A few links, starting with this "must read" by Robert Sibley in the Ottawa Citizen ;
Sept. 11 was what the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel would undoubtedly call a "world-historical moment"; which is to say, the terrorist attacks forced a fundamental shift in the way we think (or should think) about the world. Simply stated: On Sept. 11, 2001, a half-hidden war against western civilization and all that it represents was finally made explicit for all to see. Only the most naive or ideologically purblind deny this. "Is there a war on?" asks Italian philosopher Marcello Pera. "My answer is: from Afghanistan to Kashmir, to Chechnya, to the Philippines, to Saudia Arabia, Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco, and elsewhere, in a great part of the Islamic and Arabic world, groups consisting of fundamentalists, radicals, and extremists -- the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, the Armed Islamic Group, and many others -- have declared war, jihad, against the West. They have said it, written it, diffused it in plain speech. Why should we not take action?"[...]
"We should be confident of the superiority of our civilization, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights and religion," Mr. Berlusconi said in late September of 2001. "This respect certainly does not exist in Islamic countries. ... We must be conscious of the strength and force of our civilization."
[...]
To say one civilization or culture is better than another is one of the Great Taboos nowadays, at least if you subscribe to the postmodern shibboleths of multiculturalism, multi-racialism, egalitarianism, relativism, post-structuralism, etc. There is one exception, of course. If the civilization you love to hate has its roots in European Christian culture, well, that's all right, then. You can have a nice career as a professor or a newspaper columnist denouncing the traditions and values of western civilization, even as you enjoy the best that civilization has to offer.
Nevertheless, Berlusconi was right -- assuming you think societies that allow religious freedom, free speech, human rights, etc. are "superior" to those that forbid the open practise of all religions, denounce non-believers as less that human and impose death sentences of those who dare criticize the faith. If you don't assume the former is better than the latter -- if you disagree with Berlusconi -- then you really need to ask yourself why you live in the West. To partake of its material benefits while denouncing its fundamental values is the life of a parasite. This isn't to say you're obliged to worship all things western. To the contrary, one of the secrets of the West's vitality is its openness to rational self-criticism (at least until recent decades). But to be "anti-western" while partaking of the benefits of western society is, to say the least, to live with a false and hypocritical consciousness. But that perhaps describes the zeitgeist for many contemporary intellectuals in these early years of the Age of Terror.
Emphasis mine.
A CanWest poll reveals just how widely this intellectual rot has taken hold in Canadians - "More than one in five Canadians believe the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were orchestrated not by al-Qaeda terrorists but by Americans looking for a pretext for war in Iraq, according to a new poll." .
Katherine Kersten Minneapolis Star Tribune; "Poisoned political atmosphere fuels conspiracy theories" and the poisoned minds behind them - you'll find plenty of examples of that in the comments section here.
I was listening, coincidentally enough, to a U of Sask political science prof explaining in a radio interview that American foreign policy was the number one source of terrorism, as I clicked on this piece by Michael Ledeen;
There are many who are saying that we have lost that anger, that we have reverted to a 9/10 state of mind. I have my doubts.Certainly nobody in my house has reverted, and my sense of the American people is that they have not either. But many of our opposition leaders, journalists, broadcasters, and editors, and, apparently, the overwhelming majority of the professoriate, clearly have. Otherwise it would not be possible for them to actively undermine the war.It is wrong to say they have forgotten the significance of 9/11, because they never grasped it. For them, patriotism has always been unworthy of sophisticates like themselves, and fighting enemies on foreign battlefields is something that rubes and rednecks do. They understand neither the world nor their fellow countrymen. They think we can achieve peace by being nice–did you hear Senator Biden prattling on and on about the need to talk to our Iranian enemies?—and they don’t know that our commissioned officers are college graduates, many of them from the best universities. I doubt more than a small fraction of leading journalists know that you need a college degree to get a Marine commission. Their ignorance about, and contempt for our military, fester beneath the surface of their reportage.
