I'm not impressed with moments of silence or candlelight vigils or noble rhetoric about this event. If you want to do something to remember that tragedy, the best thing to do is to simply stop living your life in fear.
 |
Church Member Defends NC Pastor: LGBT People 'Worthy of Death' |
| Plays: 1399 Downloads: 100 | |
 |
Colin Powell Takes Hannity to Task for His Obsession with Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright |
| Plays: 1172 Downloads: 39 | |
 |
John Fugelsang: Only in America Can You Be Pro-Death Penalty, Pro-Torture... and Still Call Yourself Pro-Life |
| Plays: 902 Downloads: 65 | |
 |
Arizona Congressional Candidate 'Pulls a Coffman' |
| Plays: 571 Downloads: 34 | |
 |
CNN Host Probes Tony Perkins: 'Why Do Homosexuals Bother You So Much?' |
| Plays: 554 Downloads: 43 |
 |
Bill Maher Knocks Liberty University: It Cheapens My Degree From a Real School |
| Plays: 3523 Downloads: 200 | |
 |
Compassionate Conservatism: Romney Meets Medical Marijuana Patient |
| Plays: 2237 Downloads: 245 | |
 |
Stockman: Romney Can't Say He Learned How to Create Jobs in the Leveraged Buyout Business |
| Plays: 2264 Downloads: 165 | |
 |
Krugman: Romney's Business Career is Fair Game |
| Plays: 1737 Downloads: 151 | |
 |
Steve Rattner Says Romney Was Not A Job Creator |
| Plays: 1210 Downloads: 124 |
 |
President Obama Asks to See Betty White's Long Form Birth Certificate |
| Plays: 7237 Downloads: 65 | |
 |
SNL: Limbaugh Announces New Sponsors |
| Plays: 6864 Downloads: 275 | |
 |
'Family Guy' Does the Tea Party |
| Plays: 3896 Downloads: 188 | |
 |
Crowd at Santorum Rally Horrified When Two Men Kiss |
| Plays: 3577 Downloads: 382 | |
|
Bill Maher Knocks Liberty University: It Cheapens My Degree From a Real School |
| Plays: 3523 Downloads: 200 |
Fritz, no Delay!!
1-2-3-4!...
Well said.
Amen. I refuse to live my life in terror!
Vigils and speeches aren't carried out to impress anyone. They're meant to honor the lives lost.
It's nice to see the Iphone get all political: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax4cR1for4o
LOL
Is that George Bush trying to imitate Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not?
Be afraid.
shit-for-brains might start a nuclear war during one of his delusions. remember it's his finger that hoovers over the button.
Just what happened to those 12 missiles with nukes attached that "accidently"
were mishandled this last week?
did they end up in iraq, israel or saudi arabia?
I'm too fucking pissed off to live in fear. [Deleted. OTT-Sitemonitor] Sorry C&L, I'm trying to cut back on the Syrah.
Jon Stewart was dead on tonight with his segment "Iraq Me Dave Petraeus." (Rock Me Amadeaus..) It' a classic and I hope we see it again on C&L.
I have long felt that if you live in fear, the terrorists win.
ive allways said they can only kill you once!!!
I thrive on paranoia. But its not the muslims I'm worried about.
Strawberry @ 9:
Que Syrah syrah strawberry. If Bush can't help you with that, well, my name says it all.
The Bush/GOP mantra: "We have to sell but fear itself."
...make that "We have nothing to sell but fear itself"
Curtilingus @ 14:
Be careful of what you wish for Curt. My bite is waaaaay worse than my bark.
Lindsey Graham is on Charlie Rose, but I am forced to mute the channel. I cannot bear to even hear his effeminate voice. This smiling man, who pretends to be so benign, has backed torture, has trashed the constitution by removing habeus corpus, has backed the Iraqi holocaust, and every other war crime of this administration, still has the diabolical effrontery to smile. Hitler smiled. Goebels smiled.
And Charlie Rose gives him a platform.No wonder we are reviled by the entire world and considered the primary source of terrorism. The "good ol' USA" commits torture. And Lindsey smiles.
The best revenge is self-empowerment.
WORD
On this sixth anniversary of the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 9/11 has come to symbolize two uniquely American political failings. First, in ritualistic observances around the nation, Americans will come together not in common resolve for shared sacrifice, but to perpetuate a culture of grief. Worse still, secure in his Pakistani safe haven, Osama Bin Laden even at large continues to serve the political purposes of the current and prospective occupants of the White House.
For the details, see:
"9/11, the Politics of Fear and the Culture of Grief."
who was the democrat that said, "nothing to fear but fear itself" ????????
I wasn't impressed with candlelit vigils or moments of silence beautifully observed all over the world after the event either. It was all rubbish.
"..stop living your life in fear".
Better yet, start reading military history.
KO made mention tonight during his opening comment about Fog.
“…a fog from which we can break, past which we can push, but which is at best, always visible in the near distance and pushing back…”
The last six years have not been the Fog of War though. That War-fog ebbs and flows like the tide, sometimes obscuring the enemy, sometimes hiding your own actions. No, the last six years have shown us a Fog of Fear – and it is ever-present.
