Here’s an open thread for the ninth year after the terrorist atrocity of September 11, 2001, for LGF readers to share their memories and thoughts about that day.
I woke this morning thinking that one of the lessons human beings need to learn from those attacks (but probably won’t) is the ferocious destructive power of unchecked religious fanaticism.
1 |
Killgore Trout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 8:56:59am |
| 2 |
Political Atheist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 8:59:30am |
A cautionary reminder for all people of faith. We must watch our own and ourselves as fanaticism comes to the unbalanced human easily.
| 3 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:01:10am |
Stephen King’s short story “The Things We Left Behind” is a lovely remembrance. If you get a chance, read it.
| 4 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:01:54am |
Just watched the Miracle of Stairway B on the History Channel…Wow.. 14 people survived the North Tower collapse…Footage from 911 I have never seen..
| 5 |
Eclectic Cyborg Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:01:58am |
Instead of focusing on politics and wingnuts and craziness today, let’s just be proud of our country and its heroes, both from 9/11 and the wars that followed. 9/11 did not and will not destroy America. Let Freedom ring.
| 6 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:02:47am |
re: #3 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Oops… “The Things They Left Behind”…
| 7 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:03:11am |
re: #1 Killgore Trout
I hope it did help Gary Box’s father. I again say thanks to the heroes who, from that day to this one, gave their lives to save others.
| 8 |
Lidane Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:05:31am |
As with everything else in my life, I processed 9/11 through music, and that’s my plan today.
I’m not going to let the crazies and all their idiocy get to me. I’m just going to play the albums that helped me work through things in my own way, and appreciate the fact that I woke up this morning, and I’ve got one more day that so many never will.
| 9 |
alexknyc Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:06:03am |
I remember where I was when I heard about the first plane hitting the North Tower.
I remember seeing the second plane hit the South Tower live on TV.
I remember seeing both towers come down.
I remember the city in shock and the smell that came from downtown for weeks afterwards.
I remember the posters of the missing plastered all over the city.
There’s no way I’ll ever forget what happened that day and the people I knew who never came home.
That anyone would try to use this day for self-promotion and politics is beyond disgusting.
There should be a special place in hell for those people. Right next to the 19 fanatics who caused it.
| 10 |
laZardo Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:08:14am |
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
FUCK THE TRUTHERS.
| 11 |
Cathypop Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:08:46am |
re: #8 Lidane
As with everything else in my life, I processed 9/11 through music, and that’s my plan today.
I’m not going to let the crazies and all their idiocy get to me. I’m just going to play the albums that helped me work through things in my own way, and appreciate the fact that I woke up this morning, and I’ve got one more day that so many never will.
Wonderful idea. I learned a long time ago that you cannot cry and sing at the same time.
| 12 |
prairiefire Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:09:10am |
I had a Dr.s appt. in that Tuesday morning. It was a gorgeous clear, day. My little girl was at pre-school. My husband was on a business trip to Canada. He called me from Canada about 12:30 in the afternoon my time, checking to see if I was alright, if there were any type of attacks happening here in KC, Missouri.
I told hem we were fine, it was very confusing what was going on on the East Coast, but we were fine. He offered to fly home early, but I told him we were fine and he should stay and work.
Was it Wed. or Thursday night that folks were encouraged to sit outside at twilight to remember the victims? I sat on my front porch with my candle. I was the only one I could see out that evening on my block. My husband came home with no problems that Saturday.
We discussed his continuing on the Canada project through April, and he did it, flying every week.
God bless the victims.
| 13 |
darthstar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:09:53am |
I was living in England, and taking a tour of the canals in Newbury. As we boarded the barge, the woman taking our tickets said, “Isn’t it awful about New York?” We said, “What are you talking about?” (it was about 3:00 UK time, 10:00 EST). She said, “The World Trade Center was blown up.” I said, “Bullshit. You can’t blow up those buildings, they’re huge.” There was one other American on the tour and the captain gave us his portable radio so we could turn on the BBC. We sat, stunned, listening to the description of events as they unfolded and I can’t remember anything else from the two hour tour.
That’s it. The next few days were a blur.
| 14 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:10:34am |
On the morning of 9/11, I got up and, as usual, checked a web developer’s mailing list I subscribed to, and came across a curious email from someone who said, “Did you see that? It went right into the building!”
It was so out of place in that list that I went to the living room, turned on the TV, and watched as the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center, with cold chills going through my body.
| 15 |
cliffster Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:11:49am |
On this day, I hope that all the victims are resting peacefully in the arms of God. And on this day, I hope that Oklahoma beats the tar out of Florida State.
| 16 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:11:57am |
C-SPAN has a program with several Bush administration officials talking about the response on 9/11.
| 17 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:12:17am |
re: #9 alexknyc
I remember where I was when I heard about the first plane hitting the North Tower.
I remember seeing the second plane hit the South Tower live on TV.
I remember seeing both towers come down.
I remember the city in shock and the smell that came from downtown for weeks afterwards.
I remember the posters of the missing plastered all over the city.
There’s no way I’ll ever forget what happened that day and the people I knew who never came home.
That anyone would try to use this day for self-promotion and politics is beyond disgusting.
There should be a special place in hell for those people. Right next to the 19 fanatics who caused it.
I was at a training class that morning in Oak Brook and did not see the TV coverage until I got home around 5:30 that evening. Because my father and I had the radio off in the car, I didn’t know of the attacks until both towers had already been hit.
| 18 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:12:45am |
I was in Charleston, SC… Red Roof Inn… Turned on the TV, realized I had overslept… the first plane had already hit. Katie Kouric and Matt Lauer were looking down toward Lower Manhattan and talking about this “accident” but weren’t sure what was going on…
I remember thinking, “Man, those buildings have so many redundant safety systems; but people are probably freaking out anyway”
… Then the second plane hit.
Then, everything changed.
| 19 |
brennant Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:12:46am |
West coast - I was making breakfast, and my girlfriend, who never wakes up that early, woke up and turned the TV on… she came downstairs, and said “You need to see this”.
I went upstairs to the TV right when the second plane hit.
| 20 |
Bert's House of Beef and Obdicuts Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:13:17am |
My friend Jake spent 9/11 at the NYU downtown hospital, which was operating without electricity or water. He brought sandwitches and fruit for the doctors, nurses, and patients. He brought them water. He did what anyone there asked him to do.
He had no particular association with the hospital. He just wanted to help, and he knew that they were close to the site of the World Trade Center.
| 21 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:15:13am |
re: #20 Obdicut
Remember how terrible it was when they announced that donations of blood would not be needed…
| 22 |
Political Atheist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:16:06am |
In Los Angeles-I was in the shower listening to news radio and heard of the first plane crash. I rushed out to my TV and saw #2 and then the buildings fall. The rumors that flew about-LA was next, the AF shot an airliner down, etc. What a horrible day. I was really late for work. So was most everyone else.
BBL
I’m off to a place of meditation and contemplation. I need it today. Usually I work this date and have that distraction. Not today. Today I can be found up above the tree line, in the pines. My church has no walls, no roof. The wind is my choir. God Bless us all.
| 23 |
cliffster Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:17:02am |
re: #18 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Funny, I thought the same thing. Wow, those people are really panicking. Just take your time, get out, everything will be fine. Wow. Guess there’s some things you just can’t design for.
| 24 |
CarleeCork Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:17:05am |
I was at home, my Mom called and said turn on the TV, a plane hit one of the WTC buildings.
I watched as the second plane hit and told my Mom, this is war.
I called my husband at work and he and his co-workers turned on the TV in the break room.
They shut down and everyone went home early.
The TV stayed on for the rest of the day. It was so strange to see no airplanes in the sky, I lived in Arlington, not far from DFW.
I didn’t leave the house for days.
| 25 |
Virginia Plain Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:18:12am |
re: #20 Obdicut
My friend Jake spent 9/11 at the NYU downtown hospital, which was operating without electricity or water. He brought sandwitches and fruit for the doctors, nurses, and patients. He brought them water. He did what anyone there asked him to do.
He had no particular association with the hospital. He just wanted to help, and he knew that they were close to the site of the World Trade Center.
I heard several ERs were bringing in extra gurneys and wheelchairs in anticipation of mass casualties. Yet there weren’t that many.
| 26 |
pvdl1969 Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:18:56am |
re: #6 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I’ve been on a Stephen King reading kick lately, so I’ll definitely check it out.
Charles, thanks for this thread. I don’t have anything profound to say, except I agree with your sentiments. September 11, 2001 is a day that we should never forget.
| 27 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:19:44am |
re: #25 Virginia Plain
I heard several ERs were bringing in extra gurneys and wheelchairs in anticipation of mass casualties. Yet there weren’t that many.
You made it out safely or you didn’t make it out. That was pretty much it, wasn’t it? Very few “injuries”.
| 29 |
harlequinade Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:20:11am |
I posted this downstairs
I was in an office in Scotland when my then gf sms’d that a plane flew into the tower.
I thought it was a small, private plane. By the time I realised it wasn’t, all the video feeds had been so hammered we couldn’t watch. So we hit news site after news site, watching them all go down until we were on an obscure Scottish news aggregator.
It was me and the guy who sat opposite me. Everyone else carried on working. They… had heard, but it didn’t seem to catch them.
Even when they fell.
I knew people in New York, so it was frantic phone calls when I could, eventually, get through.
I also remember going to LA that November, and going through New York. Sat next to a woman on her way to see her husband.
We did the talk and I asked. She told me that she knew a guy who she thought was going to be an eternal bachelor. He just couldn’t find the right girl.
Then he did, she was beautiful, clever, funny. He called this woman and said “I’ve met the one.”
She worked at the WTC.
| 30 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:20:19am |
I’ll never forget the silence, when all flights in the US were grounded. In a city like LA you don’t even notice how much of the constant audio background is due to planes flying overhead — until they completely stop. It was eerie, and frightening in a primal way.
| 31 |
Gang of One Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:21:10am |
I was living in Mexico City at the time working as a freight forwarder, mostly household goods. That morning at around 8:00 AM CST or so, I was picking up some stuff from a friend’s house, she was placing in storage some of her belongings. I came to her apartment and when she let me she said, “Did you hear about the the terrorist attacks on the WTC in New York?” I replied that I had not. She walked me over to her
TV, and by that time the second jet had struck. I watched, the footage, called my boss [a guy from San Diego, CA] to ask him if he knew what was going on. He and the entire office and warehouse were watching on TV. By the time I got back to my office, the towers had both fallwn. We all sat riveted to the TV that day. The phone hardly rang, it was surreal, to say the least.
On my way home, the city was unusually bereft of traffic, and there were fewer people on the streets, it seemed. When I got home, I turned on the TV and watched for hours on end, the footage of the planes, the people leaping out the windows, Mayor Rudy and everyone else in shell-shock. I was overcome by alternating waves of grief and rage, and wondering what I was doing so far away from home. It was not long after — 9/9/02 — I came home, in part because of the U.S.-deserved-attitude I frequently encountered.
| 32 |
Varek Raith Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:22:26am |
I was in civics class when another teacher came in at about 9 and told us to turn on the tv.
Being only 20 miles from the Pentagon, there were a lot of worried teachers and students.
| 33 |
Bert's House of Beef and Obdicuts Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:22:56am |
re: #27 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
You made it out safely or you didn’t make it out. That was pretty much it, wasn’t it? Very few “injuries”.
Jake said most of the people treated at the hospital were people who injured themselves in the aftermath. exhausted rescue workers, etc.
| 34 |
abolitionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:23:53am |
On that Tuesday morning I was home alone after seeing daughters off to school. Wife had already left for her job, and I had a dentist appointment at 11. Turned on the TV about 8:50 est, and watched the news coverage for the next couple hours. Saw the towers fall.
| 35 |
tappdancer Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:23:53am |
I remember this day better than I remember the days of the past week.
The images of the people falling touch me most. In one account I read, there is mention of the ‘constant thumps’ as they hit the ground.
A purely personal result is that I have, in nine years, become quite knowlegeable about Islam and Islamism.
We will probably never know what successful efforts have kept us safe these nine years. My thanks to those who have done so.
| 36 |
allegro Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:24:40am |
I was on my way to the university hearing on the radio that a small plane had hit one of the towers. I was thinking, wow all that air space and a dumbass pilot couldn’t avoid running into a building? Then it was announced that a jet slammed into the other tower. OMG, this is deliberate. As I was going to my office from the parking lot one of my students said the Pentagon had just been hit. I cancelled classes for the day and spent the day watching the unimaginable horrors unfold on TV at the packed student union. Stunned silence was punctuated by gasps and sobs with all of us fearing what could be coming next.
| 37 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:24:44am |
I got to work late that Tuesday and all the TV’s were on NBC and people were in shock..I remember wondering in the afternoon what kind of war has been started and rumors were running wild all day.
And if I recall Lizards.. The next day was the birth of the crawl on Cable news..We all watched the news 24/7 with the crawl
| 38 |
Walter L. Newton Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:24:55am |
I was at work, National Renewable Energy Lab, in Golden Colorado, there was two or three of us that came in earlier than most of the other programmers (we needed “quiet” time to get anything done) a woman came out of her cube, had been on the internet, she was crying, said a “plane just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.” Of course, with in a few minutes when got the details.