Terrorism and Market Preparation - "At 9:30 a.m. on September 17, a bell was rung on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and trading resumed as it has for 209 years.". Submitted by reader "Emmanuel", who writes;
Here is an article that reminds us that all those who died on the ground in NYC had one thing in common, capitalism. And, although many saw the rapid resumption of trading as a sign of greed, most saw it as the proof that the free world is far stronger than the strongest
terrorists.
Something terrible had happened. Life was reduced to its essentials. Time was short. People said what counted, what mattered. It has been noted that there is no record of anyone calling to say, "I never liked you," or, "You hurt my feelings."
David Frum - "Five years on—and how little we have learned".
Clearly, some are incapable;
A year and a half ago I was walking down a residential street in Brooklyn NY. I think it was 15th St. near the Prospect Park subway station. I came upon a block where every lamp post, sign post, telephone pole, fire hydrant and I think even the trees were all painted red white and blue. They had literally painted the flag on everything on the street. The colours were starting to fade just enough that you could tell it was direct response to 9/11. When I looked at the houses I saw that many of them had memorials in the windows, teddy bears in fire, police and military uniforms with signs saying “we will never forget”. I concluded that the block must have suffered heavy casualties in the disaster and I acknowledged their grief even if I couldn’t fully appreciate it.But I found the place to be really creepy, not because I found myself suddenly confronted with such a public display of mourning, but because as a Canadian I’m not accustomed to such blatant displays of patriotism and I’m certainly not accustomed to people expressing their grief through patriotism.
Disbelief, mine.
This is a dedicated readers tips post - share your own (9/11 related items only, please) in the comments. Links to your own blog posts are welcome, as always.
The first two items that I read this morning:
Ghost of a Flea:
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/archives/008521.html
Bryan at Hot Air:
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/11/five-years-on/
Today is my son's very first day of school. Now that I think about it, September 11 2001 was everyone's first day of school.
And it's a damn shame that so many out there are failing.
With apologies, Kate, I don't normally self-promote, but for those who want a more personal reminder of the significance of this day, take a side trip to here
and come back and try and put it all together...
I’m going to re-post a link to a picture that says it all: http://tinyurl.com/gspv3
For years I worked next to the American consulate in Toronto. The Friday after September 11 was a rainy one, and as I left work I could hear something going on next door, so I walked north and saw across the street at the Ontario courthouse an assembly of 100 people or so.
There was a guy with a bullhorn saying stuff in Arabic, punctuating it every now and then with “Allah akbar!”, which the crowd repeated.
Here were a bunch of Muslims celebrating the tragedy of earlier that week. I stood there sending them “f you” thoughts; I hope they picked up on it.
Next week the better people of our society left flowers and stuffed animals in front of the consulate. A teddy bear had a note attached to it saying that it should go to a little boy or girl whose mummy or daddy wouldn’t be coming home.
My brother-in-law, returning home to California, flew out of Logan the very morning of the attacks, but fortunately wasn’t on one of the hijacked planes. His plane was re-routed to Birmingham, Alabama. He arrived with no luggage, and it took him the better part of a week to get home. He was one of the lucky ones.
Frank J (IMAO) writes:
"Not only can Democrats not stop terrorists, they can't even stop movies about how they can't stop terrorists."
Seriously, some people are more upset about a movie about 9/11 than they were about 9/11. I _don't_ approve of the liberties taken with the truth in the show (impressive as it otherwise is) but a sense of proportion would help...
Between the burn-the-witch hysteria on one side and the fictionalized "facts" on the other, everybody looks like an idiot.
I remember that feeling that all I had stressed about on Sept. 10 or prior seemed so insignificant,so trivial. What really mattered was put in to better perspective...hugs,love and time with family.There were so many things to be thankful for.Sadly I've slipped back to my old ways...and need a few nudges once in awhile to remember what is really important.
It's no great accomplishment to commandeer a plane and fly it into a building. It is a great accomplishment to be able to build that bulding from iron ore and energy, and to be able to design and build that plane.