When a rain-cloud drenches you as in War, you know you’re getting soaked. You know when the deluge starts, when you’re in its midst, and when the clouds finally break. You may even take cover from the downpour. But in a perpetual Fog of Fear there is no escape from being drenched. It’s a slow process from which you can’t escape. The Fog of Fear will eventually cover you, envelop you, consume you just like the rain, but it’s a more insidious process because no umbrella will protect you; no amount of cover will keep you dry. We’re being drenched by this fear: everyday, incessantly, and ad-nausea.
If we have nothing to fear but fear itself, then why am I afraid? I’m afraid because it’s not the enemy that is using fear to destabilize, demoralize, and deconstruct my country – it is my country that is using fear for these purposes. I’m afraid because I can’t turn to my country when in fear, as a nation once turned toward FDR during the height of the Great Depression when he said in his inaugural address:
“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”
We’ve got some rebuilding to do, like those in 1933 did. We need leadership of frankness and vigor. Our current leadership hasn’t kept us free from fear, but has used fear to sell off our country a billion dollars at a time; and I’m afraid we’ve all been left with the bill - and nothing but fear with which to pay that bill.
But on this day, especially on this day, we should not shrink in silent mourning over “what they did to us.” We should not cower in fear over what they may do next. We should be facing our fear with courage and resolve, and with the expectation that this fog will not last forever; that soon our leadership will recognize frankness and vigor, and replace our fear with that courage and resolve to once again set this country on a path of freedom and liberty.
So on this day, especially on this day, I will not fear. On this day, I will hope. I will have hope for leadership with frankness and vigor. Hope for freedom and liberty. On this day...I will hope for tomorrow.
I'm not living in fear. Neither am I living in New York nor knew anyone who died on that day. Which is why I would hesitate to tell people how to grieve or what ceremonies they can or cannot have to memorialize those who died.
I opened my last shop on 9/11, just 9 miles from Ground Zero. I expected the shop to be empty, & only opened because the city was locked down, there was no way to volunteer, the phones were down, & there was nothing else to do except stay home or go drinking. With smoke visible over the skyline, our lobby was packed. At 1pm in the afternoon, before we even had a body count.
Stupid just 18 girls who only cared if I could do some flowers in a variety of colors, or if I thought that they should or should not get their boyfriend's names. I was like, do you realize we could have 20,000 dead bodies floating in the Hudson right now?! The response I was getting was, yeah, that's sad, but which do you think is better, pink or purple?
I hate fucking people.
"It is better to die on your feet, than live on your knees" Emiliano Zapata
burt @ 22:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, your President from 1932 to 1945*
*died in office
yes... Weve had enough of THEIR "Catapult the Propaganda" bullshit.
The Time is now.
Millions across the Country have been waiting for an intelligent discussion.
It is time For We the People to set the talking points.
--> The Facts.
Tonight was a good start. Two hours.
http://www.airamerica.com/clout/node/44#comment
JohnnyThief @ 27:
You may hate people, as do I, but I love you. You made me chuckle, more valuable than blood diamonds these days.
I've been reading an abridged version of T.E.Lawrence's experience Revolt in the Desert. I don't know how many of you've seen the movie Lawrence of Arabia; but there's a scene early in the film where Omar Sharif as Sherif Ali comes riding from nothing to a well where Peter O'Toole as Lawrence and his guide are getting water from a well. Ali shoots and kills the guide as they are blood enemies but not O'Toole as Lawrence is not a known enemy. Made Ali and Arabs in general seem like savages. Definitely ruthless and not very "white."
In the book, what actually happened, the encounter is much different. Ali and his cousin pretend to be master and servant to avoid a confrontation with some Harb already at the well. Ail beats his cousin for fearing to approach the Harb. Who in turn, out of pity, allow him to water his and Ali's camels under this ruse.
The difference stuck me of the difference of how I'm supposed to fear "those" people are versus reality.
You're not free until you start acting like it.
Bluegal,
I have been coming to this site for many years...
I think that is the best post that has ever been on the site, that I have read. You could not be more correct...
That post should be stickied to the top of this site for all times.
I know people who didn't know anyone killed on 9/11 and lived 1,000 miles away, but their lives were totally shattered by it. I just don't get it. I can completely understand being traumatized if you had a loved one murdered, but WTF is up with everybody else? Horrible shit happens all the time, everywhere. It must be something symbolic. Those guys really knew what they were doing when they flew those planes into the WTC. We've become a nation of self-pitying cowards.
Strawberry @ 9:
first of all, [Deleted. OTT-Sitemonitor] .
Just wanted to clear that up. Us liberals are 'fact based'.
I am awfully tired of hearing how americans are afraid. americans are not. they get up and go about their lives because they know what they have to do to live. the only people being talked about are the fearful 18%., not the rest of us americans.
the rest of us americans are too busy, fat, lazy, uninvolved, unconcerned, hungry, put off, engrossed in tv, playing videogames......
the rest of us americans don't have time to look up and see that our country is in shambles. besides, what can the rest of us americans do about it?
All this orchestrated bouillschitt today was for profit. Someone made money off the whole (or)deal.
BaScOmBe @ 37:
The media and the drug companies. Oil companies did well also.
BaScOmBe @ 37:
It’s not that I disagree with you about this nation’s apathy, but fear has many faces.
