Remembrance and Determination by Amanda S. Green

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt
Image by David Mark from Pixabay

Remembrance and Determination by Amanda S. Green

Nineteen years ago, this nation woke to a tragedy unlike anything it had seen since Pearl Harbor. We were under attack. Four commercial airliners had been hijacked. Two flew into the Twin Towers in New York. Another crashed into the Pentagon and the fourth in a field outside of Shanksville, PA. That last plane crashed where it did because of the heroism and sacrifice of the passengers and crew onboard who refused to let their flight be used as yet another weapon against our nation.

To say the country was in shock as it reeled from one event to the next is putting it mildly. We were stunned, hurt, angry and so much more. We watched as first responders risked their lives in an all too often vain attempt to rescue those trapped by the terrorist actions aimed against all of us. We watched in horror as people jumped from the Twin Towers. We couldn’t believe it as the towers came down. It was the thing of nightmares.

But something else happened that day. In cities and towns across the country, neighbors and strangers pulled together. There was a sense of need–to act, to help, to cope–that joined us. People in areas immediately impacted by the crashes opened their doors to those trapped in town because routes away from the Twin Towers and the surrounding area were shut down. They donated their time, their food, their money.

In towns like mine, so far from where it was all happening, we did our best to pull together as well. Within an hour and a half or so of the second plane hitting the Towers, I was standing in line at the local blood bank. It was the only thing I could do right then. I was surprised by the number of people already there. The blood bank wasn’t even officially open and there were already close to 75 people in line. It didn’t surprise me to see the doors to the center suddenly swing open. Employees had come in early, without having to be asked. And not just those who were set to work that day. Those who were off, as well as at least two who no longer worked there, came to do what they could to help.

Within another hour, at least another 100 people stood in line behind me. The blood bank had a line that extended down the length of the center and around the corner. One of the employees came around and told us the line was about to turn yet another corner. Finally, with something like 200-plus people waiting in line before 11, they sent a worker out to talk with us. He had a pad and pen and was asking if anyone wanted to leave their name and number and come back the next day or two. There was simply no way they could process anywhere close to as many people as were there.

No one ahead of me volunteered to come back. I didn’t either. Why? Because I needed to do something. We all did.

It took time, but they finally whittled the line down to about 100-125. And man were those techs hustling.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

The sandwich shop next to the blood bank also opened early. It opened its restrooms to us and offered us free water and soft drinks. Someone, and I never did learn who, brought up a TV and several radios so we could listen to what was happening. Other people who lived nearby brought some lawn chairs for those of us standing in line.

Albertsons, one of our local grocery stores, sent their manager and several clerks with half a dozen or more ice chests filled with drinks, ice, etc., All free of charge. We wouldn’t even have known who they were if someone in line hadn’t asked. They came in their personal cars and didn’t wear anything to identify their employer. They simply wanted to help.

It was almost 5 by the time they got to me. As they took me back to a chair, another local merchant arrived. This time, it was a local restaurant. They had coolers and hot boxes filled with food–meals–for the workers and for those of us still there. Again, no one wanted recognition. They simply wanted to help.

In the nation’s hour of tragedy, people pulled together.

I look at that and then I consider what is happening in our nation today. We are in a different sort of war now. It’s not a war waged by an external enemy—although we have plenty of them who are more than glad to cheer on our internal adversaries and offer them aid if needed. No, this is a war waged by those who live here and who have decided it is time to destroy the very foundations of our nation.

It is bad enough that we have “mostly peaceful” demonstrations that have led to destruction, injury and loss of life. It is worse that we have politicians who refuse to take steps to protect the citizens of their towns. But, worse of all, we have those who actively advocate the suspension of not only our civil rights but our constitutional rights.

We have a presidential candidate in Joe Biden who has all but threatened workers and business owners who do no support unions coming into their shops. His running mate is more concerned with being seen with the victim of what she terms police brutality than she is in making sure the woman who has accused him of a crime has a chance at justice. But there is no hue and cry about it because the current narrative is all about how police are evil and should be abolished.

We have a Speaker of the House who not only proved she has no regard for the law, but who had no problem setting up one of her constituents for doxing. Worse, Pelosi claimed victim status for herself because she just had to have that hair cut before her interview with Vice—where she extolled the need to continue the mask mandate, business shutdowns, etc. When faced with proof of how she ignored local Covid-19 regulations, she claimed ignorance and the said she’d been set up.

This is the person who sits in the line of succession to the presidency and she didn’t know 1) she should have been wearing a mask and 2) that beauty salons IN HER OWN TOWN were not allowed to open for anything but outside work?

There are so many other examples of steps being taken by both foreign and domestic enemies of this nation. Too many to set forth here. But here’s the thing. They don’t have to win. This battle, much less the war, isn’t over. Our nation has proven time and again that it can overcome obstacles, be they economic or constitutional or even military. But we have to want to win.

I challenge each of you to remember those first days and weeks after 9/11/2001. Remember not just the desire but the need to make sure our country came out of the attacks stronger and better than it was before. Now put that same desire, that need into play today. Do not go gently into the night.

Do not sit at home on election day.

Do not let your voice be silenced.

Do not forget our history and do not consign our children and grandchildren to a future we can’t be proud of.

I want to leave you with this. I was proud of our nation on 9/11 and on the days following. We proved we could pull together when we need to.

And, by all that is holy, we need to do so now.

As Todd Beamer said, “Let’s Roll!”

 

300 thoughts on “Remembrance and Determination by Amanda S. Green”

    2. Yes. As I was reading it the smoke content in the air suddenly spiked.

      The part that troubles my heart is not that the vast majority of Americans; paper citizens, native born; grifters, and wanderers, patriots and useful idiots alike, wouldn’t read Mrs. Green’s lines and think, “This is good.”

      They do; all but the most broken or evil.

      But I fear that too many (past the tipping point?) have no idea that this is not the natural state of human societies. That it doesn’t just pop up or be sustained out of nothing and nowhere. Or worse, that it can be created by coercion.

      “Just one more set of camps, Comrade Antifan, and we will have a safe community of intersectional justice!”

      Tell the truth and shame the Devil.

      1. As I posted downthread; “The most dangerous part of Gramascian corruption is not that it is a lie, but that it makes itself true.”.

        Combine that with the other notable effect of g-corruption; that no evidence can get through to the person who has been poisoned, and the result is people who think not “this is normal”, but “no one does this here”.

        Or see harrison’s post, saying that we would be fools to rebuild.

      2. “But I fear that too many (past the tipping point?) have no idea that this is not the natural state of human societies. That it doesn’t just pop up or be sustained out of nothing and nowhere. Or worse, that it can be created by coercion.”

        My own private worry as well. That too many have not the faintest notion of how delicate a moral democracy is, how much restraint is called for among citizens, how there must be respect for a rule of law, and private property, and just being a decent human being. They have gotten so accustomed to that situation that they think they can throw down all the laws, restraints and customs … and nothing bad will happen.

        They’re fools, of course. What was that saying – “Experience is a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”

        I just pray that not too many of the rest of us will be harmed by these fools learning through experience.

          1. No – they render the Law into a counterfeit, but that does not mean the Law is false, merely their deviation from it strips them of any respect to which the law would entitle them.

            I don’t think you’ve been here long enough to have seen the routine assertion that “Judge Posner is a moron” a claim founded on the recognition that when Judge Posner debased the Law which was source of his authority he thereby depriving himself of authority.

            But he never deprived the Law of its authority.
            –

              1. There’s a difference between Law and legislation. It would be nice if more legislators understood that. After all, the Constitution they’re ignoring is the only thing that says I have to care about their legislation.

      3. But I fear that too many (past the tipping point?) have no idea that this is not the natural state of human societies. That it doesn’t just pop up or be sustained out of nothing and nowhere. Or worse, that it can be created by coercion.

        This. And those who know this is true and are working to make it NOT happen exploit that ignorance.

  3. As Todd Beamer said, “Let’s Roll!”

    Once they were there their tactical choices were okay. But why did Beamer and the others feel a need to be on that plane? Was that their plane? Did they work there? Clearly they were just looking for trouble.

    (This comment brought to you be Idiocy Industries; providers of the very best in Faux Wisdom.)

  4. I tried my best to turn my political science degree into a counseling degree, like all our faculty did, as I spoke with students who had lost loved ones in the towers. I was teaching at SUNY Brockport, outside of Rochester, NY. One of my students found out his uncle and cousin had died when he recognized their smashed rig (fire truck) on a TV shot. A piece of the first tower had fallen onto the truck. Another student sent me a very polite email to let me know he’d be gone for about a week as he and his parents were going to NYC to try to locate his sister who worked in one of the towers. He assured me he’d keep up with his coursework. Broke my heart. Fortunately they found his sister alive in a hospital.

    In honor of all those we lost that day, we must keep our heads up and keep moving forward together.

    Let’s roll.

