We did not want to post anything, on this Day of Dread when we are supposed to forget about the awful industrial savagery and Crushed Freedumbs of the past decade, but you nice people keep sending us “tips” asking for some kind of refuge, shelter from the storm, what have you. Well!
We can post a few somber-yet-irrelevant videos, right? And you can leave comments and commiserate, as humans occasionally like to do, on Lonely Christmas or Divorce Day or …
The best thing is to just stay away from television and the Internet and newspapers and your weird brother-in-law who remembers what a tough day that was, back in accounts payable at the Staples regional distribution center in Des Moines, right before (during?) football season. Good luck, everybody!
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Good morning, Wonkette America. Me, I've been drinking and watching the youtuber videos of CNN on 9/11, and just thinking about the last ten years. Is any of this real?
Also, happy birthday to my dad, Milton Odorph K____, born Sept. 11, 1899, died Oct. 1972.
Your son is puzzled about All Of It.
Happy Birthday, Milton. You are sorely missed.
Mind you, he voted for Nixon in '68, and thought that MLK was a commie troublemaker. Still, he was my (adoptive) dad, and I love him. Had he not died when I was 10, I'm sure we'd have had some hellacious arguments when I was 17 and dated a black girl for a time.
Never thought I'd see the day that we missed the "Nixon Years".
Odorph ?
pardon me but what kind of name was that ~~
I haven't the least idea. I think it's Irish, but honestly, I do not know.
What about the last name? I hear your uncle Joseph in Prague had some legal troubles.
He spells it Josef.
I'm celebrating by drinking coffee, remembering how much I drank last night and watching TV DVR'd from earlier this week. If it helps, I'm just as puzzled about the ending of this week's "Wilfred."
happy birthday milton.
if you get any answers, please share.
The monies Wall Street stole from the country to make themselves feel better was real. The rest, not so much.
Happy birthday to your Dad, DoktorZoom. He'd be puzzled too, if he were here.
Happy Birthday, Milton, and thank you to all the adoptive parents out there, even the ones who fucked us up. They didn't mean it.
In reading Kurt Vonnegut this weekend (in doses, I cry at his knowledge) I realize that to be aware is to be puzzled. Miche1e, Herman, Rickie, Mittens and Newtie have no puzzlement in their souls.
That's what religion is for – to remove puzzlement, and replace it with certainty.
It's a lot of crap, of course, but it is certain, and for some folks that's what matters.
Oh, Biely! And here I was all along, thinking it was all about Fear of You.
The truth is that nobody fears me while alive. Those who don't buy into relgion seem willing to ignore my existence, or are ignorant of it, or are puzzled by the nature of my game. Some of the clever ones — being not quite clever enough to fear — are willing to deal.
Those who do buy into religion think, since God is on their side, it's the other guys who ought to fear me. I do my best work with this crowd. (Fausts are rare, but de Torquemadas are a dime a dozen.)
“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’ ”
I just had a friend from long ago wish me a Very Vonnegutian Birthday. I thanked him and shared your quote up there, one of my faves.
43 today — woo hoo! Even better than 9/11, I share a date with Mexican Independence Day. I have a photograph of myself in Cuidad Juarez standing under a street sign that reads Avenida de Septiembre 16.
Aww, cute puppy videos make my heart smile. They made me completely forget that some asshole crashed into my darling new red sports car tonight, while it was parked, and fled without leaving their insurance information. "Zippy-Zoom-Zoom" is broken and now I can dream of sweet little puppies.
On a funny note….the whole "divorce day" thing is hilarious. My friend, V will confirm this…my divorce came through on 9-11. Hilarious! It was the best of times, the worst of times. Wait, 9-11 is the anniversary of something else? I have to Google that.
Sorry to hear about your car. In 2008, my beater minivan was totaled when a guy blew his brains out while driving down my street and crashed into it. Pretty weird to find myself with collateral damage to someone else's tragedy–apparently he was a Vietnam vet who never really made it all the way back home, and died a hundred feet away from where I'm typing and drinking (I don't even like merlot…)
As to divorces–two weeks on the job as the temp receptionist for divorce court, and I am convinced that marriage is a bad idea all around.
Blew his brains out while driving? That's novel.
He blew his mind out in a car.
If only we had banned the Beatles music, this never would have happened.
Marriage is a terrible idea. If we ever get single-payer there will be an epidemic of divorces.
Don't give the foes of single-payer any ideas!
Well marriage as an institution in this bloody country is pretty safe I'd say. It will be a cold day in Senegal before the money people let that one happen.
First marriages are a terrible idea. Second marriages work out much better.
Humans are a bad idea all around. Trapping two of them in the same house is just the capper.
I personally will be celebrating the 5th anniversary of my Wifey's divorce by watching football and having tasty snacks with her. If that sounds sexy timeish then there you go.
Sexy time includes a flu shot in the morning. Meet me at Walgreen's.
Corrected:
Okay. Flu shots + a nap and then Sexytime and football. A trifecta!
Sounds more like a fourfecta. Or maybe a flufecta.
Oooh, it's Mister Barb. Hi, Jeffer!
Jeez, didn't know I was going to get a writing assignment, Barb, but happy to comply.
W2 angried up on me when I told her, in mid-September 2001, that I'd have to leave her if she stopped going to the shrink we'd agreed to see in an effort to make things work. She began to harass everybody I knew, and everybody I was related to, and worked for, and worked with, until I begged her brother to make her stop, as she was hurting people who'd never done anything to her. She ran me out of the house and threw away all my clothes and books and (the worst) family pictures. Had to lawyer-up and go through much expensive negotiation to get to Divorce Day on 2 June 2002, which was the last time I saw her, at family court. It was a great day for me, so wonderful to have it over.
She died five years later of breast cancer, a recurrence of the first bout that happened while we were married. At that point I couldn't be angry anymore, and now am able to focus on times when we were happy, here and there in places around town where her memory recurs.
I walked out that freaking door and took the clothes on my back and never looked back. I paid Nancy to let me use her Alabama address for the divorce papers so that David couldn't find me. Once a man stabs you he's kinda unpredictable, ya know. I gave Nancy a 20 carat sapphire bracelet and a 5 carat diamond and sapphire ring. All she had to do was to go to her mailbox once and fetch those divorce papers.
Sept 11th came and Nancy called me and said the divorce was granted. Because I left everything, even my car, I had NOTHING. Nancy then told me that I had to pay her more for the divorce papers. Isn't she a peach? Anyway V, when she was here in April she was wearing that ring. She turned 50 on Friday and emailed me and said she joined the Tea Party, lol.
9-11 is a great day for a divorce. Wouldn't you hate to have that as a birthday though?
What a bitch!!
God, some people! Barb I would not only give you the divorce papers, framed and bronzed I'd have you over for a nice celebratory picnic. I mean, why waste a good excuse for a party?
My friend's birthday is on 9/11. She gets pissed off when people say "I'm sorry" when she tells them her birth date. It was her birthday long before it was an infamous date.
Back then in high school, my best friend's birthday was 9/11, too (it still is, too, as far as I'm aware). And he made a huuuuge deal out of it, on 9/10, and made sure everyone knew the next day was his birthday.
He quietly told me the next day that he felt like an enormous asshole for it. That's pretty much the only time he's said that something made him feel like an asshole. He really always was an asshole, though.
A divorce is like a birth, really. A birth of a new life, free from the relationship that was doing more harm than good in your life.
A friend told me her 9/11 divorce story at my daughter's 10th bday party, over the weekend (I was in labor all day 9/11/01, finally bringing her beautiful promise of life into this messed up world just after 1am on 9/12).
My friend's 9/11/01 day started out with plans to watch Dr Phil, who was scheduled to show a 'save your relationship' episode that day. She was home with her 3 preschoolers – two older kids in school – hoping that Dr Phil would give her the insight she needed to fix everything.
Then, of course, Dr Phil was preempted. And, she spent the morning worrying about everything, holding her kids close, wondering if she should get the older kids from school & bring them home.
Her husband came home that afternoon & she shared her worries with him. He told her she was overreacting, laughed at her for thinking kids were in danger in Chicago suburbs, nowhere near NYC or DC.
Later, he told her that he slept with his girlfriend for the 1st time on 9/14/01. He said he was compelled to do so because he wanted to comfort the girlfriend who was so distraught about 9/11.
I could not be happier for my friend, that she got away from that relationship before she wasted any more of her life trying to 'save' it.
Sorry about the car. I like most cars more than most people, and if yours is an MX-5 like I think it might be, it's next on my list of acquisitions. Imagine 6'3" folding up to fit for your morning laff…
Love me my MX-5. Had it about 4 years and so far I've only suffered minor hit-and-run dings and injuries. I might treat it to a bath later today after the Steelers game (in which I plan on doing my best to ignore the mawkish "Nevar Fergit" tributes.
Call 'em "MX-5" all you want, but we know they're Miatas.
Not that there's anything WRONG with that! (disclosure: Doktor Zoom drives a 1973 Chevy, Vlad the Impala, that would easily be outrun, out-cornered, and out-economied by any given Miata).
I raise a toast to Vlad. I had a rent-a-wreck '72 Impala for several months, while I saved $$ from my first real job to buy my first real car. The shocks were shot, and at the right speed you could get the harmonics to set in, and it would bob down the avenues like a mad porpoise. Among my favorite memories are NYC cabbies ducking out of the way when they saw this rusted beast looming up behind them. Also, finding a discarded 6-drawer dresser on the street, dropping it into the trunk … and closing the lid.
I'm 6' and my son is 6'2". Fitting in the Miata is quite easy. I have a '91 I have owned ever since. I have driven both the NB and BC models. Tip, get someone to give the emergency brake lever a little bend. Nother tip though it may work only on the NA models. Take out the seat and remove the seat rails; turn them around and put the reversed left where the right was and the reversed right were the left was. It gives two extra inches of backward seat travel. I find with the seat pushed all the way back and the seat back tilted back, I can't comfortably reach the steering wheel. 40+ waistlines get in the way of the steering wheel a little.
As for general driving pleasure on a much smaller budget then Vette and Porsche, start creating excuses for the Police. And if you want to, the car is amazingly durable. As I said, mines a '91. Head, shoulder and leg room is more than Vette and Porshces.
On 9/11 I reconnected with my first love after 25 years by sheer chance. She was a hyper efficent world beater who was a costume designer, mostly opera, and an attorney to boot.