Before you blame 'intellectual rot' in Canada, look at this poll of Americans. It doesn't look like Canada is unique. (http://www.scrippsnews.com/911poll):
More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be.
yes. all______so_____very______poiniant.
when are americans going to rise up and demand their successive governments, dems and repubicans alike, STOP supporting oppresive regimes for decades the world over, which forments the rage and fuels the hate, from within the citizenry of those far flung nations?
maybe then things will turn around. but no, in the true exploitive process, as exemplified by halliburton, it is 'good for business' the 'business' of selling arms to the oppressors, then selling services back to the american government when the guano hits the fan: witness iraq, once staunchly supported by the americans when they were duking it out with iran, post-ayatollah and pre-kuwait.
did you people never play that game 'connect the dots' when you were a kid?
Todd, right on cue, cannot accept criticism about Canadians without arguing that Americans are worse.
Careful everyone, Jack Layton's going to be mad at you folks. Telling the truth is not appropriate in Canada. Hating America is in as is loving terrorists.
Our world changed forever 5 years ago.
I compare it to a child whose innocence was torn away by a self serving pedophile. No regard for the victim, only the interest of the attacker being the focus.
No matter how much we would like, we can't go back...and we can't forget.
Matt, two local journalists tell me that the National Post and the Star took photos of that local Muslim celebration, but have never dared to publish them.
You obviously didn't understand my point. My point was that Canadians are not unique in this point of view, bogus as it is. You criticize me of arguing that Americans are worse. I criticize you of always saying that Canadians are.
"did you people never play that game 'connect the dots' when you were a kid?"
Sure. But I lost interest and moved on at around the age of 5, like most children who eventually begin thinking like adults.
So, Mr. Still Playing With Dots - what happened in your case?
I think what stuns me about 9/11 is the sheer pathological perspective, not of the conspiracy nuts, for they will always flock to the irrational - but of the perpetrators - Islamic fascism.
How does the mass murder of civilians, not between nations at war, but by unaligned individuals,accomplish an agenda? Above all - What is the agenda? I can't come up with one.
It isn't about 'Freeing Islamic Nations from the Western Colonials', for the Islamic Nations are repressed by Islamic leaders not by the West. It isn't about setting up a 'nation-state' of Islam, for they already have that. So, what's the agenda?
That is why I consider that Islam as an ideology is in a pathological state; it has one focus - the repression of life for all people and a focus on the delights of death. Period. That's psychotic.
Rather than deal with this death-cult in its midst, and reform this ideology, Islam chooses to set up a red-herring, the West, and attack the West. But, the pathology is within Islam. Nowhere else.
A society based around a death-cult cannot exist except as a 'kept' society. Since it rejects reason and insists on its people operating only by emotion and faith, then, it cannot deal with the realities of daily life - the economy, housing, medicine, etc. Islam haven't had a scientific innovation since it began. The Islamic nations are 'kept'; that is, they are not self-sufficient but exist because they purchase modern technology by the raw resources of the land on which they sit. Even to extract those resources, they require Western technologists.
Rather than reforming Islam, enabling the people to reason, question, analyze, Islam is trying to prevent reform by attacking the West. That, to me, is the agenda. The prevention of the much needed reform of Islam by setting up a 'straw man', the West.
Kate....excellent post. I believe the post of Michael Ledeen is particularly apt cosidering the news that has come out of the the NDP convention of this past weekend. Jack Layton, with his smug little smile, calling for the government to pull the troops out of Afganastan. Now there is one person that Michael Ledeen's article absolutley lays bare. A quasi intellectual with political ambitions. In other words a "FOOL"! The one thing that makes my nuts about the NDP is their insistence on saying "Canadians" or "ordinary Canadians" support their anti-war, anti-west policies. The latest Ipso-Reid poll shows that at least 51% of Canadians support the mission. Doe that mean 49% of "Canadians" support those fools? In their dreams. With the likes of Jack Layton at the helm the NDP are forever doomed to be a footnote in Canadian history. Thank God!
