the dishes for a couple hours.

That is all, of course, roughly estimated. Tomorrow i will embark upon my 27th year.
:: Will 9/17/2001 03:40:21 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Here's an interesting thought:

Have all the geeks and dorks and nerds and hackers been busy hacking the "enemy's" servers and websites and such?

:: Will 9/14/2001 09:23:58 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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It looks like there was an error:
Your script produced this error: Insecure dependency in open while running with -T switch at ./cgicomments.cgi line 75.

Does anybody know what the hell that mean?????
:: Will 9/14/2001 09:31:28 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Hrm. Trying "reblogger" for comments and that doesn't work either. Why god, WHY?!
:: Will 9/14/2001 11:25:53 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Does anyone else think that Netscape 6.1 is both warm and fuzzy and at the same time aggressively obnoxious and mind-blowingly irritating? What is their fucking problem with text windows? Its like, funky invisible characters get added that make whole chunks of text appear or disappear. You think its gone, but it's not, its just HIDING. And oh man...ok...I dunno...I like Netscape 6 but it is so fucking annoying! Grrrr.

"Microsoft: The official Operating System of Usama Bin-Laden: 'It crash the best" - Bin Laden"

:: Will 9/14/2001 11:30:35 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I suppose I shold actually do some work today.

:: Will 9/14/2001 11:31:02 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I gave up on a commenting system. None of them worked for me. Who cares. Nobody would comment anyway. Cheers.
:: Will 9/14/2001 11:50:23 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I overslept this morning. Somehow, when your very first words of the day are "Oh SHIT!" it sort of just sets the tone. Is today Friday? Seems like every day has felt like Friday since Tuesday. Not in the sort of "Yay, I get to sleep in and stay home because tomorrow is Saturday" Friday feeling but the "Ugh, what a week this has been, it has to be over so i can relax" Friday feeling, which makes the next day so much more of a treat when you realize that it is not, indeed, Friday and you do not get to rest tomorrow.

And now that it is Friday, I'm just too burnt out on Fridays. I'm barely even happy that its payday.
Sigh. I need a vacation from my life. Other people have problems, I know, but really, I just don't want to hear about it right now.

National terrorism, mental terrorism, emotional terrorism, social terrorism, I'm just all terrored out. If somebody were to walk up to me on the street and point a gun in my face my most likely response would be "Oh grow up you fucking idiot. I don't have time for your personal bullshit. Go mug somebody who gives a shit."
I just feel so run down today.
And I'm having a bad hair day.
And i slept late
and i have a lot to do
and it is ugly and cold outside
and I'm PISSED.

In the immortal words of the Monkies, "I'm not your stepping stone."
:: Will 9/14/2001 12:03:56 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I am so full of sarcasm, cynicism, and loathing. Maybe i should put these qualities to work and write a romance novel.

I had been running low on loath, but this whole terrorist ting has fill me right back up. Of course, instead of hold much loath for the people nearby and around me, i now loath people who are far far away. I find neither form of loathing to be very satisfying, though loathing people nearby has the added suspense of "Will i say something snappy and scornful? And will it hurt their feelings?" whereas the long distance loathing really holds not even the fantasy of biting remarks. "Oh SURE! Any idiot can hit the biggest buildings in america. Christ...what were you thinking? 'Well, we can't seem ot get rid of all these Israelites off the Gaza strip so...why don't we try and put a dent in America?" Why didn't they just crash a feet of 747s into anywhere in Israel? Oh yeah...those airports have pretty good security.

Thankyou for making us paranoid. We've already got the biggest and best guns, and now we have itchy trigger fingers too.

Hey, I want to know, did anyone recieve their "Day of Infamy" commemorative nickle plated Glock 10? I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail. I did pick up a pack of Infamy cards at Hallmark though. On the front it has Rodney King and on the inside it says, "Can't we all just get along?"
:: Will 9/14/2001 02:41:03 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I have the asnwer top all of our troubles. We should just parachute Mr. T and the A-team into Afghanistan.

You know, there's apparently no actual hard hard evidence that its bin Laden, yet the Afghani dudes have all pulled in their turbans and prepared to get the shit bombed out of them. That could mean one of two things: A - The yKNOW Bin Laden did it and they know we're going to bomb them for it or B - They don't care if Bin laden did it, but they are resigned to the fact that we are going to bomb the fuck out of them whether he did it or not.