Sent her an email the next day, inviting her to a production of one of my plays. That evening I came home to discover her sitting in the living room drinking a glass of wine. She said to me "I am alone, I have brain cancer and I need a place to die."
The next 8 months were amazing. She was literally the toughest human being I ever met in my life. She was 5 feet tall and weighed maybe 90 pounds. I have never been able to shake the feeling that some force in the universe arraigned for us to reconnect.
Wow. I'm sobbing. Maybe that's ok today.
That makes me love you insanely.
That's amazing, Sandman. Sorry about the sad ending, but it must have been a tremendous experience, reconnecting like that with your First True Love. You've probably earned enough karma points from that to be a total asshole from now on with no consequences. Although you shouldn't take that as a challenge.
Are you sure you didn't lift this story from the plot of an opera? Even if you did, you are pretty cool.
Bummer about the car. I have a darling little sports car too–an SLK, which I got for a song on E-Bay during the depths of the little bank crisis thingie we had a couple of years ago.
Nice.
i am very sorry about your car.
now i have to go check my mini which is in fact on the street.
Hi Pris! Barb wants everyone to know we got that flu shot today between the first and second games.
we got that flu shot today between the first and second games
I can't find that on urbandictionary.com – it is some kind of sex talk, right?
OK, so, Jeffer, Barb, what *were* the first and second games, exactly? Should I start envisioning vamping in feather boas and mules (and maybe wide smiles, if anything else at all)? Do tell!
This is easily the most digressive and entertaining thread of the weekend.
I can only conclude that a TV show about cars, divorce, and 9/11 would be a ratings hit.
Reddit is now working on a 9/11 pun thread. Healing.
I'm going to commemorate the 10th anniversary of GWB's Worst. Day. Ever. by viewing a whole day's worth of films celebrating gays, gays, and more gays. Because it's just what's done.
elv, I would argue, rather easily, that the highest holy day of neoconism was the GWB's Best. Day. Ever.
Cheney actually said that it was his Best. Day. Ever.
Deficits don't matter.
Really? I'm sick at heart (which he does not posses.)
It is deeply saddening that that is the truth. 9/11 was the very best day he ever had and will ever have against in his life. Up until that date, he was on track to be one of the most forgettable presidents evah.
Lucky you! I think our Queer Film Festival is over. I'll just have to dig through my ELEBENTY BRAZILIAN gay, gay, gay movies on the Netflix Instawatch to celebrate.
If you haven't seen Handsome Harry, I recommend it.
More Americans died that day than at Pearl Harbor. More than on D-Day. It may have been the deadliest day since the Civil War. But on that day the naton learned…
Allegory or coincidence?
Why does this make me want to emit a high-pitched whine?
Scary cat is scary.
It hypnotized me into forgetting all about 9/11.
Angry dog scared me more. But happily, beyond it all, Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
Honey Badger never fails to make me laugh. (Still.) He just don't GIVE A SHIT!
Honey Badger is disgustingly funny. AND, it has nothing to do with boxcutters on planes.
Soooo funny!!
As Uncle Herman Cain sez, "Never, never, NEVAH forget." Don't listen to him sing it or the urge to push a sharpened railroad spike through both ears will win out.
Honey Badger don't give a shit about Herman Cain, either.
I should hope not, Doktor. Herman Cain brings out all my don't-give-a-shittery, for sho.
Thank you for that Wonkette Jr. I love doggy style…and a good post-coital smoke.
And, oh yeah, fuck 9/11, especially the overreaction and exploitation thereafter.
also,, apparently George Dumbya Bush is magically, suddenly become the President of the United States again for this 9/11 anniversary, despite everything
… while everyone on the right seems to pretend that Obama didn't exist
I thought Frank Luntz saying we need to remember "9/11 and how Bush kept us safe" was pretty remarkable myself, even with the usual conservative cognitive dissonance.
More Americans died from terrorism under George W. Bush than under any other American president in history. At least that's the way a Repubican spin-meister like Frank Luntz would put it.
Frank Luntz: Enemy of Reason
Frank Luntz:
EnemyEnema of ReasonFIFY. NNTT.
Are we sure that "Luntz" isn't just a variation on "Burns?"
Not to worry. Tomorrow, when they start screeching about debts n' deficits again, they'll go back to forgetting Bush. And Obama will be President again.
I want to forget how Dumbya and his cronies used 9/11 as an excuse for the sort of horrid, fucktarded idiocies that they'd never have gotten away with otherwise.
Stunning to think that they took 9/11 and made it worse.
Nope. Just the photo of Barack walking hand-in-hand with his lovely-armed wife was beautiful. A decent man with a decent family making decent decisions. USA USA!!!!
Merry Republican Christmas!
Good tidings to you, and all of yours, glam.
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Yes indeed, it's the day the repugs got everything they wanted. Joy to the new world order!
♬ Don we now our gay apparel…♪
Deck your balls with rolls of challah
Falalalala lala lala
Speaking of "Angry Dogs":
I, of course, celebrated 9/11 Day by going shooting.
Converting Money Into Loud Noises seemed the best way to cope with the pathetic self-congratulation that marks the stress response of Communist Liberal Pinko SKum.
[Don't worry, Glams: No nine-year-olds were killed. If only because they are too hard to skin; don't have much meat; and pork chops [the "Other 'White' Meat") are only about $6 per pound over at the Gelson's in Century City.]
The best coping mechanism is shooting doves or chipmunks or hamsters or some other small creature with a 12 ga. so as to watch them explodes into feathery/furry red mist. It makes America stronger and the Baby Jesus laugh and laugh.
Praise Baby JESUS, and pass the ammunition!
[Oh, someone mention to Glamourdammerung that, if Baby JESUS were murdered, and we ate Him, His Tiny Holy Body could feed the multitude.
(It's one of those "loaves and fishes" things.)
Although, He probably wouldn't taste like pork. The "Lamb of God" thing,. dontchaknow?)
CURRY OR TANDOORI JESUS!!!!!!
Neilist
Wonkettte Crew-Serviced Weapons & Indian Cooking Desk
(Hey, any of you Catholics out there got any cheese to go with these crackers? They're sort of tasteless . . . .)
Body of Christ, the other, other white meat.
I shot yesterday. I would have shot today, but to do so would have meant rising about 0400, and I chose to sleep til 0800 instead.
Don't worry about it. You may have missed the cock crowing, but he wouldn't have tasted as good as Our Lord And Savior.
Pass Glamourdammerung a rib, would you This Judas Sauce is DELICIOUS.)
You need to move to Floriduh. Backyard shooting ranges are now OK, and any mayor who says otherwise gets fined and removed from office (by the get-out-of-the-way "small gubmint" that the 'baggers so admire.) Down there in America's scrotum, this is 21st century progress.
Eh, I could have shot at cactus/lizards if I wanted. This was a sanctioned match.Sent from my iPad
I would like to deploy the terrorist dog video number 2 on Joe Walsh's nut sack. What a shit stain teatard. He can't support his family and he takes his wife to court to reduce his responsibility.
I don't care about your political affilation when it comes to your family. Joe has a moral obligation (not to get all Jesus-y) to provide for his children. What a shit stain. He chooses to penalize his children over his political platitudes. In my house he's neither an adult or responsible. He's just a failure as a man.
So sad.
I suspect Mom will carry the family forward and the kids will survive and become fine young adults. I also hope that Joe Walsh has a bad day on a future Jerry Springer show.
Finally, thanks fellow Wonketters for your kind words during last week's Texas fires. I appreciate you allowing my rants during some tough times in my home base.
Fuck Joe Walsh and Rick Perry.
I have every faith Walsh's children will respond with future careers that will appall him.
I hope things are looking up for you at home. My niece in Cedar Creek fled with her baby to her parents' place in suburban Chicago. Her husband is still in Bastrop Co. responding to the damage his parents and their many relatives endured. I have a feeling when he's finished, he'll end up in Chicago, too. He was only marginally employed anyway and the house they lived in wasn't worth saving.
All the best to you and yours.
Chris Rock has a routine in which he warns people to be very, very careful about who they hate. "Because whatever it is — Puerto Ricans, Jews, Gays — your daughter's going to marry one."
As long as they aren't atheists.
Ranting about drought is about all you can do, so rant away.
http://youtu.be/dJ8G2s–1zA
You don't piss on hospitality!
That is the strangest thing I have seen since the day I saw two (seemingly) retarded adolescent boys licking each other's faces, like dogs, on the metro.
sounds like a scene out of Gummo.
Okay, so that really was Danny Devito saying "Boys soul", sort of.
I have thus far refused to watch any "commemorative" television programs (terror porn), and I will not do so tomorrow. I don't need a bunch of revisionist douchebags telling me what happened on that fateful day when I can unhappily remember it perfectly well all by my own self. I don't need a bunch of douchebags telling me what it meant, what it means, what 'Murica has done right and what 'Murica has done wrong, and what the lasting legacy of this tragedy will be. They're mostly the same douchebags who cheerled us into the clusterfuck that is Iraq ten years ago, and they're the same douchebags who have been providing us with all that insightful commentary we've been listening to ever since, so I have little patience for them.
If I'm gonna get thru the day, I think I need some tequila. Also.
Terror porn, that's a good term for it. I feel the same way. I never have any desire to re-cap things I lived through myself. Even pleasant things, let alone unpleasant things. I can put myself back there in my own thoughts and listening to someone else's description of it — a wedding or a funeral — just makes me feel a sort of low-grade annoyance. I prefer learning about massive tragedies I didn't live through. Which is why I've read four WWII books and two about the McCarthy era so far this year and now I'm moving on to the Spanish Civil War. And besides, if I hear someone say "Bush kept us safe," I might throw the TV against the wall and I just got it in December.
WW II in which theater, and do you recommend them?
Two HBO series:
(European), Band of Brothers
(Pacific), The Pacific
Have you seen these?
Intro to "The Pacific" is the best I've ever seen.
(My daughter kept playing the theme on her iPhone when we were driving through Hawaii on vacation.)
Those are movies, yes? I've already got 1,000 on my Netflix queue (embarrassing, innit? When you're a gimp, your entertainment is mostly of the "sit-on-your-ass" kind). Band of Brothers is on the list, I'm sure. The Pacific, I will look up.
I was looking for book recommendations though. You know, gotta keep the biceps in shape, and hauling a big heavy book around is *just* the way to do it.