"My point was that Canadians are not unique in this point of view"
I didn't say they were.
I was linking to an item on a Canadian poll.
And I was just highlighting that this is a common feeling around the world. I'm not sure if we are really arguing on anything.
"9/11 is just a very roundabout form of 'payback'.".....t. schmuck esq. from a thread yesterday.
3000 innocent human beings died horrible senseless deaths this morning 5 years ago.
Why don't you slither back into your hole. Anyone with a brain and the most minimum amount of human decency would suspend their troll game today.
Your slimey appearance, which made its debut yesterday, is a desecration of those good folks that died. Those decent folks that bore you no ill will.
Creep.
The pathology of the left is its inability to deal with globalization. The facts are that modern technology has 'shrunk' the previous spatial and temporal zones of the world; they are now irrelevant; we are all connected.
The left has dealt with this sudden influx of previously isolate differences by postmodernism, which is a mechanical reaction to 'difference' by refusing to recognize that such even exists. It's the famed 'ostrich-head-in-the-sand' tactic, and the only winner in the exchange is the sand.
Factual rather than fictional life requires that we recognize and evaluate our reality. Globalism requires that we evaluate whether or not a newly contacted society can live with us, or must, in order for both of us to remain 'as we are', remain isolate. The problem is, that these newly contacted societies have no wish to be isolate from us; they want our inventions, our technologies. What do they offer to us? Certainly, nothing from the mind; merely the raw resources of the land they happen to inhabit, which they themselves don't know how to access (eg Zimbabwe's reverting back to peasant agriculture).
The left refuses to acknowledge reason, science, technological advances, it refuses to evaluate whether or not a technology can only support a minimal population. It is completely 'flummoxed' by globalization and doesn't know how to deal with differences in technology, economy, political mode. Nothing. For the left, a society that stones women is identical to one that votes them into high political office. No difference.
Now, an individual who cannot differentiate, who cannot reason, who cannot evaluate, has to be defined as 'handicapped', as mentally deficient.
That's the left - and they have chosen this lifestyle because it is easy. Feeling is easier than thinking, for feelings require no comparison, no analysis, no knowledge. That's the left.
U of S Political Science prof?
My experience of the U of S was that the PoliSci dept. competed with the Sociology dept. for the prize of being most foolishly utopian; the English dept. running a hot third place.
The "American Foreign Policy is to Blame" meme is getting really old. America has always struggled between a "manifest destiny" view and an isolationist "republic" view, but has remained the greatest force for wealth and freedom this sorry world has ever seen.
Nonetheless, mixed signals in foreign policy do not justify mass murder as a legitimate response.
Do we blame French foreign policy for the Nazi invasion? Do we blame Canadian or British foreign policy for the Imperial Japanese actions in Hong Kong?
These fools need to give up on the blame-game, it's history now. The future is what matters, and it's ours to make, good or bad.
What will the year 2040 look like? A loose planet-wide federation of free democracies, or a world-wide Caliphate? We as individuals must make the choice now, and act on it, or someone else surely will.
"God fights on side of heaviest artillery"
-Robert A. Heinlein-
http://hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com/2006/09/jack-be-nimble-jack-be-quick.html
"While Taliban Jack is running around screeching like a chimp that peed on a live wire, Stephen Harper is taking action."
Once again, Stephen Harper steps up. Tanks to Af'stan... about time.
I was at work the day of September 11, and I’ll never forget nor fully understand the reaction of many of my co-workers.
Our floor had over 100 people on it, all with PCs and well-used Internet access.
I spent the whole morning meeting with two others at one of their desks. If that day was any different from any other, you sure wouldn’t know it. There was nothing to indicate that anything was going on. As a consequence, I only found out about the incidents after the fact.
Finally around 11 am a garrulous blonde walked by and casually mentioned that another plane was down.
WHAT?
Oh yeah, and one of the towers was down.