  5. Excellent post. The problem is that then, we could play support for those who were damaged and those who went into harms way to deal with out enemies. Today, we would be fools to rebuild as that would just give our enemies more to destroy and no-one in authority is dealing with our enemies. Our choices at the moment are to sit at home and do nothing, wait for the election which hopefully will not be stolen, or turn out ourselves to stop the riots and the rioters in defiance of the police and the government. Not an easy choice and one where every choice has a major downside.
    One point about the post that I would make is that 9/11 was not a “tragedy”, it was an atrocity. Please don’t relieve the terrorists of their agency.

    2. “Tribe up” is the saying. “Neighbor and ally up” might be a more practical way of putting it*

      In Oregon, local bands of neighbors are roaming *their* communities to stop arsonists and looters.

      Don’t be like those foolish men who go to play in the street. Protests only work if enough of the PTB are sympathetic to you. Otherwise it’s Tiennamin Squares all the way down.

      The lesson of the young hero, Kyle Rittenhouse, is (if you can) step up to help *your* neighbors. And be prepared for villains to see that assistance, and try to stop you.

      *Yes. I’ll be taking a course on “ally ship”. I expect there are tools to learn. After all what is the basic definition of ” ally” but “some on the same side as you in a fight.”

      1. Wow. WP really hates paragraphs in the feed version* combox.

        Let’s try this (3 hard returns)

        (*I came by here to spread the up vote love. Great post. But now I remember why I don’t use it😋)

      2. So far the “lesson” of Kyle Rittenhouse is that if you stand up to defend yourself and other people, the Democrats will arrest you, prosecute you, and do their very best to unperson you,m while their media arm (both social and traditional) will lead a Maoist mob against you while simultaneously suppressing anything and anyone who dares speak out against “the narrative” that “peaceful” protestors (who of course were actively looting and attacking people who they didn’t like with the intent of harming them) were targeted for violence by evil white supremacists (i.e. anyone who stops clapping for Stalin first).

        It is imperative to make sure that this lesson does not become the national lesson plan.

        1. Fortunately his lawyers are going for the jugular. Which is why the media is now trying to cast shade on the lawyers.

          The important perspective here is that this was the national lesson plan. We are moving away from that.

        2. Unfortunately this has been the plan from Trayvon and Mr. Zimmerman to Mr. Brown and Officer Wilson and on and on. With almost every cop involved shooting it has been nearly a rule that if you wait 48-72 hrs it becomes clear that the media involved are lying. It is of a similar dependability that many hate crime reports seem to be self inflicted.

      3. course on “ally ship”.

        Tha- wha-? how? huh?

        wat

        I’m not sure what would be taught in that.

        I’m even less sure where one would go for such a class. Assuming we aren’t talking about the leftist version of the term.

        1. Maybe something basic like “if we’re fighting that guy, don’t take the opportunity to drive a knife into my back because you feel offended about my kicking him with my left foot, rather than my right” and “if you ask me to fight beside you, don’t turn around and slap me in the face.”

          You know, normal sane people compromise, rather than going “hey, you’re on my side, I control you” junk…..

            1. Are there any terms they touch that they don’t humpty dumpty?

              I had to do a three week detox on our probably-would-be-spectrum-in-a-public-school daughter on the word “sharing.”
              ie, that it doesn’t mean “you have to give it to me.”

              1. Something I’d like to know that I didn’t realize I wanted to know: when this corruption of sharing got started.

                Because it seems like the sort of thing that Has Always Been, and there are certain people who would have always been in position to create/enforce that. They are currently called Karens, but only the name is new.

              2. *Rrrrgh* Yes. I learned not to take toys to school the first week of kindergarten. I had to “share” them – and then my “fellow students” threw them in the trash, and told the teacher I must have done it.

                Throwing a 6-year-old’s beloved dino in the trash. You can imagine the heartbreak. Compounded by the teacher believing the brats.

                So this corruption’s been around a long time.

                1. A teacher who’d believe that was either sheltered to near death as a child or fully indoctrinated as a student.

                  Who was it who said it’s immoral to let suckers keep their money?

                  1. A barbarian. Or worse.

                    If innocent enough to be a barbarian, they assume their customs are a natural law that one who violates can be held accountable for breaking– so to be a sucker *IS* a legitimate wrong to be corrected, like sticking your hand in the fire will burn you.

                    If not, they’re just a predator that found something to hide in.

                  2. It’s generally credited to 1880’s poker player Canada Bill and the quote was made famous by its use by Matt Damon’s character in the movie Rounders

                2. Gah, the thing that burns me up the most about that is– i f you force someone to share their stuff, k, maybe there’s possible good reason… but you just put yourself as responsible for protecting that stuff BETTER than you would your own.

                  Because that’s basic respect.

                  Freaking lazy adults.

                3. Off topic, can you please check your spam filter and see if I got sent there, on your blog?

                  I’m trying to troubleshoot if my browser is working with wordpress to eat comments, or what. *Grumble*

                  Thank you.

                  1. Wouldn’t have done any good. Same school that later declared I was faking a broken arm for attention until they were presented with the x-rays. Happened on school grounds, y’see. While the teachers were supposed to be watching.

                    They watched, all right. They watched a bunch of kids descend on me and start pulling me in two different directions until something went crack.

                    That was 3rd grade. I was in with the same kids – and teachers – until the end of 8th.

                    I have opinions on small towns and public schools. Most of them unprintable.

                    1. I was privileged (that word again) to grow up (mostly) in a school district that was a bedroom community for three or four colleges and a teaching hospital. It was the mid ‘60’s to mid ‘70’s as I went through, and local parents still had a strong voice. Moreover, the colleges had not yet gone full-on Marxist.

                      The High School was a loss, however. So I was sent to a Prep School in the area.

                      Still, from Kindergarten through Jr. High, the Ed School products knew better than to pull ‘I’m an Education Expert’ on full Professors. The one administrator who tried didn’t last past winter break.

                      I really do not give thanks enough for the life I lucked into.

        2. Oh boy. You’ve not heard of “allyship” yet? I forget sometimes how deeply embedded in the Hive I am, and how many people still live in blissful unawareness. And it is blissful not to have the poisoned cocktail of race and intersectional gender religious cult protocols rammed down your throat every week.

            1. Not really. This is more on how to be an effective Useful Idiot in the sBLM and other intersectional race and gender theory revolutions.

              It certainly may involve “sit down and shut up while I loot you”, but a more active role in gaslighting and slitting the throats if the no new one is preferred.

            3. Allyship training is how to take on every victims troubles as your own and “advocate” and provide a “safe space” for them so they don’t have to do anything for themselves. If one went through “Safe Space Ally” training at my university, one was told how to talk to students and given certificate of completion and a lovely rainbow sticker that said “Safe Space Ally” that you were supposed to put on your office door. That way students would know that they could come talk to you…kinda like that whole thing for little kids of places they could go if they lost their parents or whatever (Adam’s Place or something?). I actually got more students talking to me about things because they trusted me…and I think they trusted me because I *didn’t* have one of those stickers.

              1. The term leaves a bad taste in my mouth. A social group of ours, formed simply to enjoy good food, drink and companionship, got disrupted earlier this summer by a militantly gay faction that somehow managed to flip seamlessly from, “I’m terribly hurt you keep forgetting my pronouns,” to, “how can you ignore the Great Civil Rights issue of our age (BLM),” back to proper pronoun use. One member, extremely intelligent and hardworking but also a member of an extremely “progressive,” church, pulled the, “I am an ally,” thing. As in, being on the inevitable side of right which should be clearly visible to any correctly oriented individual. Just exhausting.

  6. Sadly, for as long as I can remember – and I can remember a goodly number of years, easily more than fifty – America has been more truly threatened by enemies domestic than foreign.

    As Franklin said, “A republic – if you can keep it.” And the last vestiges are being threatened this election cycle. I don’t think the schools teach what it means to be a republic and I think many parents are not exerting themselves, either. The battle to preserve our Constitution may be already doomed, already a lost cause, but then, “Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.”

    1. The battle to preserve our Constitution may be already doomed, already a lost cause

      As I said to the other guy: your pill is a darker grey than mine. You shouldn’t do that.

      Some of us grew up in a world where the idea of any institutions being anything but corrupt was unthinkable. Where the only interest those institutions would ever take in someone was of the “how can we screw over an innocent” variety. Where the only thing “getting to know your neighbors” could ever mean is inviting nosy Karens into your life, and by extension probably one of those corrupt institutions when the Karen does what Karens do.

      I’m sorry that you had to watch it evolve into that, but you at least got to see a somewhat functional society at one point. We didn’t. And we still haven’t lost hope.

      So, y’know, ok boomer.

      2. Eh. Not that I’m going to argue about Boomer, Gen-X, millennial, or Zoomer flaws. (Real. Like many flaws. Admit, repent, reform & carry on. Just not to SJWs. They’ll eat you alive). Nonetheless, Mr. Bruene, I am dying of brain cancer. does not negate the reality of This is horrible and terrifying: I just got diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. I don’t know if it’s too late..

        Pretty sure Mr. RES is on Team Aggressive Oncology in the war-for-USAian-civilization.

        1. Sorry… I’ve been reading too many people in the “If we just surrender all the spaces to the enemy they will leave us alone” camp recently.

          Which then reminded me of the rather large contingent of people in the “Glad I’m old enough to leave a crashed and burned civilization to my kids and grandkids” camp.