I spent most of last year reading about WW II in the Pacific theater. Next year will be European history up to and including WW II, although thanks to Dad's obsession (he was in the Pacific theater), I've read an awful lot about that dreadful war already. Eh, some people don't know when to quit.
::sigh::
Oh, to live in a state where you can actually buy alcohol on a Sunday…. *cue Hulk Sad Walking Away Music*
Hope yesterday's beer purchase will be adequate.
Move immediately!
Sharia law!
Why is everyone ignoring that great stuff Bloomberg said – you know, the whole "hey, it never hurts to be cautious but come on go live your life cause sitting in your house quaking in fear and being scared of everyone who looks different – that's what the terrorists want. So go live your life and don't be dumb but go live so they don't win." Or something like that.
He stole that thought from my brain!!1!
As for why, I've come to the conclusion that people LIKE to be scared. Maybe it makes them feel important … "Someone is trying to kill ME."
It's the adrenalin rush from the fear. They're addicted to it. These are the same people who smoke, drink too much, like to drive too fast, enjoy emotional rollercoaster relationships, etc.
I wonder what percentage of the population is suffering from some form of mental disease/disorder or the other.
Yes Harry, as I raise a shooter of Patron Gold, I agree with you everyone here on Wonkette. I have been avoiding the same tired old rhetoric, and bible thumping and found comfort in the company of my new "family" at Wonkette.
Go for it, bro! I had my little Wonketz epiphany not too long ago myself.
amen, brother, amen
and in closing:
http://youtu.be/HyophYBP_w4
thank you. good night.
There's no coffee in Nilbog! It's the Devil's drink!
When the Rapture comes, Zoroaster will take only all the dogs and cats back to Zeta Reticuli . .. their souls are the purest. Humans are worm food…so drink up !
I'll (hic!) drink to that.
My favorite 9/11 memory: the crazy dude in camo fatigues standing on the corner of Sunset and La Brea in Hollywood a few days or maybe a week after the attack, holding an American flag and a sign that said "God Bless America. It's time to kick ass!" In hindsight I think that's the moment I knew we were doomed, but it was more a feeling in the bones than a formed thought.
Ah, a glorious 9/11 Day to you, Wonkette! May our next decade be one fuck of a lot more sane then the last one.
My favorite 9/11 memory, after a long day of handing out water in SoHo to the FiDi people walking north, was walking up the middle of Broadway from Houston to 72nd in a post-apocalypse New York CIty with no traffic and no businesses open
EXCEPT, wait for it . . . a guy in times square handing out cards for a strip joint on 11th Avenue.
Dog Bless America!
Never forget this.
I keep clicking on that link because I keep forgetting what it was a link to.
Sorry.
Just curious…was their anyone after Pearl Harbor who was as obnoxious about it as Rudy Guiliani was after you-know-what?
I don't know about obnoxious, but to this day there are people — mostly right-wingers — who think Roosevelt knew Japan was about to attack and did not warn the military, allowing 2,400 soldiers and sailors to die. Why? So the American people would go to war with Japan and Germany.
For example: http://www.apfn.org/apfn/pearl_harbor.htm
"By over-looking the obvious facts of an attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt was able to control both the political and economic systems of the United States."
Pretty much the whole article (and theory) is like this.
Which is one of the reasons I think the neocons did 9/11. In their mindset, it was like "Well, FDR did it, stupid libs." more on that at http://www.gurukalehuru.com
I don't know you but truthers and birthers and deathers are nuts as far as I am concerned. And I say this as someone who has been in therapy a number of times over the years- so I know nutty.
They're not just dumb, they're crazy, too. Yeesh.
Virtually every producer of propaganda?
Leave Trevor Horn out of this!
Hirohito?
Oh, all right. Hitler?
I finally get here this weekend and you beat me by only 4 hours?!
I know, huh? And I'm the one who's usually late to the party. Anyway, I made a new rule. Nobody gets to say "Hitler" in response to a question till after I do. It passed unanimously, and I am unanimous in that.
Breitfart will find a way to twist this into:
"Far-Left Liberal Website Mocks 9/11 and Disrespects American Heroes".
Ghost Cat is an American Hero and has been treated with "the proper fucking respect."
Breitbart can shove an angry dog up his mangina.
Agreed, but shouldn't it be "Ghost Kitteh"? There are standards in these matters.
i can haz variation? i was never sure Kitteh wasn't like Mussulman.
Mangina? Gosh, how did I get to this point in my life without learning that word??
probably better off than you are now that you know the word.
If that were a concern, I would not frequent The Wonkette. So all good.
You just don't hang in all the right places, dood. Go check out Buck Angel. More man than you'll ever be, and more woman than you can handle. And yes, with a mangina.
Is there an angry dog large enough and vile enough to deserve such a fate?
maybe this one? who knows, though. that dog might've been having a good time.
http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2006/09/raccoon...
ZOMG ELEBENTY!~!! That goddamn COON is desecrating SNOOPY!
I forget–was it blunderRush or Mann Coulter that had the extreme hatred going for the family members of the 9/11 victims…
Actually it was Gwenn Blech.
then wove twue wove will follow you fowever.
(best Madeline Kahn voice) "It's twoo! It's TWOO!"
"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis. I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much." — The Coultergeist
That's yet another thing I will Never Forget.
What a hateful, nasty bitch.
9/11 without wonkette posting a crying eagle parody is like Christmas without the Norelco Santa ad.
9/11 sucks.
Everything? Not that day but they're working on the rest: voter ID laws to stop Demoncrats and brown people from voting, laws regulating about lady parts, Texas-style health insurance for everyone. They just need a few more years to complete their masterpiece.
Avoid all media. The 911 porn is wretched. Keep em' fearful! And to the whole "Bush kept us safe" crowd; yes, he did, for 8 months. Oh, and fuck you. Now, watch this drive!
My favorite is on CNN, the trucker who wears a dog tag in case his 18-wheeler is attacked by Al Queda.
I think he has a better chance of driving off a bridge that's collapsed than being a terror target.
Oh does that take me back. "We could be a target – we havae the second largest collection of Americana in the Midwest!" Yeah folks – Al Queda doesn't give a shit about your pathetic exhibit no one outside of your crappy town has ever heard of.
Holy shit, I have the third largest collection of crabgrass in New Jersey. Could I be a target???
Possibly – the best thing to do is be terrified! Pray hard and vote Republican. brought to you by the God for a Permanent Republican Majority committee
depends, is crabgrass good with melted butter? if so, don't let your governor find out about it.
You never know when they might decide to intercept that truckload of non-halal smokie links or cocktail weenies bound for the nations' capital to feed the beltway idiots. Imagine what would happen at wapo if the supply were distrupted. The resulting chaos would be unimaginable, imagine a day without pundits people!!1!! (quietly rolls into a fetal ball, sucking his thumb, shivering)
OK, I posted my weepy 9/11 story on Facebook last night. I had to do it in order to counter the sixteen zillion "turn your profile picture into the flag to show the world we are one nation under G.O.D." messages I received. (What does G.O.D. stand for, btw?) If you ask me, 9/11 is about the people who died: they should be remembered forever. The national response: wars, crackdown on freedom, etc – is a national disgrace and should be forgotten.
I plan to spend today splitting logs in preparation for the collapse of the electrical grids and to look presidential.
What does G.O.D. stand for, btw?
Grand Old Douchebag?
Grab Our Dicks
G(old standard) O(r) D(ie).
Gay Old Dude?
Good idea you have my vote.
I have to admit that I was thinking of organizing a candlelight reading of "My Pet Goat", however.
Does it have the requisite stare blankly and shit your pants moment at the end? WIthout that, it just doesn't have the same punch. And you could sell comemorative "old glory" depends to symbolize the regard for personal liberty we have shown in the aftermath.
And here's a moving video for all of you Wonketteers: a parrot that sings Finnish pop songs…
http://youtu.be/f5Y12feyQmk
That parrot is definitely the better dancer. THIS parrot, on the other hand, sings METAL.
That brought a tear to my eye. Or a floating cat hair, I can't remember which.
Um, that's insane, and awesome.
(I have a thing for Finland. My grandmother was Finnish.)
I'm wearing my "No More Osama Shirts" t-shirt and running the opening sequence of the movie Postal on a loop to honor this most sacred and holy of days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt_tv7t79WY
awesome, somehow I never heard of this film and now watching the whole thing!
This: http://www.gurukalehuru.com
Thank goodness. An inside-jobber post. Orley is that you?
You know, I've had enough of this. I'm going to report you know. Not only have you been a shameless self-promoted on somone-else's blog, but the truth bullshit is the cherry on top. Good bye.
I like crying eagles. And vodka. That is all.
I like Eagles crying vodka.
Weagles. Also, Veagles.
Dude, have have you ever had eagle soaked vodka? It's freakin awesome. And with tear-dipped glass rims, coated with salt, it is the taste of VENGEANCE. Sweet, lead filled vengeance.
Also, does anybody else think it is funny we just heard about the 'suicide' f-16 jet, flight 93 shoot down stories 10 years later, WTF took them so long?
Vaguely on topic: I was at the U of Minnesota football game yesterday when the U of M head coach had a massive seizure on the field with 20 seconds left to go, his team on the 10 yard line and its 4th and goal at the 9. The coach's wife is going crazy and is being physically restrained. the stadium is absolutely quiet. THEN a loud voice heard everywhere screams out "Let's all claps hands and pray" – which could have been pretty funny, except he actually meant it. My immediate thought was "this is one sick country."
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands…
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands…
I do believe, I do Believe- the Cowardly Lion or for Tinker Bell
"Let's all clasp hands and pretend we can do something about this, to make ourselves feel better."
Also, to drive the demons out.
Question: Was DoofusBoy planning to pray for a touchdown, or for the coach's recovery?
I saw a bumper sticker just two days ago that said, "Why worry? God is in control." That is one person I do not want anywhere near me on the road.
To properly commemorate this anniversary I had planned to read "The Pet Goat" out loud and then shove my head up my ass. However, at the last moment I find myself without the necessary energy, so I suppose I will simply ingest as many narcotics as I can lay my hands on, in the not unreasonable hope of spending the next twelve hours in a pleasant stupor.