Anger is another face fear – and too many are angry. Too many are angry (fearful) of the wrong things. If you substitute “anger” for “fear” it’s easy to see. Whether that anger is directed toward OBL, Bush, Billy O’Rielly, the fringe left-wing lunatics/Right Wing NeoCons, or Islamofascist/Christianists – it’s all fear masked as anger. If the fear weren’t there, neither would be the anger.
Some of this fear may be justified. But much of the fear/anger only surfaces when it directly affects us, which is why many are apathetic. It seems though, that more and more ARE being affected, justified or not – and this fear/anger has become too pervasive. It’s becoming endemic in our society – and this fear/anger is the greatest thing we have to fear...
The Japanese PM is resigning, partly due to his support of our forces in Afghanistan being unpopular.
Strawberry @ 31:
Mm.
[Deleted. OTT-Sitemonitor]
Ooops, wrong web page,... (!)
rtemp @ 11:
Nope. Just the Republicans do.
If Americans had a uniter, not a divider as president we would be a stronger country. This unilateral chief executive has made us weak and vulnerable. The 25% thinking that controls our executive branch is dangerous. This ineffective president is ignoring a vast majority of Americans. Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Russia to name a few have and had the super small minorities control its masses resulting in outright imperialism. Democracies don't start wars but defend freedoms.
After almost 5 years of incompetence,corruption and in some cases treason the neo-cons and their republican enablers have failed this country. The Bush/Cheney administration have gotten us into a total quagmire. We will overcome this nightmare but that won't start until January 20, 2009.
Russia claims to have a bigger bomb than us.
We really need the some Republicans in Congress to step up and do the right thing for the country, now. We shouldn't have to wait until Bush is out of office just so he can Stay the course in Iraq.
I, too, have fear fatigue, and know that I am more likely to die in a car accident or from cancer than to be killed by a terrorist act, but the scariest thing that I have heard all day was the fact that if we have another 9/11 before the elections next year, that Guilliani has a good shot at being our next President. If that is the case, then I hope the terrorists take me with them.
I love PZ!
A tyrant’s only ally is fear.
SearingTruth
It’s not “You have nothing to fear unless you’re doing something wrong”.
It’s “You have nothing to fear unless the government is doing something wrong.”
SearingTruth
It is the entire circumstance that concerns me, not the small window which peers in upon it.
SearingTruth
We became evil to fight evil, assuring its victory.
SearingTruth
It's not a war on terror gone wrong, it's a war on American liberty gone right.
SearingTruth
joe @ 5:
You honor someone by remembering their deeds and words. You pass down the good parts of them to the next generation as an example of a way to live a good life. Hopefully you choose to honor people worthy of remembering.
There were 3000+ people who died in the attacks. Other than the rescue workers who perished trying to save victims, they were just normal people with normal jobs living normal lives; some of them good, some of them bad. Some would give you the shirt off their back, and some would try to steal your last dime. You are just like them, except you didn't die that day.
If you picked 3000 people at random out of the population of any NYC high rise office, you would have drug dealers, dedicated spouses, rapists, loving family members, pedophiles, saintly peace loving people. Get it? It's a mostly random representation of a large metropolis.
It's absurd, bordering on ridiculous to "honor" people you don't even know. It cheapens the meaning of the word honor. It abases the concept of holding good people in high esteem. Vigils and speeches ARE carried out to impress people. They are tools of people who are trying to shape society. And THESE people who are shaping THIS society are a bunch of murdering blood thirsty thugs. The vile shit sacks running this country are using the 3000 people who died that day to kill hundreds of thousands, and to steal hundreds of billions. So all the pomp and propaganda are just window dressing meant to distract you and to justify the crimes they continue to commit.
To fear or not to fear.
That is the question.
American Economy: R.I.P.
Something is wrong here. Either the data indicating productivity and GDP growth are wrong or Karl Marx was right that capitalism works to concentrate income in the hands of the few capitalists. A case can be made for both explanations.
Recently an economist, Susan Houseman, discovered that the reliability of some US economics statistics has been impaired by offshoring. Houseman found that cost reductions achieved by US firms shifting production offshore are being miscounted as GDP growth in the US and that productivity gains achieved by US firms when they move design, research, and development offshore are showing up as increases in US productivity. Obviously, production and productivity that occur abroad are not part of the US domestic economy.
Houseman’s discovery rated a Business Week cover story last June 18, but her important discovery seems already to have gone down the memory hole. The economics profession has over-committed itself to the “benefits” of offshoring, globalism, and the non-existent “New Economy.” Houseman’s discovery is too much of a threat to economists’ human capital, corporate research grants, and free market ideology.
The media have likewise let the story go, because in the 1990s the Clinton administration and Congress permitted a few mega-corporations to concentrate in their hands the ownership of the US media, which reports in keeping with corporate and government interests.
The case for Marx is that offshoring has boosted corporate earnings by lowering labor costs, thereby concentrating income growth in the hands of the owners and managers of capital. According to Forbes magazine, the top 20 earners among private equity and hedge fund managers are earning average yearly compensation of $657,500,000, with four actually earning more than $1 billion annually. The otherwise excessive $36,400,000 average annual pay of the 20 top earners among CEOs of publicly-held companies looks paltry by comparison. The careers and financial prospects of many Americans were destroyed to achieve these lofty earnings for the few.