The DOE locked us down. Our three administrative support building and the 7 laboratory buildings across I70, and the Wind Site up in Broomfield Colorado. No one was allowed to leave.
Around 9:20, they dismissed us for the day. Got home about 20 minutes later, sat down in front of the TV, and that’s when the real horror began.
| 39 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:25:03am |
I’m glad to see that C-SPAN is apparently not going to be broadcasting the Geller-thing’s hate rally.
| 40 |
laZardo Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:25:57am |
I was 14 years old. My mom woke me up twice that night, once after each tower fell. I suppose not having dealt with such a world-changing event in my lifetime (I was barely a toddler when the Cold War ended) was what caused me to go back to bed quickly. Perhaps the utter disbelief of everything happening so quickly.
The next day, I watched everything unfold (and recapped) on the news. There were no words.
I visited Ground Zero in August 2005. Even four years after, it seemed that all the life had been drained out of that area, literally and metaphorically. This was New York City, but there was nothing “bustling” about that place.
I caught my first sight of my first Truthers that day. They were passing out pamphlets that also claimed the then-recent London Tube bombings as ‘inside job.’ My initial response could have been summed up in “lol crazy.” Today, they make me want to punch something.
| 41 |
Bert's House of Beef and Obdicuts Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:27:28am |
| 42 |
darthstar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:27:49am |
Time to take the last line of Frost’s “Out, Out” and apply it to myself.
Peace, everyone.
| 43 |
researchok Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:28:09am |
On 9/11, I was at work.
My boss called a few of us into his office. The TV was on and we watched the stunned talking heads, repeating the same things over and over. They said it was probably an accident. One of my colleagues noted that no pilot would fly a plane into a building- it could not have been an accident. We all wanted to believe that because we did not want to consider what was unthinkable.
Then, on live TV, the second plane hit. We had to believe what we didn’t want to believe.
The rest of the day was spent listening to the taking heads, who at that point knew nothing. We just couldn’t pull ourselves away from the TV.
The most trying recollection of mine came a few days later, when Elizabeth Cohen of CNN reported about a chain link fence that served as a clearing house as hundreds of people were still searching for relatives. The fence was plastered with posters of missing persons and relatives asking whomever they saw- including Ms Cohen- if they had seen their relatives or if they had any information on them. Hundreds of candles were lit, but they were superfluous, it seemed to me. The few young mothers with children in tow were a far more poignant backdrop.
Mostly, I remember those kids. Maybe it’s because I have a daughter of my own. I thought about that for a long time.
To this day, I have a hard time watching video of the planed flying into those buildings.
| 44 |
webevintage Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:32:11am |
I’ve told this story before but when the 2nd plane hit I was sitting in the Doctor’s waiting room. Saw the 2nd tower fall (there was a tv on even in the office) right after the Dr. said I did not have breast cancer.
Then she and I just sat there crying.
She kept saying “all those poor people”.
Of course it was a very good day for me…which makes me feel guilty even though it shouldn’t.
Then I watched tv obsessively for the next week.
| 45 |
Randall Gross Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:32:34am |
Here are my memories of that day, too long to post as a comment here:
| 46 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:33:41am |
re: #44 webevintage
Understandable “survivor’s guilt”.
| 47 |
William Barnett-Lewis Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:34:02am |
I was at work and a friend called about the first plane. We talked as I tried to pull up the NYTimes web page, silly me. I remembered and told him about the B-25 that hit the Empire State building in 1945 and we presumed that this was the same kind of terrible accident. By then co-workers had set up a TV set and we saw the second plane hit.
| 48 |
BigPapa Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:34:44am |
I was camping in cabins so we were detached from media. The caretaker came through and told us terrorists crashed planes into the WTC. It was a strange 2 more days until I got back to reality and connected to media, immersing myself in the internet for hours.
In all the graphic media images seen since then, I still recall the pictures of two people jumping from the Towers, holding hands on the way down.
| 49 |
harlequinade Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:37:24am |
re: #44 webevintage
re: #46 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Understandable “survivor’s guilt”.
I have a friend. She was in SF when this happened and was crippled by it. She donated, and sent things when they were asked for by was consumed by the thought “I’m a web designer. What am I doing with my life when things like this can happen.”
She’s an EMT now.
| 50 |
reine.de.tout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:37:29am |
I was at work, sitting outside for a break, when someone walked out and said a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.
We didn’t think much of it, until we went back inside and looked at a TV. We watched as the 2nd plane flew into the 2nd tower.
Then we heard news of the Pentagon being hit, and rumors of other planes on similar missions, still in the air, somewhere. Chaos, confusion, fear, tears.
I wanted to go pick up my kid from school, bring her home and hug her forever.
I remember wondering at first where those folks had managed to get empty planes. It simply did not occur to me that anyone would hijack planes full of people and deliberately fly the people-filled planes into a building. It eventually dawned on me that they planes had regular people on them, it could have been me or someone I loved, and that those passengers had to have been fully aware what their end would be. I can’t imagine the horror of it.
| 51 |
Walter L. Newton Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:40:24am |
“But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
| 52 |
wrenchwench Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:42:25am |
re: #35 tappdancer
IA purely personal result is that I have, in nine years, become quite knowlegeable about Islam and Islamism.
Did you and filetandrelease study together?
| 53 |
Randall Gross Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:42:50am |
I will never forget 9/11, and every year at this time I think upon it when I wake in the morning.
My own vow since that time however is to move on, to ensure that I do not dwell overmuch because then to me the terrorists get the win. Instead, on 9/11 I always build things, and today like past 9/11’s I’ll be doing that so you won’t see much of me here.
| 54 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:43:44am |
My most vivid memory of 9/11 actually had nothing to do with the attacks at all. It was late that night, when Fox News (remember this was before FNC went downhill) showed footage of a Northern Alliance bombardment of Taliban positions near Kabul. My exact though was “Take that , you bastards. Get used to it, because we’re going to be sending you even more like that, and soon.”
| 55 |
alexknyc Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:44:22am |
I was at work that morning, teaching special ed high school kids.
The administration wanted us to continue teaching, to provide some semblance of “normalcy.”
Several teachers couldn’t reach their spouses who worked in the area (or in the towers themselves). One teacher was married to a fireman who never came home. Students couldn’t reach their parents. It was chaos.
One of my students, when he first heard the news, said “It’s Osama bin Laden.”
I couldn’t get home because the bridges and tunnels were closed. We had students and teachers who spent the night in the gym.
It was a horrible day for everyone.
Including my French then-girlfriend, who had a ticket to NYC for 9/11 and spent three days in Newfoundland.
| 56 |
Tiny alien kittens are watching you Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:44:27am |
I was living in Anchorage at the time and had given up my cable box months before because I pretty much spent all my free time on the internet (mainly in Yahoo chat, lol).
Of course with the four hour time difference everything was pretty much over by the time I woke up that morning. When I started to hear about what had happened and what was being shown on TV I immediately headed down to the cable company to get another box (I had no antenna). I was lucky in that they had not gotten around to disconnecting me out at the pole yet since I turned the box in voluntarily and was paid up rather than them cutting me off for non-payment or something.
I was shocked to see the images being shown, horrified by what I think we all believed to be a much greater loss of life at the time. With so many working in the towers surely the death toll was at least five figures, I simply hadn’t believed the kind of evil existed to do such a thing. I remember hearing all the speculation and learning about Al-qaeda for the first time.
Every once in a great while I will go to the Internet Archive site and watch the newscast footage from that day for a bit. The shock, the bafflement, and the anger are readily apparent and fresh from the anchors and the people interviewed.
| 57 |
122 Year Old Obama Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:44:30am |
I was in school at the time. Mum pulled me out, and we both watched the news when we got home.
You can imagine the horror my 14 year old brain felt when I watched the planes fly into the buildings.
| 58 |
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:47:14am |
re: #3 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Stephen King’s short story “The Things We Left Behind” is a lovely remembrance. If you get a chance, read it.
Have to second this. It’s well worth the time it takes to read it.
| 59 |
Eclectic Cyborg Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:47:19am |
I was two weeks into my college classes as a fresh faced 20 year old when 9/11 hit. It’s funny the one thing I remember most about that morning was before the attacks. I woke up and looked out my window and thought to myself “what a perfect day”. It was gloriously sunny, the sky was clear and crystal blue and the temperature was fantastic.
We were in class reviewing a grammar exercise when I heard someone in the back start talking about a plane and a tower. When we realized what was happening we brought a TV into the room to watch. Both planes had hit but the two towers were still standing at this point. I will never forget the silence in the room. 45 people starting at a TV stone faced for over an hour just watching in disbelief.
Our professor gave us that afternoon off, god bless him.
Not sure how many of you have seen this, but it’s a remarkable sculpture done by a Canadian woman that I think captures the feelings of 9/11 quite well. It’s the angel leaning on the NY firefighter who’s holding a U.S. flag.
| 60 |
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:50:24am |
re: #30 Charles
I’ll never forget the silence, when all flights in the US were grounded. In a city like LA you don’t even notice how much of the constant audio background is due to planes flying overhead — until they completely stop. It was eerie, and frightening in a primal way.
That was it for me. At the time, I worked near the DFW airport, and I guess I had learned to tune out the constant noise. The silence, as they say, was deafening.
| 61 |
wrenchwench Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:51:51am |
re: #59 dragonfire1981
it’s a remarkable sculpture
Someone who makes such a beautiful thing in such an ephemeral medium is a special artist.
| 62 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:52:43am |
re: #58 negativ
Thanks. I want people to read it, for some inexplicable reason.
Maybe I found it cathartic.
| 63 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:54:06am |
Carole King and James Taylor are on PBS right now… nice sound track to this thread.
| 64 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:54:40am |
I had to work on this day. Sent a waitress home to grab a TV. Customers surrounded it. One old crusty guy, as we watched the tower fall said “I don’t think they realize what they have brought onto themselves”.
| 65 |
KenJen Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:55:53am |
My friend from Sweden had flown in on Sept 10th. The airlines had misplaced her luggage and promised to bring it to us the following day. The next morning we watched the news coverage together. I was in tears. She on the other hand was on the phone bitching out whoever she could at the airlines about her lost luggage. When Osama’s name and photo appeared on the tv she said “To bad he did this, he is so handsome and rich”. After that comment I told her she was no longer allowed to stay with me and I dropped her off at my parents house. Haven’t spoken to her since.
| 66 |
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:56:11am |
By the way, I was working as an IT subcontractor for AT&T at the time, and around noon CST that day the guy in charge made it clear that anyone who went home early for any reason would be fired.
| 67 |
(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:56:49am |
EDL? I thought the Geller/Spencer-tons were only supposed to start their rally at 3PM…
| 69 |
Kragar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:58:34am |
I was in the Marines as the time. We had just gotten back in from morning PT and were settling in for the work day when someone came by and said “A plane hit the WTC.” We all thought they meant a cesna or light plane and thought some student pilot or something fucked up. Then we got word of the second plane and word came down we were going on lock down. My wife was pregnant with our first child at the time, but telephones were swamped and it took me almost 3 hours before I could call her. We were busy implementing security on the base network, driving out to make sure our remote sites were secure, we didn’t even get a chance to see any footage till late that night. As we drove around base, we would hear from people “The first tower went down.” “The second tower went down” plus all the different rumors floating around that day.
| 70 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 9:59:33am |
| 71 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:00:41am |
Here come Geller’s fans:
| 72 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:01:40am |
| 73 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:01:44am |
re: #66 negativ
On that note… I was out of town for work for a guy who was crazy… when you were out of town on his dime… you’d better find a way to work 23 hours a day… so… I went on to work and did my job… found out three days later… he had sent everyone home and wondered what I was still doing out of town… thought I should’ve driven back home that day…
He actually confronted me, I told him “I went to work, like I thought you’d want me to”.
He asked me, “What kind of man do you think I am?”
In retrospect, the story is funny.
| 74 |
KenJen Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:02:23am |
| 75 |
Areopagitica Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:02:39am |
I had just turned on the news minutes after the first plane hit. I was making breakfast and getting ready for a 9:00am physics class at U. Illinois in Urbana. I was eating when the second plane hit on live TV and I think I just sat there in shock. I walked to class and every student I saw on the street was hunkered down with road construction crews listening to portable radios. It was hard to take a physics quiz that morning and you could tell that no one wanted to be sitting in that classroom that morning.
| 76 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:02:49am |
| 77 |
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:03:20am |
lol @ troofers
| 78 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:03:25am |
| 80 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:04:50am |
A lot of traffic coming in from Dave Weigel’s tweet of a link to our posts on 9/10/01:
| 81 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:06:30am |
It takes 3 hours to read off the names of victims of 911 at ground zero..
It is really sad.. But long after we are all gone those names will always be spoken on 911..Forever
Thank you America
| 82 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:06:48am |
re: #71 Charles
Here come Geller’s fans:
[Link: www.flickr.com…]
This one’s got a bad caption:
EDL = English Defence League The EDL is anything but peaceful.
| 83 |
Killgore Trout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:06:58am |
re: #80 Charles
A lot of traffic coming in from Dave Weigel’s tweet of a link to our posts on 9/10/01:
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com…]
Nice.
| 84 |
Aceofwhat? Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:07:40am |
re: #18 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I was in Charleston, SC… Red Roof Inn… Turned on the TV, realized I had overslept… the first plane had already hit. Katie Kouric and Matt Lauer were looking down toward Lower Manhattan and talking about this “accident” but weren’t sure what was going on…
I remember thinking, “Man, those buildings have so many redundant safety systems; but people are probably freaking out anyway”
… Then the second plane hit.
