Osama Bin Laden is DEAD!

I guess that means we can finally get rid of the Department of Homeland Security and that unforgivable abomination of bureaucracy called the Transportation Security Administration. Right?

Right???

EDIT 11:52 p.m. EST: I will make note of my thankfulness that Bin Laden has finally come to his just desserts, by humbly suggesting that his corpse be given the "Mussolini treatment", culminating in his remains being eternally desecrated by wrapping them in pig skins.

But still: tonight, the United States has won as decisive a victory as could possibly be had against the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Some will say that this presents an opportunity to bring our armed forces home.

I disagree.

Tonight, there is an obligation to bring them home.

A few months shy of the tenth anniversary of the attacks, and we can finally say in all truthfulness, "Mission Accomplished".

If Americans want to feel earnest victory tonight, then we should begin to take a good hard look at what we have lost since 9/11... and resolve to take it back.

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Newly released 9/11 photos show World Trade Center collapse from aerial viewpoint

Eight and a half years later and new material of the 9/11 attacks is still coming out.

Look at this image of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, taken from a New York City Police helicopter...

And eight years later, the same words come out of my mouth upon seeing it: "My God..."

Click here for many more photos.

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Something I've never been able to come up with words for

I'll just let this image and the circumstance surrounding its existence speak for itself.

This is the opening shot of the third-from-last scene of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. This shot and the ensuing dialogue between Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu and Yoda are dominated by a brilliant and beautiful sunset, which poignantly echoes the darkness that is now falling across the galaxy...

According to the original online annotations for the Star Wars Episode II DVD on StarWars.com, the background plate in this scene was a photograph made of the Tokyo skyline at sunset.

And this is a photograph that was taken on September 11th, 2001.

If you figure the time zone difference, the dominant element of this pivotal scene in the Star Wars saga was taken from the real world, at about the very same moment that New York City was coming under attack thousands of miles away.

Then again, maybe I don't need to come up with words. Some things... just seem to speak plenty enough on their own.

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Government STEALING private land for United 93 memorial

This blog commented about the issue a little over four months ago: how some of the families of passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 were petitioning the federal government (and then-President George W. Bush in particular) to seize private property by eminent domain so as to have a memorial to those who died in the 9/11 attack.

Well, those families are getting what they wanted: the federal government is about to CONDEMN land from seven owners so as to build a 2,200 acre "memorial site", and it's planning to rush the proceedings through so that the thing can be ready in time for the tenth anniversary of the hijackings.

I'll probably draw some flack for asking this aloud, but: what the HELL did those innocent people who died on United 93 actually DIE for, if the American government is now STEALING private property?

This is an act of brutal socialism: using force of government to take from those who own a thing, so as to benefit what will number a relatively few.

And I'll go ahead and say this too: this is exactly the kind of thing that the very same Islamic extremists who launched the 9/11 attacks have been doing for centuries to the shrines of other religions: declaring them to be "Islamic holy sites" and denying access to them by those of other faiths. If you own land, all the United States government now has to do is declare it a "historic place" and it can now take it from you.

I said a few months ago: the appropriate use of the land is to let the owners do with it as they see fit. That if "they" seriously "hate us for our freedoms" then let's insult them and show our resolve by displaying 2,200 acres of capitalism at work.

(And as I also said before, isn't 2,200 acres way too much for a memorial anyway?)

There is a right way to honor the lives of those who died on United 93. This is not the way to do that. In fact, what the government is doing in their name is shameful and disgusting. And I hope and pray to God that the rightful owners of the land fight this all the way.

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United 93 families want Bush to steal land for memorial

Many of the families of passengers who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 want George W. Bush to approve a seizure by the federal government of the field where the ill-fated flight crashed on the morning of the 9/11 attacks. The families want to turn the field into a memorial.

In other words, these people want to implement socialism to commemorate freedom.

I have never liked "eminent domain" uses like this, which is what the United 93 families are trying to call the seizure. But this isn't for something needed like a highway or whatever. In this case it boils down to taking privately-held property (owned by Svonavec Inc.) by force of government, for benefit of a very few people.

Look, I think that what the passengers on United 93 did was courage personified. And their example is certainly something that all people can look to as an act of selfless abandon. But it is wrong to attempt to "memorialize" those who fought back on United 93 by violating the virtues of the country that they wound up doing everything in their power to protect.

