Shines the name, shines the name of Rick Rescorla

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

The first time I heard of Rick Rescorla, was on 9/11. I was an Austen fan group at the time, and was on the chat board. One of the women on the board was one of Rescorla’s co-workers, and he’d just saved her.

Since then, I’ve tried to remember him on 9/11.

And 22 years, on, I remember 9/11. while our “leadership” tries to leave us wide open to be hurt and destroyed by anyone who decides they don’t like us, it’s important to remember 9/11, and most of all the heroes of 9/11.

And while our borders are wide open to people willing to come in and break our laws (and avail themselves of our largesse) it is important to remember this country can and should attract the best and allow in only the best. Because we can. An open border is not a border. Letting everyone in is not an immigration policy.

We should attract the best. People like Rick Rescorla.

Happy the nation who adopts such sons.

127 thoughts on “Shines the name, shines the name of Rick Rescorla”

  1. Men of Cornwall stop your dreaming;
    Can’t you see their spearpoints gleaming?
    See their warriors’ pennants streaming
    To this battlefield.

    Men of Cornwall stand ye steady;
    It cannot be ever said ye
    for the battle were not ready;
    Stand and never yield!”

  2. Amen, amen, and surely the gates of Heaven opened wide for him and all the other heroes of that horrible day- including Father Mychal Judge who was the first officially recognized fatality- after praying for all the dead and dying in the streets, he rushed into the burning and crumbling buildings to do all that he could for those inside. Finally exhausted beyond his body’s ability to function, he died of a heart attack, amongst the rubble, his last words being prayers for the horror to end. The Orthodox Catholic Church of America already canonized him as a saint, whose feast day is September 11/

    2. I knew him, everyone knew him. He gave conditional absolution to the FDNY guys going into the tower, they all died.

  8. As had been my habit prior to the covidiocy I have flown on an airplane on Sept 11. I don’t think I’ve flown every Sept 11 but even with missing the last 3 years it’s been almost all of them.

    Just my personal way of saying FU to the Aloha Snackbarites

    1. On boarding my first flight, post 9-11, a very old lady with a cane hobbled up to me and asked me to swap my isle seat for her center seat.

      “Sure thing ma’am. Arthritis bothering you?”

      “No. (Loud. Shaking cane.) If some rag-headed sonafabitch tries to hijack -this- plane I’m going to shove this cane up his ass!”

      Still grinning over that granny. -That- is an American. The bastards only got away with 9-11 because fools advised us to cooperate with hijackers.

      No more.

      1. The bastards only got away with 9-11 because fools advised us to cooperate with hijackers.
        ………………

        A lesson we’ll never forget.

        1. Been demonstrated repeatedly, too– oddly, the “attempted hijacker got beat-down by neighbors” didn’t get much air time.

          Regular reminder that gaming out a reaction to an attack is the #1 commonality in successful, surviving refuse-to-be-victims.

              1. And they’re doing a 6 billion, five-prisoner swap with Iran, announced today. AND, spending the day in Alaska (Sorry, Jim, you got the prize) where he claimed to be at Ground Zero 9/12 ( he was in DC).
                Words fail me once more. Gagging noises, now…

                  2. The issue with that idea is that Syria under Assad has been an Iranian client state for quite some time now, and for a while was literally Iran’s only line to the outside world. As you might recall, Obama kept trying to push the idea of overthrowing Assad. That wouldn’t make sense if he were directly under the sway of Tehran.

            2. Hmmm. The nation that basically sponsored the 9/11 terrorists pushing a Biden Marxist plan for Global Infrastructure to milk more money from American tax payers. What could possibly go wrong with that?

              1. The nation of Saudi Arabia didn’t sponsor the 9/11 junk; members of the Saudi Royal Family, which are IIRC well into the hundreds, did.

                Specifically, the ones that the crown prince we’re supposed to hate because of the terrorist supporter Turkish reporter being killed has been “oppressing,” usually by not shielding them from legal problems such as supporting terror efforts.