Cheer up charlie, at least now you're famous!

But seriously folks...an air war with a 3rd world country is sort of...boring. If i have to sit through another season of bomb sight camera reels with smart bombs flying down chimneys and that one shot of some guy just making it across the bridge...I swear I'm goinna hurt somebody.

We need some on the ground, hand to hand, Rambo-style action. You want to know why we have been getting so many WWII movies these past couple years? I'll tell you why...it was the last exciting war! Vietnam was pretty action packed, but we basiucally milked that bastard dry by the mid 90s.

War is too cold and sterile these days. So...American. It is true, what they say about us not liking to get our hands dirty. I don't think that's a negative quality. If you see a pile of rocks and you need to move that pile of rocks, and you just start picking them up and moving them by hand, yes, you will get those rocks moved. But if you never get tired of moving those damn heavy dirty rocks, you make no real progress. The only thing you have accomplished is that you are now dirty and you have moved your rocks a lttle distance. If you are happy with that because that is the way it has always been done, that's great, but I'll see you later. I'd rather be on the team where they look at that pile opf rocks and say, "I have better things to do than move a bunch of fucking rocks." so they build a machine that moves the rocks.

Unfortunately, about the only area where a lot of these middle eastern countries have become innovative is in their development of terrorism. But really, if we Americans really put our mind to it, like if scaring the shit out of and tormenting a group of people that are far away was our current pile ofrocks...well...I htink we've already innovated that one pretty well too. We haven't even started to kill people (in regard to this "war") yet people are starting to shake in their boots.
Dulce et Decorum Est, mofo. Here we come.

We just don't act liek its such a big fucking deal when we level a city of innocent women and Children. on occaison we even say "Sorry. Sorta.

:: Will 9/14/2001 02:58:32 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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NINJAS! We SHOULD SEND IN THE NINJAS! i think Japan's marker is about due. Why don't we have them send a couple boat loads of ninjas over there. Problem Solved!

I am just the man with the plan today.

Every home should have a ninja.
:: Will 9/14/2001 03:02:20 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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On a serious note, I am very glad that I and most of my family is very far from New York. Aside from the obvious reasons, I am glad that we are all so far away because I have no doubt that we would all be right on the very front line, helping out and volunteering. My brother already does everything possible to attain his super hero status in little old Rochester, I can't imagine all the shit we'd have to be worrying about if he lived near that disaster in New York. My mom would undoubtedly be on the site treating the injured. I'm sure my dad would be providing support to the people as they come from the site and he would, SOMEHOW (as he always does) end up coordinating or directing some part of the recovery effort (my dad has had a lot of jobs, but I don't think he has ever been an official part of management...yet he always ends up as an organizer) or possibly be in charge of the amature radio guys who step up to create an impromptu communications network for the non-professionals helping out. I'm sure I'd be right in there trying to keep up with my brother even though I don't have all the training he has. My sisters, too, would be doing some sort of volunteering (actually, my sister Catherine just moved to Haverford, PA, which I guess was sort of near the crahs, and she DID do some volunteering of some sort).

Ok, gotta cut this short. Gotta go.
:: Will 9/14/2001 06:47:29 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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So...it turns out it was the scientologists all along. I have found information that points directly to L. Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology as possible links to the attack on the WTC. Late breaking news stated that the first plane was hijacked by John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and Lisa Marie who held the crew and passengers at bay with the super holy secret box-cutter device. They were able to sneak these devices through the airport security because, as with all of the things developed from scientology, they were basically piles of crap with no actual functioning mechanism. Who would have thought that Bin Laden's group was so closely linked to Scientology? I guess that makes a certain amount of sense.
:: Will 9/13/2001 11:35:27 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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In lieu of the overwhelming amount of coverage on network and public access television, I will no longer be providing coverage of the "Attack on America" or the "Day of Infamy". I may voice my personal opinions here and there, and possibly point towards things i find that relate, but from now on I am going to cease the 24hour reporting from the front line and get back to my normal life, as much as possible anyway.