Fortunately, this house has no TV, so we will be spending the day cooking and eating large quantities of delicious tasty pig ribs accompanied by roast potatoes and sauteed greens. Also, hiking. Far from the madding crowd.
delicious tasty pig ribs accompanied by roast potatoes and sauteed greens.
And you didn't invite us??? Oh I am hurt …
C'mon over, sugarbuns. Felines always welcome at La Casa de Los Gatos.
Instead of doing anything fun today, I'm dealing with sick children. The youngest spent yesterday puking and shitting. He got better just in time for the 4yo to start with the vomit. Poor thing has been reduced to just bile – "I don't like being sick." No baby – it's no fun at all …
No TV? You must be French to be so anti Amerikkkan.
Nuh-uh, dood. Haven't really had one since 1996. Actually, since 1975, although I got one when I was juggling a full courseload in school AND holding down three jobs. I would turn it on at night when I finally got home, just to hear voices around the house.
And for watching the sci-fi channel.
I knew we were kindred spirits I actually have a (ancient) teevee but haven't turned it on since they went to the newfangled HD thingy…got the special antenny for it and the picture still sucked so I just said the hell with it and haven't missed it a bit…and I'm proud to say I have NEVER EVER subscribed to cable teevee, also too (thank gawd for Hulu so I can watch Family guy, Simpsons and Jon Stewart/ Stephen Colbert!)
HA! Thank TPTB for Hulu and streaming and YouTube.
Doodz – it's still more than three-hundred-something days until the next Burning Man; why is everyone stressing out?
Meanwhile, Fred Hiatt at The War Criminal Post thinks everything is just awesome.
(Link is to a blog post about the editorial, because fuck TWCP.)
~
Thanks for the warning. Today of all days should Fred-Hiatt-free.
Fred Hiatt can suck Dick Cheney's dick. That is all.
The Waaah!mbulance Cunty Post?
Today, I shall honor the dead by not offering forced, saccharine eulogies or using them to justify the unjustifiable.
Or going on and on and on about the (terrible and tragic, yes) deaths of thousands of people I didn't know as though they were my closest friends and relatives, or by acting as though I somehow share the same pain as the people who actually DID lose family and friends in the attacks, since we live 928387498327498723894753289475 miles away but in the same country.
Can we at least burn W in effigy a little?
But but but, he KEPT US SAFE!!!
I don't think keeping us safe from rational thought and sanity counts.
Hell, just burn the shithead in houston, effigy sounds like some shitty little town you wouldn't catch Dubya in.
Based on the drought restrictions right now, that probably wouldn't be allowed.
Based on all the fires right now, it might not be noticed, either.
Touche.
I plan to take a newspaper photo of him out into the garden and shit all over it. That will be my commemoration of *his* part in the national disaster.
That's funny, I already pissed on a photo of GW from some news rag this morning, as I was cleaning up after a small gathering in my back yard. I was intoxicated with that "feeling of power" as I aimed Big Bertha to the spot right between his vacant eyes. Ya know the eyes are the window to the soul, and man o' man, I drank a couple of leftover beers just so I could pee again and again. The upside is I was able to get drunk earlier than usual, and celebrate……wait…..what was I doing?
I would've done the same thing, dood, but I'm all pissed out. A nice-hippy-girl friend who is the most peace-'n-love-vibin' crittur you ever did see used to scratch his face out of every newspaper and magazine that came through her hands. She couldn't stand his beady-eyed ratlike expression, she said. Never got busted for it, thank goodness.
Bless you, Guppy. Well said.
It is rather depressing to watch the famlies reading the names and recall the clusterfuckery that's been said and done in their names since. Thanks Barry for making fish food out of Osama, now bring the troops home.
We did have a service today and it was mentioned that it is wrong that those who died have been used for political purposes.
Fuck you George and Dick for paying more attention to your stupid missile defense system than to the actual threat of terrorism. And for your idiotic obsession with Iraq. Your incompetence has resulted in countless lives being needlessly wasted.
And fuck you Karl Rove – you could have harnessed the good will and "rally round the flag" feeling of the American people. But you had no idea how to do that – you could only win elections through fear and divisiveness. You took the spirit of the American people and shit all over it.
OK – I got that out of my system. Back to your football or drinking or hoity-toity reading you elitists do.
Thanks for including Rove. Bush's Goebbels.
11 September was my mom's birthday. She had one birthday after that before she died of stomach cancer, which is a fucking awful way to go. So thanks, bin Laden, for fucking up my mom's birthday, and thanks Bush administration for fucking up our country. At least Mom didn't have to watch Iraq go down.
My sympathies.
fuck, 4TheTrunsiles, that sucks. I'm really sorry. For all that is in your fabulous rant.
This day must be hard for you. I'm sorry. Wish I could hand you a platter of baby back ribs, but good wishes will have to suffice.
So sorry for your loss, Turnstiles.
We wouldn't be in this mess if we'd gone with the Chilean model.
It's Mark Sanford's fault. He prefered the leggy Argentinian news reporter.
Fuck it, I'm going to 7-11.
Man, I went to CVS yesterday to pick up my 9/11 cards, and Hallmark has some of the cutest ones you can imagine. So clever!
I know, right?
The one that says, "My father died in a useless war and all I got was this stupid flag" is my favorite.
I like the one with the picture of Ziggy and he's saying, "No Jews died on 9/11."
The masturbatory quality of the internet and TV coverage is nothing short of embarrassing. Demand an end to 9/11 porn. This thing has the potential of growing into a veritable Cecil B. DeMille shlock spectacle if it's allowed to grow unchecked.
Watching the media in the US go over and over the same ground again and again, is like being married and hearing about how I didn't want to go her mother's house every weekend again and again. One got dumped the other turned off.
OK, I get that something is happening. But I didn't get the bingo card/drinking card/etc. What are the rules? Do I have to appear in person at the bar to get the WalMart Card? Do I have to do the wet tshirt thing? RULES, peepS!!! Civilization dependz on it!!1! 9/11 nwevha forgetz!!!!
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. For you, it's ALWAYS a wet tshirt contest, gal.
I like the H.L. on MSNBC: "Our Pearl Harbor"
I guess Pearl Harbor belonged to those foreigners on Hawaii????
Well, it wasn't a state at the time. If someone bombed Guam, what would we say now?
I suspect though that he means "Our Exploitable Event" of this generation.
If it wasn't a state then how can Obama be president? I'm calling Orly!!!!
Statehood 1959. So, that young pup of a president is perfectly safe.
Hawaiian statehood: part of the plot!!!
So Eisenhower is to blame? This conspiracy goes right to the top!
Our = this generation was probably what they meant.
The video of angry dog Candy is a metaphor for the relationship between the general population and corporations. We keep petting and petting…saying good puppy, yet the fucker still threatens to bite us.
Threatens to bite us? I am thinking every time I see a bank of America or JP Morgan Chase branch I am being bit. When I see the cell phone industry allowed to consolidate into three mega players I am being bit. My wallet is tattered from the corporations biting it and my ass over and over again,
My bad…should be petting the dog to get it to stop biting us.
Petting, hell; we're feeding Rover prime fucking rib and he's still humping our legs and biting our ass.
This is what I think of… Good doggies!
Threatens? Excuse me, could you hand me that ass on the floor next to you? Yeah, that one. It's what that motherfucker done chewed off my hind end already.
Threatened indeed!
But unlike angry dog Candy the general population doesn't have the option of taking the little bitch out to the vet for a shot of blue juice and have done with it. Our angry dog Candy is special, she has the same right as any other citizen, and several priveleges many of us could only dream of.
Well, you know…folks are always claiming that dogs are just like people.
I'd with everybody a Happy September 11, but it's probably too soon.
Ugggg. I am SO EFFING SICK of people who do not live in DC or NYC, who never have, who do not know anyone who was killed at the Pentagon, the towers or flight 93, who are not in the military and do not know people in the military posting long things on facebook about "I remember exactly where I was that day and here's what *I* felt and I will never forget how bad that day was!"
Yeah, it sucked – for the people who died or knew people who died or who were deployed afterwards. For people who didn't know anyone, who didn't live in those towns, it's a sad thing but so are tons of other attacks/bombs/gunmen every day. It was a sad and tragic thing, and I can't imagine what it felt like for the people who were working in those buildings or knew people who were – but frankly, if you have no connection to the attacks other than living in the US, then I just don't care to hear your whining about what a tragedy it was in your life. It trivializes it for the people who actually were affected more closely. So shut up.
Sorry, just had to get that out.
Please refrain from such logical, unemotional, reasoned postings in the future. They violate the Wonkette ethos of applying Ruthless Snark to anything and everyone, up to some invisible, wholly subjective line when the personal sensibilities/sensitivities of a member of the Wonkerratti are violated . . . and which point the Moral Outrage kicks in and the ad hominem attacks start.
You know, the moments I live for?
HAPPY NINE/ELEVEN DAY!!!!!!!
[Oh, hello, Glamourdammerung. I didn't see you there . . . weeping and shredding that hankie.
Another rib?]
I am so sorry that I clearly hurt your feelings so badly by pointing out that mocking a murdered child is a scumbag move. Maybe you need to make yet another account and have a crying jag about it?
"Scumbag," AGAIN?
Gesh.
Must be tough going through life with such a limited vocabulary.
On top of the hormone problems, violent mood swings, and monomania (i.e., thinking that moi, or anyone else, values your views. On anything).
Or that anyone, even a Crazy named "Spanky" — or perhaps more accurately, your imaginary friend of the same label — would find you worth "stalking."
Good luck with the therapy! Just take the drugs, and submit to the electroshock, and "Spanky" will bother you no more.
Doctor guarantees it!
Neilist
Wonkette's Freud & Firearms Desk
"Sometimes a cigar actually is a concealed pen gun!"
For someone that gloats about what an asshole they are, you are sure protesting me calling you on your behavior an awful lot.
I'm glad you got that out. It's what I call Cheerleader Thinking. Something tragic happens and the cheerleaders have to stuff Styrofoam cups into some nearby chain link fence to spell out the name of the person who got drunk and drove off the road into an oak tree or something. Fucking drama queens!
yes.
I worked in Virginia and when we were sent home on 9/11, we were turned back from my usual drive home because we would be too close to the Pentagon. From my office, we could see the smoke from the Pentagon for a long time after that. But even living here near DC, I don't feel like it was a personal tragedy for me- frightening that day-yes. Since the time, I think it is stupid when people(not from here) who tell me it is dangerous to live in DC or go to NYC or fly- because of 9/11. It is dangerous to drive 95 or the Beltway or be around people who can carry guns freely(I no longer work in VA)- so I figure some truck is going to get me on 95- not a terrorist.