                1. Sorry, but from my experience of the country, I don’t see a major difference between the nation of Saudi Arabia, and the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia. And there’s a vast difference between the royal family, and the rest of the citizens of the nation. And I won’t even go into the non-citizen workers who are at the bottom of the heap

                  1. You have to remember to put your mind in the correct culture.

                    “The house of Saud” is not the sum of its members; it is either ‘descended from that first guy’, or the folks who are currently favored by the current leader of the family, usually the king.

                    The latter meaning is the one that is roughly analogous to the country’s leadership.

                    They previously weren’t doing much policing of the rich brats– which is why there’s so many California stories about Saudi princes or princesses wrapping their fast cars around trees– and the not in power rich brats of various ages took to sponsoring terrorism for fun and profit.

                    We’ve got more evidence for Saddam supporting 9/11 than the actually in leadership for the Saudis. (He wasn’t exactly shy about supporting terror for fun and profit, and that was actually the country leadership.)

                    2. As long as you refrain from commenting on it, that’s fine. We don’t all need to understand how various countries are organized and how they work– and there are folks who are interested enough to find out, and deal with that part of interacting with them.

                      The issue comes when folks don’t want to understand, but still want to control interactions with what they don’t believe.

                      FWIW, they find it just as incomprehensible that we do not approve of the Hunter Biden abuse of power nonsense. That’s a baseline normal, you have power, you use it to benefit your favored family, and gain more power for yourself.

                      Between those two things, and looking at the results, take a wild guess which I think is superior. 😀

                    3. FWIW, they find it just as incomprehensible that we do not approve of the Hunter Biden abuse of power nonsense. That’s a baseline normal, you have power, you use it to benefit your favored family, and gain more power for yourself.

                      All cultures are not equal.

                  2. Yeah. There are Princes in Saudi, and then there are ‘princes’. When I was in Saudi back in ‘91, one of my buddies got a stern talking-to by the prince who was in charge of Dammam Port for eating a Snickers bar in daylight during Ramadan. Gotta find sinecures for all those hundreds (thousands) of Saudi royals to try to keep them out of trouble . . .

      2. And suppressing this American response is the real purpose of the TSA.

        The TSA isn’t “security theater.” It’s real security. It’s just not security aimed at stopping terrorists.

        The elite authorities have this primal horror of ordinary persons using violence in self-defense. Thus the pre-9/11 line of “in the event of a hijacking, stay in your seats, with your hands folded in your laps, and wait for the Official Authorized Experts to deal with the situation.” Even now, the elites still mourn that they can no longer use this line, but they remain desperate to do anything – anything at all – that will let them avoid admitting that at least sometimes the best response to a hijacking attempt is for ordinary people to spontaneously rise up and apply violence to the hijackers.

        Thus the antics of the TSA, designed to both remove the ability and to suppress the desire of ordinary people to fight back against terrorists. It isn’t there to prevent another Twin Towers. Nor is it there as mere security theater.

        It’s there to stop another Flight 93.

        2. And yet, the reference “Let’s roll” is now part of American culture.

          It’s both a warning and a call to action.

        3. No.

          Upon detecting a hijacking, immediately attack with utter Neolithic ruthless fury. Your life was forfeit the moment the hijacker boarded. You can only win it back by tearing his heart out and playing hacky-sack with it.

          You can only gain by trying. There is nothing to lose. You may save thousands by inflicting even minimal damage.

          And on a more rational level, your odds go down with every passing second, as the kidnapper/killer consolidates his hold, so the earlier you strike, the better your chances.

          Attack! All out, no reserves, shout-out obliterate! Reduce it to street-pizza. Quit stomping when the Marshals board with mops.

            1. Yeah; I still owe the FBI a thank you note for that “don’t cooperate with the kidnapper” guideline even though he was probably just a robber telling me to go behind the house. I threw the pizza bag and ran. (Angels picked me up the first 40 yards because I can’t run that fast.)
              Employer lost pizza bag, pizza, cheesy bread, & 2-liter drink. Robber left coat on ground.