In the words of the immortal Lex Luthor,
"Where's my fucking kryptonite?"
:: Will 9/13/2001 11:57:10 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Ok, two probably unpopular notions, but I'll say them both:

1)The death toll of this and other successful terrorist attacks might equal the number of innocent people we have accidentally killed or wounded in the middle east over the past two decades.

2) I almost forgot how to spell "blogger.com". Well, not so much forgot how to spell it, but forgot what it was. I knew i wanted to write an entry and I knew that the address started with "b". Then I types "bo" and looked at the immediate matches in the little helper window. No, none of those look right...OH YEAH. "bl" there it was, blogger.com. Whew! I think, possibly, all of this information and a sudden intense interest in politics, world affairs, and of course, national security has somehow short-circuited my brain. Trix is for kids.
:: Will 9/13/2001 12:08:54 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Has anyone wondered if maybe this has been a plot by aliens to get us all to start killing eachother? I mean really, a lot of those "clues" like that car at Logan seem awfully fishy. Like, planted. Like, conspiracy, man. Like, it was the fucking SCIENTOLOGISTS WHO ARE ACTUALLY ALIENS!!!!!

Yeah, laugh and tell me I'm sick now...but just wait and see who laughs when "Battlefield Earth" replaces the national anthem. There is no escaping the wrath of the Supreme overlord you silly man-animals.

:: Will 9/13/2001 12:12:01 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Ok, so obviously the "Comment" thiong doesn't work yet.
I'm working on it.
:: Will 9/13/2001 04:06:23 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I read on some guy's blog (http://www.bullcrar.com I think) that there was some interesting stuff with the numbers involved (date and flights) which I'm not so sure i buy. The most obvious one is that the date Sept. 99 is 9-11 or 911. Doubtful that is some sort of sign. Then he said something about how the flight numbers add up to 11, 12, 13, 14 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). Not sure i buy that either.

But I willl say, once again, that I was right about the knife thing. I don't think I wrote about my theory on here when I came up with it, but I did tell my co-worker, so you can ask him if I'm lying.

The thing is...I don't see why they think it would require so much goddamned backing to pull this plan off? You just need four guys who can fly a jetliner long enough to hit a stationary object, four or five guys who have credit cards and picture IDs, a computer with internet access (for flight info and online reservations, though they may not use that in order to avoid an easy trail), plastic, wooden, or maybe even metal knives. Willingness to die in order to make a point. Simple. So you and your 20 buddies get together, you pick flights that are appropriately timed, and you go. The most expensive part of the whole deal would be either the training of the guys to fly the planes or the cost of getting them fake IDs and credit cards. Neither of which require vast vast funds. This could be anybody, people. Fuck, it could be yokels from Idaho.
:: Will 9/12/2001 08:38:54 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Did you hear the jets last night? As I left Andrea's apartment around 10:30pm I sat on my motorcycle, about to start it up and go home, when I heard these rising and fading rolls of what sounded almost like thunder, but more like...well...like F-16 fighter jets. I heard this moring that the Air National Guard might have had fighter jets patroling over the metro area last night.

Neato.
:: Will 9/12/2001 09:04:12 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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It is looking more and more like bin Laden is the guy to get, however all we really know is that it could be any middle eastern group. Some of this evidence, though, seems...planted.
:: Will 9/12/2001 09:39:13 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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You know, I was thinking about what needs to be done, and i htink, since this event will usher in a new era of terrorist activity in America, we need to take a hard line, and we need to take it fast. What I would liek to see, and i think that this would send the right message, if for president Bush to go onto a live address to the nation where he pulls Bin Laden's head out of a grocery bag and sets it on the desk in front of him before making his speech about how terrorism will not happen in America from this point onward. Seriously. I think we need ot send that sort of message both to our people and to the people of the world. I think we need to find the people responsible for this and they need to be put on display. If it isn't Bin Laden, then his head will have to sit alone until we find out who else was involved and can add them to the collection. They will probably want to set up a "Terrorist Trophy Room" in the whitehouse. I'm all for it.
:: Will 9/12/2001 10:06:48 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Ok...so what will major changes be in the life of Americans from here on out?