            2. I’ve done a similar joke; (paraphrased, it has been a while)

              “When I was your age I was entrusted with the Keys to Armageddon!”

              “Ok, Boomer.”

              1. There’s a book on the history of the Navy nuclear power program called Wizards of Armageddon if you’re interested in that kind of thing. I also know a few Rickover stories!

              2. A few months ago, someone tried the “OK, Boomer,” snark on a forum for fans of one of the shipgirls games.

                Considerable mockery ensued.

                1. LOL

                  I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever used the term even half seriously…. my stance in that particular debate is “Why can’t both of you go die in a fire”.

                  But it is quite the bait: “Boomer” and “Millennial” bring out alllll of the I Resemble That Remark! people.

                  1. My observation, in recent years, has been that the characteristics attributed to the Baby Boomers ( and the subsequent generations) only really apply to those who grew up in aLefty Liberal culture. There are a lot of them, yes, but here are also a great number of people (of each supposedly homogeneous generation) that consider the ‘typicals’ to be annoying nitwits.

                    The Fascist left works HARD to keep the typicals indoctrinated, because they have found that once the indoctrination is shattered, they lose the subject for good.

          2. No kids.

            That makes it much harder to care about a future I’m been told I wasn’t worth sending someone into.

            Yet I try.

            Lots of times it is much more fun to want to help burn it down because I have no reason to give a damn.

            But every day I choose to care, if only for today.

            1. The people who grind my gears the most are the ones who *do* have kids. And reading between the lines they clearly screwed up in raising them, either from their own flaws or from thinking that that was the school’s job (but I repeat myself).

              It’s basically an elaborate version of git-off-mah-lawn, without any of the endearing parts.

            2. No kids either.

              I do have a young adult nephew and 3 nieces under the age of 10. So I am a bit concerned about the future since they’ll be in it.

                1. No kids, but a nephew (who just made my sister a Grandma) and two nieces in (or not in) High School.

                  Plus the youngsters, my brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Church for whom I must make a/an stand/investment in the future.

            3. I care, if only because of the thousands of works of marination and will that will be flushed down the memory hole if the Fascists win. The Cancel Culture points the way; book burnings are only a matter of time.

              1. The book burnings have already started, although the current leftist totalitarians call it “decolonizing book shelves”

          3. Which then reminded me of the rather large contingent of people in the “Glad I’m old enough to leave a crashed and burned civilization to my kids and grandkids” camp.

            –
            I’m backing away from those folks. It is my job to go down fighting anyway I can, to insure our (adult) son can continue the fight. Or has a sliver of a chance. Or … Whether he chooses to have a spouse & children of his own or not.

            As said clearly “Let’s roll.”

            There is no doubt if I have to fight. I’m dead. Period, eventually. Scared? Yes. Resigned? No.

            1. A car dealer out here put “Let’s Roll” on his license-plate holders. Despite being told that for a helleva lot of us it was tasteless and disrespectful. The karma bus eventually ran over him, backed up, made another pass, and then did a burn out on his remains (so to speak), I am happy to say.

            2. I have none, nor will have. But friends here do. So yes. We all die eventually; better to go down trying to make sure there will still be those who love to read and write and carry the Constitution to the stars.

                1. …It may amuse you to know my plotbunnies think an Ancient Hittite Sorcerer can be won over in part by “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.” The Hittites apparently had to make a habit of kicking out invaders….

                  1. crossover, if you’ve read my books (not a requirement) there will be tales of the Usaians anthos. Yeah, about 3 years late, but we’ve worked out the contracts and stuff, and I just need two weeks at home to get the thing together. And then another.
                    you’re more than welcome to contribute a story.

              1. We ain’t Scottish one of us is, kind of. (Great-Grandpa came from Scotland to Oregon through Nova Scotia, to meet & marry my 2nd generation Oregonian great-grandmother. Might have a couple of other Scots squirreled away in the ancestry bucket somewhere. But, agree. Let’s Roll.

                2. Hey. I ain’t Scottish either. Funnily enough my kids are part Scots-Canadian Ross, though.

                  My grandparents were thrifty Fresian dairy farmers, mostly. Scrooge McDuck reminded me of them.

              2. No Scots on this side of the house, but I would not rule out G’g’g’grampa having gone Viking somewhere in the past. Does anybody know the Danish for Molon Labe? Asking for a friend.

                  1. “War ax” reminds me that somehow, often, for some reason, my brush hook is left near the door. A handy multi-purpose tool. Mine is very sharp. For those not familiar:

                    2. In a similar vein, I have a demolition hammer I keep next to the seat in the car, for when I’m in less permissive areas for self defense. I also have various other tools laying about the vehicle, so as to not demonstrate “intent.” It’s also been well used for its’ intended purpose.

                    3. I never used a brush hook, but a Pulaski* would be a nice melee tool.

                      (Axe head on one side, small mattock head on the other, both sharpened. Handy for fire and other possible interactions.)

                    5. Maybe it’s just me, but when I think “war ax” my mind starts searching …

                      … on images like that.

                      I’ve not leisure to try to decide which riff is most appropriate, so you’re on your own for that.
                      –

                  2. My husband is unaccountably Disturbed whenever I take the machete out to clear brush. I don’t know why, I’ve never even swung it at him…

                2. Not Molon Labe, but see Oigar / Holgar Dansk, the “Danish King” who came to fight the Moors with Charlmagne in the Chansons de Geste, and who, like Arthur, is sleeping until needed.
                  See also, Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson.
                  John

                3. According to Google Translate, that’d be kom og tag dem.

                  If you want Icelandic to be a little closer to Old Norse go with: komdu og taktu þau

            4. No kids either, but if it gets sporty out here in the Deplorable counties, I’ll be doing what I can. I have some nieces and nephews who have kids, and I’d like for the littles to have a decent world to grow up in.

              I don’t plan to go looking for trouble, but if trouble comes looking for me, I want to be ready.

          4. I have kids. There are a few things I won’t do as that would either be against God, or would be bad for my family (which really is the same thing). But like I have been telling my older kids – Ye nivver start a fight, but if it’s started, ye fecking FINISH it, so.

            But I cannot surrender. I. Can. Not. If it takes bringing the spectre of One Shot Paddy and his ould friend Éamon Wright back, I will do so. Tiocfaigh Ár Lá!

          5. I definitely have no interest in surrendering a damned square inch of space to the enemy — I’ve o illusiois they’ll ever leave us alone — my concern is that defeating them will require we go full-Hulk (they won’t like us when we go full-Hulk) and once we calm down there’ll be not a square inch of our Constitutional space remaining.

            Wot the hey – it’s been built once, we can rebuild.
            –

          6. “Sorry… I’ve been reading too many people in the “If we just surrender all the spaces to the enemy they will leave us alone” camp recently.”

            Does anybody really think that anymore? I mean, they came for the KNITTING CLUBS ffs. Seriously, Woke(tm) knitting.

            Isn’t it more that people don’t think it’s worth it to fight raging SJWs so they walk away from their hobby? I walked away from comics and movies because of them. We all walked away from WorldCon and the Hugos 30 years ago. This year it seems Dragon Con walked away from us. Comic Con, Fan Expo, also getting very Woke(tm) and therefore no fun.

            Where I drew the line was science fiction. I’m not giving that up. The publishers and awards have gone 100% Woke(tm) so I fight back by WRITING MY OWN, the same as Sarah does. I can’t make a movie or a comic myself but I can write a fricking story. So I do. Put it up on Amazon, anybody who’s sick of PC bullshit can have a nice read for three bucks.

            Push comes to shove, I’ll put it up on my damn website myself or sell it on CDs out the back of my truck.

            I want to see them come and try to make me stop writing my own.

            1. In this case it has been the people insisting that Rittenhouse had no business being in Kenosha.

              Because it is totally cool to enlist at 17 and go die thanklessly in some armpit of the planet, but god forbid anyone feel the urge to defend their own civilization.

              1. And it’s totally cool to travel 1,800 miles to riot, loot and burn, but not to go 15 miles to help out your friends.

                Who’s paying for all that travel, anyway? Where are lowlife punks getting the money to make the U.S. Riot Tour? Seattle to Kenosha to Chicago to Baltimore to New York on short notice ain’t cheap. Aren’t they illegally transporting guns between states, too? Or are they illegally handed guns when they get to the riots? Without a background check! It’s the Riot Loophole!

                1. More chilling to me is that Sauron’s All Seeing Eye is watching all this cross-state movement and yet nobody is getting busted. Given the NSA, the Feds cannot pretend they don’t know what’s going on.

                  1. Tell that to Riot Kitchen.

                    If they haven’t pulled their Twitter feed down, you can see them screaming about their people being “kidnapped,” the morning before the news about the arrest with weapons while they were filling a bunch of gas cans.

                    Funny how the news didn’t much cover that, eh?

                  2. As Foxfier noted, people have been getting busted. It’s been kept fairly quiet. But the Feds have been making arrests. The conservative blogs have mentioned it a time or two.