              1. My dad taught me that when I was ten. “We call the place he takes you to, the secondary crime scene, and often ‘where the body was found’.” I owe him my life for that, as well as for him being my dad.

              2. Well done.

                The crook never relocates the victim for the benefit of the victim.

                Fight or Flee, Never Agree.

        4. Always fly with a 1.5-inch thick, hard cover textbook to read. That much paper will stop a 9mm jacketed hollow point. And you can do some significant damage with a hard cover book if you know how to use it. Granted, it’s not as convenient as a concealable pistol or knife; but you can take them through any TSA (or international for that matter) security checkpoint.

          1. About half of David Weber’s Honor Harrington novels in hard cover are thick enough to work too. Larry Correia’s MHI novels in HC are a bit on the thin side though; as are most of our hostess’s books if you can find any in hardcover.

            1. And, of course, there’s Brandon Sanderson’s books, which have occasionally been jokingly referred to as “deadly weapons” due to their heft.

          2. Cross pens, and especially mechanical pencils. Good cane, Hickory or such. Lots of other things that go through security have utility.

            But the absolute key thing, the essential thing, is the willingness to attack with utter ruthless fury.

            No ref Rugby. Jungleball. “Close with and destroy the enemy.”

            1. That’s an absolute, YES! You go at it with the intent to kill them, dismember them, shred them, and damnation to anything standing in your way. You don’t stop. At all. There is no nice. There is no Christian mercy. You go whole hog berserker on the them. Keep your head so you can make every strike count. When they are lifeless on the floor, then you can rest.

            2. Yep. One of my characters is going to (eventually) explain to a Congressional subcommittee that trying to deprive her of weapons is useless. The other main character asks her:

              “How many objects in this room could be used as weapons?”

              She glanced around. “More than two hundred.”

              He grinned, not in a nice way. “Could you give the Honorable Chairwoman a few details?”

              She tapped the microphone in front of her, evoking a loud TUMP from the speakers. “Someone could jam this microphone down your throat and choke you to death, or strangle you with the cord. They could take that fancy hammer away from you and bash your skull in. The nameplate in front of you looks heavy enough to do the same thing. Do you want more examples?”

              1. At the recent BasedCon, I was amused (or horrified) that OTHERS had realized what mixing certain cleaning agents could do, and stockpiled MASSIVE QUANTITIES lest they be become needed.

                These folks had also taken to going out for walk and making sure that there were NOT sudenly mysterious piles of readily accessible bricks or the like that Brownshits, er, antEfa & BLM might “happen upon.”

                  1. Do you find yourself walking into new places, and identifying cameras, sight lines, cover, and exits?
                    Do you find yourself wondering what the best way to take over a place is, and how many people you’d need to do it?
                    Do you find yourself walking through a hardware store and musing that you can combine this, that, and the other thing make poison gas, a smoke bomb, an explosive, or a super corrosive?
                    Do you find yourself browsing through an firearms catalog, spotting a high caliber rifle, and instead of thinking about shooting African megafauna (or dinosaurs), you instead wonder if it will shoot through cement walls or engine blocks?

                    2. Every office building I’ve ever been in, I made sure I knew the shortest route to an exit (sometimes this was out a conference room window after pitching a chair through it), where the nearest fire extinguisher was (handy for blinding or bludgeoning), and in case of a ZA, whether the nearest print/copy station had a roll-blade or swing-arm paper cutter.

                2. Oh, also consider.

                  When at war and one discovers an enemy supply cache, a suitable booby trap or three may be more effective than simply destroying/removing the cache. The enemy gomers then doubt their own supply folks.

                  During the Vietnam War, some of our SF types managed to plant sabotaged ammunition into VC/NVA supply dumps. Imagine a 7.62Sov cartridge packed with HE instead of powder. Or larger munitions like artillery shells helpfully pre-fused with a delay-action motion-triggered fuse instead of a shipping plug.