For one, I think our attitude of self-protection might change. We arer constantly told and taught by law enforcement, teachers, management, and safety instructors that you should "give it up or surrender your money, valuables, belongings, pride, etc...it isn't worth your life." If you are mugged, give up your wallet. It isn't worth your life. If your store is held up, empty the register and hand over the cash, it isn't your life. If your bank is held up, give up the money, it isn't yours anyway, it isn't worth your life. If you are taken hostage, do what the captor says, it isn't worth your life. Well i htink that's going to change. Sure, when it comes down to things like handing over your wallet it really isn't worth your life. But when you hand over your wallet, your car, or your diamond ring, you are also handing over your freedom and your safety. I think the assault on the American sense of Freedom will wake a lot of people up and has created a great anger in the core of many people. As a nation, we will be seen to stand up for ourselves. As communities, we will be seen to stand up for ourselves. And I think, honestly, as individuals it will be shown that we are going to start standing up for ourselves.

This is not some call to arms for the NRA brotherhood or any of that. Of course not. But i think the same rules can be applied. Do you know why there was no terrorism in Soviet Russia? Because terrorism was not worth it there. We have to make terrorism a path that has no profit in any respect. I'm not saying that everyone should start carrying guns, but i am saying that we should stop putting up with this sort of behaviour. Vigilante justice is dangerous and illegal, but you can bet your ass that if someone mugs me, the moment they turn their back, or even before then, they are going to get more than they wanted to deal with coming at them ASAP.

The first real big change, obviously, is going to be how the American people react to hostilities on aircraft and in hostage situations in general because every hostage situation from here on out should be seen not as a situation involving the bargaining of individual lives, but as a situation of bargaining for freedom. Each and every American should do everthing that they can to preserve that freedom. I know it sounds silly and awful, but if someone tries to take 20 people hostage using a gun, every one of those 20 people should be running at the guy with a gun because his success is just a failure on the part of the American people's attempt to protect our freedom. You may end up with 21 people dead, or with two people dead, or maybe even no people dead, but in the end the hostage taker will have been dealt with and the message would be put out there that we do not put up with this.

Like they have said on TV, this is a new kind of war. The enemy is not a person or a group of people, it is the notion that America is a target and that freedom is something that exists only because we have money and are fat and soft and isolated from the troubles of the rest of the world. Well, that's just not the way it is going to be. To win this war we have to combat terrorism, which means resisting the attempts of terrorists of all kinds. These nutjobs that find it ok to assault the American people do so with the understanding that they will give their lives in order to accomplish something that they really believe is good and will get them into heaven. We should be just as eager to use our lives to twart these bastards. The awful part is that we really do need to consider becoming more like the people that live in places that are constantly ravaged by wars and terrorism. School children in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Iran, Iraq, practically all of the middle east are taught at one time or another what to do if someone attacks them with a knife, a gun, or a grenade.

Like I said before, I'm not a big fan of the NRA, but i think right now would be a really good time for us to rethink our general attitudes about teaching things like that in school. Everyone in this country should be taght what to do if someone attacks them with a knife, a gun, or a bomb, and hsould in respect be taught how to use a gun or a knife or, yes, a grenade, should the need arrise. Now is the time when we are the most likely to be exposed to these sorts of things, whether we like it or not.

I bet all those extremists in the hills of Utah, Oklahoma, and Idaho are pitching a big stiff wet one right about now because they feel like they can finally say "See, I told you so!" but no, that's not it at all. Those yahoos are for isolation and domination. What I'm talking about is for Americans to be recognized for what we are: Strong, Proud, and CAPABLE people. As a nation we have helped out more countries than we can count. George Bush is a fucking idiot, yet by getting elected as the President of teh United States he is immediately the most powerful man in the free world. The only reason why his power seems supreme only in the free world is because he, and our nation in general, is unwilling to go to the extreme measures that dictators often do, and unfortunately that gives them a slight edge in terms of controlling and defeating people. On the large scale, however, he is basically the most powerful man in the world. We are the most powerful people in the world and because of that everyone thinks we have grown soft and comfortable. We don't learn other languages, we don't work hard in the field, we don't really care what happens outside of our borders. That's what people thingk about us. We are easy targets because, while the US "does not bargain with terrorists" we also do not really do a good job of being unattractive to them. If you terrorize Americans you have 3 possible outcomes: You are captured and tried and put in prison, you are killed during the attempt to free the hostages, or you escape to terrorize to another day. I think that terrorists should not be arrested or tried. In the event that a terrorist escapes and is later captured...well, in order for him ot her to be captured there has got to have been some real evidence that lead to the capture and that could possibly stand alone as the trial.