Then, everything changed.
Me too, except i was at work. I was wondering what had gone so wrong with the plane that the pilot couldn’t even keep it out of such a densely populated area before it crashed. Then, a little later, someone said that they heard a second plane had hit a building and we all instantly realized that this was no accident. Took an early lunch with some co-workers and seethed as the buildings collapsed.
Gotta run, but i wanted to log on for a second to the only online group of brains that i take seriously these days. God bless you all, and may we continue to struggle to be the sort of people and country despised by worst elements of our world.
| 85 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:07:59am |
re: #79 KenJen
*waves* long time! Hope you are well stranger
| 86 |
Randall Gross Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:08:19am |
re: #54 Dark_Falcon
Hate to disagree with a friend, however you are either confused or you’ve conflated and collapsed time — which is not unusual for witnesses suffering grief. The Northern Alliance didn’t get near Kabul iirc until Oct-Nov - this from the BBC timeline:
2001 May - Taliban order religious minorities to wear tags identifying themselves as non-Muslims, and Hindu women to veil themselves like other Afghan women.
2001 September - Eight foreign aid workers on trial in the Supreme Court for promoting Christianity. This follows months of tension between Taliban and aid agencies.
2001 - Ahmad Shah Masood, legendary guerrilla and leader of the main opposition to the Taliban, is killed, apparently by assassins posing as journalists. [9/9/01- NA did not start moving until after this.]
2001 October - US, Britain launch air strikes against Afghanistan after Taliban refuse to hand over Osama bin Laden, held responsible for the September 11 attacks on America.
2001 November - Opposition forces seize Mazar-e Sharif and within days march into Kabul and other key cities.
The footage you saw might have been stock footage of the genocidal shelling and rain of rockets by Hekmatyar that murdered thousands of Shia / Hazara civilians, and which originally drove Masoud and his Northern Alliance out of Kabul in 1996.
Here is a documentary that covers some of it:
WARNING this is highly disturbing -
| 87 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:08:47am |
Morning lizards. This day always makes me realize how much evil there is in the world. Prayers for all those who perished by the attacks and I hope we never experience anything like that again.
| 88 |
Killgore Trout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:09:03am |
| 89 |
KenJen Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:09:55am |
re: #82 Dark_Falcon
…and an incorrect sign. Should read “no mosque 2 BLOCKS from ground zero.”
| 90 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:09:59am |
I was living in Jersey City and had been laid off from a job as a coder about 6 months prior to 9/11. My job was close to the South Street Seaport, about a 10 minute walk from the WTC. I used to take the PATH train every morning and would arrive at the WTC station around 8:45am.
That afternoon I was supposed to meet a graphic designer & former co-worker in the city to talk about a new freelance project. He called me and told me we might have to postpone because there had been some sort of accident at the WTC involving a plane.
I turned on the TV and saw the smoking North Tower. They kept saying it might have been a small plane, and I kept thinking there was no way a small plane could do that kind of damage. I got a sick feeling in my gut. Then the 2nd plane hit the South Tower and there was no question in my mind what was happening. Suddenly, all but one the local channels went down (their antennas were on the tower).
All I could think about was the memory of the throngs of people people that exited like thousands of ants from all the trains at the WTC during every morning rush hour, and how many of them were probably already in the towers. Then they said the planes were commercial passenger flights. It took several minutes for my brain to process the additional horror of that. Then came news of the Pentagon & the field in PA.
I sat in front of the TV in a daze. The the South Tower fell. My brain protested that this couldn’t possibly be happening to my beloved NYC. Then I remembered (again) that there were people in there, probably thousands of them. Then the North Tower fell. Lower Manhattan looked like it had been hit with a nuclear bomb. It was surreal and all too dreadfully real.
I don’t remember much after that, just a blur of weeks & weeks of watching the impacts & subsequent destruction being incessantly replayed on TV, and sitting around alternating between crying, raging, and being consumed by an utterly black depression.
Now, as then, I cannot comprehend how anyone could do such a thing.
| 92 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:11:19am |
If you haven’t seen “Beneath the Veil” by Sariah Shah (sp?) you need to. You can find it on youtube. Was originally on CNN. I hate the Taliban.
| 93 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:11:22am |
re: #86 Thanos
Hate to disagree with a friend, however you are either confused or you’ve conflated and collapsed time — which is not unusual for witnesses suffering grief. The Northern Alliance didn’t get near Kabul iirc until Oct-Nov - this from the BBC timeline:
The footage you saw might have been stock footage of the genocidal shelling and rain of rockets by Hekmatyar that murdered thousands of Shia / Hazara civilians, and which originally drove Masoud and his Northern Alliance out of Kabul in 1996.
Here is a documentary that covers some of it:WARNING this is highly disturbing -
[Video]
There was footage shown of the Kabul area being fired on and it was described as happening right then. But the bombardment was localized, not Hekmatyar’s indiscriminate firing.
| 94 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:13:06am |
re: #76 Cannadian Club Akbar
As I said, a fantastic ally. They were prepared to hand out humanitarian assistance in NYC. Katrina is another example. This quote from their ambassador Frank McKenna after Katrina makes me tear up.
You are our friends and together we are family – you do not suffer alone.
And their response to Katrina was stellar.
I’m really sorry for going so off topic. I love you Canadians!
| 95 |
PhillyPretzel Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:14:21am |
I remember being at work and a co-worker came in an announced that a plane flew into the WTC. After that most of my fellow co-workers were glued to my radio (I was the only person on the floor who had a portable radio) or to the internet. At noon we were dismissed for the day. When I finally got home I called my dad to tell him I was okay. He like then PA Governor Tom Ridge was pissed. I still remember seeing a broadcast from London of Queen Elizabeth II entering Westminster Abbey to the music of the Star Spangled Banner.
| 96 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:14:36am |
re: #86 Thanos
This is why we MUST NOT leave Afghanistan. We cannot not let those Taliban monsters regain control of Afghanistan, and start slaughter Hazara, among many others, again.
| 97 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:15:05am |
re: #88 Killgore Trout
The guy on the right in that pic looks pretty similar to this guy but it’s hard to tell. Maybe once we get some more pics we can tell by the tattoos on his arms.
English Nazis.
I Hate English Nazis!
Those shitheads claim to defend England while turning their backs on what England stands for and embracing the symbols of a murderous tyrant who was dedicated to destroying everything England stood for.
| 98 |
KenJen Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:15:13am |
re: #85 HoosierHoops
How have u been. Hope Winston is well. Got rid of the computer (and tv for that matter) at the house probably 11 months ago. Only thing I miss is unfettered access to LGF on a daily basis.
| 99 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:15:45am |
re: #94 ProLifeLiberal
I love Canada. Young Street in Toronto is awesome. The culture, the food and they have, well, CC. But they call it Rye.
| 100 |
abolitionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:17:01am |
Janis Ian — Heart of The City — YouTube
Also here - Lost Cuts
1 Save Somebody
2 Nervous
3 Heart of a City
4 On the Other Side
5 The Last Great PlaceWhen Janis looked at the songs she’d assembled, she realized it was turning into a homage to NYC and the World Trade Center, where she’d played two weeks before the disaster struck.
| 101 |
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:17:24am |
The commentary is arguably more compelling than the video.
| 102 |
Killgore Trout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:18:05am |
Fascists rally in London: EDL demonstrate on 9/11
(pics)
About 200 members of the English Defence League gathered at a pub by Bond Street tube before demonstrating against fundamental Islam on the anniversary of 9/11, marching to the American and Saudi Arabian Embassies. London, United Kingdom, 11/09/2010.
| 103 |
Kragar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:18:37am |
I’ll also remember the asshole who lost his career today.
One of the first orders that came down was a complete lockdown of base phones and computers for official use only. No unneccary chatter or calls, stay off them unless it was vital business.
So we were going thru our firewalls, making sure they were secure when we started getting hits for a porn site. Steady traffic, all from the same adress. We track it down and its a bored Gunnery Sgt who decided since he had nothing better to do, might as well check out some porn. Plus, he was supposed to be promoted to 1stSgt in the next few weeks.
We reported it to our OIC, it went up the chain. Within 30 minutes, the guy got a visit from the MPs, was placed under arrest and taken to the CG to explain himself. Last I heard, he was courtmartialed and got busted down.
| 104 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:18:58am |
re: #98 KenJen
How have u been. Hope Winston is well. Got rid of the computer (and tv for that matter) at the house probably 11 months ago. Only thing I miss is unfettered access to LGF on a daily basis.
Well Damn it! it’s been probably a year or so since we emailed each other..
I hope you are well..Winston is great!
| 105 |
karmic_inquisitor Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:20:18am |
I think part of the reflections today, 9 years on, is the role that the Internet has played in changing the nature of national discourse.
It hasn’t been altogether positive.
I say that as someone who completely embraced the Internet well before even http was developed and when modems moved data between servers every hour or so - so an email to Australia took a few hours (which was very cool back then).
The abundance of information has allowed people to simply engage in confirmation bias rather than anything approaching research. I have done this plenty myself.
The emotion of 9/11, and the sense that “it came out of nowhere” got people looking for answers. Google news was inadvertently launched after 9/11 when google simply slapped links to news sources on their homepage for a few weeks. People sought a narrative that made sense - so we all brought our preconceptions based on past experience to the process. What was “we are united” on 9/12 was really doomed to failure. I remember it was only a month later when I was listening on the radio to Chomsky address FIRE wherein every notion he had about the United States was confirmed by 9/11. Spin the dial on the radio and evangelical preachers were saying that every notion they had about the United States was confirmed by 9/11.
Political discourse has always been unfair and fraught with deception, hidden motives, rationalizations, and people unwilling to bend. I recently asked friend who is still a fiery partisan about how he envisioned himself in a utopia where only the most informed and honest debated topics. He agreed that there would still be disagreement. He savored the idea of it. then I asked him “on what notions that you currently hold would you expect to be proven wrong”. That caught him off guard. He thought about it and said “None, really.” Then I attacked him for being dishonest and picked him apart for being the very partisan he is - one unwilling to admit to a wrong idea or bringing over ruling preconceptions to an argument. The fact is, none of us expect to have our minds changed yet we hit the Interwebs in search on information - the stuff we stick to is the stuff that confirms our beliefs.
That sums up the Internet - what has been wrong with political discourse on steroids. As for me, some of my opinions have changed while many haven’t. What they are doesn’t matter. What matters is that I realize that I am every bit as susceptible to using preconceptions to shape my view of another, interpret his/her words as I’d like to and then go from there. This in spite of holding high an ideal that people should be honest and informed. I think you can be honest and informed and still engage in all these things that I find wrong with discourse today. It comes down to language and culture (I guess I have learned something from Derrida and Rorty even though I started reading their work with the intent of opposing it).
I suppose “I am aware of my contradictions” which Derrida said was a sign of liberation and maturity. Yet it doesn’t feel that way. There is no way to fix all of this. You can only try to understand it. Which is very dissatisfying to people who value honest reasoning.
To the friends I lost on 9/11 - I still think about you. But your images fade and your kids have grown. “Never forget” is a tall order.
| 106 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:21:18am |
I was working at a contractor yard that day. I was in my office working up a quote when I noticed people coming in at the desk and discussing something. I thought is was unusual so I finally went out there and asked what happened. They told me a plane hit one of the WTC buildings. I turned on the radio and we listened to the coverage. Right after that the second plane hit. Then the Pentagon was hit, we were under attack, another plane was headed to Washington, the president was in flight but it was unknown where he was, the fist tower collapsed, then the second…it seemed like every 15 minutes something new was being reported. I felt sick to my stomach after listening for a couple hours and left for the day.
The next day (maybe two days later) some jackass came in wearing a pin which he told me mentioned that the government planned the attacks. I met my first truther right then.
| 107 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:21:28am |
re: #103 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)
America was under attack and he needed to look at porn? He needed to be busted in the chops.
| 108 |
eneri Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:22:09am |
Sorry to say you’re right. Bigotry is alive and well.
| 109 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:23:37am |
re: #106 NJDhockeyfan
Oh, hell. I am glad that didn’t happen to me. It was so raw to me the next day, I probably would’ve killed the guy.
| 110 |
sattv4u2 Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:24:37am |
Charles
Thanks for the thread
To this day, I still can’t really talk about the things I saw (raw footage being fed to networks)
However, I will say this
Jason, you are missed!
| 111 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:25:52am |
re: #109 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
Oh, hell. I am glad that didn’t happen to me. It was so raw to me the next day, I probably would’ve killed the guy.
I came close to jumping over the desk and punching the shit out of him. Instead I walked away and sat in my office dumbfounded by the idiocy.
| 112 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:27:17am |
re: #50 reine.de.tout
I remember wondering at first where those folks had managed to get empty planes. It simply did not occur to me that anyone would hijack planes full of people and deliberately fly the people-filled planes into a building. It eventually dawned on me that they planes had regular people on them, it could have been me or someone I loved, and that those passengers had to have been fully aware what their end would be. I can’t imagine the horror of it.