                  Or if rushed, just stuff a grenade, sans pin, under the pile.

                  Now of course one cant leave grenades lying about in our cities. But a clever person can include all sorts of technically non-lethal practical jokes in brick piles.

                  heh.

                    1. Ever gone out to the wood pile and found a scorpion or several just chillin’ in the stack?

                      Imagine the flat landers (city boys) grabbing a brick and finding a small nest of stingers?

                  2. I used to work in a supermarket. You would be amazed (or terrified) just how easy it would be for a few people with a basic knowledge of logistics and FDA regulations to disrupt a region’s food supply. All it would take is a few people and a couple of hours at most (though seizing and holding the right location for a few days would make things extra interesting).

                    1. Reminds me of a short story. Don’t remember if it was by Dick or Sturgeon or someone else. Young guy into occult makes an untraceable, permanent poison, and puts it in a single returnable glass milk bottle.

  9. Graduates of my old school who died on 9/11 or from the effects of 9/11.

    Frank Spinelli, Thomas Celic, John Casazza, Neil Leavy, Steven Hagis, Brian Cannizzaro, Vincent Laieta, William Micciulli, Jeffrey Stark, Shawn Bowman Jr., Carl DiFranco, Joseph Ianelli, Peter Mulligan, Michael Clarke, Keith Roma, Christopher Mozzillo, Joseph Visciano, Stephen Huczko, Charles Margiotta, Steve Fiorelli, Stephen Lauria, Marty Egan, Scott McGovern, Raymond Ragucci, William O’Connor, Dennis Hogan, Patrick Murphy, Ned Thompson.

    Most of them were cops or firemen. One of them was a cousin of mine, though I didn’t like him, another a friend of mine since we were infants, another left a son who never met his father. Almost all left wives, sons and daughters.

    They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:.
    Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
    At the going down of the sun and in the morning
    We will remember them.

    1. And 9/12/2001

      I cannot begin this audience without expressing my profound sorrow at the terrorist attacks which yesterday brought death and destruction to America, causing thousands of victims and injuring countless people. To the President of the United States and to all American citizens I express my heartfelt sorrow. In the face of such unspeakable horror we cannot but be deeply disturbed. I add my voice to all the voices raised in these hours to express indignant condemnation, and I strongly reiterate that the ways of violence will never lead to genuine solutions to humanity’s problems.

      Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity. After receiving the news, I followed with intense concern the developing situation, with heartfelt prayers to the Lord. How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? The human heart has depths from which schemes of unheard-of ferocity sometimes emerge, capable of destroying in a moment the normal daily life of a people. But faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail. Christ’s word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say. Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it.

      With deeply felt sympathy I address myself to the beloved people of the United States in this moment of distress and consternation, when the courage of so many men and women of good will is being sorely tested. In a special way I reach out to the families of the dead and the injured, and assure them of my spiritual closeness. I entrust to the mercy of the Most High the helpless victims of this tragedy, for whom I offered Mass this morning, invoking upon them eternal rest. May God give courage to the survivors; may he sustain the rescue-workers and the many volunteers who are presently making an enormous effort to cope with such an immense emergency. I ask you, dear brothers and sisters, to join me in prayer for them. Let us beg the Lord that the spiral of hatred and violence will not prevail. May the Blessed Virgin, Mother of Mercy, fill the hearts of all with wise thoughts and peaceful intentions.

      Today, my heartfelt sympathy is with the American people, subjected yesterday to inhuman terrorist attacks which have taken the lives of thousands of innocent human beings and caused unspeakable sorrow in the hearts of all men and women of good will. Yesterday was indeed a dark day in our history, an appalling offence against peace, a terrible assault against human dignity.

      I invite you all to join me in commending the victims of this shocking tragedy to Almighty God’ s eternal love. Let us implore his comfort upon the injured, the families involved, all who are doing their utmost to rescue survivors and help those affected.