Hubris prevents realization that Americans are losing their economic future along with their civil liberties and are on the verge of enserfment.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
The attack on the WTC was the product of government screw-ups all the way around. I've never been scared of terrorists. Not one single day, and Bush and his Keystone Kops DOHS have nothing to do with it. I have other things to worry about, like health care for my family.
The times when I fearfully ponder where humanity is going, is also the time when I must remember that fear is crippling and unnecessary. I must invent and antidote, the reaF. Yes, I will get some Reaffer so I won't fear anymore.
Yes, let's do away with all memorials or vigils because they're so self-pitying.
That's a pathetic and self-pitying attitude. Any half-wit psychologist or sociologist will point out that all cultures engage in ceremonial behavor and that it can fill a social need.
As if Americans have learned anything collectively since 9/11...
Hey what's on TV?
When you stand up for what's right, you have nothing to fear.
BaScOmBe @ 37:
Great comment.
Sadly, the only reason most Americans are against this war is because we're losing. All the "new" facts that have come to light in regards to WMD, the insurgency, sectarian warfare, lack of ties to 9/11 and America's long term plans in the region were well known to those 20% of us who were rabidly AGAINST the war before it began and were easily available to anyone who actually gives a damn. As has been said by a few publicly outspoken critics recently, Americans love war, they just hate losing. That's the only reason there are so few war supporters now.
As for living in fear - what's to fear for most Americans? I got so frustrated with "Middle America" in 2002 through 2005 when it was mostly pro-war as if to be against it was to be for the terrorists. I live in NYC and was personally affected in every way by 9/11 which is why I made the effort to understand terrorism, foriegn policies and as much of the historical context as I could. And all of that led me to believe very strongly that our current actions would be the disasterous mess they have become. It seems all those folks in the Heartland with no chance of being the victims of such an attack had no interest in anything but some Shock & Awe revenge fantasy. Now sadly, it is a lot of the Heartland's sons and daughters fighting and dying for something our leaders appear to know and in their own soulless way admit doesn't actually make us safer.
The ability to feel empathy seems lost on our nation and they can only be bothered to care about something if it affects them personally. They live in a fear caused by ignorance to the world around them. Everything that is outside their limited realm of understanding is scary and must be destroyed.
Git:
I think it's more like we hate complex stuff like civil wars and sectarian strife, and prefer to fight an enemy with a face.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself...and the boogeyman"
Pat Paulsen
Bluegal,
What you wrote is a collectible for this day forevermore. Well said!
To that end, we should heed the words of these scientists with respect to it. Enough already. Get the answers:
James Quintiere, Ph.D., former Chief of the Fire Science Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Joel S. Hirschhorn, PhD, nationally recognized engineer and former Senior Staff Member of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (COTA)
J. Marx Ayres, former member of the National Institute of Sciences (NIS) Building Safety Council and California Seismic Safety Commissioner.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
"The only thing we have is fear" -- Today's Republicans
Last week I vacationed in and around Yellowstone. How anyone who lives out that far from the major urban centers of San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York (basically the big cities on the coasts, especially the East Coast) be afraid of terrorism? No terrorist will ever strike out there, at least not any Muslim terrorist. If I had enough money and I wanted to feel all but immune to terrorism, I'd move out there. Maybe it's bullshit, maybe the red staters know they are almost totally safe and are just being opportunistic dicks by using the threat of terrorism to push their right wing bullshit while getting their more-than-fair-share of government pork.
Stupid Git @ 55:
I live in the NYC metro area and have had the opportunity to discuss 9/11 and what transpired afterwards with many online, on discussion boards and blogs. It seems that most of those who want nothing but revenge and are filled with hate and anger are mostly NOT from the areas where the attacks took place. I don’t know why that is the case.
Perhaps they have been brainwashed by the media or they simply let their imaginations run wild as to the threats that are out there. It’s quite convenient that the “enemy” is outside the reach of the average American, especially in the so-called heartland where most of society is homogeneous. It is then understandable how one’s imagination can run wild while accepting Bush’s rhetoric as the absolute truth. Human beings fear what they not know. The ignorant brain is then primed to accept new information and process it as indisputable fact.
Sometimes I wonder if we’d be in the mess we’re in today had the “average American” been better informed, and had we had the type of unbiased and independent media that is prevalent in Canada and Europe.
Well, anyway, I’m done with my ramblings.
Good night.
Word.
I have real mixed feelings about making "9/11" a holiday event. We "celebrate" it like a birthday. I want to forget the damn thing. That's probably the best way to deal with Al Queda. They would LOVE for us to sit here in fear and morose manner to dwell on "9/11" like some sort of lesson we learned.
I feel for the 3000 wasted lives. Are we going to mourn the Oklahoma bombing as a national day of mourning too? Are we going to live the bombing of military barracks in Lebanon as a day of mourning?
Don't we see what we are doing to ourselves?? We are creating this sense of fear and obedience to Al Queda and our government. This is WRONG!!
I want to look at "9/11" as just another day when innocent lives were wasted by nutcakes that don't deserve our altering lifestyles in any way shape or form. To do otherwise makes them "win".