                    There was another incident that a friend forwarded to me. The link he sent was to a YouTube video with the head of a Christian church complaining because a truck full of food supplies being sent to “protestors” in Kenosha had been seized. The head of the church (a woman whose appearance suggested that she might be from the more “woke” side of the political aisle) mentioned that the drivers who had been arrested along with the truck were not members of her congregation, nor did she know them. Rather, they were the people who the truck was turned over to in order to deliver the supplies to their destination.

                    While it wasn’t clear what exactly happened (no one was even quite sure whether it was local law enforcement or the Feds who had performed the seizure, though the local LE was denying any knowledge of it), or why it happened, my “read between the lines” vibe was that the church in question turned over a bunch of supplies to a couple of individuals who had ties to the rioters and looters, and who subsequently got busted by the Feds for being up to no good. The truck full of supplies was *hopefully* incidental to the arrest of the individuals, though I can’t rule out that there were non-peaceful supplies in the truck that a “forgetful” head of the congregation failed to mention to the person interviewing her.

                2. Tim Pool has been pointing out that travel isn’t really that expensive. There are people who just save up a few hundred dollars from their Subway job and then go to some protest. It is a hobby for them.

                  Aren’t they illegally transporting guns between states, too?

                  If it isn’t an MG / SBR / SBS / DD it isn’t a crime to move it across state lines.

                    2. iirc there are also federal laws about transporting a firearm interstate with the intent of committing a crime.

                    1. Oh they are *definitely* getting help. It’s just that the help is not quite as necessary as generally assumed.

                      The assumption that The Enemy never works is conservatives making a classic error: underestimating their opponents.

                  3. Some of our local “protest” leaders are flying to multiple cities every month on someone’s dime. Hopefully there are enough “good” federal law enforcement keeping an eye on this.

                    And there is money and serious talent flowing in to support the organization of these activities. It’s a leftist jihad movement, they are serious religious fanatics with some agency pushing the movement.

              2. Rittenhouse?

                That was the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen! One teenager, cut loose to deal with the mob alone? No parent present? No wingman, no backup, no escape route? Abject, horrifying stupidity! As defenses of property go, that was about the worst possible.

                But were his actions better than anyone in authority has any business hoping for? They absolutely were. The kid didn’t shoot anybody who wasn’t actively trying to kill him, and he surrendered on the spot. That the cops didn’t take him in right there is 100% on them, not the kid.

                And damn fine shooting too, particularly from lying on his back after getting a skateboard to the head.

                1. Some ‘what planet is he from’ type on ESR’s asked ESR, sincerely, why ESR was so eager to celebrate the deaths.

                  Right now, BLM, Anti-Fa, and the criminal justice reform types have been essentially pushing the idea that the correct answer to junkie violence is lying there, taking it, while your family is raped, tortured, and murdered, with your house burned down around you.

                  Rittenhouse was responsible for an absurdly good shoot. We are very unlikely to see a better good shoot before the election.

                  Pointing out that these folks are scumbags, who deserved to be killed at a much earlier point in their lives, is the polite and gentle way of reminding the philosophical opposition that people do disagree with them. Quietly giving the sons of rats a fair warning is in line with the American philosophy of self defense, and tolerating those that haven’t seriously wronged one. Plenty of warnings have been given, they haven’t listened, but skipping the opportunity might be a violation of “don’t do stupid stuff, don’t go stupid places, don’t hang around stupid people”.

                  Mentor of Arisia might say that it is /necessary/ to publicly state that a number of these deaths were good shoots and totally righteous killings. So the number of ‘conservatives’ in media or politics willing to cast shade on Rittenhouse is shameful and predictable.

                  Anyway, reason I am puzzled by the guy is a) he was assuming a rather extreme degree of cultural and philosophical uniformity b) he apparently didn’t realize that Americans do not have so much problem with the Mexican or Canadian border that Americans will go “Yeah, he is a murdering scumbag, but he aims most of it at the Mexicans and Canadians, so we will tolerate it”.

                2. He was out in the crowd because he left his position with his support to render first aid across the street, and the police would not let him return.
                  Also note that at the end of most of the videos, he is approaching the police line with his hands up and his rifle slung, surrendering yo the Kenosha Police.
                  Apparently, the police on the street waved him on and told him to go home.
                  One report said that it was the police at their station who sent him home, but there has been no mention on the MSM of any of this.
                  (Borrowing Sarahs’ shocked face)
                  And whatever happened to the rifle? Who has it? When did they get it, and from whom?
                  John

                  1. “…and the police would not let him return.”

                    That’s the part that has me the most upset. It does not take a large group before it’s likely to contain someone who would decide that a lone member of the other side is a good target. I understand that the police didn’t want the situation to continue to grow and spiral, but if they’re going to turn people away from the safety of a group they need to have some mechanism to get them out of the area other than “walk back through a near-riot of people potentially hostile towards you.”

                    The first goblin to attack Rittenhouse was filmed earlier in the night angrily demanding that counter-protesters shoot him. That was another missed opportunity by the Kenosha police. If he had been arrested for attempting to incite a riot, even if he had been released the next morning, it would have lowered the temperature of the conflict as well as removed an obviously volatile element from the evening.

                    2. Same behavior we saw in Charlottesville.

                      Furthermore, though no specific evidence of a “stand down” order was found, as some have charged, the report did find that police didn’t do their jobs: “We did not find evidence of a direct order to officers to ‘stand down’ and not respond to fights and other disorders. Even if there was no explicit ‘stand down’ order in place, CPD and VSP both failed to ‘stand up’ to protect human life.” Areas where conflict could be expected to occur didn’t have police officers assigned to them; areas where police officers were stationed were out of the way.

                      When violence first broke out, according to two witnesses Chief Thomas reportedly said “let them fight, it will make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly.”

                      When the police finally decided to shut the rally down, they did it in a way that forced the protesters and counterprotesters into each other, instead of separating them, making violence far more likely. Meanwhile police who could have deescalated the violence stood aside.

                      http://tinyurl.com/ybvbpeut

            2. This year it seems Dragon Con walked away from us.

              Raise you hand if you blogged, GAB’d, Facebook’s (ptui!), or otherwise got the word out for our great books?

              No?

              You think the woke crowd and the pink media were napping?

              Nobody was “walking away”, but a whole lot of us were asleep at the wheel again.

              Assuming we get a ” next year” let’s get back to work. I’ve got my calendar marked.

            3. They have tried to come for ham radio, but apparently a darn easy test and a few hundred dollars worth of equipment is to much for most. And the old geezers on the repeaters and HF nets don’t really care much about “diversity” in the far-left sense of the word. Too much culture gap.

              But apparently the “Protesters” do enjoy using the cheap imported radios to coordinate their riots. Their command structure is also using commercial gear or in some cases, military gear in addition to burner phones using Whatsapp.

              1. To quote Ace Barton from “Go Tell the Spartans”:

                “Kinda makes you wonder who paid for it all?”

              2. Everybody uses hand radios.

                The kids and I use them when we’re on trips, even– one of the ways we practice is having the radio on in the van, and they learn how to actually be able to hear anything.

                Even with some twenty channels and not that good of range, we’re constantly running into other folks on the same band.

                1. then get the radios that you need to take a test for, they have many more channels (and higher range)

                3. You know it was real nice when cell phone first came out and they decided that the phones DID NOT have to use a tower. The phones that were in range could actually talk to each other WITHOUT going through a tower. It was really nice BUT they couldn’t have THAT. They couldn’t charge you when you did that. So they made sure you had to go through a tower. I had one and so did my friend. We would ride Harley’s and talk during the ride.

            1. Appeasement and pandering are all they’ve got. They should ask Maximilien de Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just where that gets you.

        3. Mr. RES? Mister? You say such to a noble wallaby? Fie, I say thee!.

          Aside from that, thanks for recognizing I belong to the Old Norse persuasion: Just because I believe we cannot win is no reason to not fight! Send a passel of the rogues ahead of us to be our servants. Like Leonidas’ three hundred, we fight so that others might understand the cause is worth defending, that the enemy victory is not inevitable, and to buy time for other defenders to form up their lines.

          “We can’t win” is a poor reason to not fight.
          –

            1. I prefer this one. Not only do I find the music more enjoyable, it’s not about a bunch of rotten bastards.

          2. “The Impossible Dream ” is a great song. Having read, “Don Quixote ” back in AP English, I don’t have much use for the rest of “Man of La Mancha”. Completely missed the point.

          3. “We can’t win” is a poor reason to not fight.

            –
            Closer to home. Closer in time.

            “Remember the Alamo”
            —

            1. If they want a fight Heghlu’meH QaQ jajvam! It is a good day to die! Fighting for liiberty is worth that kind of find)

          4. Rev. RES? The Hon. RES? Corrections are welcomed, but even if you’re a Lord whosit in the U.K., “Mister” is the best you’ll get from me on those lines, this side of the revolution.

            I take the Norse Persuasion as the default for the H&H crew unless otherwise indicated. Mrs. Hoyt’s essays appeal to that mindset.

            1. We’ve previously debated the appropriate honorific for wallabies of distinction and I’ve forgotten the conclusion. My primary objection to the use of Mr. is premised upon my refusal to be assigned a binder, because too many people think logic is dependent on possession of penis or pudendum.