      I ask God to grant the American people the strength and courage they need at this time of sorrow and trial.

      Below is the full text of Pope John Paul II’s prayers for the faithful and intentions on September 12, 2001:

      Brothers and Sisters, in great dismay, before the horror of destructive violence, but strong in the faith that has always guided our fathers, we turn to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, salvation of his people, and with the confidence of children, pray that He will come to our aid in these days of mourning and innocent suffering.

      Cantor:

      Dominum deprecemur: Te rogamus, audi nos.

      For the Churches of the East and the West, and in particular for the Church in the United States of America so that, though humbled by loss and mourning, yet inspired by the Mother of the Lord, strong woman beside the cross of her Son, they may foster the will for reconciliation, peace, and the building of the civilization of love.
      For all those who bear the name of Christian, so that, in the midst of many persons who are tempted to hatred and doubt, they will be witnesses to the presence of God in history and the victory of Christ over death.
      For the leaders of nations, so that they will not allow themselves to be guided by hatred and the spirit of retaliation, but may do everything possible to prevent new hatred and death, by bringing forth works of peace.
      For those who are weeping in sorrow over the loss of relatives and friends, that in this hour of suffering they will not be overcome by sadness, despair and vengeance, but continue to have faith in the victory of good over evil, of life over death.
      For those suffering and wounded by the terrorist acts, that they may return to stability and health and, appreciating the gift of life, may generously foster the will to contribute to the well being of every human being.
      For our brothers and sisters who met death in the folly of violence, that they find sure joy and life everlasting in the peace of the Lord, that their death may not be in vain but become a leaven bringing forth a season of brotherhood and collaboration among peoples.

      The Holy Father:

      O Lord Jesus, remember our deceased and suffering brothers before your Father.
      Remember us also, as we begin to pray with your words: Pater noster…

      O Almighty and merciful God,
      you cannot be understood by one who sows discord, you cannot be accepted by one who loves violence: look upon our painful human condition tried by cruel acts of terror and death, comfort your children and open our hearts to hope, so that our time may again know days of serenity and peace.
      Through Christ our Lord.
      Amen.

        2. I totally missed it, so I hadn’t seen it before this morning.

          I was just thinking, though– as much of a Benedict 16th fan as I am, JPII was THE guy who needed to be there, and then.

        3. The more I learn about John Paul II, the more convinced I am that he was sent for exactly the time and place when he served. Come the hour, came the man (or was chosen the man).

    1. Me too.

      I’m not a fan of the rest of the House of Windsor, but I will always have respect for Her Majesty Elizabeth II.

  14. OK, I found the link and read the article (WHY does WPDE show links in the same font, just dark gray instead of black? Hard to find unless you know to look for them.) and I can see why we honor his memory.

    But why did it take 18 years and President Donald Trump before his actions were recognized? Bush Jr. could have done it any time in the first 7 years, and then…well, okay, that was 0bama. Rick Rescorla didn’t do obnoxious protests for the correct left-wing causes so of course 0bama didn’t have time for him.

    1. Dubya was odd… distracted, maybe…? I’m not really sure. There were a lot of odd, seeming oversights that don’t really make sense from my pov. As an example, look at Scooter Libby, who was a no-brainer for a presidential pardon on Dubya’s watch, but Trump was the one that finally did it

          1. Smacks of establishment culture.

            Best as I can tell, establishment politics is advanced politics. It has more in common with amoral familism and maskirovka than American basic politics. Dubya made the right-ish noises to get elected.

            The American body politic at the time was still asleep, Rush (PBUH) notwithstanding. We didn’t know, then, the icky depths to which the Socialist Reds (also known as “Democrats” at the time) had sunk. Had no idea what the entrenched bureaucracy would get up to in the coming years.

            Libby was not far enough into the inner circle to get the teflon cloak. He became, to the establishment, a liability. Thus, he was conveniently (for them) swept aside.

            My take on it may or may not be accurate. I don’t have nearly all the details. But that’s what it looked like to me.