No kidding, it sickened me then when they were all willing to "take a bullet "for the USA and had those vile" support the troops ribbons" , while those of us in NYC were still in fucking shock. I was in the first show to open on Broadway after 9/11 and it was a fucking comedy!!
For people who were there or had family there, etc – that's horrible, and I hope you all were able to grieve and process (sounds like the comedy was a great start).
Personally, the shooting in Norway recently and the guy who tried to take a liquid bomb on a plane in London affected my life as much as the 9/11 attacks did (they're all tragedies, but I wasn't personally impacted by any of them, other than new Homeland Security stuff). And the vast majority of Americans are like me in that respect – plus the vast majority live in Bumblefuck, and while places like LA, San Fran, maybe Orlando (because of Disney World) could be targets, Bumblefuck likely never will be. I can't see any of the people so removed from the attacks but going on and on and on about how the attacks impacted their lives doing the same thing for the Norway shooting, and it pisses me off. It gives the terrorists what they want (people hiding in fear) and it trivializes the actual pain and memorials for people who died, etc. Not to mention – this was a tragedy because thousands of people died, many more were injured, and people grieved. It's not about you!!! Sorry, I've just been sick of 99% of the hoopla since last week.
We also lived in NY (Westchester). We went to a Broadway show after 9/11, and it was the first time we laughed in two weeks.
Just wanted to say thanks.
What show was it??
I think it was "Blue." It had a black cast and featured Phylicia Rashad as the ex-wife of a jazz singer whose albums always had the word blue in them. We had a subscription to Roundabout that made us get up off our asses and go into the city.
Good thing that "Cabaret" wasn't the show we saw! I cried my eyes out, and will love Alan Cumming forever. (I remember first noticing him in England, when he was in a sit-com about an airline, Air Caledonia, I think.)
Ooh, where in Westchester? I grew up in Larchmont! I was actually a high school senior back then, though
We lived in Chappaqua.
I was teaching middle school at Briarcliff Manor. We had to stay at school that day with the kids. They had to be picked up by a parent or guardian, as we didn't want them to take a bus home to an empty house. Fortunately, none of our students lost parents that day, although some of the teachers lost spouses.
My husband had first day of rehearsal for a comedy Off Broadway. We all did what we had to do. I just want it all to stop.
It's different for people whose brains are wired for fear and martyrdom.
It's a giant fucking MEfest, isn't it? I'll bet not one of the serial masturbators giving us the bukkake treatment did squat about the Republicans threatening to cut off all aid to 9/11 first responders.
I dunno, I certainly see your point, but isn't an empathetic reaction to a horrifying event pretty much a hardwired response in humans? And isn't feeling a connection to others' hardships at least part of why many of us are liberals? Obviously, it can be taken too far, and is open to exploitation, and as we've all seen, can lead to mawkishness and kitsch–but I'm also sympathetic to the idea that a relative outsider can be emotionally engaged with, and even traumatized by, events that do not directly involve them. It's the motivation that's at the heart of my favorite Onion story to come out of 9/11.
I also feel entirely justified in sobbing when the two shuttles crashed, despite the lack of any connection to NASA.
I just see a big difference between, "Oh my gosh, this was horrible and I'm so sorry for all the people who tragically lost people in this attack; I'm crying because it's a sad and scary day and I hope those who were lost are never forgotten" and "Oh my gosh, this day was so horrible for me! Granted, I didn't know anyone, or live there, but I watched the attack on TV and that was just so horrible for me and I will never forget how I felt on that day watching it on TV!"
Well, in that case, I guess I misread you, and, yep, you're right.
By the way, I think it's worth pointing out that it's NEVER all about me. It's all about Sarah Palin.
You're fine – I very well may have lost my point somewhere in my irritated rant, and didn't want it to come across that I didn't think people had a right to be sad or empathetic.
And yes – I'm SURE this all Palin's fault, somehow. Definitely with you on that one.
You know, it's one thing to feel others' pain deeply, and empathize with their loss. We all, I'm sure, felt the pain of the tsunami that took so many lives in Asia. And certainly, the outpouring of concern over Fukushima renewed my sliver of faith in humanity. But this 9/11 crap is completely off base. A terrible thing happened that day, and for a little while, all eyes were turned on us, brimming with sympathy.
And then a bunch of sick fucks took it over with their "kick ass NOW" bullshit and their fake flags and crosses, and we're no longer permitted to commemorate those tragic events with any dignity or privacy, it's turned into a flag-wavin', ass-kickin', war-glorifyin', beatoffopia with chesty pudwhackers and tearful suits telling us how we felt and what really happened and basically commercially packagin the whole experience.
And I just can't take that shit anymore. I want to be left to remember my shock and horror, the ensuing tense hours, the sad loss of so many lives, the weeks of every nation in the world mourning with us, the young Iranians who placed lit candles all around our Embassy, the Lebanese and Russian and English and Indian kids all saying, "Today we are all Americans."
I don't want the televised version of events. I've got my own memory to live with.
I remember feeling kind of good about seeing people flying the flag in the first couple days after the attack. We were All In This Together.
And then the flags started getting bigger; eventually I saw a pickup driving around with two flags that were about the size you'd see over a high school, and I knew that the Moment of Unity was gone. It had become a dick-measuring contest.
And now it's even one USAmurka flag and one Confederate flag, sometimes. When did the Confederate flag get to be all patriotic and stuff? Isn't secession the very bone and sinew of treasonous behaviour?
Basically, I live close enough that I had some friends who were connected with it (I had a friend at Stuy back then, for example, and my estranged dad had some former coworkers who had still worked in the towers), but far still enough that I didn't have any personal connections, and by sheer fortune, pretty much everyone I knew as far out as second-order friends and their families were almost entirely not there. There were a bunch of fortuitous missed trains and sick days floating around.
So, yeah, that sort of thing bugs me. Because I feel kinda guilty for discussing it at all, like it's not even fair for me to have that conversation, and then you have the people out in Real 'Merika who paste 9/11 crap on their cars and shit. It's a shitty, disrespectful way to be, and I think Krugman has the meat of it: it's because of those assholes who hastened to turn a very personal tragedy for the New York and DC metro areas into a wedge issue, to the point where you have dipshits like Herman Cain recording 9/11 porn and telling me not to forget. Fuck him.
Wow, okay, that turned into a rant at the end, but the main point is, i agree.
Yes, THIS. The tendency to give a damn is good; the inevitable exploitation of it is perverse.
I am not sure which part I find more strange, the same cretins that cry about how awful NYC is also crying about an attack there as though they were personally there or the marketing of grief and trauma.
I'm looking out my window at the new building going up shrouded in clouds. I've got some problems because of the dust in my chest and I do remember where I was that morning. I was trying to find my sons and I did thankfully though we all lost people. Personally I hate all this. I stayed in all day and off the TV and computer. I cleaned up some piles of clutter around the apartment and feel good about that. I don't want this to be some kind of holiday. It took fucking years for me to stop feeling nervous when the weather changes or a plane is in the wrong part of the sky. And nothing pisses me off more than some fuckwit who wants to use that day to make some shallow teatarded point about anything at all.
See 9/11 is such a big deal because it's like Easter. The bumble-fuck George W Bush who ignored the memo ("Bin Laden determined to strike US…") was killed in the blasts, and emerged from the rubble as the "He kept us safe!" George W Bush.
Oh, god, I just want to shit on his face for a thousand years. Miserable bastard. How dare he show his face, on this day of all days?
Imagine if it hadn't happened: Dubya would have floundered for one term and people would have had enough of it and sent him back to Tejas, a one termer like his daddy. We would have had Hillz for a president on the next go round, at which point the housing boom would have gone to shit and we would have Mittens running and probably taking it. The whole "tea party" astroturfing bit would never had happened and Barry would be eyeing up the big run in 2016. But no, we had the magic of Dubya and Walnuts brought forth Snowbilly Grifter, and Dick Armey and the money people ginned up the teabaggers and here we are. To recap: Hey GEORGE! YEAH! YOU! FUCK YOU AND YOUR MOTHER BIG GUY!!!
Dubya’s just like Jeebus. Praise Him.
terror Terror TERROR!!!
The evildoers wanted us to be very afraid, and we were. They wanted us to be so crazed with fear and vengeance that we would cause more damage in our response than they did in their attacks. And we did. They were unable to tear our house down from outside, so we tore it down from within. We gave Osama bin Laden everything he wanted. Every time we use those attacks from 10 years ago as an excuse to live in fear and lash out in anger, we are giving him more.
So let's take it back. Let's do the patriotic thing and tell those fuckers to go to hell. Let's do the patriotic thing and not be afraid. Let us think of happy things.
i thought we were supposed to go shopping.
…and take off our shoes at the airport, and submit to the latest security theater.
You mean let's pretend the teabaggers haven't made government even more dysfunctional. Sounds good!
No, feel free to blame anything you want to on them.
I'm goin' hiking.
That's enough to make my gimpy ass happy.
Anybody else here try hiking with a fake knee? What's the longest hike you can manage? I used to do 10+ miles every weekend, and that was tiring but good.
I was in charge of a secondary highway that skirts the eastern edge of Death Valley at the time. Word came down from headquarters that there had been a "credible threat" that this route was gonna be targeted because of it's use by the nuke waste industry, so my job for the day was to inspect all the bridges and culverts, looking for 'splosives. Sure, I'll get right on that.
At the school district where I worked, we had a special in-service day where we were taught to recognize bombs while we inspected the classrooms after the threat had been called in…even to the point of walking into a room backward so we can see the whole picture at once. Nobody…not even the trainer knew what the point of this was. Fuck that noise…I'll be outside keeping the kids calm while actual professionals do the snooping.
Later (and this is kind of embarrassing) at a different school district, some brain trust in the main office came up with this brilliant plan should some teacher be faced by a hostage crises. Each of us were given two large laminated cards. One red and one green. Now here's the genius part. Should I find myself in a hostage situation, I would slide the green card under the door totally fooling the hostage taking, america-hating malefactor.
With smarts like that, I'm surprised it took us so long to find OBL.
Years ago I used to love to go out that way in the Spring.