              Well, screw that – I don’t think with my privates and am not interested in online discussion with any who do (in bar discussions are a separate matter.)

              So eschew Mr., eschew Ms/Miss/Mrs and eschew any honorific and just call me RES. Or call me Late To Supper, I’m of two minds.
              –

                1. Civilized address? Gracious, not at all. Merely gender-specific address, particularly when addressed in absentia as was the case above. Appropriate honorifics would include but not be limited to, Tovarische RES, Comrade RES, Friend RES, Our RES, or even Our Dear RES.

                  Beside the specified reasons for eschewing discussion of reproductive arrangement, it always benefits to cultivate some slight aura of mystery.
                  –

          6. ““We can’t win” is a poor reason to not fight.”

            “We won’t get a perfect result out of it” doesn’t rank any higher

            1. “It ain’t perfect!” is not a reason to burn it all down, either, but that’s what we’re seeing.

              1. Um…. I think when Steve wanted to fight it was already too late for surgical excision. So it will have to be CHEMO. I.e. converting some of the cells to functioning properly by means other than just removing them.
                it’s been too late for surgery by 50 years at least

        4. No.

          Team Aggressive Oncology was those of us who were advocating sharp surgery before it went Stage IV…. and being told by Mr RES and several other people that we were “alt-right” and “looking for Kameraden”.

          I may forgive, but I do NOT forget.

          1. Just because an action is aggressive doesn’t mean it is correct.
            Surgery still would do massive damage to the patient, possibly fatal, and wouldn’t remove the cancer.

            1. Er, yeah. I confess to identifying as a member of team “let’s not amputate anything until we’re clear on where the tumor is.”
              –

                1. I’ve never been a fan of the “We had to destroy the village in order to save it” philosophy, nor inclined toward the idea of “We lost the patient but the operation was a success.”

                  It seems to me that a fairly fundamental objective is being ignored.
                  –

            2. The thing to remember is that the Law of Unintended Consequences doesn’t just strike Team Blue’s “brilliant” plans.

              So snelson, unless you can guarantee your “aggressive oncology” won’t result in an American Robespierre and Saint-Just, perhaps we should hold off that “aggressive oncology” as long as possible.

              1. I only guarantee that you’re going to have Robespierre and Saint-Just. The only choice is whether they’ll be backed up by AntifaAbteilung or Usains.

                1. You think USAians would back a Robespierre? Intentionally?

                  So have you finished your own guillotine?

          2. Ah yes. The alt-right debacle in which good conservatives if all stripes joined with our avowed enemy, the NYT and the Establishment mass media to sing Kumbayah and declare that the only meaning of “alt Right” was the Klan of the Dar al-Hitler. Disavow, comrade. Or else!

            The one** thing we keyboard warriors can and should defend online: words, definitions; and we rolled over and played pearl-clutching NOK,D. For why I only now ever use “conservative” as a limited-application adjective and never a noun in self-description. For shame.

            A fair cop.

            Nonetheless, it’s not the case of RES not being part of team Aggro Oncology, but of also being “it’s not a lump, it’s not a lump; no really, if you say it’s a lump you are ++Ungood gaslit.

            I used to defend “free trade” across national borders with China, and also Pres. Bush. I was a Never-Trumper. For my sins: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxims culpa. I was wrong.

            I beg your forgiveness. Let us not forget who opposes us, and our mutual Enemy. These games are rigged to set us at one another’s throats.

            If we do not all hang together, we shall most assuredly all hang separately.

            1. Read what I wrote.

              “I may forgive, but I do NOT forget.”

              I’ll work with anyone (I wouldn’t have lasted 30+years in IT otherwise), but it doesn’t mean I’ll have a beer with them.

      3. Marx taught that “the people” would rise up en masse and root the bastards out, with fire and pitchforks if necessary.

        Even a stopped clock is right twice a day…

        1. I’m not sure if that is a misunderstanding nor not, but my comment was saying that there *is* hope.

          Or at the very least for the people who say there isn’t hope to please GTFO the way and let the next generation come in.

            1. Sadly, these days it’s entirely possible for the statements “I need to lose 50 pounds” and “You aren’t fat” to both be true, at least if the second one carries the implication of “among the people I’ve seen, you’re average weight at most.”

  7. There was a reminder about the Fallen, the people who for what ever reason choose to Jump. Many don’t remember that or think it was only a few. No the networks and papers DECIDED that news, video, pictures, etc. of those people were NOT to be shown, EVER! Not talked about, NOTHING, they were to be memory holed. They gave reasons of course, none that rang true. A few people spoke the reason, the media was afraid that the pictures, video, etc. would so enrage the American People that they would attack random Muslims. The Media hated and distrusted the American People THAT much, even then. The Media has continued with this hatred and distrust to this day and it has only gotten worse.

    The Falling Men and Women should NOT be forgotten, along with all the others that died. People need to remember that the Media decided what we would see and what THEY didn’t want us to see. They shouldn’t get to decide that BUT they ALL did.

  8. If one goes to the HQ of the FDNY in Brooklyn you’ll find a board with over 1000 names of the dead from 1865 till now. 343 on 9/11. The city of NY used to publish tracking but haven’t updated it since DiBlassio took over. The board is still up there, it’s a nice piece of 19th century oak carving. This does not count those who died later from being down in the hole.

    NYPD has 930 line of duty deaths since 1849. 23 on 9/11 and a number afterward. Port Authority PD 37 dead on 9/11. The NYPD memorial is on bank of the Hudson at the top of Battery Park City. I don’t think it’s been defaced yet.

    My brother in law was the first NYPD captain to respond after the building fell. A few minutes earlier and he would have been dead. My Father in Law was a Division Chief in the FDNY, he also arrived within an hour of the fall. A few more minutes and he would have been dead.

    I remember John Keegan in the Face of Battle asking what it must have been like in, say, East Belfast, after the first day of the Somme. I know. I was living in the UK and my mother was calling with the names. People I went to school with, their brothers, the guy down the corner, my sister’s best friend’s husband — she was pregnant and her son never met his father — this one’s brother, that one’s son. All the six degrees of separation. I finally told her to stop. I knew at least ten people who died well and the total list was over 50. My experience is not unique, we dirt people from NYC tended to have broad networks through the parish, the schools, the neighborhood.

    They held funerals daily for weeks out in cop and fireman land where I grew up. Most of the coffins were empty. The widows and orphans were quite real,

    Father Michel Judge OFM, the FDNY Chaplain died after giving the firemen general absolution before they went in. A body landed on him.

    I have a transcript of the FDNY dispatch from the first alarm to the end of the day. It’d break your heart. Manhattan Division 1 dispatch calling Rescue 1, No response, Manhattan Division 1 dispatch calling Engine 7 … no response. Manhattan Division 1 dispatch calling Ladder 36 …. no response. you get the picture.

    Every time I see them protest or see that vile POS Diblassio, I think of the regular, working people who died and continue to die. Hate is a sin and I’ll likely pay a price for it, but if all the spoiled rich kids, if all the bent politicians, if all the gang bangers and other skells who are looting their “reparations” were to die tomorrow I would have little to say beyond good riddance to bad rubbish.

    Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest
    in peace, and may their souls and the souls of all the Faithful departed, through the mercy of God, Rest In Peace. Amen.

    2. Have you tried humming Dies Irae?
      Just the “dah-dah dah-dah. Dah-dah dah-dah. Dah da dah daaah da dah….”

      Yes, it sounds silly, and wouldn’t work if I didn’t have a really EPIC version going on my head. Which I can’t find to share, but here’s a version:

      He’s got this. We try to fix stuff, he’ll fix what we don’t, don’t get distracted.

      2. “dah-dah dah-dah. Dah-dah dah-dah. Dah da dah daaah da dah….”

        Heh, from this I got the Imperial March…

        1. If you heard me humming it, you’d…be about as likely to choose those. Or possibly Flight of the Valkyries.

          Just because I don’t have a bucket doesn’t mean I won’t try to carry the tune.

  9. This is the person who sits in the line of succession to the presidency and she didn’t know 1) she should have been wearing a mask and 2) that beauty salons IN HER OWN TOWN were not allowed to open for anything but outside work?

    Well, for #1, I think it made it clear that she knew she doesn’t need to wear a mask. The freaky thing is she didn’t realize that she was forcing everybody else to do so, even though the mandate is at best useless.
    (Sure, you can use masks in such a way that they will help protect yourself and/or others, but that ain’t the mandate.)

  10. 9/11 caught me as I was going to work. Initially, I thought “something like when the B-25s hit the Empire State Building…a big accident and it was going to be bad there and we’ll be seeing news and ‘talking heads’ for days…”

    I was getting my pants on when the second plane hit.

    It wasn’t an accident.

    I went into work. What else could I do? This was the pre-widespread cell era (I didn’t get my own cell phone until 2005), I was there for about an hour before they kicked us out. There was a bookstore on Market St I liked (they had a decent fiction section and a BIG section of engineering and law reference books), but they were closed.