One of the really interesting thing about the attacks of September 11 —aside from the inauguration of the so-called Global War on Terror, or that it reoriented so many of our institutions, civic organizations, corporations, neighborhood watch committees toward terrorism, or that the TSA now enjoys unfettered access to our baggage and our body cavities in the name of terrorism — no, six years later I think the one really interesting thing about those attacks is how completely they failed to terrorize.
Speaking very generally, I think most people shared a very similar kaleidoscope of emotions over the events of 9-11 on that day and every subsequent anniversary: disbelief, bewilderment, resentment, anger, helplessness, overwhelming sadness, grief, awe, horror and a hard emptiness at witnessing such cold inhumanity. But terror? Do we really feel acutely afraid of terrorists as we move through our day? Of course not. It is just one of many distant, potentially fatal exegencies. Even the Bush administration's attempts to scare grow ever more transparent by the day. Opportunistic public policies notwithstanding, I truly believe that as a people we simply are not terrorized. Still speaking very generally, we seem instead to be irritated by the boring indignities of new security measures, we're obliging at checkpoints because we're polite and very late, and we're genuinely naive enough to be incredulous that anybody would really hate us without knowing us. And how skeptical are we of the institutional authorities that want to use 9-11 as a permission slip for self-expansion? Somewhere between completely and ever-increasingly.
Great. So again I'm standing in line with my shoes in hand like everybody else, and year after year I get the authoritarian bullies on my right barking that I need to accept this new regime for my own safety, for everybody's safety. That's bad enough. Now I get Dr Myers bawling at me that I need to stop living my life in fear. You've really got to be kidding. Thanks, professor. How about you take your ostentatious heroism and shove it up your ass? People crying at candlelight vigils doesn't impress you? Aww, the poor baby isn't impressed. You want to see more action and sacrifice? Aww, poor baby. You're so disappointed in us!
Occupational prestige is not a prophylactic against being a simpleton and a scold. To make a legitimate contribution to the public discourse on this subject, how about turning your exquisite powers of judgment away from my sheepish compliance and toward those few other subjects that you don't understand.
> I have real mixed feelings about making “9/11″ a holiday event ...
I think that you're "right on" about that. To really disinfect us of that, we should be do more ignorng of their attack on us.
Well, we do have real enemies.
Unfortunately, we tend to forget that because we have a president who would rather use 9/11 as a lever to grab power and go after third parties than to defend the country from another attack.
Can I [Deleted. OTT-Sitemonitor] strawberry? I'm no george bush, but I'll let you hate me if it gets me there.
The Republican Party's whole purpose is the celebration of its cowardly members' fear. Now, I'm not saying every Repug is a coward- some are too stupid to know any better- but I have never met a coward who isn't a Repug. If a Repug isn't afraid of the terrorists, he is shitting himself in the fear that Libs will tax his future inheritance.
The Repugs are crudely manipulated by Dear Leader Bush and his simplistic slogans that cater to lazy cowards. The clarion call, "We are in Iraq because THEY attaced us on 9/11," is so obviously false that one can't logically combat it. Why? Because the rebuttal of that much bullshit takes so much time it challenges a Repug's short attention span.
Fear, Greed, Ignorance, and Stupidity. The four cornerstones of the Republican Party today.
Americans play these things up so much, and make them so thoroughly nauseating, only Americans can watch. (I haven't watched even a second of it on TV. It's always the same schmultz. Gag! Did Guiliani race in?)
If they are to honour those lives lost, how about a vigil for departed Iraqis too.
From CNN:
Abe to resign as Japanese PM
Abe's government has suffered a string of scandals and an electoral defeat
In the last two weeks, Abe has lost four party members to scandals
Abe seems to understand HONOUR. If only Bush did.
During an interview, I actually heard a Repulsivcan woman (can't recall the name) make light of the fact that she thinks fear is important to get the people to support their leaders. She said the more fear the better.
What a twisted party that one is. Living in a state of fear isn't freedom and making people fearful is just plain . . . whatever.
HulksHeroes @ 62:
So next year, Wal-Mart and other big box stores are going to start selling 9/11 paraphernalia, such as banners, flags and vigil candles, along with other "gifts". They'll start selling these products toward the end of their Back to School sales, and will also hold sales with 9/11 themes. Market analysts predict that in a decade from now, the 9/11 holiday celebration will become so popular that it will eclipse the "Back to School" events, and preparations for it may begin as early as late July.
Why is the attack on the U.S. Headqquarters not "breaking news"? I guess they hope no one notices.
Blue Buddha @ 71:
Oh, PUKE!
Chip @ 70:
...plain inducing paranoid schizophrenia is what it is.
Blue Buddha @ 71:
Maybe Wall-Mart should branch out and set up some 9-11 stores. Compete with 7-11 but instead carry survival supplies and stuff. Instead of Slurpees they can sell Surgees. Everything the average paranoid American needs to make it through the day.
Chip @ 75:
Yes, but besides the Surgees, that store will only carry a half a dozen items: duct tape, plastic sheeting, hand-crank radios, flashlights, batteries, and milk... for some stupid reason, exurbanites buy industrial-sized barrels of milk whenever there is any mention of a blizzard or hurricane.