WHAT? WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
So she walked us backward through the events of the morning, and I was in utter shock; the only thought I had was that this was the end of the world.
But up to that point none of my nearby co-workers had uttered so much as a peep that anything extraordinary was going on. I don’t think it was shock – they would have at least traded comments over the cubicle walls, I would have heard SOMETHING. But I didn’t.
Perhaps this is wrong and perhaps it’s not nice, but I’ve concluded that they acted as they did due to an inbred Canadian mousiness/boringness that infects many Canadians.
"The national survey of 1,010 adults also found that anger against the federal government is at record levels, with 54 percent saying they "personally are more angry" at the government than they used to be."
The good liberal solution to this, Todd (may I call you Todd?) is to enroll them in anger management classes, preferably, funded by the government.
Thank you, Skip, for the links.
It's so painful to watch those images again. The violence and senselessness of it all. I think of all of the fatherless children now, parents that buried children, young widows, the bravery of the firemen.....
There just isn't much else to say today.
ET “The pathology of the left is its inability to deal with globalization”.
The Islamists will eventually implode, but meanwhile they’re exploding and dangerous. They are helped by our enemy within –the Taliban Jacks.
You would think that the transnational left would welcome globalization. The twist is that while freetrade and globalization improve everyone’s standard of living it doesn’t make things “equal”. The left suffers from envy. So they hate globalization as much as the humiliated failure if the Islamists. Therefore, what 9/11 has done is make it clear that the left and the Islamists had formed an axis. We have 2 enemies to fight.
WAKE UP WHITE PEOPLE
Mad Mike is absolutely correct. History might be a good read but is meaningless. We only have the future to look forward to.
Even ET the rightist takes on leftie characteristics with all that egghead ranting. Your assumptions are correct but do nothing to advance the good fight.
GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND DO SOMETHING
I would definitely say Jackass Jack and his followers are in line with the old adage of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I would say the devil, if there is such a thing, and al-Qaeda have a good bed partner.
I remember being woken up early on 9/11/06 by a call from my son. We were living in Calgary at that time and although I can't remember why I was not at work, might have been burning off some overtime acrued... I don't recall, I can remember tuning into the site of a tower burning and then watching the second aircraft hit. It was then I realized this wasn't an avaition accident but something much bigger.
I remember feeling a bit numb, wondering who or what is going on. An attack of some sort? From who? That feeling you get when you realize that something profound has happened to your life that will change it signifigantly came over me. That loss of innocence feeling when you realize you are grown up, Santa Cluase doesn't exist and the world can be a mean, ugly place.
As the days progressed I was proud of Canadians helping, taking travellers into their homes and also embarassed at our dipwad of a Prime Minister acting and sounding like an idiot when we needed some true leadership.
Reading this thread it suddenly struck me, one very important point. The talk about one civilization, culture being or feeling superior to the others is dismissed by the liberal left but, by laying the blame for all this on western society are they not implying that the islamofacist civilization cannot come up with a reason for hating the west on their own?
Today, I try to ignore the conspiracy nutbars and instead think about those who gave their lives, intentionally or not, for the free western civilization most of us have tasken for granted.
Being critical is not a bad thing. I would go so far as to say it is an essential quality for any good citizen.
I've been accused of being prejudiced. That is, of pre-judging a situation.
I beg to differ. I have looked at this ongoing struggle long and hard and I have made a judgement. It would be more accurate to call this post-judice.
When did critical thinking become such a bad thing anyway?
Thanks Kate for making a place to come to every day for a little sanity in the Leftist sea of insanity.
I noticed that CBC aired 9/11 conspiracy theories last night. Even my liberal leaning girlfriend was appalled.
I will NEVER watch CBC again.
I love the bit in Sibleys essay from Sheila Copps.
"Former Liberal party leadership candidate Sheila Copps, for example, was recently quoted as suggesting the terrorist roundup in Britain is a conspiracy. "Could it be that this whole thing was an orchestrated overreaction to steer public attention away from the difficulties facing the Bush-Tony Blair fight on terrorism?" she asked."