Of course, there can and will be mistakes. However...we need to stick to our guns. Chances are if someone is thought to be a terrorist there has got to be more than just a rumor that points to them. It is a scary notion, but now is a time when we really need to start taking stock of just what goes on in this country. We need to clean house a little bit. We need to let people know that if you want to live in America, you have to want to be an American, or at least be able to meet that level of expectation of civic duty.

God, that makes me sound like some sort of xenophobe, but thats not it at all. I'm just saying that at this point, if people make noise about not liking America, they should be shown the door quickly, for their own good.
:: Will 9/12/2001 04:07:58 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Ok ok ok. I've ranted like a frothing madman enough today. Sigh...

It is comforting to see that the investigation is going well and going relatively quickly. The thing is, I htink finding out about the people DIRECTLY responsible (the hijackers) will be easy. Making tangible ties between them and their controlling organizations will be very very difficult.

Maybe we should just bomb the fuck out of Afganistan for good measure. Nobody really likes the Taliban anyway. Except Pakistan. We could bomb them too. And you know...maybe while we got the jets warmed up we should tie up some loose ends. Yeah, that's right. You know who you are...let's get those bloodsucking evil cock bastard SCIENTOLOGISTS!
I bet they had something to do with all of this.
:: Will 9/12/2001 06:00:15 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I'm sure that nearly everyone's blog will contain some reference to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Supposedly they have evacuated the IDS tower here in Minneapolis bnut i have heard conflicting information on that. Tim and i headed up to the 49th floor where we know that there is a TV mounted over the web-dorks' kitchenette. It was swamped with people watching the news. Amazing. It was really eerie, though, from the 49th floor, to see the airliners flying around us low and slow as they waited to land at MSP. Every time another aircraft is seen people get nervous.

I think this will be another case where blogging is shown to be a valuable tool for preservingb history, like being able to take a core sample of society and whats going on in people's heads. If you could create a huge archive ove all the blogger archives, you could cut it open like a tree and count the rings, discovering that there was a national tragedy on September 11, 2001.

Sigh...what the fuck good is a missile defense shield if we are going to be attacked by kamakaze strikes from our own hijacked aircraft? Don't they realize that nobody is stupid enough to confront the US head on? We are the biggest baddest kid on the block. Even extremists aren't that stupid. Johnny, get your gun, cuz uncle W is going to send you to war against somebody, as soon as he finds out who threw that rock...

:: Will 9/11/2001 10:06:52 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Obviously there is some sort of penetration at American Airlines as all four of the hijacked planes (I believe) are AA flights. I'm wondering when we are going to hear the significance of 9-11-2001, other than that it was one of the largest, most coordinated terrorist attacks on the US. If it is a religious group or a national group there is probably some significance to today's date.
:: Will 9/11/2001 10:48:24 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Ok folks, this may be no real connection...but it seems highly coincidental...

link to full document

Al-Najah University in Nablus was a fierce battleground for the two sides. From the early 1980s until it was closed during the intifada, student clashes left university administrators helpless. Tension peaked right before the uprising when a flyer published by the Islamic group on September 11, 1987 stated: "From the establishment of the Islamic group in Al-Najah University as a manifestation of the public's wish to return to Islam, the 'nationalist forces' have not stopped damaging the trust toward it and slander it with indictments, curses and false accusations, as if we were living in the times of Musaylima the liar." The pamphlet detailed offenses by the nationalist groups and called for Muslims to defend against them. (23)

It just seems incredibly bizarre that I searched for "September" and the first thing tha twas found was "September 11, 1987". 15 years....gives me chills. I read a book by Nelson DeMille a few months ago called "The Lion's Game" that was about a terrorist getting into the US 15 years after the bombing of Libya (sp?). Anyway. This whole thing needs some serious looking into. I don't know why, however, that they think it will be so easy considering all the money that our organizations have put into tracking down Osama bin Laden and still come up with nothing. Face it....we have been developing a huge military that is by and large obsolete. Nobody in their right mind would want to wage a land, sea, or air battle with us. The only viable option is a terrorist war, which, unfortunately, is a very very very accessible option for just about ANYBODY.
Sigh. This is so frustrating. I almost wish I were involved in all of it over in DC or New York, on the scene, figuring out what happened, doing the detective work... and i have very little confidence that we will ever find out what REALLY went on.