[quote]I’m not impressed with moments of silence or candlelight vigils or noble rhetoric about this event. If you want to do something to remember that tragedy, the best thing to do is to simply stop living your life in fear.[/quote]
Best thing to do is try to stare down Mike Gravel until you achieve enlightenment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rZdAB4V_j8
Seriously though, I think it's one of the most ingenious ads I've seen, although I'm biased since I've read alot of Zen parables and this plays out so much like a Zen Koan.
The line should be "Nationalism is Paranoia."
Patriotism is healthy, whereas nationalism is jingoistic.
I weathered a hurricane going to Japan, bombings arriving in Bangkok, an earthquake leaving Turkey, the NYC blackout in 200?, a gale crossing the English channel. I went to the tsunami zone (west coast of Thailand and saw flattened hotels, and dead bodies were reported to be in the sea-- no swimming) right after it happened (for vacation). And I eat chicken in SE Asia all the time, even where there's bird flu. Terrorists? Never seen one (not that I know of.) I go to Islamic countries and communist countries too. No problems. There isn't anything to be afraid of, except your own mind. I was never afraid.
craig @ 66:
Must have been quite a day around here!!! Good night all.
Strawberry @ 9:
Strawberry,
You do have a way with words. Say what you've got to say and if anybody doesn't like it, screw 'em.
Strawberry @ 9:
:-)
burt @ 22:
burt @ 22:
FDR
**The coward of the country.Assclown of American.Its a fucking shame whats this dipshit has down to my fellow troops.**
Chip @ 70:
Not whatever--->TERRORISM. According to my pre-9/11 Random House un-9/11-modified paper dictionary, terrorism: 1. the use of terrorizing methids. 2. the state of fear and submission so produced.
Bush knows that "fear paralyzes" so he trumps it up to keep people from expressing their anger and outrage. He plays the people's emotions like a fiddle. But he's not original - it's the script from George Orwell's "1984". Bush never had an original thought in his head his entire life.
"...If you want to do something to remember that tragedy, the best thing to do is to simply stop living your life in fear."
AMEN!
Todd @ 83:
That would be "fear of the enemy within" and they've all now shown their faces. Everyone knows that we should fear this administration more than another other fictitious enemy.
Todd @ 83:
"I have nothing to offer but my blood, sweat and tears" -- Winston Churchill
"We have nothing to feat but fear itself" -- FDR
"I have nothing to offer but fear itself" -- GW Bush
Yes but Cheney is far too real. He's gonna bomb Iran, and there isn't a damn this anyone can do about it. Be afraid of Dick.
I've been saying for what has become years now, unfortunately, that 9/11 revealed the American character to the world and the picture hasn't been pretty. Quite simply, we're bullies. We'll starve a nation with embargoes or carpet bomb with impunity, but if one blow gets through to us we are comfortable with allowing our government to respond in ape shit hysteria without reason or substance to attack something back with overwhelming force. Anything. It really doesn't matter who they are or what they've done. It's like a bully who has been challenged flailing blindly in the fear that his inner weakness has been revealed.
And that is simultaneously ugly and pathetic.
joe @ 5:
I used to believe that but not anymore. Sorry about that. America breeds cynicism.
Alas, many of our fellow citizens think that the only way to fight terror is to put bald eagle and flag motifs on the back windows of their pickup trucks. It is an apt metaphor that their rear view is dominated by patriotic symbolism and self-congratulation, rather than accurate reflection on what happened and why it happened.
This is how we've ended up torturing people, wiretapping and becoming the world's biggest bully... and everyone knows that a bully is fundamentally a coward.
Whatever happened to land of the free and home of the brave?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070911/od_afp/netherlandsdrugslaws_0709111...
Important. Write your congress person now to put a stop to this!
We cannot let our rights be curtailed anymore!
JustSickOfIt @ 48:
Superb post!!!!!! Now THIS should be stickied!
I'm sorry Patricia....
"Whatever happened to land of the free and home of the brave?"
It was replaced by the Republican's with: "Land of the wealthy and home of the dividend.....with a ps of "we'll keep the night light on for you while terrorists hide under your bed & in your closet...with our members of congress"
Can you imagine if FDR had done what this monster in the whitehouse has done. When the Japanese attacked Pear Harbor, if FDR had took away all the liberties of the citizens of this country, if he had tortured prisoners. If he had bankrupted the country but worst of all if he had made FEAR HIS NUMBER ONE activity.
But isn't he the one saying "You have nothing to FEAR but FEAR itself". Wouldn't it have been wonderful, if the people in this country had taken their clue from our citizens activities during the second world war. If they had shown they had a backbone and had not caved in to bush and his henchmen. If they had told bush and cheney to go stuff it when he whined and ranted about fighting them over there. Where in the devil did the resolve and backbone of the people of this country disappear to. They let a little piece of turd like bush scare the bejeebers out of them.
Daily Reading pt 1...
Petraeus 'not sure' if plan will make U.S. safer, Q: Is the war in Iraq making the US safer? A: (Petraeus) 'I don't know' - http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2...
Bush crime family 'buying time'....with the blood of American Men & Women (psst...that they 'support')...in the middle of a thousand year old civil war...
The Truth Occasionally Wills Out, Even for the Only General That Bush Could Find to be a PR Mouthpiece for His Madness. Petraeus: I "Don't Know" If Iraq War Makes U.S. Safer. He Tells Sen. John Warner, "I don't know, actually. I have not sat down and sorted in my own mind."