I think it was Mark Steyn who said that Sheila Copps has to take her pantyhose off to count to twelve.
Personally, I think Ms. Copps and the Libs and the CBC and the CRTC are responsible for a dumbing down of Canada that is quite remarkable.
Ms. Copps and co. will try to shut up and shut down those who do not agree by smearing others intent with shadowy accusations. It is both despicable and predictable.
She never recognizes Canadas' true allies or her real enemies. Sheila is too busy banning American books and TV and spinning Liberal and NDP left wing multicultural stories, which IMO are also very often American based. lol
IMHO stupid Liberal and NDP policies have led to a lack of an investor class in Canada that just increases our economic dependency on the USA.
Also, I actually watched the CBC for a little while last night (!) but the commercial for the hockey special coming up that has that clip of the Canadian Womens player crying while saying "The Americans had our flag on the floor" was playing over and over and over.
It drove me nuts and so I turned the channel.
I wonder how many times the CBC audience will hear that memorable and all important moment in Canadian hockey history repeated today.
What I advise you to do is this: email the CBC by all means, but more importantly, pick up the phone and call your _local CBC affiliates_ and tell them so.
t. schmuck esq. said, "witness iraq, once staunchly supported by the americans when they were duking it out with iran, post-ayatollah and pre-kuwait."
t. schmuck, get your head out of the CBC's azzcrack and do some independent research. Hussein was never "staunchly supported" by the US. You need to blame the "foreign policy" of Russia, France, China and others for the blood on Hussein's hands. Those were not American weapons he was fighting with. Know what you're talking about before you propagate LIES!
Imported weapons to Iraq (IRQ) in 1973-2002
Country $MM USD 1990 % Total
USSR 25145 57.26
France 5595 12.74
China 5192 11.82
Czechoslovakia 2880 6.56
Poland 1681 3.83
Brazil 724 1.65
Egypt 568 1.29
Romania 524 1.19
Denmark 226 0.51
Libya 200 0.46
USA 200 0.46
South Africa 192 0.44
Austria 190 0.43
Switzerland 151 0.34
Yugoslavia 107 0.24
Germany (FRG) 84 0.19
Italy 84 0.19
UK 79 0.18
Hungary 30 0.07
Spain 29 0.07
East Germany (GDR) 25 0.06
Canada 7 0.02
Jordan 2 0.005
Total 43915 100.0
Furthermore, regarding US foreign policy in the Middle East, the most contentious issues are the fact that we buy oil from those who sell it (like every other freaking country on the planet), and that Israel has a right to exist. Real contentious, IF YOU SUPPORT ISLAMIC FASCISTS.
I've been reading a bit this morning about the "2996 Project" (I wish I could point you to it, but the site is off line, due apparently to failing to attend to a renewal (or designed to expire today)). Michelle Malkin has quite a bit on her site, and Chris Muir, who provides the daily cartoon for mine, is a participant.
I wish I would have known about this sooner - I would like to have participated in this for the Canadians lost in New York. Anyone know if they were included in the project? - I would have to assume so, hopefully.
Todd,
I speak for many of us: STFU
You pathetic lefties have every other day of the year to spout your nonsense.
enough
KoaL: Re: "WAKE UP WHITE PEOPLE...GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND DO SOMETHING". I find this comment racist in tone. This is not a "whitey" versus "darkey" issue. This is a "rational human being" versus "ignorant religious zealot" issue. We need to view the problem clearly, not muddy the waters.
And what is it that we should be doing? We are trying our best to support the Conservative Government of Canada in defeating the HezboLieberals and the Non-Democratic Party...what else would you have us do? Public stonings or beheadings?
"'We must do something' is the unanimous refrain. 'You begin' is the deadening refrain."
-Walter Dwight, The Saving Sense
Before 911 bush was an isolationist after 911 lefties blame foreign policy for the attack's. Wanting to withdraw from world affairs caused it???