    I went home, drove up to Santa Rosa. Dad was working for the State of California at the time and he went to the office because he was an armed officer. I remember baking cookies, and watching the TV. I think…if I had to make a guess, it was the last time cable networks just reported the news. Stayed up with the parents long enough to have dinner and go home. Office was going to be re-opening tomorrow, if I recalled.

    One thing that I recalled from just after 9/11 was talking with a friend of mine, who was working as a professional dominant in the Bay Area. She told me-in private, in confidence-that she voted for Gore but she was glad as hell that Bush got elected.

    I don’t think anybody in the communities would say that about Trump, these days.

    Looking back, I can feel somewhere there was a “pre-9/11” and “post-9/11” era, and it wasn’t so much of a polarization as masks were being removed. “Little Green Footballs” was a blog I followed for years afterwards…until Obama got elected and it’s creator drank the Obama Kool-Aid. People that were “we can disagree but still be friends” and were willing to complain about “own side” issues suddenly became religious fanatics and if I wasn’t matching in step with them…

    I’ve stopped arguing with people about politics. Even with family. Trump is evil, because of all of the scandals that he’s had (doesn’t matter how many of them have been disproved). He’s not polished and tends to speak off the cuff. They don’t care that Biden has been a farily low-end politician most of his life, and that anything Trump has been accused of, Kamela Harris has probably done it and something worse. And, Trump seems to think more of the country, rather than Biden/Harris-who probably think that their food just appears on a truck that drives up to Whole Foods every week or so.

    I miss the period just after 9/11 where being American meant more than anything else.

    2. It’s hardly surprising that I remember the details of that day vividly. Not going to trot out the whole story today, but I was living with my in-laws and busing into work, so I didn’t get ANY TV until late that evening—and my prior job had been at a news radio station as part of a system that included a television station, so I really felt out of the loop. And my MiL kept getting traumatized by things she was hearing and coming back into the room, so I flipped around until I found a Spanish-language news channel and she stopped coming in. My Spanish wasn’t great, but it was easy enough to follow along.

      One of my professors for broadcast studies mentioned how different cultures approach news in different ways. This Spanish-language station reported on stats about the towers themselves: number of windows, number of tons of steel used in their construction, things like that.

    3. I watched the Fascist Left walk us back to where we are from that coming together. They tried a few “this is what we get for being America” fliers just after, and those didn’t go over well. Then they started jabbering about how Iraq was going to be a quagmire, which died pretty quickly when we walked over the Iraqi army with cleats. They first got traction with Abu Ghraib, carefully not acknowledging that a) the officer in charge was female and b) by the time he media ‘broke’ the story the Army was convening a Court Martial. They talked a lot about ‘no WMDs’, which was a flat out lie. They convinced themselves that the British intelligence that said Saddam had bought yellowcake uranium some specific place in Africa was fake, ignoring that we found literally tons of the stuff in Iraq. And they jabbered about the Iraq war being ‘illegal’, which is bollocks on several levels, not the least of which being that since Saddam had never come close to meeting the terms of surrender of the First Gulf War we were technically at was with him already.

      Obama was such a fool that I seriously expected a major attack at any moment during him eight years of bumbling, and am still surprised one didn’t happen.

      It’s a shame the Left couldn’t leave Bush’s glorious object lesson for the various Middle East players stand, and a bigger shame that Bush didn’t just LEAVE when the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan were wrecked. Maybe if Trump’s diplomacy in the area is allowed to go forward we can duck the fate I fear, but I still expect that the Radical idiots will keep attacking the US until they make us well and truly loose out temper, and by the time the red haze clears we will have conquered much of the Islamic world and Mecca will be self-illuminating at night.

      1. Obama was such a fool that I seriously expected a major attack at any moment during him eight years of bumbling, and am still surprised one didn’t happen.

        The alphabet agencies, and military types, did hella good work on that.

        Which actually makes me realize part of why Obama was able to have his idiots to so much when I also know there was real work going on– because anybody who wasn’t an incompetent political hack was running around dealing with actual problems, and didn’t want to get any attention because taht’s how you get stopped from doing your job.
        And if you’re stopped from doing your job, a lot of people are going to die.

          1. Because he wasn’t.

            They don’t want us destroyed– they wanted to destroy us.

            If they aren’t the ones who do it, then they don’t get the glory from flexing.

            They’ll use each other– but the goal is their own glory.

            1. They want to take us down, and they think they will.yet. But it’s been over four centuries since the Battle of Vienna marked the high tide of the Ottoman Empire. They can be patient in establishing the New Caliphate, especially if the target is rolling over. Obama’s administration arming and equipping ISIS, taking out Khaddafi to make Libya a Muslim Brotherhood playground, taking the pressure off Iran; as noted elsewhere, don’t interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.

        1. They also were probably scared as hell that Bush would start looking into their associations with fashionable radical Islam. Bush had more important things to do than persecute the Radically Chic, but THEY would have, so they probably assumed he would.

            1. Damn right! Still, at the time we did not understand that they are domestic enemies and traitors within the meaning of the Constitution and various oaths. Prosecuting them would have torn the country apart, including pushing many of those who are very much our countrymen to the wrong side.

            2. There’s only so much a single man, even with a staff, can do. And running a two front war, or at least keeping currant with it, was enough to max out Bush. Trump would have done more, but Trump wouldn’t have wasted his time making nice with the Media, so there’s a big saving in energy right there.

      3. “Obama was such a fool that I seriously expected a major attack at any moment during him eight years of bumbling, and am still surprised one didn’t happen.”

        I expect they figured he was doing more damage to the United States while doing none to them that they could dream of achieving by attacking us.

        “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte
        –

        2. I had a cousin in law (gone to his reward now, sadly) who told us in the year after 911 the government stopped more than 50 attacks. They were busy people (and he had been a naval attache. so he had a clue).

    4. My first thought upon hearing of the initial impact (upon getting off my graveyard shift as a mechanic at the airline in Mpls,) was also ‘B-25 in the ESB redux. I got home and switched on the TV just in time to witness he broadcast of the impact on the second tower. Nope – not an accident.

      1. We got called by our (then) contractor, and put on the TV. I’m a little ashamed to say that my first thought was “This is taking architectural criticism a little far.”

        My second was “I’ve been expecting this for twenty years.”

        1. Just to clarify;

          I thought, and still think, that the ‘Twin Towers’ were hideous examples of most of what it wrong with Modernist Glass Box architecture. I also hope that the terrorists welcome to the afterlife went something like, “Hello. These are your 79 virgins. They have been supplied with tire irons, potato peelers, and cheese graters, and they don’t like you.”

          1. Your’re not alone. They may have been technical marvels, but those were not nice looking buildings, and from a purely aesthetic point of view, the New York skyline is better off without them.

            1. i vastlly prefer modernist glass box over 70s brutalist. Thank goodness the old dominion power building got imploded.

  11. I was browsing some games forums when it happened. I recall there was a massive thread at the top of the forums. Something like major air accident: plane crash in New York City, and thinking “This is it. This is the doomsday air accident all aviation enthusiasts have dreaded: a major crash in a metropolitan area.”

    It took a while before we realized it was not an accident. I recall spending a good chunk of the day in a long running debate with one of our Swedish posters. He was terrified that the US would, justifiably lay waste to the middle east over this. I told him we were going to build roads, because that is what we always did.

    The other thing that struck me, because I did not have a TV at the time, I did not see the event live at the time. The media blackout afterwards was so complete that it was years before I actually saw the video of it. It struck me just how thoroughly the news media tried to pretend that it had never happened at all.

      1. The rain of bodies were there in the videos. They were just not pointed out or focused in on. Someone(s) (do not have the link) used the reporting videos to focus closer in & put in circles throughout the video, that highlighted those jumping to their deaths to prevent being burned alive. The words across the bottom of the video were “These are Not building or office debris, but are … People jumping …” The effect? Words, or at least the ones at my finger tips, fail …

          1. I’ll always remember the man who did a perfect swan dive from the tower. I’m originally from NYC.

    2. I didn’t have a TV, and my internet tied up my land-line (had to leave it open for work) so I heard everything after the Pentagon hit on the radio. I’d been asleep because of being on the nigh shift, flying.

      1. I heard everything on the radio, too — I was at work, as an office admin/receptionist. First in the office, first of us all there to know what had happened, I think. Also had internet access, so that helped. But it was awful, listening to it live on radio.

    3. I had been laid off from Agilent (AKA HP’s non-computer divisions cut loose) the previous month, so I was waking up and reading on the computer. Hit the User Friendly web comic and Illiad had a message of sympathy about the attack. *That* got a WTF and the urge to turn on the TV. Somebody was rebroadcasting CNN, and I think we got the news on as the second building collapsed. (I’m trying not to remember the details too closely.)

      Alan Jackson did his “Where were you (when the world stopped turning” song, but “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” was closer to my sentiment.

  12. For any who missed it: the White House moment of silence ceremony:

    And the memorial observance, /watch?v=O7HlOF79QNg

    Never forget. Never again.

    2. It’s striking because in the Julian calendar, that day was also the beheading of John the Baptist, so for the old calender Orthodox churches, it was already a day or mourning.