The only thing that's changed is improvements in the hot springs…
I owe myself a drive out West this Winter/Spring to see my sisters.
This whole decade happened. All the bullshit and awful fuckwit crap the "conservatives" got away with. After all that shit, Republicans have manipulated a complete clusterfuck in to how strong they are on National Security. Fast forward ten short years; we have Birch-nut teabagging wingnuts in Congress and two extremist theocrats running for POTUS. The media is taking them seriously. I think I'm starting to see the problem. We're damaged as a people. We were never really allowed to know the truth, and place the blame and get really angry. Instead, we spend our time blaming "them", pitting our fellow citizens against one another, instead of having an honest, national conversation about our values. If Obama gets another term, it's time to look back. With eyes wide open.
Theoretically, I agree. But I believe too many Americans are totally incapable of honesty and/or complex thought for it to be successful. Seriously, do you know how many people watch The Bachelor and think it's REAL? It might be good to start by asking the media to explore their role in what HarryButtle called "terror porn," but they probably made money from this wallowfest so I doubt they'd play.
I think I was masturbating…..
So, how many more weeks of winter do we get if Cheney sees his shadow today?
I'd rather hear if he sees his reflection in the mirror.
That's nothing compared to the nuclear winter we'd get if he heard his heart ticking.
Depends on how fast you get that stake through his heart.
Hell, how many more weeks of life does he get if Cheney, himself, sees his own shadow?
Will the kiddies be trick-or-treating tonight?
#2 & 3 remind of Carly Fiorina sheep ad
This six pack of Oktoberfest will come in handy today as I drink to cope with the endless tributes, replays, and analysis on every damn network today. I am of course talking about football. What else would I be referring to? I'll never forget where I was the day they announced Peyton Manning had another neck surgery. Where were you that day (I think it was Thursday)? Please, share your stories with me.
I was having lunch at a sub sandwich shop near work. Great turkey salad with a low cal, yet delicious dressing. The tomatoes were chopped up, just as I like them. ESPN was on one of the two screens. I was trying to get some spinach from out between two of my teeth when the announcement came across the crawl on the bottom of the screen. "Oh, shit!" I said, realizing I needed a toothpick…
I like the Verizon commercial with Josh Groban singing "The Prayer" as the kids run around near the Statue of Liberty. I don't know the woman who is singing with him. Her voice isn't as strong as Charlotte Church's. Thank GOD, it's not Celine Dion.
I have no doubt you'd hear plenty of conversations just like that in Pittsburgh today. "How could God DO this to us?"
I was watching the Kia Soul commercial with hip-hop hamsters. Who needs football?
here is my favorite 9/11 story today, drunk elk in sweden.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14842999
Oh, gawd. And then I clicked ANOTHER link on that site to read some bizarre story about how some Swedish guy was being questioned in his wife's murder, until the forensic evidence showed a drunken elk did it.
So, what, Sweden has, like, serious problems with elks hitting the booze?
A Møøse once bit my sister …
Did it leave evidence?
Why did it bite her? Was she doing anything to it? Maybe trying to carve her initials in its hide with a sharpened toothbrush handle?
Paul Simon nailed "The Sound Of Silence."
Every man, black and white, over-the-hill or ancient, on ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown is insufferable.
That is all.
More so than usual?
… but your, *kicks dirt* Bears looked good.
Hey, Wonkette. Get a video of Bush reading Lincoln's letter. He mangled "Massachusetts" like someone four sheets to the wind.
Yeah, loser douchebag, you were too busy composing an ignorant rant against stem cell research to read your national security memos.
And W received a round of applause when he took the podium. Let me be the first to say, "Congratulations, President Perry!"
We're all f*cked.
Oh come one – he had it read to him.
"OK, you covered your ass. Now get out of here."
Never forget.
And now, we need that stem cell research to repair the brain and spinal cord injuries that W's useless and immoral war in Iraq caused some of our troops to suffer.
But we're not getting it. Science funding is one of those "discretionary spending" things, yaknow. The Republicans hate it, want to cut it, and nobody except the wonks and science geeks give enough of a shit to fight for it.
Meanwhile an even worse horror has occurred in NYC.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/new-york/woman-bit-ra...
Damn. The linkie reads in part "woman-bit-rat-…" and I got my hopes up…
Lizzie, I highly recommend Rats, my SIL lived two blocks from where the author did his observations.
Great book!
Sounds like a fun read! Thanks.
Back in 2001 work required me fly from NY to Los Angeles every week. The Terrorist under every airline seat meme never bothered me. Rats however turn me into a total big girl’s blouse. In my mind NY rats are the size of dogs with teeth like Chiclets. If anyone needs me I will be in bed quietly sobbing.
I think we were in Brooklyn and saw a big rat- on the opposite platform. It walked along and went under a door into a room(?) so maybe it lived there- I mean the woman was intruding into this rat's home!
Something is wrong with this story. I know rats.
Who let Cheney out and what was he doing in NY?
Paul Krugman was fantastic.
The Years of Shame
Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?
Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that odd.
What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.
If it wasn't for Paul Krugman, I think I would feel completely alienated from American intellectual and civil society.
There are few people who speak the truth as clearly, and with less pomposity and less personal self righteousness than that man. And certainly no one with his position of influence.
He has exactly the strength of conscience that is entirely lacking from the leadership of the Democratic party. The fact that he is treated as an outsider in this administration pretty much says it all.
That's the saddest thing about the whole event, that the nation took a most horrible crime all by itself, and used it to commit another crime. We lost so much in that day and the years that followed. A damned shame.
This cheered me up. Because I like it when somebody says something true.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/11/krugman-911...
I lift a glass to grouchy ol' Prof Krugman.
Bernie Kerik!!1! ROFL!!! (Except that you know he's in a biker bar somewhere plotting his comeback. Palin-Kerik 2016!!)
I thought he was in jail?
Jail.
Dear sweet Jesus, please deliver unto us a new friggin enemy! fer krise-sake.
I've chosen the Chamber of Commerce. Just because.
They are an enemy of the state.
Fucking ATl news interviewed a 16 year old ROTC girl who said she 'saw her momma cry and was kinda confused' on that hallowed day.
Seriously, I lost a soccer game when I was six, I had toys broken, cake stolen. where is my vigil!!!!
Freeeedumb for all!
My only celebration for 9/11 will be the day that Dubya is indicted in The Hague as a war criminal.
Don't forget Cheney-Voldermort. He needs his very own indictment, even if he did everything using his hand-puppet Dubya.
And yet, impeachment was off the table. W and Cheney had their enablers. Never forget.
Impeachment is a political remedy, not a criminal one. It would have "ended Bush's ability to serve," but he was stepping down in two years anyway. It would not have resulted in a recognition of his crimes against humanity and his acts against the state.
No, but it would have made the criminal prosecutions possible. While he was in power, he was protected. After impeachment, and especially after impeachment for the crimes he committed, he would have been toast. He was leaving in two years is no fucking excuse. We had the chance to do this ourselves and restore some sense of honor. Now, he's invited to 9/11 events like nothing happened. There would be no "Miss me yet?" billboards. He would have ZERO secret service protection, pensions, the list goes on and on. Now, he and Cheney are being cleansed, just like Reagan was.
We've had this conversation around here before. Conviction in the Senate in an impeachment trial requires 67 votes. No way on God's green earth that was ever happening, as the conservatives in the Senate (including some Dems) would have voted against. Hell, so many of them didn't lift a finger to stop some of Bush's policies that they were in effect co-conspirators. So it would have been a lot of sturm und drang that would have resulted in acquittal, followed by a lot of crowing by Bush and his supporters, and just in time for the '08 elections.
Criminal prosecution was and remains possible. It's completely independent of impeachment proceedings. The House initiates such proceedings and the Senate prosecutes. Nancy had the House, but IIRC, the Senate still had a Republican majority. Would they have prosecuted? What would it have cost, in terms of needed legislative fights on *other* issues, and $$? The entire DoJ had been corrupted by that point. You're assuming that a fight for impeachment would have been winnable. I'm not so sure.
A wonderful day to clap hands together and remember that terrorists are people, too, my friend.
Happy 9-11 Day, everyone! That's going to be my new refrain. Enough of the terror porn and endless reminiscing, if the message is now supposed to be about hope and rebuilding, let's make it so.
Nah, just kidding. How I really feel? I am sick in my heart that our government turned this tragedy into an opportunity to destroy America from within. For that reason, I mourn this day.
9 -holes of golf
11-beers
Rinse and repeat
USA!!
We had our moment of rememberance this morn.
Now Mrs. weejee & I are off a picnic for a belated 1st birthday for granddaughter Kennedy. Had to be rescheduled to coincide with good days for her mom who is on heavy chemo. We hope to keep the national 9/11 & the "C" word in my pocket.
Hope the 'C' leaves your daughter quickly and for good. And that your granddaughter grows up in a better America.
Good thoughts to all of you. And happy birthday, Kennedy.
So sorry to hear about your granddaughter's mother. A very happy birthday to the little one, and a pleasant picnic to you.
My facebook page is like a 9/11 porn/exploitation extravaganza. It's so depressing, where are all these patriots when protesters are needed or volunteers and i know half of them don't even freaking vote. Then the few right wingers i have flood the page with pics of eagles, the twin towers or the Flag or any combination of those things. I wish i could tell them all to fuck off but i am so non confrontational. Is it so bad to want to forget the misery of that day?
No. Especially not if you were in Brooklyn then.
Is "unfriending" confrontational?
No, but you need to set some boundaries here to protect yourself. Give yourself a 24-hr break from the InnerToobz except for those sites that will NOT push this crap in your face (you know, ICHC, Wonketz, Sadly, No, etc.). Moratorium on papers, news, tv, radio. Play some music, grab your partner, spend a couple of hours doing the horizontal samba. Drink a little wine, make (or buy) a little barbeque, go for a walk in the park with friends, watch a bad or silly movie. Above all, don't let the bastards grind you down.
If air travelers have to remove their shoes after the 'shoe bomber' shouldn't they have to remove their underwear after the 'underwear bomber'?
Don't give them any ideas!
When I put my shoes on the little belt, I tell the closest TSA agent to make sure Mr. Reed gets another dozen lashes today. The intelligent agents grin. The stupid ones make me think we haven't learned anything.
Yes. Take off that wired bra.
Paraphrasing the great elpinche, "fuck 9/11, let's dance. "
Woo woo woo, party like a virus!!