  15. The aftermath of 9/11 was when I started following blogs in earnest. The usual sources of information seemed to repeat the same stale items for days at a time.

    And as they began, one by one, parroting the “well we deserved it” because of the crusades, our racism, our material wealth, etc. I really began to see who the America haters were. And that many were our supposed countrymen.

    May all the heroes and innocents of that day rest in peace in the light of eternal glory.

      3. remember hearing of the human recovery crew hiding so the dogs could find them.
        ………………….

        The SARS dogs get depressed if they don’t find survivors. Part of the process is to ensure they find someone living when the dogs go so long without finding a survivor. The handlers and the “found” survivor know that part of the process is fake, the dogs don’t.

  18. (Singing)

    Oh, they’ve got no time for glory in the infantry
    Oh, they’ve got no time for praises loudly sung
    But in every soldier’s heart in all the infantry
    Shines the name, shines the name of Roger Young

    Shines the name – Roger Young
    Fought and died for the men he marched among
    In the everlasting glory of the infantry
    Shines the name of Private Roger Young

    Caught in ambush lay a company of riflemen
    Just grenades against machine guns in the gloom
    Caught in ambush till this one of twenty riflemen
    Volunteered volunteered to meet his doom

    Volunteered Roger Young
    Fought and died for the men he marched among
    In the everlasting courage of the infantry
    Was the courage of Private Roger Young

    It was he who drew the fire of the enemy
    That a company of men might live to fight;
    And before the deadly fire of the enemy,
    Stood the man, stood the man we hail tonight.

    Stood the man, Roger Young,
    Fought and died for the men he marched among;
    Like the everlasting spirit of the infantry,
    Was the spirit of Private Rodger Young.

    On the island of New Georgia in the Solomons
    Stands a simple wooden cross alone to tell
    That beneath the silent coral of the Solomons
    Sleeps a man sleeps a man remembered well

    Sleeps a man Roger Young
    Fought and died for the men he marched among
    In the everlasting glory of the infantry
    Lives the story of Private Roger Young

    1. On July 31, 1943, the infantry company of which Pvt. Young was a member, was ordered to make a limited withdrawal from the battle line in order to adjust the battalion’s position for the night. At this time, Pvt. Young’s platoon was engaged with the enemy in a dense jungle where observation was very limited. The platoon suddenly was pinned down by intense fire from a Japanese machinegun concealed on higher ground only 75 yards away. The initial burst wounded Pvt. Young. As the platoon started to obey the order to withdraw, Pvt. Young called out that he could see the enemy emplacement, whereupon he started creeping toward it. Another burst from the machinegun wounded him the second time. Despite the wounds, he continued his heroic advance, attracting enemy fire and answering with rifle fire. When he was close enough to his objective, he began throwing hand grenades, and while doing so was hit again and killed. Pvt. Young’s bold action in closing with this Japanese pillbox and thus diverting its fire, permitted his platoon to disengage itself, without loss, and was responsible for several enemy casualties.

      Roger Young was a brave young man. Even more interesting, he was nearly deaf and had serious vision problems at the time he was killed, as a result of a degenerative head injury he received in high school.

    1. As all good heroes should be. The fact that monsters exist is self evident even to children. Heroes on the other hand, must be spoken, sung, and remembered to them first hand.

      Ordinary heroism is the bedrock of civilization. Extraordinary heroism is a blessing we receive but rarely.

      My only regret is the situations that arise requiring such men as he. America is truly blessed that he chose to make this his home.

  21. On a lighter note, a winery’s storage tanks burst in in São Lourenco do Bairro, Portugal sending a river of wine through the town. 2.2 Million liters or over 5 million gallons in human measurements.

      2. More wine than in Donk HQ in early November 2016….

        I’ll be here all week. Tip your wait-staff.

  22. I missed a lot of things after 9/11.

    I missed the ability to just go to the airport and watch the planes from the concourses. When things got bad and I couldn’t make it to the ocean, that was one of the things that calmed me down.