  15. I most strongly agree with everything you said and everything you recommend, Amanda.

    I also recommend that you, and every rational person, have a plan D in case, if in the sadly likely case, the fit hits the shan.

  16. I plan to go physically vote. If they send me a mail in ballot, i am going to carry it with me. if the voter roll says i have already votes, i will present said mail in ballot and say ” no, i didnt, my mail in ballot is right here’

    (don’t just throw away the mail in ballots)

    1. IIRC, California will be automatically sending mail-in ballots to everyone. I plan to go vote on-site anyway.

      I got a mailer from USPS yesterday talking about mail-in ballots. While I’m not happy about the push to get as many people as possible to vote by mail, I was happy to see a little notice at the bottom of the mailer encouraging people who are planning on voting by mail to do so *early* – i.e. mail the ballot in at least a week in advance.

      1. I got one of those too …. Oregon’s been doing VBM for over two decades. Didn’t exactly inspire …. confidence

        1. Oregon’s been doing VBM for over two decades

          –
          Yes it has. Oregon doesn’t have polling places anymore. Procedures for going to your county to get missing or damaged ballots. But don’t know what those are as we haven’t had to use them.

          Oregon ballot return envelopes are NOT prepaid. Stamp required. OR you drop the ballot off at valid ballot boxes placed throughout the county (county offices or libraries). Signature of the name on the outside envelope required regardless.

          We, our household, & my mom, drop off our ballots around 4 PM day ballots are due at a county office drop box (closest).

          If mailed, ballot MUST be at the county offices on the voting day, regardless of when it is cancelled. You’ll see ads stating for days the last day the ballot is mailed that it will have a chance to get to the appropriate county location on time. That date varies throughout the state. For example. Eugene mail has to go to Portland to be sorted & returned to Eugene, even mail mailed from Eugene; no exception for mailed Ballots. (Can’t be blamed on President Trump either, it has been this way for years, blame it on Obama, he was the President in charge when this change came to pass.) More rural counties should be smart enough to insist on everyone drop off their ballots VS mail them.

  18. “I look at that and then I consider what is happening in our nation today.”

    Beloved Spouse & I were discussing the reports of diminished interest in the NFL (I would boycott the WOKE-FL but it would be like a vegan boycotting McDonalds — impact free) and debating the issue of standing for the anthem. BS had been visiting a friend yester-eve, a Liberal who is capable of engaging a conservative conversationally.

    This friend told of an experience as a poll worker some years back in which some [female dog] showed up to vote in a shirt bearing the legend “[Copulate With] Trump.” While there’s no question this friend (somewhat more delicately) shared the sympathy nonetheless the person was told she could not wear the shirt in the polling place. She then pointed to a person wearing an American flag shirt and demanded to know why that was allowed. Efforts ensued to explain that the flag is (at least theoretically) not a partisan expression. The voter harrumphed and then demonstratively shed her shirt, revealing her opinion that she did not need a bra, and awaited her turn to enter the booth.

    The idea that the flag is a non-partisan statement, or that the national anthem is something to which we all pay our respects, is critical to our republican polity. By objecting to such rituals of unity the critic separates herself from those who deem America flawed but worthy. It changes the argument from “How can we be better?” to :Look what you’ve done!” and thus separates us into two nations.

    Anybody who’s been in a marriage (or even a family) should understand this dynamic. The idea of a shared problem is essential if we are to work together to address it. Once it become a “problem with you people” a solution entails submission of one to the other and a win-lose rather than a win-win situation.

    People do not like to lose, especially when they are not convinced they deserve to. Brow-beating engenders resentment and, taken to its logical end, resistance and revenge. It is destructive of human relationships, destructive of society and ought not be lightly pursued.

    That so many seem indifferent to such costs (or even eager for them) means we do indeed have a serious problem o our hands. I do not know of an answer; I will not kowtow to demands which are destructive of our polity and see no way of persuading our opponents that they do not want us as foes.
    –

    2. The idea that the flag is a non-partisan statement, or that the national anthem is something to which we all pay our respects, is critical to our republican polity.

      The term you are looking for is “Civic Religion”.

      By objecting to such rituals of unity the critic separates herself from those who deem America flawed but worthy.

      reeee

    3. I would boycott the WOKE-FL but it would be like a vegan boycotting McDonalds — impact free

      –
      Ditto. Any sports, any level. The only sports I watched were the ones my child was playing in …

      1. I tried to get interested in baseball, but it didn’t stick. College football was sort-of-fun as an undergrad, since we were in the flashcard section and didn’t have to closely watch the gawdawful play of the home team. (Our star quarterback got drafted as the 4th QB for a Midwestern team.) Yeah, the party was more fun than the game…

        1. College football was sort-of-fun as an undergrad, since we were in the flashcard section and didn’t have to closely watch the gawdawful play of the home team.

          –
          I remember 0 – 0 civil war ties (might have been pre-college, but neither team had improved in football by the time I was in college … they do better now … especially the more southern one due to Uncle Phil’s money).

      2. I’ve watched sports. But the primary enjoyment from watching games is that it’s a shared experience. i.e. I’m doing it with other people.

        Watching a game by myself would be dull.

        1. Confession time. We used to rotate different houses for watching the Civil War Football (OSU & UofO) and Super Bowl. Drove the actual fans nuts. “That line is what, again?” You know the ones that are added by the television, not real lines. Super Bowl, well commercials, what else is there to say? That has all fallen to the side since 2015, when we were out of town for the Super Bowl; it was already falling apart, but that put a nail in the coffin. Last couple of years the Super Bowl commercials have be rather lame (IMHO).

    4. The answer is they leave. Either by learning some real history and changing their minds about politics, by willingly going to find a country that better suits their political beliefs, by being deported to whatever country we can find that will take them, or by being killed. The only other path on the decision tree requires exterminating Americans, and Americans won’t be exterminated.

      We tried forgive and forget after the last Civil War. It didn’t work.

    5. I think some of the driving force behind the Fascist Left’s hysteria is the growing realization that a substantial proportion of the population believes that A) we do share a number of problems we need to work on together and B) the Fascist Left is, if not one of those problems, at best unhelpful. They thought they were The Way, and are shocked to learn that many of those they would rule consider them to be road bumps.

      1. “… many of those they would rule consider them to be road bumps.”

        Road bumps? If only that were all that they are! As we are seeing, they are the source of many of the problems, inflaming sores in the body politic until limbs require amputation.

        For all the demands to redirect money from police to social services I cannot think of a single problem such services have ameliorated — unlike police, who have achieved reductions in crime.

        The Fascist Left’s demands we apply their toxic solutions to social problems is a big part of why industry awards, such as the Oscars, are increasingly irrelevant, except as warnings of art to avoid. During recent discussion of the new “qualification standards” for Oscars I realized that under these standards Gone With The Wind would qualify as best picture: two of the three leads are female, a significant supporting character is a woman of color, and the main storyline addresses women’s lack of access to power.

        Now I think on it, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs deserves special recognition for its exploration of the role of diminutive stature as a source of social isolation.
        –

        1. “ Now I think on it, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs deserves special recognition for its exploration of the role of diminutive stature as a source of social isolation.”

          Nonsense. If it were Woke, Snow would shack permanently with the little guts, and the Price would marry the Queen, who would be Trans.

  19. “We are in a different sort of war now.” Yes, we are. And we must win. And, to win, we must be prepared to bear the cost.

    The next major engagement is the election. Spare no expense or effort.

    After that, we need to be smart. Choose your battles carefully. Plan well. Stealth and secrecy in operations are essential – but positive patriotic publicity is essential as this is partially a war for hearts and minds. Live to fight again tomorrow. Paraphrasing Patton, let those on the other side be the ones to die for their cause.

    I aim to win or die fighting.

    1. but positive patriotic publicity is essential as this is partially a war for hearts and minds.

      And for those who can’t do that, at the very least Don’t. Bend. The. Knee.

      Half the time not auto-surrendering is more than they can handle.

    2. The next major engagement is the election. Spare no expense or effort.

      Today Trump said he will pull the Insurrection Act if they try the post election riot plan.

      1. Oh I hope so. Disenfranchising a ton of rioters, a crap load of politicians and a butt load of journalists might actually save this country. (Once they are felons, they loose voting rights.)
        If a few of them are shot in the act, that will teach a lesson too.

        1. “Once they are felons, they loose voting rights.”

          Not exactly. Most states restore voting rights once a felon has completed their entire sentence, including probation. 15 states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, restore voting rights upon release from prison.

          1. And I support those state policies on felons voting whatever they are because I hold the principles of Federalism and following the Constitution to be more important than the particular policies involved.

            On the other hand, I would like to see various state and local politicians barred from holding office under
            Section 3 of the 14th Amendment if they participate in a post-election riot plan.

  20. They say that 9/11 united the country. Eh, not completely. There were those who were quick to blame us, tell us our skirts were too short, so to speak, and that we deserved it. They started the very next day.

    If they were so determined to prove that they were not with us, we should remember that as well.

    1. I wish I could remember better….. I was only 11 at the time. Old enough to have a pretty good understanding what happened, but young enough for memory clouding.