Me too. For some reason it took me some time to register that the planes had had passengers on them, and for some reason that really shocked me, more than the attack on the WTC, when it registered.
I don’t exactly know why, but it was the detail my mind couldn’t grasp at first.
| 113 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:27:54am |
re: #110 sattv4u2
Charles
Thanks for the thread
To this day, I still can’t really talk about the things I saw (raw footage being fed to networks)
However, I will say this
Jason, you are missed!
A lot of footage this morning on History Channel and the news feeds…God it’s painful to watch…There are Hero’s…Then there are 911 Heros…
| 114 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:28:31am |
I will stay home today. Because if I run into Troofers, there will be violence. Kinda hate to say that. OK, I’m over it.
| 115 |
PhillyPretzel Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:28:45am |
re: #112 SanFranciscoZionist
You are not the only ones. Me too.
| 116 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:31:23am |
When I realized this was an attack and not just an accident I tried to call my mom who lives across the bridge in NJ. I couldn’t get through…all lines were busy.
| 117 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:32:03am |
I thought “The Rising” was a great song tribute.
Can’t find a good one to post, tho…
| 118 |
jaunte Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:32:54am |
I had been to New York on business just a few weeks before, and gone to dinner at Windows on the World with an old friend. I remember the long, long ride on the elevator, the beautiful night view of the bridges on the river. When I saw the planes hit, the first people I thought about were the workers in that restaurant.
The rest of that day, I was just shocked numb, trying to stay ‘normal’ by going through the motions of regular days. Soon, the only planes in the air were jet fighters patrolling over Houston, loud in contrast with the generally silent skies.
| 119 |
eneri Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:32:55am |
I was getting ready to go to a school and work with a kid. The first plane hit and I thought it was another Frenchman being a fool. Then the second one hit and I knew. Still, I had to go. Cops everywhere. I listened to the radio and called my family back east to see they if they were OK.At the school, I couldn’t get the words out; someone called and we watched it on TV.
I had to go to another school. What I want to say is school personnel, even those who wanted to go home knew our kids (life skills special education) are the most vulnerable of all and we had to stay and protect them. The teachers and aides were among the bravest and most selfless people I have ever known.
| 120 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:33:01am |
re: #116 NJDhockeyfan
When I realized this was an attack and not just an accident I tried to call my mom who lives across the bridge in NJ. I couldn’t get through…all lines were busy.
I can’t imagine what you went through…
| 121 |
Kragar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:33:08am |
You know, the term “Hallowed Ground” has now beaten out the term “Grim Milestone” in my lexicon for most overused/overhyped media phrase.
| 123 |
webevintage Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:33:47am |
re: #112 SanFranciscoZionist
Me too. For some reason it took me some time to register that the planes had had passengers on them, and for some reason that really shocked me, more than the attack on the WTC, when it registered.
I don’t exactly know why, but it was the detail my mind couldn’t grasp at first.
I think it is easier to know that humans could kill 3000 nameless, faceless people then the uberevil required to have looked into the faces of the people, some of them children traveling without their parents, on a plane that you plan to slam into a building.
| 124 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:34:06am |
re: #117 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I thought “The Rising” was a great song tribute.
Can’t find a good one to post, tho…
I’ll help…
| 125 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:34:30am |
Had it not been for 911, I would not have found LGF.
Now, please don’t take this wrong, but I wish I’d never met any of you.
| 126 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:34:42am |
My husband, then boyfriend, called to tell me to turn on the TV.
He said, “They say it’s Bin Laden”.
I said, “They said that in Oklahoma City too, at first. Wait and see.”
He said, “It’s his MO. He’s hit the WTC before.” And I said, “Oh shit.”
On the bus, going to work, we all sat quietly while a woman in a business suit and running shoes listened to the news on earphones and reported to the rest of the passengers. As we were passing the Arguello Street stop, she looked up and said, “The second tower is down. They just said it collapsed.”
| 127 |
PT Barnum Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:35:26am |
I was at work. I don’t think I ever have come to terms with the enormity of the event. I didn’t know anyone who was lost that day, and my life really wasn’t affected all that much.
However, the following 10 years have allowed for a whole lot of truly hateful, ignorant people to push their agenda forward beyond anything they would have been able to do had 9/11 not happened.
The radical Islamists have had it a lot easier too.
| 128 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:35:27am |
re: #120 HoosierHoops
I can’t imagine what you went through…
Planes from Newark airport fly over her house all day every day. I was scared she was in danger of an attack. I couldn’t reach her until the next day.
| 129 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:36:28am |
It’s a little difficult for me to read what I wrote on 9/11, because I wasn’t nearly as good a writer then. Hard to turn off the inner critic when I read it.
| 130 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:36:31am |
re: #113 HoosierHoops
A lot of footage this morning on History Channel and the news feeds…God it’s painful to watch…There are Hero’s…Then there are 911 Heros…
Here’s a story fit for today:
At last, hero of ongoing war is alive to receive Medal of Honor
Washington (CNN) — Medals of Honor have been rare since the end of the Vietnam war. And not one of the recipients from the Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan deployments have been alive to have the iconic blue ribbon with the gold star draped around his neck. Until now.
The White House Friday announced that Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, 25, of Hiawatha, Iowa, will be awarded the nation’s highest medal for valor for his actions in Afghanistan, and he will come to the White House to receive the medal himself.
A date for the ceremony has not been announced.
Giunta was a specialist serving with the Airborne 503rd Infantry Regiment on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan when his unit was attacked on the night of October 25, 2007.
According to Defense Department documents, Giunta and his fellow soldiers were walking back to base along the top of a mountain ridge when the enemy attacked from their front and their left. Taliban fighters barraged the Americans with AK-47s, rocket propelled grenades and Soviet-era large machine guns.
Giunta saw several of his fellow soldiers go down. He ran forward, throwing grenades and returning enemy fire, to help one soldier who had been shot but was still fighting, the documents say. Then he noticed one of the wounded soldiers was missing.
Searching for his wounded friend Sgt. Josh Brennan, Giunta ran over a hill where moments before Taliban fighters had been shooting at him. Now he was alone, out of sight of his fellow soldiers, in an area that the Taliban had controlled just moments before.
Giunta saw two Taliban fighters dragging Brennan away. He ran after them, killing one and wounding the other, who ran off.
Giunta instantly started providing first aid to Brennan, who had been shot at least six times, the documents say. Eventually a medic arrived and a helicopter was called in to take Brennan to a hospital, but he later died of his wounds.
Giunta’s action, however, meant that Brennan was not at the mercy of the Taliban, and his parents would be able to give him a proper burial instead of wondering what became of him.
Giunta’s quick response to the Taliban attack also helped his unit repulse the enemy fighters before they could cause more casualties, the Defense Department documents note.
Giunta was shot twice, with one round hitting his body armor and the second destroying a weapon slung over his back. He was not seriously hurt.
President Barack Obama called Giunta, a native of Hiawatha, Iowa, on Thursday to inform him of the honor and to thank him for “extraordinary bravery in battle,” a White House statement said.
SNIP
| 131 |
PT Barnum Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:37:13am |
I do remember one thing more than anything else, though. The image of people falling out of the towers to almost certain death. That image will remain seared in my memory forever.
| 132 |
Randall Gross Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:37:19am |
re: #93 Dark_Falcon
Well I’m not sure what you saw, but it couldn’t have been NA shelling, they were no where near at the time and in days after that we were still talking to the Taleban in Kabul to try to get them to give up Bin Laden. Perhaps it was a retaliatory suicide bombing in the wake of Masoud’s assassination, Mongo not know.
| 133 |
wrenchwench Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:38:18am |
re: #129 Charles
It’s a little difficult for me to read what I wrote on 9/11, because I wasn’t nearly as good a writer then. Hard to turn off the inner critic when I read it.
Don’t worry about it.
I read somewhere that you aren’t really the same person anyway.
| 134 |
Cato the Elder Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:38:26am |
re: #112 SanFranciscoZionist
That was the part that I still can’t get over: turning people into carbon-based bomb components to kill other people. Pure evil.
| 135 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:39:00am |
re: #131 PT Barnum
I do remember one thing more than anything else, though. The image of people falling out of the towers to almost certain death. That image will remain seared in my memory forever.
That is making peace with your maker and choosing your own fate. Or burning. I hate that.
| 136 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:40:57am |
re: #131 PT Barnum
I’ve probably seen hundreds of links… but never clicked them.
| 137 |
PT Barnum Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:41:55am |
re: #135 Cannadian Club Akbar
That is making peace with your maker and choosing your own fate. Or burning. I hate that.
I think the part that brought it home were the images of people in Palestine and other places in the streets celebrating the death of 4000 of their fellow human beings. Made me feel incredibly angry and powerless.
| 138 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:43:45am |
re: #136 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I’ve probably seen hundreds of links… but never clicked them.
If you haven’t seen NatGeo’s “Inside 9/11” I recommend it.
| 139 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:43:54am |
re: #131 PT Barnum
I do remember one thing more than anything else, though. The image of people falling out of the towers to almost certain death. That image will remain seared in my memory forever.
A lot of people I know thought immediately of the Triangle Fire when they saw that. The two are all twisted up in my head.
| 140 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:44:20am |
re: #137 PT Barnum
I think the part that brought it home were the images of people in Palestine and other places in the streets celebrating the death of 4000 of their fellow human beings. Made me feel incredibly angry and powerless.
That really pissed me off when I saw it. Sorry to post it again but just in case someone didn’t know…
| 141 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:44:24am |
re: #137 PT Barnum
I think the part that brought it home were the images of people in Palestine and other places in the streets celebrating the death of 4000 of their fellow human beings. Made me feel incredibly angry and powerless.
We should send them more aid money. Fuckers.
| 142 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:44:25am |
re: #137 PT Barnum
I’ve often wondered how many folks who celebrated on that day have been killed by the same types of assholes since….
| 143 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:45:06am |
The most important memory of 911 I will never forget forever
The days and weeks after 911 how America came together.. We became Brothers and Sisters for a period that I have never experienced.. Those first days we were Americans..Not Pubs..Not liberals not Indy’s..We truly were one nation under God indivisible…It was a special moment…
| 144 |
General Nimrod Bodfish Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:45:23am |
It was near the end of 2nd period in high school when we first heard about the first plane hitting the WTC. In 3rd period the school had a TV program where students can make their own news broadcast about upcoming events at the school and reports on their sports teams. Every class room had a TV. After the school news program ended, I can’t remember a single TV not having either CNN, FOX, NBC, etc on reporting on the attacks. I don’t think we all got much school work done that day, and the following days, as well.
| 145 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:45:30am |
re: #138 Cannadian Club Akbar
Didn’t click them, ‘cause I don’t want to see them.
| 146 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:45:38am |
re: #132 Thanos
Well I’m not sure what you saw, but it couldn’t have been NA shelling, they were no where near at the time and in days after that we were still talking to the Taliban in Kabul to try to get them to give up Bin Laden. Perhaps it was a retaliatory suicide bombing in the wake of Masoud’s assassination, Mongo not know.
Well, it wasn’t us. Maybe longer ranged arty. The NA had a handful of 203mm guns, with the range to hit, maybe it was those. I don’t know either and this far forward in time it does not really matter. But thanks for the insight.
| 147 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:46:08am |
re: #141 Cannadian Club Akbar
We should send them more aid money. Fuckers.
Hell, we’ve spent more money per capita on protection and social services and grad school grants for the Western idiots who spent the next month driving me off all my old left-wing e-mail lists with their hate and shallow stupidity.
If you come to think of it.
| 148 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:46:19am |
re: #143 HoosierHoops
The most important memory of 911 I will never forget forever
The days and weeks after 911 how America came together.. We became Brothers and Sisters for a period that I have never experienced.. Those first days we were Americans..Not Pubs..Not liberals not Indy’s..We truly were one nation under God indivisible…It was a special moment…
Spot on!
| 149 |
(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:47:56am |
| 150 |
PT Barnum Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:48:27am |
re: #143 HoosierHoops
The most important memory of 911 I will never forget forever
The days and weeks after 911 how America came together.. We became Brothers and Sisters for a period that I have never experienced.. Those first days we were Americans..Not Pubs..Not liberals not Indy’s..We truly were one nation under God indivisible…It was a special moment…
Soon FUBAR ed by the neoconservatives who saw it as a golden moment to justify pretty much any fucking thing they wanted to do.
| 151 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:48:30am |
My now-husband and I had an SCA meeting that evening, and we went, because we figured we should see how everyone was doing. The group ended up at a local bar, as usual, and I watched as one middle-aged gent who was a Vietnam vet and one who wasn’t got extremely smashed and lamented how Vietnam was a stupid war, but this one was going to be RIGHTEOUS, and they were too old to go.
It was surreal. Also, oddly comforting.
| 152 |
Cato the Elder Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:48:31am |
re: #143 HoosierHoops
One whose like I hope never again to see.
| 153 |
Gus Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:49:16am |
On the morning of September 11th 2001 I had gotten up late as I sometimes do. I did not have any clue as to what had just occurred since it was a quiet morning. On my way to work I turned on my local jazz station, KUVO, only to find what sounded like a news report reporting of a chaotic event. At first I thought it was fictional and just a radio drama much like “The War of the Worlds.”