Moonbats aside
America attacked,
http://attacked911.tripod.com/
kevin cosgroves 911 call
http://hotair.com/archives/the-blog/2006/07/27/video-kevin-cosgroves-911-call-from-the-world-trade-center/
It's a day where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news. I was making school lunches when my husband called from work to tell me to turn on the TV.
Lickmuffin: It was my youngest son's first day of kindergarten this day five years ago. So I remember it for two reasons.
I remember all the youthful innocence at the school that day, full of excitement. I remember the parents, some of whom, after the kids had gone in the classroom, stayed outside to talk. Many were saying "Oh My God, what will happen next?" I remember walking home and wondering if things will ever be the same again. I knew in my gut that they would not.
How cozy and protected we felt before that day. And I think to myself now and I would say to the terrorists if I could, "You will go to hell, you disgusting terrorists. And when you get there, you will rot and burn. Say heil to Hitler when you get there. Nothing you could ever do would make me convert to Islam. You will not make me cover my head and wear a burka. And in spite of all your disgusting threats, my family and I will live a happy life."
And shame on all the lefties who have not yet woken up to this real threat.
Besides commemorating the tragedy of 9/11, today re-confirms why the war against Islamic fundamentalism is critical. I just hope Harper is in power long enough to undo the Liberal de-militarization of Canada.
http://www.cjunk.blogspot.com/ has a moving memorial and commentary worth viewing.
I have shared this day with my older children, so they clearly understand the significance of 9/11 and know our enemy. I want them to be aware of all viewpoints, not just the sanitized or Leftist skewed propaganda they will most likely be taught today in school/university.
IMO, the September 10th mentality in the West is a product of Western liberalism. It's manifested via three prongs.
First, the Western liberal politicians-so prominent, vociferous and destructive-in the American Democrats, the Canadian Liberals and NDP; British Labour; other Anglosphere and European left wing parties.
Secondly, the pervasive saturation of liberals in the West's MSM. We've read much about that and discussed it at this very blog.
Third, the most ominous for our future, the pervasive saturation of liberals in most of the West's educational establishments.
All this has militated to create a vast fault line running through all of Western Civilization. The rational and open-minded being mostly on the moderate and conservative side; the irrational, fact and history-denying being mostly on the left side.
That's my conclusion, anyhow. Anyone have comments on it?
I walked by the American Consulate today at lunch. There were two tables set up out front and they were strewn with cards and bouquets of flowers.
The cards contained heartfelt messages, many of which were handmade and written by a child’s hand with things like “God Bless America/George Bush/Canada/Stephen Harper.” Little self-portraits of themselves with tears of sorrow. One card had something like “3000 souls in Heaven to be loved.”
A memory of an earlier incident came back to me. I was leaving work one day during the early stages of the First Gulf War, and coming up the street was a grade 1-2 teacher leading her students toward the Consulate. They were carrying “no war for oil” signs and the like that they obviously spent the day making, led on by the teacher.
I really wanted to punch her lights out.
The flag at Jack! Layton’s old stomping grounds, Toronto City Hall, is flying at half-staff. That must really be killing the socialists who run and are ruining Toronto.
I too remember what happened. Two girls, a friend of mine and her younger sister were at my house before school. My mom came running out of her room, calling behind about a plane hitting the WTT. We all ran down to the tv, anxious about what was going on. We watched the two planes hit and later at school watched them crumble and fall. The news was played all day in the library and most students skipped classes to watch the tragic event.
Sorry to have gotten somewhat off-topic with the above post. 9/11 affected me greatly. I used to live in NJ, and often went into the city on busienss and pleasure. I love NY. It was and always will be a microcosym of the whole world: all races, religions, nationalities (not just "WHITE PEOPLE", like the dipshit King of Lefties proclaims. Subsequent victims of Islamic terrorism in Casablanca, Madrid, London, Kuta, Karachi, Nairobi, Dar es Saalam, Riyadh, Taba, Luxor, Bombay, Moscow, Beslan, Amman, and Istanbul, Ankara and elsewere were not exclusively "WHITE PEOPLE"). I searched victims lists for weeks for the names of friends and collegues that worked in the WTC. I've dedicated most of my free moments since searching for the truth about 9/11, our enemies, allies, and "allies".