The corrosive destruction of what we had thought were the rights of Amerikkkans to do things like speak freely without fear of persecution, assemble with others of like mind, petition the government and be free from unlawful searches and eavesdropping by the government is much worse than the death and destruction of 9/11.
Forget 9/11.
PBS Newshour had a segment Friday about security at the Mall of America and how ordinary Americans were interrogated for: acting nervous, writing in a notebook, and leaving a cellphone behind in a restaurant. From PBS:
This Tuesday FRONTLINE will air an encore presentation of Are We Safer?, which looks at the post-9/11 terrorism-industrial complex and its growing reach into the lives of ordinary Americans.
I feel safer from al Qaeda but not safer from our government.
Salon published an article about the situation at Mall of America. It's definitely worth reading, although I'd suggest saving it for another day, except for those who normally treat their depression with self-flagellation. The situation is a cautionary tale (as if we needed another one) for making private companies arms of the state.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/feature/2011/0...
(in a determinedly bright and cheery tone) Well! I suppose *that's* one little story *we* won't be reading today, *will* we?
(exits singing, We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!)
"Alright, you've covered your ass. Now get out of here." George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas, early August, 2001, as he handed back to his CIA Briefer the Presidential Daily Briefing T-Blow refers to, so never forget.
is it just me or is anyone else offended by the gratuitous use of "Falling Man" and attempts to make the photographer some noble photojournalist, and not just a "snuff filmer" a la the endless reruns of falling towers, crashing planes etc? It's like we are supposed to only appreciate tragedy if we have to relive every horror; as if we couldn't remember Pearl Harbor as well since we don't have video of drowning sailors and Japanese plane bombing runs etc.
Yes.
All of them Katie
Oh, I'm sorry, was that not appropriate for this post.
maybe it should just go away too, for America, AND the troops!11
Good point Suds. One thing that could this 9/11 Extravaganza worse would be the Übergrifter piping in.
Now why'd ya go and invoke that…
for the Horror, … the Horror
This morning, the knuckleheads at the fire department had all their trucks out, lights blazing, causing a mile of traffic, and people thinking another disaster or flood hit us. If you're religious, say a prayer for them, or just hope they're in a better place. It's just one day to show a little respect or just ignore it, not make a buck, feel sorry for yourself, or think you're fantastic because you happen to born an American.
How dare you deny excepshunalism?!?1?
Our firefighters were classy, and just tapped into the public soft spot a little at a traffic stop to solicit donations to the MDA on Sept. 9.
The hottest firefighter (and I mean male-stripper hot) I have ever seen took my donation. Hmmm…maybe they DID hire special guys "for the kids!"
In 1959 the Chicago White Sox won their first pennant in 40 years, and the original Mayor Daley ordered the air raid sirens to be played in celebration. It being then the dark days of the CONELRAD Cold War, everyone was scared shitless that it was Rooskie Bear bomber attack.
Some things never change. When government wants people to behave, it keeps them scared.
I gave my cat a bath today. 9/11/11 Neverrrr Forrrrget!
If your kitteh is anything like mine, I'm betting you'll never forget, neither.
I called my family, just to make sure everything was "OK".
A lot of people say you shouldn't give a cat a bath, because the cats don't like it, but it was fine, he enjoyed it, and I had fun, too. Sure, the fur would stick to my tongue, but…
–Steve Martin
I have to admit that I really, really, really like Steve Martin, most times.
in my own smartass way, I was ready to tell all my workmates about the B-25 bomber hitting the Empire State Building in the 1940s, then I saw the second airliner…
Well, at least – if we're going to wallow in a permanent apocalypse – it will have popcorn?
http://vimeo.com/25474499
Still too soon?
http://youtu.be/1SPWgodul_E
Hilarious.
ZOMG! I wish I could hijack the TV station signal and beam this on the air instead.
Should I be ashamed of laughing so loud I woke the cats?
It borders on cruelty to make Bush go from site to site reliving his worst failure.
Not cruel enough.
The NFL's second regular season week in 2001 would have been held on 16 September but was delayed until 6 January 2002. When the teams returned on 23 September, Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals was standing on the field, watching the jet fighters fly over and listening to people sing "God Bless America" and said to himself: What the fuck is the matter with these people? He quit the NFL and joined the Army, choosing to enlist rather than taking the officer training the Army would've happily put him in. He went to great lengths to avoid being used as a publicity tool.
We all know that worked out, and how
heroic generalDouche Bag First Class Stanley McChrystal knowingly lied in signing Tillman's Silver Star citation, when in fact Tillman hadn't died heroically but in a tragic and relatively common fuckup. What we don't know is this: of all these ferocious, healthy, aggressive young men in the NFL, why is it that only one chose to quit playing games and go fight for his country?Isn't patriotism expressed today by collecting greenbacks and adopting an "I've got mine" attitude, something NFL players do very well? I didn't see too many Green Bay Packers on protest lines with the Wisconsin union members. Or maybe signing autographs and making appearances at children's hospitals counts as supporting your fellow citizens. Oh, I forgot, Ben Roethlisberger buys police dogs for law enforcement.
Whatever good stuff they do, even if it’s for those NFL-sponsored United Way commercials just before halftime, is good stuff. There may be more of it than we know, and the givers are modest. Maybe more players did what Tillman did and came back safe and sound and if so, great. So let’s take a look:
http://militarytimes.com/blogs/afteraction/2010/1...
Oh. There are a few. Well, the NFL should tout this stuff on thei Web page, right?
http://www.profootballhof.com/history/general/war...
Guess they haven’t heard about our current wars.
This is depressing. Drinky time!
I thought Jessica Lynch won the war.
No, but she did become the patron saint of armorers and weapons maintenance.
Why did only one enlist: because they're pussies.
When there's a war, all sports, bars, shopping malls should be closed – taxes doubled. Wars will be short.
Bad dog! We're putting nictone patches on your ass.
I have been filling my day doing a long overdue electrical project at home. When I started to type in three way electrical switch in Google auto complete popped up after just three way was entered. I have two teenage boys in the house so at first I was scared to look. Nothing but wholesome, now I’m starting to worry that my boys have no imagination.
That's one possibility. Another is that they've figured out anonymous or "incognito" browsing.
did you search for a ménage à trois switch?
I've decided I'd rather commemorate the 9th anniversary of the First Anniversary of 9/11. Those were some good tv specials.
Is anybody watching the CBS special on at 8 eastern?
I think the lispy State Farm CEO changed his name from Russ to RUST cuz he has no chance of saying a double SS.
Also, does the WTC memorial remind anybody else of a terrifying abyss of doom, like this: http://www.fogonazos.es/2007/02/largest-drain-hol...
Jesus fuck, that image causes me no small amount of panic every time I see it, what lunatic designed that, and put it just off-limits from a public water recreation area?
Oh hai, enjoy your tubin ,' just don't get sucked into the demon hell-hole just beyond that thin wire warning sign.
Release the Kraken!
Yes, I attended church on this date, knowing I was going to get a huge helping of Jingoism, smothered in maudlin with a side of fuck Islam. The things you do to please a wife….I washed this all down at the local all-you-can-gorge buffet with two dinner plates of German Chocolate Cake a la mode; got to make a win out of this day somehow.
Yeah, and you're a helluva dancer, right ttommy?
I've never made that claim or intimated that I was, here, or anywhere else. Who have you been talking to?
Dottie.
She would know (about the dancing part, anyway).
I celebrated by doing futile engine work on my wife's car, followed by a trip to a local brewery. 9/11: Nevar Forget to join your local brewery's Mug Club. Drinking booze and being pissed off is the proper way to commemorate 911 day, isn't it? I didn't get chocolate cake, but I AM contemplating adding some dark rum to my ginger beer.
We are two wild and crazy guys…
"You just walk up to the girl and say "I break with thee, I break with thee, I break with thee." And then you throw dog poop on their shoes."
Must be the new thing I've heard about: Break Dancing!
Dark and Stormy! I'll have one.
I celebrated 911 through Capitalism and bought a 1100 W blender/food processor. The afternoon was just one bad alcoholic smoothie experiment after another.
I finally got it right and birthed a new cocktail, El Puto which is an amalgamation of mangos, orange juice, mucho mucho Flor de Caña rum and squeeze of lemon juice. Never firgit? …I'll be lucky to remember writing this shiznit.
I like your routine better.
As a cancer survivor, combat vet, first responder, the father of three little girls, and a litter of puppies who owns a small-business and knows someone, who knows someone, who was lost a decade ago, I've been crying all day. I wonder if El Puto will help.
Nothing helps. Sorry. Have the El Puto anyway.
All I know is that it tastes and feels good. I wish I could share a glass of El Puto with ya Radio. Here's something that'll do for now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw
(yeah, it's viral but I love it sooo much).
As I mentioned above, I love doggy style. My eight year old nephew watched that video and laughed to tears for two hours one night.
Viva El Puto.
I've had a mini for a couple of years now.Fun and easy to park here in NYC and cheap to run if expensive to fix. I just looked at the Miata and it was incredible to drive but no room for my big purse or little Iggy. I 'm looking at the Scion IQ to replace it. Or I might just get an old Lexus SC430 drive around for awhile.
Mini is on the short list, but I've never been a fan of fwd. Everything is up in the air though, as I'm getting pretty serious about Costa Rica. Might need something with some ground clearance down there.
No Mini for you then. It's tough to drive down 2nd Avenue. Ka thump ka thumpity thump. Thump. Oh shit, fucking pot hole.
To be fair, they need potholes big enough to drop the 2nd Ave subway line into. At least, that's the only explanation I can come up with.
I'm glad I will miss the 9/11 Centennial.
Of course it will be held in the New Amsterdam City State of the North American Union….
Or, in the United Tri-State Republic of the Northeast.
admission is 200 Ameros.
The hell? How'd this thing get over 400 posts in one day, especially on a Sunday when you all should have been outside? lol
BTW, I know a lot of folks get irreverent about 9/11 because of how some take over the event for kind of shallow or even nefarious gains, but everything I've seen today and the days before has been tastefully done. It seems like we might finally be getting better at this. I haven't seen any "USA! USA!" patriotic bullshit, or the "be very, very afraid bullshit" but a lot of quiet, personal interest stories that seem to focus on the point 9/11 happened to very real individual people and families first and foremost before it happened to the rest of us as a nation. I like that focus; I respect that focus for respescting us as adults.