After scanning the other channels I then realized that something very terrible had taken place. I was unaware that both WTC towers had been struck — I was enraged for the rest of the time having heard whom might have been behind the attack. In the weeks prior I had become aware of the abuses suffered by Afghan women under Taliban rule.
When I arrived at work I was told that both had been struck and as I gathered with the others around a small black and white television I saw for the first time as one of the towers collapsed. I could not think of anything to do other than sob uncontrollably.
| 154 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:49:35am |
re: #149 000G
The temptation for the passing driver to just gently fender-bender them must be unbelievable.
| 155 |
tappdancer Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:49:40am |
I think the part that brought it home were the images of people in Palestine and other places in the streets celebrating the death of 4000 of their fellow human beings. Made me feel incredibly angry and powerless
.
I will remember the face of the fat lady with the big glasses until my dying day.
| 157 |
What, me worry? Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:50:09am |
And today we see a fundamentalist preacher meet with a Muslim imam, probably the first he ever met, and decide not to burn Korans. I think we are challenged to find hope today.
New York Muslims
csmonitor.com
An Interfaith rally. See what love the preacher brought?
content.usatoday.com
Jews Who Support the Mosque
nbcnewyork.com
Sometimes hope is where you look for it.
| 158 |
wrenchwench Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:50:21am |
| 159 |
Killgore Trout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:50:30am |
re: #143 HoosierHoops
The most important memory of 911 I will never forget forever
The days and weeks after 911 how America came together.. We became Brothers and Sisters for a period that I have never experienced.. Those first days we were Americans..Not Pubs..Not liberals not Indy’s..We truly were one nation under God indivisible…It was a special moment…
My experience was a little different. I was working in a shop with all progressive liberals. They started talking about America’s support for Israel and imperialism immediately. I was the only one who actually favored military action against Afghanistan. About two weeks after 9-11 the boss told me to start keeping my views to myself.
| 160 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:52:29am |
Two separate customers told me how 9-11 affected their families.
One woman said her daughter worked at an office across the street from the WTC. As she was putting her key in the door the first plane hit.
Another lady said her son works at the Pentagon. He was outside smoking a cigarette when he watched the plane flying low and hit the building.
| 161 |
PT Barnum Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:52:31am |
re: #159 Killgore Trout
My experience was a little different. I was working in a shop with all progressive liberals. They started talking about America’s support for Israel and imperialism immediately. I was the only one who actually favored military action against Afghanistan. About two weeks after 9-11 the boss told me to start keeping my views to myself.
I understood at the time that our foreign policy had something to do with why we were attacked, but at the same time, I wanted to find those sons of bitches, put them in a room with a bomb set to randomly explode and let them stay there, never knowing when or if the bomb would go off.
| 162 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:52:43am |
re: #92 Cannadian Club Akbar
If you haven’t seen “Beneath the Veil” by Sariah Shah (sp?) you need to. You can find it on youtube. Was originally on CNN. I hate the Taliban.
I’ve never seen that, thanks for reminding me about it.
Just an aside: Sairah Shah’s father, Idries Shah, was a well known Sufi who was almost single-handedly responsible for bringing Sufi ideas to the West. I read his books prior to becoming Muslim. The concepts within them have stayed with me all these years and have been the gauge by which I measure all things related to Islam.
| 163 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:53:45am |
re: #159 Killgore Trout
My experience was a little different. I was working in a shop with all progressive liberals. They started talking about America’s support for Israel and imperialism immediately. I was the only one who actually favored military action against Afghanistan. About two weeks after 9-11 the boss told me to start keeping my views to myself.
My boss is center/left. I am center/right. He wanted everyone dead. He’s cool. But over the years, we debate more. Not a raised voice, though.
| 164 |
RexMundi Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:54:16am |
Today just hurts me so much. I don’t feel well at all right now.
| 165 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:54:17am |
re: #156 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I think if one thing was definitively noted during those weeks, it’s that while “The Star-Spangled Banner” may be fine for ball games, it’s not what shellshocked Americans sing in large groups for comfort.
Then again, I recall my father telling me some tale of a bunch of guys jumping out of a plane over Europe during WWII, who sang “America the Beautiful” before bailing.
A reporter asked one of the survivors why they didn’t sing TSSB, and he said they didn’t think of it.
| 166 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:54:28am |
re: #162 CuriousLurker
I forget you are Muslim. I’m glad you are here.
| 167 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:55:00am |
re: #123 webevintage
I think it is easier to know that humans could kill 3000 nameless, faceless people then the uberevil required to have looked into the faces of the people, some of them children traveling without their parents, on a plane that you plan to slam into a building.
That’s exactly what made that part especially diabolical to me.
| 168 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:55:05am |
re: #159 Killgore Trout
My experience was a little different. I was working in a shop with all progressive liberals. They started talking about America’s support for Israel and imperialism immediately. I was the only one who actually favored military action against Afghanistan. About two weeks after 9-11 the boss told me to start keeping my views to myself.
Really? That’s a damn shame. How long did you last there?
| 170 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:56:17am |
re: #162 CuriousLurker
In her Documentary, she shows Afghanistan before war. Beautiful.
| 171 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:57:00am |
re: #160 NJDhockeyfan
Two separate customers told me how 9-11 affected their families.
One woman said her daughter worked at an office across the street from the WTC. As she was putting her key in the door the first plane hit.
Another lady said her son works at the Pentagon. He was outside smoking a cigarette when he watched the plane flying low and hit the building.
I was working in an insurance office at the time. A couple of weeks later, I got an envelope back that I’d mailed out to WTC2. The stamps told me it was undeliverable.
Strangest business call I’ve ever had to make. “Is the person I addressed this to alive? And in either case, where do I send it now?”
| 173 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:59:19am |
re: #163 Cannadian Club Akbar
My boss is center/left. I am center/right. He wanted everyone dead. He’s cool. But over the years, we debate more. Not a raised voice, though.
There is no political talk at work..Ever! Period! I passed my global Diversity test with a 100% score…I was proud of that..You walk to the next cube and say anything political..Your ass is gone..
HR on line one…
Oh Shit!
| 174 |
(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:00:32am |
re: #159 Killgore Trout
My experience was a little different. I was working in a shop with all progressive liberals. They started talking about America’s support for Israel and imperialism immediately. I was the only one who actually favored military action against Afghanistan. About two weeks after 9-11 the boss told me to start keeping my views to myself.
I remember how highly politicized everybody’s thinking, including my own, starting from the moment awareness of what happened kicked in. I remember riding my bike to a friend, to alert him and watch the thing on TV, before the 2nd plane hit. It did not take me long, one single thought quickly emerged in my head, what this all meant and was going to mean: War.
Everybody had a theory to explain what happened on that day, what lead up to it and how it would be followed. The anti-imperialists, the neo-cons, the culture warriors, etc. Still to this day, 9/11 left more than just a physical Ground Zero in NYC. It’s been so traumatic an event that all political discourse that reaches into national or international realms still to this day and probably for years to come have to provide some sort of explanation or even method of healing, fixing, avenging of what had been broken on 9/11.
| 175 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:00:50am |
re: #171 SanFranciscoZionist
I was working in an insurance office at the time. A couple of weeks later, I got an envelope back that I’d mailed out to WTC2. The stamps told me it was undeliverable.
Strangest business call I’ve ever had to make. “Is the person I addressed this to alive? And in either case, where do I send it now?”
A friend of mine’s husband was on a flight from Boston to Toronto. He took off from the same airport as the terrorists and about the same time they did. By the time he landed all flights were canceled everywhere. He was stuck in Toronto for a while. He may have walked by them in the airport before they got on their planes and took off.
| 176 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:01:34am |
re: #173 HoosierHoops
There is no political talk at work..Ever! Period! I passed my global Diversity test with a 100% score…I was proud of that..You walk to the next cube and say anything political..Your ass is gone..
HR on line one…
Oh Shit!
I guess you forgot I am an asshole!!!
| 177 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:01:47am |
Working in insurance was deeply weird following 9/11. A lot of the brokers had lost people they’d worked with for years at the New York wholesalers. And because hundreds of thousands of original policies were destroyed with the WTC, new policy numbers got issued for all of them, and we were constantly fiddling with “It was this, but is now that…” And every time it was a reminder of why.
| 178 |
BigPapa Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:01:56am |
Another impression I have from that time is the CEO or manager of Cantor Fitzgerald on the news talking of trying to find a way to take care of the families of over 700 of their employees that died that day. I don’t know what ever happened to him but he was in tears. Even now thinking of the immense weight he was bearing, fighting back tears on prime time news, it’s extremely emotional.
| 179 |
Gus Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:02:10am |
re: #159 Killgore Trout
My experience was a little different. I was working in a shop with all progressive liberals. They started talking about America’s support for Israel and imperialism immediately. I was the only one who actually favored military action against Afghanistan. About two weeks after 9-11 the boss told me to start keeping my views to myself.
Adhere to the groupthink or remain silent! Doesn’t that sound familiar. I was fortunate enough in that I didn’t have to suffer many fools. The intent of course wasn’t to attack Afghanistan and its people but to remove (read destroy) Taliban rule of that country that was providing safe haven for Al-Qaeda.
Thinking back now my ex-gf of the time held the same view. That we should respond by doing nothing and, as I saw it, letting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda get off scot-free. That was the beginning of the end of what at the time had become a reasonable friendship. I found her to be more intolerant of my views then mine of hers.
| 180 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:02:31am |
re: #166 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I forget you are Muslim. I’m glad you are here.
That’s a good thing, IMO—it means Lizards see me, not just my religion. ;o)
I’m glad to be here. LGF has been cathartic for me with regard to 9/11, not so much because of what it is now, but because of it’s history and how it has changed. It’s a symbol that, despite all the rage & pain, (most) people’s better angels eventually prevail.
| 181 |
Walter L. Newton Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:02:31am |
re: #171 SanFranciscoZionist
I was working in an insurance office at the time. A couple of weeks later, I got an envelope back that I’d mailed out to WTC2. The stamps told me it was undeliverable.
Strangest business call I’ve ever had to make. “Is the person I addressed this to alive? And in either case, where do I send it now?”
Did you save that envelope? That will be consider highly collectible in the future, especially if the franking dates are close to 9/11. That’s called a “disaster cover” and it has philatelic historical value.
| 182 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:02:35am |
re: #137 PT Barnum
And this quote to me make the whole thing feel really dirty.Parts I think important are bolded
Annette Krüger Spitta of the ARD’s (German public broadcasting) TV magazine Panorama states that footage not aired shows that the street surrounding the celebration in Jerusalem is quiet. Furthermore, she states that a man in a white T-shirt incited the children and gathered people together for the shot. The Panorama report, dated September 20, 2001, quotes Communications Professor Martin Löffelholz explaining that in the images one sees jubilant Palestinian children and several adults but there is no indication that their pleasure is related to the attack. The woman seen cheering (Nawal Abdel Fatah) stated afterwards that she was offered cake if she celebrated on camera, and was frightened when she saw the pictures on television afterward.[25]
That just comes of as really icky, you know, the handing candy and cake to kids and others to do things. This actually makes the Radical Islamists seem even worse to me.
| 183 |
abolitionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:03:40am |
Driving home from work on Sep 12, an auto crash required my detouring from an interstate highway on-ramp near Richmond. A car had been hit broadside by a dump truck —the sort of vehicle urgently needed for cleanup at the Pentagon, or perhaps it was going to NYC. The woman driving the car died there, on a path I routinely traveled. Personally, I count her as another victim of the 911 attacks. The truck driver, too.
| 184 |
Killgore Trout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:03:44am |
re: #168 NJDhockeyfan
Really? That’s a damn shame. How long did you last there?
I lasted another couple of years before I left.
| 185 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:05:17am |
re: #179 Gus 802
Adhere to the groupthink or remain silent! Doesn’t that sound familiar. I was fortunate enough in that I didn’t have to suffer many fools. The intent of course wasn’t to attack Afghanistan and its people but to remove (read destroy) Taliban rule of that country that was providing safe haven for Al-Qaeda.
Thinking back now my ex-gf of the time held the same view. That we should respond by doing nothing and, as I saw it, letting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda get off scot-free. That was the beginning of the end of what at the time had become a reasonable friendship. I found her to be more intolerant of my views then mine of hers.
I got off all my e-mail lists that I was on at the time, except for the mystery novels one. Couldn’t cope. Got off the e-mail list of my old college friends after a giant blow-up with one of them. Got off the young feminists. Got off the just about everything. Not before I savaged a couple of people.
| 186 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:05:59am |
re: #181 Walter L. Newton
Did you save that envelope? That will be consider highly collectible in the future, especially if the franking dates are close to 9/11. That’s called a “disaster cover” and it has philatelic historical value.
Yeah, I’ve got it in my office, in a box. I’ve thought about framing it. Little reminder.
| 187 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:07:03am |
Geller’s fans didn’t get the memo about “NO SIGNS ALLOWED:”
| 188 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:07:32am |
re: #180 CuriousLurker
I’m also very glad your on here too. The MSA on our campus had an Iftar Dinner Wednesday. One of the speakers, a Religious Studies teacher gave a condemnation to the Anti-Muslim Demagogues arouond right now. At the end of the speech, he said that the Non-Muslims should hug Muslims at the dinner. I obliged instantly.
| 189 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:07:49am |
re: #187 Charles
Geller’s fans didn’t get the memo about “NO SIGNS ALLOWED:”
[Link: www.flickr.com…]
That’s not a sign. It’s a…placard! Right!
| 190 |
HoosierHoops Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:09:22am |
re: #176 Cannadian Club Akbar
I guess you forgot I am an asshole!!!