:: Will 9/11/2001 10:52:34 AM [+] :: Gave Up.
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Well, I think it is clear that while the flight in Pennsylvania obviously didn't reach its intended target, it will prove to be an invaluable piece of the puzzle. That and the Pentagon plane will be the first to have their flight recorders recovered and hopefully from there we can start to figure out who is responsible for the mess with the World Trade Center and everything else.

It really sucks to admit that there has been such a successful terrorist attack carried out against us. They keep talking about the high degree of difficulty in this sort of operation, but you know...aside from choosing a time and finding the right flights...

Now something just occurred to me. For a second i htought that maybe the date isn't as important as I previously thought, that perhaps today was simply the day that had all the right flights going to the right places at the right times, but from the looks of the passenger counts, I would be willing to guess that those were probably daily flights.

It makes a lot of sense. You pick a flight that is going to have the least number of passengers (lowers the probablility of having law enforcement and/or hero types on board and since you are obviously not taking hostages, people may be more likely to risk their lives to stop you, so the fewer people to choose to do that, the better) and a lot of fuel. So you pick a daily flight near the end of the travel rush, which works out because it also means the highest body count at the intended targets, and which takes off near your target but is destined to land somewhere far away. Loaded with fuel and some passengers, you are set to go. I think United and Amaerican airlines are going to have to do some house cleaning as they obviously have some serious breaks in their security. I seriously doubt that the terrorists didn't have any help from United and American employees.

My biggest fear right now is what our own governemnt might possibly be keeping from us. I find it comforting to think that the government knows more than we do about whats going on. On the other hand, I find it disturbing that they could know a lot more than we do and that we may never know.
:: Will 9/11/2001 03:26:52 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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And i totally had it figured out that the terrorists would probably have used knives.
:: Will 9/11/2001 11:29:44 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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I started reading "Naked Lunch" today. Andrea has it, pretty sure she had to read it for a class. It has the U of M bookstore stamp on it. I tried to make sense of the movie version of this book some years ago and, not sure if it was because I was too young and my kid brain just couldn't make the translations or what, but the movie made no sense whatsoever. Of course, this was before I realized what a piece of shit actor Peter Weller was. Anyway, apparently the movie wasn't supposed to be an adaption of the book, but just sort of was banking on the notoriety of the book's title. They might as well have titled the movie "William. S. Burroughs Could Have Written This Movie". Anyway...
...so i'm reading Naked Lunch and I'm wondering, since Burroughs was obviously fucked up when he wrote it (there's a 10 page preface written by Burroughs deposing his state of addiction when he wrote 'Naked Lunch' followed by a three page afterthought on his deposition explaining THAT), it might make a hell of a lot more sense to be fucked up while trying to read it. However, since I am not a very big fan of getting fucked up, I'll just have to try and muddle through this one without the aid of debilitating addictive substances. I'm on page 29 and I'm already wondering if I'm going to have what it takes to keep reading. Some of these run-ons are making my brain hurt.

On the other hand, i am finding that I am falling back into the creative mode, and that requires a constant stream of creative nourishment. Read read read = write write write. Possibly an addiction in its own right. Sort of like people who trade their alcoholism for obsessive exercising or their workaholism for religion or their smoking for binge eating. Who knows. It is possible, as a writer, to spend too much time crawled up into your own mind, which is why i think a lot of writers turn into hermits. I think that also has something to do with the attempt to protect ideas until they are ready to go out into the world, like a writer is a parent that locks themself in a tower with their children until the children are all grown up and perfect and ready to be released upon the world. The problem with that is that those children usually get eaten alive by the world and the parent just watches in horror, finally locking the tower door and never coming out again. I think it is better to raise your stories in the streets, playing with the other kids, so that they have some idea how to work in the world as we know it.

How's that for a little bit of craft-related philosophy?
:: Will 9/10/2001 02:41:14 PM [+] :: Gave Up.
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