      I do remember wanting glowing deserts, and also being creeped the hell out by the flags being pasted on every square inch of everything.

      1. I was at work after the second tower fell, and was thinking of ADM Halsey’s words when Enterprise entered Pearl Harbor on the evening of the 7th: “When this war is over the Japanese language will be spoken only in Hell.”

        1. That is the “young enough for memory blurring” part. Exact answers are difficult to come by, and even with perfect memory the subject is a difficult one to reason about. Though not so long ago that I *can’t* give an answer.

          In short; when you’ve learned from a very early age to detect and avoid propaganda, you’d better believe that you detect and avoid propaganda. That it might come from “your side”, or that it might be bottom up instead of top down aren’t relevant. And then there were the more retarded things, like the “let’s rename french fries freedom fries!” silliness. And, oh! What’dyouknow! There just happens to be a burn the constitution bill ready to go for an emergency as always.

          More generally: I’m not part of the American Civic Religion. Well not quite….. you can’t grow up in a country without picking up part of it just by osmosis. But there was no induction of any sort. So the symbols have very little gut meaning to me, most of it is borderline Enemy of My Enemy: burning the flag for example doesn’t mean much to me *directly*, but it does target-designate the person as someone who hates America.

          See also: why I’m interested in the HOWTO-American book. No idea how much I’d adopt. But the template is interesting nonetheless.

          1. Or put a little more practically: it is rare for Patriotic Display to not register as NOPE BADWRONG.

            And that was before the understanding of Patriotism == a religion came in. So add NOPE HERESY to the mix.

            Why yes! It is confusing and difficult to deal with. Especially after Trump, so now the path of “whatever, it’s all going to collapse, maybe we can build something better afterwards” is no longer on the table.

            1. Not meaning to be extra odd, but ..

              You’re are a really bloody fascinating individiual, mate.

              1. Unfortunately yes. Well I wouldn’t say “fascinating”, but it is bloody annoying when even looking among the Odds you can’t find anyone with even somewhat similar mental strata to compare notes with. I mean….. there is someone here who thinks I’m from Seattle of all places.

                Sufficiently Advanced Fundamentalism is indistinguishable from Gramascian Damage.

                1. There’s a fair number of Europeans, Amish, etc. who also feel creeped out by displays of their own national flags, even if they are basically patriotic citizens of their own country. So you’re not alone.

                  1. Europeans

                    Yeah… not footsteps to follow in. In fact their position (which includes our home grown Europeans) if one of the indicators I have loudly saying THIS ISN’T RIGHT.

                    Amish

                    I didn’t know of this with the Amish, but it isn’t surprising. To be “apart from the World”. That is in fact the root; everything else is various levels of adaption on top of that.

                    Unfortunately the requirement to believe that everything is always manifest suckitude of suckiness kind of…. sucks. So it has slowly been moved away from (at this point “moving away” from that for far longer than it was originally held to).

                    On the one had I have “Patriotism is Idolatry”.

                    On the other hand I have “People who hate their country reliably go batshit”.

                    T’would be a much easier solution if cause and effect were a valid counter to morality.

          2. The point should not be to “detect and avoid propaganda” but to detect and decode propaganda.

            Not all propaganda is bad; in a culture of mass information propaganda is as inevitable as food. The point of detecting is to distinguish between that which is poisonous and that which isn’t (ideally, that which is nutritious.)

            The appropriate response to propaganda is to ask, “Why do they sat that, what buttons are they trying to push, are they being sincere or merely manipulative?”
            –

            1. Yeah, at this point I don’t know if there even is a line between “propaganda” and “everything else”.

              “detect and avoid” probably isn’t quite accurate, but I don’t know how best to put it. At the time the concept of propaganda as anything other than manipulation to believe lies would be on par with the sleep habits of green ideas.

              And it was hardly just feminists that this applies to: https://entertainment.theonion.com/woman-takes-short-half-hour-break-from-being-feminist-t-1819576049

        2. I cannot answer for Ian, but what I saw was a ME TOO thing by people who were using the flag to virtue signal. Not because they either loved it, or believed in what it stood for but because it was fashionable. While I would not say that I was creeped, I was disgusted.

        3. I think he has that reaction for the same reason that Ms. Rand had a very strong, negative reaction to appeals to charity.

          Not because of the thing itself, but because of what she’d been taught by very nasty experience to expect from those using it.

          1. The nasty experience — not directly, but observed — is that for people with the Patriotism sense turned up have their brains turned off at will by anyone who mouths the right words. And if you critique something you clearly just hate the country lalalalalalalalalalala.

            Uh, not unlike an pastor abusing religion as a means of control. Have I mentioned that I mostly avoid Christians as well?

            Hardly the only issue, but a major one.

      3. Flags everywhere didn’t creep me out (but was Rather Older also…)

        What was eerie was NOT seeing ANY aircraft or signs of aircraft aloft.

        The first Medivac helicopter I saw/that after that got a LOUD (in the car) “Keep ’em flyin’!”

        1. We’re an Air Force town, so flag displays were pretty normal. Turning it up to 100x was basically just an excuse to do more of what we already liked to do.

          I mentioned all those fireworks we’ve had this year, right?

    1. This is another flight 93 election. We’ve taken the cockpit, and they’re attempting to drive it into the ground. Fortunately our president, though not trained in this, knows how to fly. Let’s guard his back.

      1. Amen. I’m getting as many of my eligible students to vote as I can. A few have volunteered on their own with political groups out here, office work and stuffing envelopes, I’m sure, but it counts.

  22. I was on my way to work when I heard something about an explosion and fire at the World Trade Center. At first, I thought they were talking about the 1993 underground garage bombing (also perpetrated by Moslem wackos) and wondered what brought that up.

    Found out the whole story at work. Was pissed. We all were.
    ———————————
    Terrorists and wacko nut jobs can’t threaten our way of life or change who we are. Only we can do that. If we surrender to fear, if we give up our freedom for an illusion of safety, we do to ourselves what all the wackos and terrorists in the world can only dream of doing to us.

    1. Guys, seriously, the leaders of this were A Jewish Guy, a Fundamentalist Christian and A Gay Guy.
      Can you imagine a group — unless it included a chick but she’d have to be next level — more likely to upset Islamic fundamentalists? And anything more like America in terms of cooperating?
      This is not ACCIDENTAL. It can’t be. The Author is on the job. Let’s roll.

      2. The “chick” could distract one of the bad guys as the men prepare to spring the starting ambush.

        I think it was over at Ace’s blog yesterday (hopefully not here, since I’m not crediting it as here) that someone noted the Flight 93 was – in a sense – the moment when the terrorists were defeated. Yes, the terrorists had seized the plane. But almost literally THE VERY MOMENT that the passengers found out what had happened with the other airplanes, they sprang into action and kept the terrorists from carrying out their plans. Because that’s what Americans do. Same thing with the Americans in the Thalys train attack a while back (Note – there were also two Frenchmen who tried to stop the gunman in that attack before the Americans got involved. One of them – Mark Moogalian, who is American-born – actually managed to take the gunman’s rifle briefly before being shot by the gunman’s pistol.).

        A member of one of the European armies – the French army, I think (and unlike many, I do *NOT* mock French troops; they tend to be good, unlike what popular opinion would suggest, and they’ve been active in assisting some of their former colonies against the jihadis) – mentioned something he noted about US troops. In most militaries, when an ambush is sprung, the ambushees tend to dig in and wait for support to arrive. But that’s not what American troops do. American troops are, instead, trained to *immediately* try and go on the initiative, and overrun the ambushers. One of the ways that you win a war is by coming to grips with the enemy soldiers and decisively defeating them. And if the enemy is willing to come to grips with you, why give him the opportunity to slip away?

        1. I’ve pointed out before that the Flight 93 passengers, with nothing more in common than an itinerary and 30 minutes heads-up, were able to form a HRT capable of taking on an A-team Al Queda spent years preparing and fight them to a tactical draw and strategic victory.

          I always thought that attacking into an ambush was common doctrine. After all, the enemy chose that spot for the ambush because it was the best local spot to kill you, so one of the first steps in survival would be to Be Somewhere Else. Running away is always dangerous in combat, so that really only leaves one option.

          1. I always thought that attacking into an ambush was common doctrine. After all, the enemy chose that spot for the ambush because it was the best local spot to kill you, so one of the first steps in survival would be to Be Somewhere Else. Running away is always dangerous in combat, so that really only leaves one option

            I think the difference is that Other folks’ doctrine requires someone to order a response.

            American doctrine, barring specific orders along the lines of “don’t do this, this and this,” is more accepting of “they’re trying to kill you– kill them back.”

          2. “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”

            “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

            Conclusion: start punching.

              1. Well, a lot of American sports are all about individuals wading in, together. Sometimes there’s a plan, but at the little kid stage, there isn’t. We just tell kids the rules, and they play their best, and try to help their teammates also.

        2. The “chick” is the replacement pilot, in there to seize the controls while the guys take down the terrorists.

          Perhaps a military veteran, with abundant time flying C-5s and C-130s.
          –

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