    I missed…the civility that happened between the two major portions of the United States. However false that civility was, at least we were willing to lie to each other for the same reason. I could believe that most of the opposition were opponents and not enemies. That we just had to deal with some assholes on both sides. That there was a certain amount of live-and-let-live.

    I missed…the innocence, if you can understand it. I’m a student of history. I know that the wolves are always outside the gate. I didn’t understand how scary their howling is until that second plane hit the tower (the first you could excuse until the second hit-accident, criminal negligence, absolute technical failure).

    And this year, I’m missing a lot more.

    It’s hard to remember what is good about this world at times.

    That’s why we have heroes.

    1. Lift high their memory
      Say their names out loud
      Count their candles gleaming
      Bright amongst the crowd.

      A thousand points of light
      Bring forth a thousand more
      And so the darkness wavers
      And cannot long endure.

      Speak the names of courage
      Speak the names of hope.
      Speak into the darkness
      And deny it all its rope.

      That rope will never bind us
      To dark and bleak despair,
      For a thousand lights around us
      Shine brilliant in the air.

      And though one light has fallen
      That memory still lives on.
      No light that shines amongst us
      Is ever truly gone.

      So lift their names to heaven
      Speak each hero bright
      And stand in their memory
      And raise them to the light.

  23. I’m seeing a lot more 9/11 conspiracy theories this year. I wish I could be surprised, but with the collapse of trust in any mainstream narrative, it was probably inevitable. Also, the fact that it was such a singular event, never repeated, plays into the theories. It’s easy to say that Building 7 couldn’t have collapsed because how many times have jetliners hit skyscrapers? If it happened more often, there would be more data on how these things happen and their effects on surrounding structures.

    Also, if you really were ruthless and intelligent enough to plot such an intricate conspiracy, which would require hundreds of different things to go exactly right to make it come to fruition, would you really purposely build in an Achilles Heel into the scheme that could cause the plan to come unraveled later?

    1. The fact that no one at all was held accountable for allowing this atrocity to occur does not incline people to believe our intelligence agencies actually have our best interests in mind.

      From there it is not so far a step to believing they are actually working against us.

      Especially given the events of the last five years or so.

    2. I love the “jet fuel cant melt steel” (fuel or whatever).

      Jet turbine blades have to be made out of very-high-temperature alloys, especially in fighters, or the jet fuel combustion melts the turbine blades.

      I can heat to ruin ordinary tool steel, or rebar, in a shop-built propane-fueled forge. Critical temperature will be 1500-1800F for common carbon steels used in buildings. (Its over the critical temperature when magnet stops sticking to it – crystal structure phase-changes.) An ordinary house fire can easily exceed 2000F. Giant skyscraper full of combustibles with designed-in strong chimney effect for ventilation? Toast. Steel heats up, goes plastic, slumps, down come the pancake-stack as designed.

      Idiots.

  25. The only time I remember intentionally “defacing” a library book was when I added a note in the margin of We Were Soldiers Once And Young, describing Rick Rescorla’s 9-11 heroism.

    I spent today celebrating American Aviation just north ofthe Reno, NV.

    1. I would never intentionally deface a library book.

      Although the pornography for kiddies ones I’d tragically lose for real in a boating accident.

      “I’m sorry. Can I replace that with a more expensive different book instead? Or maybe the collected works of Sarah Hoyt?”

      1. No. Mine either. It struck my blog earlier, so that I can’t even log into my blog on my older computer (OS doesn’t play well with WP anymore.)

        WPDE!!!!

      2. Looks like “reply” function changed significantly.
        ……………

        No kidding.

        Need tutorial. Replied to “Conspiring”, clicked email, put in normal info, turned on “email me new comments”.

        What I’m not getting is the new comments. Count went from 3 (including mine) to 17, not one of the new 14 comments have hit the mail box.

    3. I’d say “WPDE,” but the new function appears to be working correctly the first time for me. The old function was “spotty” at best.

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