LOL
And you forgot I played Point Guard.. I’ve been trashed talked by the best…( OK the 4th string guy but you know what I mean)
| 191 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:10:04am |
I don’t hate Muslims, Jews, or Christians. I hate assholes.
| 192 |
webevintage Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:10:04am |
re: #187 Charles
Geller’s fans didn’t get the memo about “NO SIGNS ALLOWED:”
[Link: www.flickr.com…]
I love the comment under the picture of the guy with the (why?) Che flag:
“it takes all kinds”
| 193 |
Killgore Trout Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:11:15am |
Meanwhile in London….
Image: 910x.jpg
| 194 |
Gus Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:11:25am |
re: #185 SanFranciscoZionist
I got off all my e-mail lists that I was on at the time, except for the mystery novels one. Couldn’t cope. Got off the e-mail list of my old college friends after a giant blow-up with one of them. Got off the young feminists. Got off the just about everything. Not before I savaged a couple of people.
That must have left you with an empty feeling. I was already fortunate since I was already a loner so didn’t have much to lose relationship wise. The only one was my ex-gf and she quickly ascribed to the default view.
| 195 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:11:30am |
| 196 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:11:43am |
re: #189 SanFranciscoZionist
I’m curious about the difference.
I sincerely hope these kind of haters like the toasty type of the afterlife.
| 197 |
Charles Johnson Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:13:17am |
re: #193 Killgore Trout
The Muhajiroun cult is at it again. All 12 of them.
| 198 |
webevintage Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:14:38am |
From the President’s speech today:
They may seek to spark conflict between different faiths, but as Americans we are not - and never will be - at war with Islam. It was not a religion that attacked us that September day - it was al Qaeda, a sorry band of men which perverts religion. And just as we condemn intolerance and extremism abroad, so will we stay true to our traditions here at home as a diverse and tolerant nation. We champion the rights of every American, including the right to worship as one chooses - as service members and civilians from many faiths do just steps from here, at the very spot where the terrorists struck this building.
Those who attacked us sought to demoralize us, divide us, to deprive us of the very unity, the very ideals, that make America America - those qualities that have made us a beacon of freedom and hope to billions around the world. Today we declare once more we will never hand them that victory. As Americans, we will keep alive the virtues and values that make us who we are and who we must always be.
For our cause is just. Our spirit is strong. Our resolve is unwavering. Like generations before us, let us come together today and all days to affirm certain inalienable rights, to affirm life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. On this day and the days to come, we choose to stay true to our best selves - as one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Here’s the whole thing:
cbsnews.com
| 199 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:14:51am |
re: #193 Killgore Trout
Meanwhile in London…
Image: 910x.jpg
What in the world? Who are they and who’s picture are they burning?
| 200 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:14:53am |
re: #194 Gus 802
That must have left you with an empty feeling. I was already fortunate since I was already a loner so didn’t have much to lose relationship wise. The only one was my ex-gf and she quickly ascribed to the default view.
I stayed close to many of my college buddies, so emotionally I was pretty OK. It was a bad period of political upheaval for me, though. Pretty much the point where I realized that trying to be a real left-winger was not working for me, and that I was going to have to be a regular bleeding-heart liberal like my folks.
I think many people get this revelation in their late twenties, mine was just precipitated by some bad bad political shit.
| 201 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:14:58am |
re: #159 Killgore Trout
My experience was a little different. I was working in a shop with all progressive liberals. They started talking about America’s support for Israel and imperialism immediately. I was the only one who actually favored military action against Afghanistan. About two weeks after 9-11 the boss told me to start keeping my views to myself.
I wouldn’t have lasted it that case. I would’ve gotten into a blazing argument with said liberals and then called them disloyal. And then the boss would have canned me.
| 202 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:15:31am |
re: #197 Charles
The Muhajiroun cult is at it again. All 12 of them.
Perhaps we should see if we can get them to play volleyball with Jones’ church.
| 203 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:15:56am |
re: #199 NJDhockeyfan
What in the world? Who are they and who’s picture are they burning?
That’s Pastor Jones! If they’d get the flag out from under him, I might help.
| 204 |
webevintage Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:16:26am |
re: #199 NJDhockeyfan
What in the world? Who are they and who’s picture are they burning?
I think the picture is of that con man Pastor in Florida (Jones?) and an American flag too.
| 205 |
BigPapa Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:16:53am |
re: #193 Killgore Trout
Meanwhile in London…
Image: 910x.jpg
Notice dispersion of cameramen in between rageboys. Is that what we call a ‘positive feedback loop?’
Can’t help but snicker at the picture of Terry Jones though!
| 206 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:17:11am |
re: #188 ProLifeLiberal
I’m also very glad your on here too.
Thank you.
The MSA on our campus had an Iftar Dinner Wednesday. One of the speakers, a Religious Studies teacher gave a condemnation to the Anti-Muslim Demagogues arouond right now. At the end of the speech, he said that the Non-Muslims should hug Muslims at the dinner. I obliged instantly.
That’s very thoughtful. Everyone can use a hug once in a while.
| 207 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:17:32am |
re: #204 webevintage
I think the picture is of that con man Pastor in Florida (Jones?) and an American flag too.
My sixth graders, BTW, are completely disgusted with Pastor Jones. They feel he’s a very bad Christian.
| 208 |
jaunte Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:17:44am |
re: #199 NJDhockeyfan
al-Muhajiroun:
timesonline.co.uk
| 209 |
donna quixote Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:18:04am |
My local hospital in Alexandria, VA was designated to receive injured. There was a line of prospective blood donors around the hospital.
| 210 |
BigPapa Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:18:37am |
re: #187 Charles
Geller’s fans didn’t get the memo about “NO SIGNS ALLOWED:”
[Link: www.flickr.com…]
Wow, lot’s of cameras. Not cheap ones either, looks like real news cameras.
But is that rally really news?
| 211 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:18:40am |
re: #199 NJDhockeyfan
What in the world? Who are they and who’s picture are they burning?
It’s “Pastor Terry” of the deranged Florida church that was going to do the Koran burnings.
| 212 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:20:37am |
Had to restart. I hate the internet. Wait, What?
| 213 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:21:28am |
re: #197 Charles
The Muhajiroun cult is at it again. All 12 of them.
Even so, they’re just as bad as Geller and Co. Thankfully, the UK keeps a close watch on Islamists such as them.
| 214 |
Gus Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:22:25am |
re: #203 SanFranciscoZionist
That’s Pastor Jones! If they’d get the flag out from under him, I might help.
They’re confused of course because Terry Jones is not representative of America yet they’re burning the American flag. I suppose they have a right to do so. I will say that with this group that burning the American flag is a default act one in which they don’t put much thought.
| 215 |
(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:22:42am |
Interesting Flickr set I stumbled upon: Rosh Hashanah at Ground Zero, Sept. 17, 2001
| 216 |
jaunte Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:22:51am |
Here’s a good commentary on the way the propagandists of al-Muhajiroun work around the laws in the UK:
yahyabirt.com
| 217 |
Funky_Gibbon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:22:52am |
9/11 is a day I will never forget. I was working as a Software Engineer for an American electronics manufacturer in the UK. As was my habit I was listening to a BBC news-focused radio station when the first unconfirmed news that a plane had hit the World Trade Centre was announced. I listened in horror to the muddled news reports, thinking it was a terrible accident until the second plane hit. Then I knew it was an attack.
I spent the next several hours glued to my radio listening to the horrific developments and scouring the Net for information. Every major news site was overloaded and 404’d. Rumour were flying of more attack, car bombs, attacks on London. Speculation on who had done it and what America would do to them in return.
I left work and walked through subdued streets. On my train home it was eerily quiet with 99% of people reading the hastily produced newspapers filled with photos of the attack.
It wasn’t until maybe 7 hours after the attack that I actually saw it on the TV. That was even more horrible, to see people throwing themselves to their deaths and the collapse of the Towers.
I’ll never forget 9/11.
| 218 |
Cato the Elder Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:23:08am |
This was the day when I ceased forever being a knee-jerk liberal.
I was already well on the way, having watched for years with growing dismay the Left’s betrayal of Israel.
But when I heard the first moans of “Hands off Afghanistan! It’s our fault! Do nothing!”, I parted ways from many people I know.
Then Bush used the outrage to revenge his daddy in 2003, and I was hoodwinked by his lies.
That means I no longer trust anyone about anything based solely on a shared view of anything else.
I guess I would be lonely had I not found LGF.
| 219 |
Capitalist Tool Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:24:55am |
Not much for watching any network news outlet, but scrolling through channels last night saw “Pamela Geller” in the banner on Fox, so watched a while… My first thought was - ‘is she from the 700 Club?’ with that hair and makeup. The real treat of the show was some meatball from Farakhan’s outfit ( I think) who was saying stoopid stuff like “You got no proof that Muslims did this” and the REAL treat was when he interrupted Gellar when she said something about a smoking gun- he started yelling:
“I GOT YOUR SMOKIN’ GUN RIGHT HERE…I GOT YOUR SMOKIN’ GUN RIGHT HERE”
I really needed the laughs.
Really.
| 220 |
BigPapa Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:26:45am |
re: #218 Cato the Elder
I guess I would be lonely had I not found LGF.
For me, different times, different steps, different places. Same result.
| 221 |
Lidane Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:28:00am |
re: #185 SanFranciscoZionist
I got off all my e-mail lists that I was on at the time, except for the mystery novels one. Couldn’t cope. Got off the e-mail list of my old college friends after a giant blow-up with one of them. Got off the young feminists. Got off the just about everything. Not before I savaged a couple of people.
My experience wasn’t that severe, but I did end up leaving some chat rooms and mailing lists I was on because I could see the reason for going after the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. I was pretty much on my own in that view, and I hated being ganged up on repeatedly.
I even remember being called a fascist, a far-right loony, and all sorts of other names which are hilariously off-base. It still makes me laugh all these years later, for what that’s worth.
| 222 |
Cato the Elder Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:30:07am |
So did Imam Rauf actually meet with the Gainesville Gonif?
| 223 |
Cannadian Club Akbar Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:30:34am |
I guess LGF will be called an Anti-Islam site, again. Too all of you, fuck off. I need to finish this game. BBL.
| 224 |
Lidane Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:34:09am |
re: #218 Cato the Elder
I never fell for the lies that they used to sell the Iraq war, but I was on board with Afghanistan.
It was a weird ideological place to be in at the time. People on both sides would call me a hypocrite — I was either an imperialist warmonger who wanted to decimate the Middle East and turn it into a Wal-Mart parking lot, or I was a pathetic bleeding heart pinko commie who wanted the terrorists to win. No matter what, I couldn’t win.
| 225 |
BigPapa Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:34:16am |
re: #222 Cato the Elder
So did Imam Rauf actually meet with the Gainesville Gonif?
I thought a local FL imam was trying to meet with him. Either way Rauf’s stock is increasing in value.
| 226 |
Gus Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:34:24am |
re: #223 Cannadian Club Akbar
I guess LGF will be called an Anti-Islam site, again. Too all of you, fuck off. I need to finish this game. BBL.
Perhaps to the reading comprehension impaired. Specifically al-Muhajiroun doesn’t represent Islam any more than Dove World Outreach represents Christianity.
| 227 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:36:09am |
re: #225 BigPapa
How can I buy some stock?
Also, I wanted to donate to the Cordoba Initiative via money order (no credit cards). How do money orders work? I honestly have no clue.
| 228 |
jaunte Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:37:13am |
re: #226 Gus 802
Perhaps to the reading comprehension impaired. Specifically al-Muhajiroun doesn’t represent Islam any more than Dove World Outreach represents Christianity.
Anyone who doubts that needs to read this link:
Muslim communities around the country have shunned al-Muhajiroun and its various entities for years and refused to give them a platform. Instead, they have to work through front organisations, hire private halls, set up high-street stalls or leaflet people with their poisonous little tracts. They are utterly marginal but are still able to generate huge coverage through provocation.yahyabirt.com
| 229 |
karmic_inquisitor Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:37:56am |
Here are my 9/11 confessions -
1) I was running a business with 30+ employees trying to get through a recession/slow period. When the towers fell I could have figured out a way to go the Tillman route - I had been discharged as a Captain, had a stack of “highest” rated OERs, was in my 30s and could have gone back in the Army. I didn’t. I will always feel remorse and guilt for than.
2) I never really understood all of the folks who felt the need to display flags afterward. It was something for everyone to do, and it was a positive gesture of unity. The problem I had was two fold - first, I was never one to be big on “the flag” because I felt patriotism should be through deed (thus my regrets over not rejoining the Army). Second, I wondered if it was a bit overbearing - it bothered me when I saw immigrant families displaying the flag on everything. Not because “they didn’t belong” - my concern was that some might have done so out of a sense of intimidation. The potential that such might be a motivation bothered me a lot. But there was no way to discuss it without offending many people - after all, I am certain that many immigrants did so out of love for their adopted country. But for those who may have felt as I suspected, I wondered how they were getting that message and who was sending it. That said, I never bought the hard left’s “jingoism” rhetoric either.