- http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=231766
More Indicators that the Busheviks are Precipitating Their "Gulf of Tonkin" Incident to Justify Nuking Iran: British Troops Sent to Iranian Border as U.S. Builds Military Base Next to Iran. The White House is Lighting the Fuse, Just Waiting for the Powder Keg to Explode. - http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2953462.ece
Meanwhile blissfully idiotic republican armchair warriors & all talk no action right wingnuts sing 'bomb iran' to Barbara Ann (Beach boys).... Party of 'family values'....
Libertarian scumbag & corporatist whore (ie, money is life): John Tierney's The 'Feel Good' Approach to Climate Distortion - http://www.rockridgenation.org/blog/archive/2007/09/11/the-feel-good-app...
"John Tierney's article is currently among the most popular articles of the day, but it is filled with distortions, redirections, and spin designed specifically to undermine public acceptance of one of the gravest threats we face as a global community."
His article on "Recycling Is Garbage" has the dubious distinction of breaking the New York Times Magazine's hate mail record. Co-wrote the book "God is my broker" with William Buckley's son Christopher Buckley
So...ONCE AGAIN...CONSIDER THE SOURCE....this hopeless, 53 yr old 'life long bachelor' (code word for unmarried 'straight guy'...in the Larry Craig mold), idiot with no scientific background whatsoever...no evidence, etc...yeah...listen to him...and pay the price later
I wonder if his math is working....If we take steps now....we'll spend 1% of our GDP (that's less than 2 months in Iraq)...if we wait...we'll spend 15-20% of GDP for being 'non-alarmist'...yep....tough decision...even for the 'economic pragmatists' out there...
HERE'S A REAL MIND BENDER FOR ALL THE DENIERS, THE 'SKEPTICS' (NEVER GO TO VEGAS WITH THOSE A-HOLES, betting against 90% certainty), AND PEOPLE WHO JUST LOVE MONEY....THERE WON'T BE AN ECONOMY WITHOUT AN ENVIRONMENT...THE OPPOSITE CAN'T BE SAID....
Now the Department of Justice, like the Republican Party, wants fewer registered voters in 2008. - http://www.alternet.org/rights/62133/
Cause stealing them through rigged voting machines...just isn't 'moral'...
Why do Republicans hate freedom??? Why do they hate 'one man, one vote'??? Why do they hate democracy??? Just move them all to Saudi Arabia, they'll be much happier there....(they could fight 'terror' all day and share in the hatred of women, minorities, & people that don't believe like they do)
Daily Reading pt 2...
Retirement Funds Vanish as Bankruptcies Hit Tax-Deferred Scheme - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&refer=home&sid=ary1hm_rkIgU
"The bankrupt firms' owners are accused of using client funds to invest in other businesses, emptying bank accounts of more than $250 million. No criminal charges have been filed."
Hey..its ok...you've lost your life savings ('it was what the market wanted')...you'll be working until you die now...but hey...those scheming bastard Republican registered CEOs & Board Members of those corporations
sure got their's.....its called "severance"....its called "bankruptcy protection" (no lawsuits)....too bad the same can't be said for you...the individual citizen....
END CORPORATE PERSONHOOD - they're not an entity....they're a cabal
"It’s hardly the first time that angry gun proponents have suggested death is merited for those trying to reduce gun violence. On GunGuys.com, we recently documented death threats against Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama by NRA Board Member and burnt-out rocker, Ted Nugent. We also mentioned that in the 2000 presidential election, the then head of the NRA, Charlton Heston, told a Michigan crowd of pro-gunners that he wished Al Gore could be lynched."
- http://www.gunguys.com/#post-2466
Right wingnuts & their guns....will the penis envy & obsession ever end for these Peter Pan putzes?
Hit and Myth: Poll Shows 1 in 3 Americans Still Believe Saddam Involved in 9/11 - http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
Same poll reveals those 1s also eat crayons, drink glue, and want to be fire engine when they grow up...
Squeezed by soaring health-care costs and dwindling pensions, ever more Americans are choosing to postpone retirement -- and the Washington region leads the nation when it comes to working past age 65, according to census figures released today. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/11/AR200709...
These are people that worked hard, played by the rules, and made the right decisions (contrary to con-servative moron's claims)....futures & retirement destroyed by the greed & evil driven gluttony of those who have no souls
Rise in Cost of Employer-Paid Health Insurance Slows Study Says 6.1 % Increase This Year Still Outpaces Wage Growth, as Percentage of People Covered Shrinks - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/11/AR200709...
Paul Krugman on Why "Reporters" Only Attack Democrats for So-Called "Character Flaws" - http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/09/crank-politics....
Simple....journalism is on its final death bed...and that's what the editors & board members want them to do....and they'll be puppets that happily oblige....
Daily Reading pt 3...
Running on Empty in Pakistan: The dangers of America’s Faustian bargain with Pakistan’s military dictator are growing more obvious by the day. - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed1.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogi...