These popularly believed lies perpetuated by the international socialist machine and blindly believed by useful idiots like schmuck and King are THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE to a united front against this threat. This assistance to the enemies of all free men dishonors our own dead and all the victims worldwide of terrorists and the genocidal dictators that support them.
The most important lesson from 9/11 and the subsequent attacks is that Islamist fascist ideologies DO NOT CARE about what religion you espouse, your political ideology, your national foreign policy or what color you are. If you do not think like them, they WANT TO KILL YOU.
Thanks for the good suggestion Kate.
I will contact CBC about the hockey "ad" even though I hate to acknowledge that I was actually watching them. /s
Also, when I remember those who died on Sept 11, I usually think first of those men who ran into the WTC while eveyone else was running out of it.
I know every instinct would tell me to flee and I am thankful for the brave people who will themselves to go towards a fatal danger in order to help others.
I can recall that evening being out on the deck at sunset and watching a clear sky with no trails from all the air traffic and then I heard a plane but it was going North instead of the usual East or West and it must have been military.
My neighbor commented on the terrible things people do to each other and she hoped that the USA did not retaliate in such a way that would hurt any more innocent people.
But this is not only about what happens to individuals. This is also about nations. All nations have assets and those assets can also be attacked.
Tom - I mentioned this yesterday. It's a long essay by Martin Amis. I think it is the most accurate and chilling description of the Evil we face, the best, well researched, I've seen written is the past five years. I don't agree with his conclusion as to how we counter this, but his description of the heart and soul of the Islamic terrorist is dead on.
observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1868732,00.html
Islam, as distinct from Islamism, as distinct from Islamofascism, as distinct from a Death Cult.....as I read on I felt Amis was not making hard distinctions. If he was, they were with his own pen fading and falling apart.
I beg everyone to read this and bookmark it. It's one of those pieces that should be required reading. If you can still spout the leftist pc and multi-culti drivel after reading this then you are brain dead.
Re; the Canwest poll....
Should read 20% of idiots who wast their time responding to pollsters believe anything they think pollsters want them to believe....
For those of us who do not live with our heads up our collective asses there only the FACTS of the matter...not "theories", explanations or any other bullshit concocted by self serving jackasses.
For those helpless individuals who do believe this kind of garbage thank the clowns in our MSM who just so love to propagate BS rather than report facts.
The constant drip of brainless blathering from the empty heads of CBC/ Bell Globe Media etc has its effect on the ignorant, delusional and the subnormal......
Polsters whould be required to administer a personality profile test before accepting any responses and either publish the respondent profile or not bother to report the results at all.
Skip - yes, the 2996 project included the Canadians killed. I signed up for it and was assigned Maryland resident Ian J. Gray, a passenger on Flight 77 that hit the Pentagon.
I tell ya, putting a face (and a life, and a widow, and shocked friends) to this tragedy has only firmed my resolve not to let our government back down from its commitment to crush this enemy.
Oh, by the way - the 2996 Project is housed here: http://www.jamulian.com/db911/ (currently down though)
It wouldn't surprise me if its down due to overwhelmage.
I was at my parents attending to my ailing father the day the planes struck the WTC. My first thoughts immediately flashed back to that cleric convicted for the first bombing of the WTC years earlier (before Bush) who said that one day soon 11 aeroplane would be unleashed as weapons against the US. To my relief only 4 (that we are aware of) were sent. The first casualty of war is the truth.
My second thought was this is the start of WW3. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
We will win the fight because the goal we chose for our society is the correct one. We defeated fascists before. The road we chose to get there is another matter. It is this choice in route that allowed 911 to happen because it was selected as the reason for the problems outlined by the Islamic fascists.