3) Years later I was in DC coming out of a meeting with a client when a presidential mortorcade came by. There were armed para-military police who appeared with automatic weapons on the street corners. They came from nowhere. Then the vehicles started coming through - each as if it were a different version of an “urban assault vehicle” from the story board for “Stripes” before they settled on “RV”. It looked like the sort of motorcade out of Central America (which I had seen before). Then the two limousines came through each with a George Bush in the back - which one was the decoy? I never subscribed to the left’s hyper hysteria about the US having gone fascist for 7 years. But that motorcade completed my conversion to small “l” libertarianism.
| 230 |
NJDhockeyfan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:38:01am |
Idiot rapper tries to sneak gun on plane this morning…
Rapper Busted for Trying to Sneak a Gun on a Plane…. on 9/11!
It’s pretty impossible to escape the fact that today is the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, but somehow that slipped rapper Petey Pablo’s mind. He was arrested this morning at a North Carolina airport on weapons charges after he allegedly tried to sneak a gun through airport security.
According to police, Pablo (real name Moses Barrett III) was arrested at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. He was said to be on his way to Los Angeles and the MTV Video Music Awards, and was going through security when the gun was spotted in his carry-on bag. Security then promptly called airport police.
Pablo was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a stolen firearm. He is said to have posted the $50,000 bail and was released. Pablo is due back in Wake County Court on Monday.
Seriously, how dumb is this guy? A felon trying to sneak a gun on a plane in his carry-on bag on 9/11… wow!
| 231 |
deranged cat Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:38:23am |
It was one of the first weeks of my freshman year in high school (i live in CA).. my dad was driving me to school when we heard “something large has hit the world trade centers” on the radio. at the time, i was in that stupid highschool phase of “omg i hate my parents”, so when he was panicking and turning up the volume saying “what?! something HIT the world trade center?!”, i just kinda shrugged it off.
i got to school and started to notice some suspicious stuff: teachers running around, students whispering “plane” and “world trade center”… I walked into my 1st period science classroom, looked up at the TV and saw the footage of the plane hitting the first WTC. A picture really tells 1000 words. we spent the rest of that period with our eyes glued to the TV, unsure of how to feel or unable to comprehend what the hell had just happened. People heard that the planes were bound to California, and the Transamerica Pyramid was a rumored target, so we were all pretty scared.
i have a really bad memory… i barely remember anything from my high school days. but 9/11/2001 is something i will never forget.
| 232 |
Dad O' Blondes Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:38:43am |
I was at my office in midtown Manhattan when the first plane struck. It was a very long day, as I had family members and many friends working at the WTC. Not all of them made it.
I stop by here around this time every year and again walk through LGF’s permanent links and archive under the tab “Never Forget.” I always read through “Tilly’s Story” and I remember — pretty vividly — the panic and fear of that day.
Thanks to Charles for maintaining those links and archives here.
To Chris, Danny, Joe, Bobby: the kids are great and all grown up now. I know you’re all slapping backs at the greatest bar in all creation; save a beer and some beachfront for me — I’ll be there someday. Not too soon, though — but someday.
.
| 233 |
Cato the Elder Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:39:52am |
Some leftists I knew took only days after the atrocity to try to turn it into a wonderful way to hate on Israel. I got emails you wouldn’t believe. They were soon no longer welcome to send me their diatribes, and one of them has been my “letters to the editor” enemy ever since.
The weird thing is, he lives in a house owned by my father, and when I see him we never talk about it.
It is possible to be intellectual foes and still remain civil in person.
| 234 |
deranged cat Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:40:05am |
re: #230 NJDhockeyfan
Idiot rapper tries to sneak gun on plane this morning…
Rapper Busted for Trying to Sneak a Gun on a Plane… on 9/11!
ah geez, petey pablo? havent heard that stupid name in a while.
what an idiot.
| 235 |
William Barnett-Lewis Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:40:39am |
re: #224 Lidane
I never fell for the lies that they used to sell the Iraq war, but I was on board with Afghanistan.
It was a weird ideological place to be in at the time. People on both sides would call me a hypocrite — I was either an imperialist warmonger who wanted to decimate the Middle East and turn it into a Wal-Mart parking lot, or I was a pathetic bleeding heart pinko commie who wanted the terrorists to win. No matter what, I couldn’t win.
I know that feeling. Especially as someone who is a leftist and an army vet. I’d gotten out only a couple of years before and would have happily signed up again for Afghanistan though they wouldn’t take me (too much damage from the 16 years in I had done before). But Iraq? Nearly burned a whole lot of bridges because I never believed the administration on it.
| 236 |
Lidane Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:40:57am |
Oh, and speaking of music, this is probably the most haunting song about 9/11 I’ve heard. It’s beautiful, and sad, and affects me every time I listen to it:
| 237 |
PhillyPretzel Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:41:41am |
re: #227 ProLifeLiberal
You purchase a money order from a place selling them such as a supermarket. They then will give you a piece of paper that look similar to a check and it is backed by the money you gave to the issuer
| 238 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:42:14am |
re: #225 BigPapa
I thought a local FL imam was trying to meet with him. Either way Rauf’s stock is increasing in value.
I think the local Florida imam talked to him, and that’s when he got the idea he’d been promised that they’d move the Manhattan Project.
I really pity Rauf having to meet with this schmuck.
| 239 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:43:07am |
re: #227 ProLifeLiberal
How can I buy some stock?
Also, I wanted to donate to the Cordoba Initiative via money order (no credit cards). How do money orders work? I honestly have no clue.
Go to your bank and ask for one. They’ll withdraw the money from your account and give you a money order to mail to C.I.
Or, you can write them a check.
| 241 |
Gus Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:43:20am |
Yes. Because when I think of religious freedom I think of Che Guevara. Some people are permanently confused.
| 242 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:45:27am |
re: #233 Cato the Elder
Some leftists I knew took only days after the atrocity to try to turn it into a wonderful way to hate on Israel. I got emails you wouldn’t believe. They were soon no longer welcome to send me their diatribes, and one of them has been my “letters to the editor” enemy ever since.
The weird thing is, he lives in a house owned by my father, and when I see him we never talk about it.
It is possible to be intellectual foes and still remain civil in person.
True, but it requires a level of maturity that many do not possess. You do possess it, Cato, and I respect and honor you for that.
| 243 |
Fat Bastard Vegetarian Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:45:29am |
re: #227 ProLifeLiberal
First, you mail me a cashier’s check in dollars US American… I’ll take it from there.
Sincerely,
Your friends at the Nigerian Embassy.
| 244 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:46:39am |
re: #230 NJDhockeyfan
Idiot rapper tries to sneak gun on plane this morning…
Rapper Busted for Trying to Sneak a Gun on a Plane… on 9/11!
Is there such a thing as a ‘stupidity enhancement’ to charges?
| 246 |
Dark_Falcon Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:48:32am |
re: #241 Gus 802
Yes. Because when I think of religious freedom I think of Che Guevara. Some people are permanently confused.
Or devoted to worshipping vile murderers. This guy is one of those fools. The correct response to a flag like that is:
“Fuck you! Do know how many people Che murdered?”
| 247 |
ProTARDISLiberal Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:51:25am |
re: #244 SanFranciscoZionist
There should be for kind of thing. Seriously, a census count of this guy’s brain cells will probably take about 5 mintues and will have the population of most of my classes.
| 248 |
Cato the Elder Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:52:18am |
re: #242 Dark_Falcon
Sometimes it’s harder on the internet than in real life. To all those whom I’ve insulted personally here in the course of an argument or debate, I offer my humble contrition today, in the spirit of unity.
Can’t pretend it won’t happen again, though. I’m fiery.
| 249 |
webevintage Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:52:38am |
re: #239 SanFranciscoZionist
Go to your bank and ask for one. They’ll withdraw the money from your account and give you a money order to mail to C.I.
Or, you can write them a check.
Banks can charge a lot….well like $4.
You can go to Walmart (customer service desk) if you have the cash on hand, they charge .90 for a money order. At one point in our lives we were “cash only” and paid bills by MO.
| 250 |
Surabaya Stew Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:52:58am |
It was the first day of my post-secondary schooling for me. Was living in Greenwich Village at the time, right directly under the flight path of the flight 11. Woke up late and was taking a shower, when I heard a plane directly overhead. My thoughts at the time were:
“Hmmm, that sounds really close….”
KAAABOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!! (I had heard the first plane hit.)
“Gee, sounds like a plane hit the World Trade Center.”
I swear this is not made up. I didn’t see it happen, yet I put the pieces together in the back of my mind in an instant. Nor did I take it seriously, yet.
Being a New Yorker, I finished my shower and had forgot all about it when I left the house. Was surprised to see people milling about outside my normally quiet residential street, but then realized that it must be because of the primary voting that was about to start at the school directly across the street from my house. So I dismissed the strangeness again.
The WTC was directly visible looking down 6th Avenue where I was about to head to take the train at the West 4th station, yet, I first turned up the avenue to buy my NYT from the local greengrocer like I always did. As I was walking, many people were looking down 6th Avenue, and all I could do was think how odd it was.
After 3 times ignoring the obvious, the cashier at the greengrocer finally told me about that happened:
“Very bad, plane hit the World Trade no good, lots of people die i think!”
“Oh, so that was the sound back in the shower, lets check it out.”
I left the store, and casually looked down 6th Avenue. My jaw dropped and I was paralyzed in a way I hope never to be again. For the last 23 years of my 26 years on earth up to that point, the WTC was a conscious part of my memory and my feelings about the city that I loved. Now, one of the towers was pouring black smoke from a huge hole! After a lifetime of these 2 monoliths never changing and standing tall looking up the avenue, they had changed suddenly, and I was totally blown away.
It couldn’t have been more than 1 minute later that a flash of light moved from right to left and a soundless explosion engulfed the second tower. Have you ever heard a collective gasp before? (Its the rarest of sounds, needing the mass shock of dozens of people all at once.) Well, I heard my first one then, and I don’t want to hear it ever again!
My mind shut down, furiously seeking an explanation:
“Stew, perhaps this is all a dream”
“If I close my eyes, kneel down, and open them in 30 seconds, maybe I’ll wake up back in bed!”
“Ok, let me try….”
Needless to say, it didn’t work. I collected myself, and walked over to my parents apartment, where we experienced the rest of that horrible day together.
| 251 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:53:43am |
re: #227 ProLifeLiberal
How can I buy some stock?
Also, I wanted to donate to the Cordoba Initiative via money order (no credit cards). How do money orders work? I honestly have no clue.
You can also get them at the post office and many convenience stores.
| 252 |
Surabaya Stew Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:55:37am |
PS-It may have been the worst day ever, but a things turned out it wasn’t all negative. Three things happened to me as a direct consequence of 9/11:
1. I dropped out of school, picked up my Bachelor of Architecture, and ended my post-secondary education before it even began. I had been scared to enter the real world, and seeing all this violence inflicted on my city forced me to throw the security blanket of continuing education aside.
2. My co-worker was laid off when work temporarily decreased after 9/11 and I ended up completely replacing him when work picked up again, increasing my confidence in my abilities as an Architect.
3. Traveling became a priority. After years of dreaming about it, seeing death in the raw forced me to made plans (before anything bad happened to me), and I packed my bags for 7 Asian countries the following year. I’ve since been back 8 additional times, with plans for my 10th trip this November. Were it not for that kick in the pants from 9/11, I would have never met my wife.
| 253 |
SanFranciscoZionist Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:55:46am |
re: #249 webevintage
Banks can charge a lot…well like $4.
You can go to Walmart (customer service desk) if you have the cash on hand, they charge .90 for a money order. At one point in our lives we were “cash only” and paid bills by MO.
That too. Thanks.
| 254 |
ThomasLite Sat, Sep 11, 2010 11:57:00am |
re: #238 SanFranciscoZionist
I think the local Florida imam talked to him, and that’s when he got the idea he’d been promised that they’d move the Manhattan Project.
I really pity Rauf having to meet with this schmuck.
Well, Rauf is a diplomat by trade as well, and given where he’s been for the state dept. he’s probably met some equally offensive idiots before. He’ll live.
Furthermore, I think it will make some nice publicity for Park51 as a conciliatory bridge-building initiative, which is a good thing in itself.
| 255 |
austin_blue Sat, Sep 11, 2010 12:20:31pm |
I was on my to work when ABC Radio broke in with a report that a “light plane” had hit the North Tower. It was a beautiful, clear morning in Austin. As I pulled into the parking lot, there was an almighty roar on the radio and the chilling sound of the second 767 slamming into the South Tower.
Initial thought: “We are under attack.”
Second thought: “It’s Bin Laden.”
Went into work and turned on the TV. They replayed the second hit. Got on Airliners.net and they and they already had a board going. Word came through on the Pentagon and other airplanes missing. One engineer on the board started saying that the first responders should get out of the towers because they might collapse. I walked back the conference room and ten minutes later the South Tower collapsed. I just went numb. All those people…just…gone. I was standing there with tears rolling down my face and saying “Come on, guys, get out, get out.”