You hear all this BS about Iran & Syria....when we have an nuclear armed islamic country full of sympathy for Al Qaeda (happily aiding & abetting) and a dictator whose days are numbered....but nope....they're no threat to us....Republicans & Reich wingnuts are idiots...plain and simple...just like their lovefest with Saudi Arabia
About 70% of Iraqis believe security has deteriorated in the area covered by the US military "surge" of the past six months, an opinion poll suggests. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6983841.stm
No...I don't want to hear from Iraqis...I want Brit Hume, Gibson, Cavuto, & Hannity to tell me its working...
14All @ 35:
They apparently weren't very well-trained pilots though, from most accounts. I still wonder how they even managed to carry it off, with such large, unwieldy planes and such scant training.
What I am really afraid of is that warmongering ignorant arrogant strutting little asshole wearing the Navy hat (Which he has no right to wear)
Ruthless People @ 16:
Or..."All we have to sell is fear itself".
Tequila @ 44:
And Putey-poot has dissolved his government. WTF is going on?
when asked if we will be safer because of the iraq war and the surge GENERAL BETRAYUS answered , and in that moment i saw gonzo dancing around trying to give a bullshit answer, that he hadnt considered that question in all the time hes been fighting the troops in iraq, how can you ask men to kill and die for nothing but a holding action , if these guys are fighting in iraq to make this country safe it seems to me any thinking man that asks so much of our military would know the answer to that! hes a puppet and a disgrace to his service!
Dr. Acula @ 104:
Don't bother him, is my advice. He's probably busy reading "Моя Козочка Любимчика" to a classroom full of children at the moment..
Bush Is Feeling A Little Il
The reichwingers are up in arms about a newspaper ad, but they're okay with their spokesman:
Coulter: Democrats 'think troops are a bunch of illiterate, toothless rapists'
I wish someone had thought of this sooner, but I'd have loved to see Army widows and widowers, and parents who have lost their children in the Afghanistan *and Iraq* wars at Ground Zero yesterday, announcing the names of their lost, loved ones -- along with the rest of the victims of 9/11.
Where's the day when those lost in Afghanistan and Iraq are commemorated? (Personally, I'd suggest November 21st... the day in 2001 when Bush ordered Rumsfeld to draw-up plans for the invasion of Iraq, drawing focus away from Afghanistan and allowing bin Laden and Taliban leadership to slip out of Tora Bora.)
It's only a matter of time folks, unless Congress stands up to Busholini.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296450,00.html
Coultergeist strikes again...
http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Ann_Coulter_skeptical_of_polls_thinks_091...
Mike the Canuck @ 29:
If Burt@22 is an American citizen all I can say is: HOW EMBARASSING to not know his own country's history.
When will you learn? Please, you must educate yourselves or you are doomed. Start by reading the documents of the PNAC (Project for a New American Century) created and signed by Cheney, Wolfowitz, Kristol, Perle, Rumsfeld, J. Bush, Feith, et al, and you will know that 9/11 was not some genius terror plot cooked up by a bunch of miscreant Saudis, but the "New Pearl Harbor" called for by PNAC in order to create fear in the American populace. Their plan was (is) to spread US hegemony across the world, starting by stealing the oil in Iraq and creating permanent military bases from which to move into and take over the rest of the ME. Their view was that after the "fall" of USSR, the US must take advantage of its position as "the sole remaining superpower" to move quickly to establish the New World Oder dreamed of with their buddies in the global financial cabal. Learn about the business/financial relationships between the Bush and Bin Laden families which is decades old and continues (Carlyle group). Understand the workings of the world financial system and who controls it. Watch every video you can find on line and read the scientific data and you will understand that the WTC buildings did not collapse from impacts alone; you will see no plane (no part of a plane) at the Pentagon just after the impact; you will see no plane or any part of a plane in the field in PA.
What you will come to understand is that we have nothing to fear but our own lack of understanding. Then you will see why our freedoms and civil liberties are being curtailed. You will know that the "stories" we've been fed about 9/11 and everything that has transpired since then is only partly true. Knowledge will set you free.
I believe we should honor and mourn those innocents who were killed on 9/11 and all those who have died in Iraq. We must turn away from fear and take back our country, our Constitution, our America.
Kenny @ 112:
Burt might be from Utah, which would explain a lot. Maybe they got that quote confused with this one, which came from another patriotic American with at least half of a brain:
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
Ben Franklin
The chaser just went to air in australia. a very good episode
Dr. Acula @ 110:
every blog outlet and every media outlet with a conscience ought to be ALL OVER that story. we can not allow it to happen again.
fool me once, shame on — shame on you. fool me — you can't get fooled again.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
- Ben Franklin
never the less, this man dictates our freedome
well said
Paranoia is to be Patriotic. Realnoia is to be unafraid.
Watch the video I made on You Tube it starts out with this picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDsbmmtMr8c
So I called my Rebublican senator yesterday.
Then I thought, this is dumb...
So I called my Democratic senator and asked,
"what can I do to change Domenici's mind about
Iraq?"
But,n aturally, Bingaman has not responded...
So I ask all of you:"What are WE doing to change
this neo-con mindset that still pervades this unfortunate
country?
John Warner's question to General Betrayus was about
the surge making America safer. He had NO RESPONSE!!!
Write or call your Republican senator or representative EVERY DAY
[...] it on Crooks and Liars This entry is filed under Toon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 [...]
Comments are closed on this entry