You want to know what would be a much more appropriate memorial to United 93? Let the owners of Svonavec do with the field as they see fit. If "they" indeed "hate us for our freedoms" then what better way to give "the terris" a giant middle finger than to show 'em 2,200 acres of pure undefeated capitalism?

(Incidentally, 2,200 acres is how big the United 93 families want the memorial to be. Isn't the Vietnam War Memorial at Arlington something like one or two acres?)

Wouldn't surprise me if Bush approved the seizure in his final days as President. The man has shown so little regard for conservative values anyway: why should he feel obligated to demonstrate 'em now?

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The September 11 Television Archive

NBC, September 11, 2001, from 8:31 am to 9:12 a.m. EST:

That's what I happened to have been watching that morning, after I turned on my TV following one of the most unforgettable phone calls I ever got from Mom.

I switched to the ABC affiliate in Asheville not long after. The moment that has most haunted me from that day begins at around 33 minutes in this clip.

"Oh my God..."

-- Peter Jennings, ABC News,
after the collapse of the second tower of the World Trade Center

The September 11 Television Archive - hosted by the terrific Internet Archive - has documented practically every moment of major network broadcast television from that horrific morning seven years ago today, stretching into the afternoon and evening of 9/11. If you want to study the events as they happened while they were being covered by NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN and the BBC, this should prove to be an immensely rich trove of information.

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... Then maybe America doesn't need saving at all

Stu Bykofsky, a writer with the Philadephia Daily News, is seriously suggesting that the best way to "save" America is to have another attack like 9/11.

Two months ago, a Republican party official also said that America needs to be attacked again so that people would appreciate President Bush.

If "saving" America means not only anticipating, but openly hoping for the deaths of innocent people, then America does not deserve to survive at all.

I mean that.

Here is the biggest problem that I have with these self-styled "neoconservatives": they believe that America's strength is supposed to be in material wealth and military might. They don't give a damn about the value of individual life. How else can they sincerely consider it to be "good news" when it's reported that the death toll of American military is the lowest in several months... and not bother to ask themselves if even one life needlessly lost because of this fiasco is one life too many.

These people don't care if others die for America. So long as they aren't the ones having to do the fighting and the dying.

If America is a country where the many are deemed to be expendable assets for the betterment of the few, then that America does not merit survival. If we are ceasing to be a people that values the life of the individual and the rights that God has bestowed upon him or her, then there is no longer anything inherently good in America at all. Certainly not worth fighting or dying for.

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Republican official: America needs more 9/11 attacks so that Bush will be appreciated

Dennis Milligan, the head of the Republican Party in Arkansas, says that America needs to be attacked more times like it was on 9/11 so that people will appreciate President George W. Bush.

From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

He said he's "150 percent" behind Bush on the war in Iraq.

"At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country," Milligan said.

I hate to speculate, but it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of these people actively pray to God every day for another attack to happen, so that it will somehow "justify" Bush and their support of him. That's certainly the vibe that Milligan is showing us here.

But wait, there's more...

He declined to take a stance on President Bush's latest immigration bill.

"That is between the president and Congress, and I am just going to let them hash it out and work it out," Milligan said. "I just think that is something for probably smarter people than me to figure out. It is a tough situation either way, but something definitely needs to be done."

"I can't figure it out for myself, I need the President and Congress to think for me!" Milligan is practically telling us.

And this guy is the boss of a major political party for an entire state. And he can't comprehend that Bush and Congress are betraying the American people and selling them out with amnesty for illegals.

Where the Hell do fools like this come from, and who let them have way too much power for anyone's good?

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About what Ron Paul said last night ...

He's right.

The biggest attacks against Dr. Paul for his comments on terrorism and 9/11 are coming mostly from those who proudly call themselves "neoconservatives": the ones who can't get enough of American intervention in the rest of the world. And that's what has invited so much hatred against America to begin with. I defy anyone to tell me that there hasn't been a correlation between our trying to be the world's policeman, and anti-American sentiment.

As for Rudy Giuliani's tantrum: to me it seemed more like an act of desperation than something of solid principle. So he took what Paul said out of context and tried to spin it to make Paul look like a "kook".

But I've no problem with what Ron Paul said last night. It was an honest and intelligent answer. What else are we supposed to want out of a potential future President?

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