I knew how parents must have felt when Pearl was hit in ‘41. And I knew we were going to war again.
| 256 |
WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Sat, Sep 11, 2010 12:28:29pm |
I’m reading everyone’s recollections about 9/11/01 and for some of you all, how it changed everything and you had to cut off communications with friends and online forums, changed your political axis somewhat
That never really happened to me, my politics stayed the same, pretty much myself and everyone I knew was pretty monolithic in “we gotta get in there” lots of support for going into afghanistan, etc. I don’t know if that was just dumb luck or what, but I never really lost any friends or had any major personal strife over 9/11. Just a lot of shared fear and sadness. There were a few people I knew who were totally conspiracy theorist guvment did it folks, but I expected that from them and could predict their responses on their blogs even before I clicked on the link
And as (bad, creepy, weird) luck would have it, that day I was working by myself at the group home, 16 hour shift overnight, and my only companion was the TV and the radio, so I was just feeding myself all this breaking cable news and radio news, all that footage cycling over and over. It didn’t feel very good for me, but I couldn’t stop watching
I was pretty shellshocked after I got off shift, I don’t think I slept for about 48 hours
| 257 |
Zendette Sat, Sep 11, 2010 12:48:57pm |
I also discovered LGF as a result of 911.
At the time, I was living in Israel, so it happened in late afternoon, local time. I was just returning from a meeting, and saw a bunch of company employees standing in the kiosk under our building and watching the small tv up on the wall there. They told me a plane or something had hit a high rise in NYC.
After running up to my office where they already had the tv running, I started IMing the folks in our US offices, in TX. They were IMing us with status on two of our people who were in the north tower for a business meeting. It was really weird to be watching the confused tv reports, getting IM updates about our guys inside and trying to assimilate what was actually happening. Israel tv was quicker to call it terrorism than the US networks.
My attitude towards the Internet changed that day. When the international phone lines to the US crashed, we were still able to IM!!! Soon after, I discovered the world of blogs and found LGF.
Nothing can come close to matching my emotions when we saw the first building fall. I called my husband to tell him what was happening. He was busy and hadn’t seen any graphic images or tv yet. He was impatient with me when I tried describing what was happening, ‘yeah, yeah, we’ll talk about it in the evening’. The moment he walked in the door, I dragged him to the tv to show him what the reality looked like. He was in shock. Something happened to all of us when we saw the footage.
| 258 |
The_Assimilator Sat, Sep 11, 2010 12:56:38pm |
This is the first time I’ve posted on LGF (having lurked for years), and just wanted to add my experience as a non-American (I’m from South Africa).
I was 16 years old on that day. I came home from school after writing an exam, had lunch and some computer time, then just after 4pm (UTC +2), settled down in my room to study for another exam the next day. I hadn’t been studying for more than 5 minutes when someone turned the TV’s volume way up, so I went to yell at them for disturbing my concentration.
That’s when I saw the North Tower burning, and then I didn’t go back to my studies that day. The exam I was writing the next day was History, but I understood that the terrible events unfolding in New York that day were far more important than any exam.
I didn’t cry that day, but I did after the images and first-hand accounts started appearing in the newspapers. After I learned that thousands of innocent people had lost their lives; that some had tried to escape by jumping to safety; of the heroes who lost their lives responding to the disaster; of the bravery and selflessness of the passengers of Flight 93. I cried, not just for them, but for the insanity in this world.
It’s been 9 years since that day, and much has changed. But one thing that will not, must not change, is the remembrance of September 11 2001. It was not a dark hour only for America, it was a dark hour for all of humankind, a stain on our collective consciousness.
Thank you for listening to my story.
(BTW, Charles, the link to Tilly’s Story in the left-hand menu is out of date, I think it should be littlegreenfootballs.com )
| 259 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 12:57:09pm |
Just remembered this: I don’t recall exactly when I took the photo below, but it would have been around 1999-2000. I’d taken my then teenage son to the WTC with the intention of going up to the top to see the view.
I’m not a fan of elevators and the lines were ridiculously long, so since we didn’t feel like waiting, I just took a couple of photos from the foot of the South Tower to try to convey a sense of how incredibly tall they were when looking at them from the ground. I figured we could always come back and go up another time. *sigh*
Looking at the photo now, I can’t decide if I’m glad or sad that I never made it up there. I rarely look at it these days because instead of being filled with amazement & wonder at the height, all I can think of is how long a fall it would have been for the poor souls who jumped. *choke, shudder*
SOB terrorists destroyed so many things that day.
| 260 |
AlexRogan Sat, Sep 11, 2010 1:23:39pm |
I remember the news started to come out about the first plane ramming the WTC right before I was leaving work that morning…we were listening to Bob & Tom, listening to them give the breaking news, saying to ourselves, “WTF is going on?” I stayed over a while listening to the initial newscasts and finally went home shortly before the South Tower was hit.
I can honestly say that I didn’t remember the 10 minute drive home, I was so numb. After I got to the house, I turned on every TV to CNN and got on the computer, looking for as much info as I could find. When civilian airspace was locked down, it was eerily quiet and weird not seeing contrails in the sky, as my house is near an approach/departure corridor for Nashville International.
When I initially posted my account of 9/11 on August 31st, I stated that just reading the timeline of events on Wiki brings back a lot of memories and made me feel ill.
| 261 |
prairiefire Sat, Sep 11, 2010 2:43:42pm |
re: #117 Fat Bastard Vegetarian
I thought “The Rising” was a great song tribute.
Can’t find a good one to post, tho…
Our local alternative radio station took Live’s “Lightning Crashes” and mixed in sounds from the WTC and media response. They would play it for about 3 weeks afterward. Two times I had to pull over when I heard it because I was crying too hard to drive. It was very powerful.
| 262 |
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce Sat, Sep 11, 2010 4:24:58pm |
| 263 |
Mark Pennington Sat, Sep 11, 2010 4:26:45pm |
I was in Manhattan with my girlfriend.(now ex) We had just left our hotel and was going to do some shopping. I was being a little whiny because she was dragging me to shop for a pair of hose. We had tickets to the Rosie O’Donnell show.(Don’t laugh.) I hated that show but we wanted to see Tori Amos play.(Don’t laugh) We didn’t see the planes hit but heard it and then chaos. Neither one of us got hurt physically but we were covered in ash and burning plastic and wood and God knows what else. The smell was horrible and you couldn’t see 3 feet in front of you. She was awesome and pretty much took care of me because I was in shock. (so I’m told)
| 264 |
HappyWarrior Sat, Sep 11, 2010 4:35:15pm |
It was gosh the 2nd week of my freshman year of high school. 1st period Math had just ended so I made my way to world history class on the 2nd floor. Was the second person there. The TV was on and there were reports that a plane had hit the WTC. My first thought was “huh was the pilot drunk”. They let school out early that day and I walked home. When I got home my mom who worked and works for the federal government was home. And my grandparents were there too. It was such a crazy day.
| 265 |
CuriousLurker Sat, Sep 11, 2010 5:08:56pm |
| 266 |
okonkolo Sat, Sep 11, 2010 5:14:52pm |
early in the thread someone wrote about dealing with 9/11 through music. i don’t think I’ve ever been prouder to be a musician as when i saw Springsteen kick off the A Tribute To Heroes benefit concert on 9-21-01. “My City of Ruins” is a nice little song in any context, but in that context it was, well….everything, at least everything it needed to be: Here’s the YouTube
| 267 |
tradewind Sat, Sep 11, 2010 5:34:20pm |
I had just seen my youngest two children off into their carpools, and was drinking coffee and watching CNN morning news. I was at home on a personal leave from my job as a flight attendant for a major airline, the fourth leave I had managed to cobble together that year while debating whether or not I was going to be able to keep working. My husband was captain of a 747-400 that was just about to make its approach into Amsterdam. A friend married to another pilot called and we were talking plans for a trip in when the first plane hit…. we didn’t know a lot, but we knew for sure that it had not been a ’ private light aircraft ’ as the first reports mentioned: the hole in the tower was impossibly huge. We just stayed on the phone, watching, and screamed when the second plane hit: we both knew it was a commercial flight.
I spent the next two days depressed and angry, personalizing what those flight attendants and crew members must have felt…. this was not a scenario we had ever prepped for, and we had hijacking briefings twice a year in MSP, often with FBI lecturers. Always, always the theme was : cooperate, go along, they want to live.
That was gone.
I never went back to work, my children were just too frantic about it and it was the final push. My husband was stuck in AMS for almost ten days, and it was two days before he could get through to us on the phone. Rumors of the entire country going up were rampant over there…. he was a wreck.
The music I remember over and over was Enya’s Only Time, played over and over as background to the coverage. I don’t know who chose that for which network’s theme song,… think it was NBC… but I can’t listen to it now without flashing back immediately.
| 268 |
jamesfirecat Sat, Sep 11, 2010 6:17:27pm |
Its probably much too late for anyone to see this but I feel I should do my part as a fellow Lizard.
I was in school.
I was in 7th grade.
I had no idea what was going on, just that at first we just kept getting intercom calls about how various people could come to teh office as their parrents were their to pick them up.
That started around third period.
I didn’t find I what was goin gon till 5th period history and I think we got let out shortly after that on an early release schedule.
Me and my brother (who was in high school) both got the next day off.
We stayed downstairs and surfed the web and played video games, not sure which.
I do remember however that we were listening to Frank Herberts Dune at the time…. a book all aobut how a more primative dessert dwelling culture can royally fuck up an advanced one if its gets lazy and makes the wrong enemies.
So yeah…
Then the next day in 6th period AOL Awarness of Language class (which was basically a great big jumble of everything) we were asked to write how we felt yesterday.
I’m not sure if they requested/would have liked it in poem form, but here is what I wrote as best I can recall….
A day off from school never felt so wrong.
Never seemed to last for so long.
The bittersweet taste.
Of a day gone to waste.
Not even quite sure what it means today, but there you have it…
| 269 |
dj p1ll Sat, Sep 11, 2010 6:45:51pm |
I stayed in bed with my girlfriend in venice beach and watched the news till nightfall. I started reading LGF because of 9/11… I was totally unaware of islamist extremism and my brother pointed me to LGF. and it quickly became my favorite site. Drudge and LGF.. 20 refreshes a day each.
I came back today to LGF because of the 9/11 anniversary. . people wanna burn our flag, ok, have fun. maybe put the pope in some cartoons diddling little kids. knock yourself out. draw a pic of muhamed, hey sounds like fun. Oops scratch the last one off the list, I forgot thats not allowed because lunatics on the other side of the world will come after us.
My friend Rafi, a muslim who I work with has got to be the nicest and funniest guy I know. When he is carrying a package of something (he’s a courier), I say something like ‘Hey buddy, what’s up with the package? f*cking terrorists’ and he says something like ‘why dont you show me your papers!’ (because I’m spanish). Sometimes I draw little mohameds on sticky notes and leave them on his desk. and he’ll say stuff like ‘f*cking mexicans’ (i’m from spain but he like s to call me a wetback). We laugh our asses off daily.
I don’t give a crap about burning bibles or korans. I’ll never burn either. Alot of “oh my god he burned the koran!” Why do any of us care? no one here is religious in the slightest. Puh-lease. No one here is seriously disturbed by an idiot burning a hard cover book, right? Why is it a couple bafoons do some obnoxious things and we all think it reflects on all of us? Let them make asses of them selves.
What I care about is the vivid memory of people jumping out of windows - death by fire or jump. The people who died on an ordinary day at work because of lunatics bent on destroying our country. Rafi is more pissed off than I am. Pissed off at the political correctness of calling something what it is and putting the blame where it deserves to be.
I was going to write 2 sentences… but the news today and the memory of the horror of watching people die live on tv… Ive rambled for a good 30 minutes and no one will read or care what I say. But Now I can go think about other things, its sat night, and I’m going out! woot!
| 270 |
ClaudeMonet Sat, Sep 11, 2010 10:11:24pm |
re: #244 SanFranciscoZionist
Is there such a thing as a ‘stupidity enhancement’ to charges?
How about this case?
The judge is a tax client of my office whom I’ve known for about 20 years now. This event occurred in Reading, a working-class inner suburb of Cincinnati and home town of John Boehner, only a couple of miles up the road from where I lived for almost 18 years.
| 271 |
ModeratelyRight Sun, Sep 12, 2010 12:43:59am |
I can tell you were I was, what I was doing, and what time it was.
I was unemployed. At the time; me and Dad were getting up early and drinking coffee together on the front porch. I had come in to get a refill, when my Mom said that a plane had went into the trade center and that another was going in the second one. That is when I came down here; and flipped on CNN.
I remember the fear that I felt, when the news guy for CNN, said there was a report; that a plane was headed to the White House. That’s when it got real for me.
I remember fear.
I remember anger.
I remember the woman, who tried running over the owner of the gas station around the corner.
I remember the thought of “Iraq?!??! WTF?!??!’
I remember the anger at Bush for 2006.
I remember starting a blog.
I remember the Midterms and realizing that I couldn’t vote for them anymore. (Democrats)
I remember the Vietnam War Memorial being hit with cutting oil.
I remember being angry
To say, that America has not been the same, is an understatement.
I will never forget.
I will never forgive.
I am an American.
| 272 |
ModeratelyRight Sun, Sep 12, 2010 12:45:24am |
I woke this morning thinking that one of the lessons human beings need to learn from those attacks (but probably won’t) is the ferocious destructive power of unchecked religious fanaticism.
I agree.
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