On a political note, 9/11 now reminds me of how relieved I am that Dubya is gone, and we finally have begun to reclaiming some level of humility and self-reflection. A lot of people died very violently that day, and I don't feel ashamed or unsophisticated in admitting that I'm still profoundly very sad and deeply affected about it. If nothing else, it should reminded us for the eternal need for – the absolute requirement of – the love for humanity.
Never forget, indeed. Not for remaining militarily vigilent against "evil-doers", but for remaining vigilent against the waning of the recognition of the need for love, for the waning of the recognition of the need for peace.
Hate kills, the innocent and the otherwise; Never, never, never forget.
So long as we're on the subject… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM202BVLf78&fe...
To escape the continious fear-fest dedications on the sacred day, I came across the newest commodity that the fuckwits have to offer for "hate day". Now they are offering Mr. Bill plastic sock puppets in the form of Saddam Hussein & Osama Bin Laden, causing me to wonder. How low will America go to get that last dollar out of my pocket?
Short Co-worker rant…
She went to a seafood festival yesterday – a fine sunny Sunday activity.
She and her husband tried everything – a good idea. I would have done the same if I liked seafood.
She said the festival was awesome. They had skydivers trailing American flags – what?
…and a band that played "a surprising range of music like Proud to be an American and God Bless America" – what the fucking fuck??
Maybe I'm an old fuddy, but 911 should not be celebrated like it was the fucking 4th of July.
Damn, Crank, ANYthing is good with melted butter. Besides, I thought Chris Chrispy had already eated everything in NJ that wasn't nailed (or cemented) down.
Too late to nip it in the bud, then.
Eisenhower was also a closet Nazi, since he modeled the Interstate Highway System on the Autobahn. Really, we should be calling those fascist government roads what they are: Hitler Highways.
A couple of related nonfiction book recommendations: John Dower's 1999 Pulitzer winner Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, which is one of the best discussions of the end and aftermath of the Pacific war ever, and the same author's Cultures of War: Peal Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq, which examines the rhetoric, groupthink, and failures of honesty surrounding all of those events. For instance, while it's easy to see how 9/11 felt like Pearl Harbor, the better parallel is Pearl Harbor as a precursor to the Iraq invasion–both operations that were tactically effective but "strategically imbecilic," based on massively wishful thinking about the likelihood of success.
Of the two, Embracing Defeat is the more solidly-written as history, but Cultures of War is well worth the time it takes to follow all the twists and turns of Dower's sometimes-digressive analysis.
Both are series that were on HBO. But you're in luck…
The Pacific is based on real life and two books: "Helmet for my Pillow," (a journalistic and frank account of the Pacific theater), and "With the Old Breed," (an elegant, more diplomatic but still painful account).
No matter what the three actors this is based on do in the future, they will always be Leckie, Basilone, and Sledge to me.
Hmm, I think I have all your Dad's books. I'm reading about hoarding and Ari Onassis.
Ain't too late to nip nuthin' else in the bud, though. (blows stream of smoke)
Supposed to be in the form of a question…
COON??? sounds like a dog whistle to me. *rimshot* must be what that Santorum fella was talkin' about. man on horse, coon on dog, white on rice.
poor Snoopy. we better fire up the ol' Sopwith Camel.
Thank you. Both sound excellent. I'm currently reading the history of Southeast Asia and the VN "war-that-wasn't," but one of the books included is Short's In Pursuit of Mountain Rats, which deals with the period of the Malayan Emergency. I put it on hold to catch up with the history of the rest of the region, and Embracing Defeat will be a nice, painless segue into the post-WWII Southeast Asian picture. I could also get Cultures of War right now and stick it on the shelf next to the stack of books on Iraq and the Middle East, which is scheduled for next year's reading.
Yes, I am anal-retentive. However did you guess?
I was using my Rick Santorum voice for that, too.
We'd better hurry, or that raccoon will reduce Snoopy to a Sopping Camel.
One of the surprising things I learned from Cultures of War: After the Japanese surrender, the Allies kept a LOT of surrendered Japanese soldiers armed and "on police duty" until 1946, even 1947, to prevent nationalist uprisings across the former Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, notably in Indonesia. In China, Japanese generals and tens of thousands of their men were recruited to fight Mao's revolution; some also joined up with Mao's forces and "on a number of occasions 'post surrender' Japanese pawns found themselves fighting each other in China's internecine bloodbath." As many as 60,000 Japanese were still in Manchuria when Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949.
Another reason to like Dower: He really really detested Bush for suggesting that Embracing Defeat implied that post-invasion Iraq could magically become a prosperous democracy just like Japan did. There's a strong element of "You know NOTHING of my work" in the sections where Dower discusses the Iraq occupation.
EDIT: Oooh, author lecture! http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/572
As I mentioned, I was a senior, and I had one of those awesome schedules where my first and last periods were empty, which means on an open campus like Mamaroneck HS, I could sleep in and come to school late. So, I pretty much made it into class right at 8:45, when the news was first starting to circulate. Instead of English class, we all watched TV.
Also, my math teacher taught the Second Fundamental Theorum of Integral Calculus in class that afternoon. I remember, because for the life of me, I could never remember what the Second Fundamental Theorum of Integral Calculus was at all, afterwards.
My daughter's birthday is 4/20, and she never thought a thing of it till we moved to CA.
Hella cool birthday!
Check out "China Marine" by E.B. Sledge of "The Pacific" fame.
His unit served in China after WWII.
( My 2 cents: the Alabama boy seems a little too comfortable with the brutal class system of China.)
The British specifically requested that the Japanese NOT surrender to the MPAJA (Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army) in Thailand, and actually helped the Dutch to keep Indonesia ground under. British "peacekeepers" rounded up Indonesian freedom fighters and gave military aid to the Dutch to recapture the "colonies," arrested some of the top people involved, assisted the French in keeping the Viet Minh out of power in VN. Thousands of Japanese joined up with the MPAJA and many went to China to aid in the war effort there. Meanwhile, the US Govt. was busy rescuing Japanese war criminals who had tortured, conducted medical experiments on, and killed American military personnel. Rescuing them and smuggling them back to Japan, then rehabilitating their reputations so they could go on to win high honours after the war.
Disclaimer: This is from my blog; it's a brief discussion of Unit 731.
Thank you. Duly noted. They'll have to go on next year's reading list, I guess.
I have only myself to blame. I keep wanting to read every book ever printed. I'll go to my grave with a dozen books clenched in my wizened, inky little hands, I swear.
You may not remember that Theorum thingy, but YOU can pronounce "Mamaroneck!"
From a theoretical standpoint prosecution was and remains possible. But anyone signing off on it (e.g. Barry) would be dead in a New York picosecond if they did. While it would be delightful to have Bush and Cheney and their fellow administration members in the clink permanently, it won't happen because there would be too much collateral damage in the defense and intelligence quarters. The reason these fuckers were as audacious as they were was because they knew that others had their backs all the way.
reductions usually take a while. it's important to stir frequently. it should be complete when the volume is halved due to evaporation.
Isn't it pronounced like you'd expect? MA-Moronic?
You saw the photograph?
Yes, but at least we'd add "war crimes" to the reasons for impeachment so "lying about a blow job" would not be the only reason on the list. I just don't like it when a guy like Hermann Goering is correct by saying the only reason he was tried was because Germany lost the war. That bugs me.
Sounds like you need to accept The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything
The trunk on a Big Chevy is like having your own portable Stor-It unit.
http://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2008/01/19...
My son named it The Millennium Falcon.It came with leaves in the engine and the exhaust system fell off the first time I took it for ride. NYC delivery vans got out of my way and I just drove anywhere the hell I wanted. Good times.
I'm sorry, I just had to stop in and haw-haw hysterically over the mad porpoise.
I did, there was a metermaid named Rita in the background.
Anybody know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall?
I'll bet that's what the kids call it!
Muh-MEHR-uh-neck, (but I'll defer to joe).
Ma, he's talking cooking to me! I cooked the pig ribs in cherry juice with cherry preserves, garlic, red chillies, and just a smidge of gula jawa and ginger. Falling-off-the-bone tender and a properly reduced de-fatted sauce both tart and sweet, so perfect with that sweet pig meat.
Gimme a pigfoot and a bottle of beer, dood. (urp)
Ah, yeah. I don't read for the reasons in the article, though. Reading is a compulsion with me, and it gets worse by the year. When I was little, I couldn't eat unless I was reading. When my parents took away my books, I read every label and piece of paper obsessively. I think I'm looking for something, and when I find it, a great sense of peace will descend upon me and I will give away all my books and live with naught but my bedroll and the clothes on my back. But then, another book comes along, and …
Good article. Thanks.
You poor lad! But was Ari Onassis a hoarder, or what?
Do I really need to know that? Oh, hell, go ahead, gratify my curiousity. I'll like you a lot if you do.
Actually, in a way yes he was. Just not bits of paper or ketchup packets more money and ships and shit like that.
i think i'm missing a rib. or i've got one extra. it's like finding half a pair of socks. what are you supposed to do with that?
who are these people?
Don't know, but do you happen to have Prince Albert in a can?
I'm sure someone here would love to tell you.
One of the Rockefellers (I forget which one) was reputed to count the chicken bones at dinner to ensure the servants had not eaten any. The acquisitive instinct that makes men wealthy displays itself in different ways, eh?
Good lord, fellow, use your imagination! The fate of MOST socks, at some point or another, is to mop up one's juices. Think of it as an example of some deity's bounty. You've got one more sock to go before you *have* to do the laundry.
Well that is true. Today I reduced the clutter in my fridge by taking the dead roasted mostly eaten chicken and putting it in the freezer to make soup with it later this year. And I was pretty rich until the euro thing the other day. Tomorrow is another day though.
I've got a few bullies from school, and a couple of ex girlfriends that I'd like to ruin their lives somehow.
May I? No I god damn well may not.
If that's the case, then the old Imperial trunk was a split-level ranch with attached garage. You can keep a Mini in there, in case the mother ship breaks dowm
so would drawing a face on the lone sock and naming it Quicker Picker-Upper be crossing a line?
i promise, though, no beard and flannel shirt. i'm not a lonely housefrau.
My Mom always used to say: "kids are so good when they're sick!"
(I hope YOU don't get it!)
And who knows what it may bring. I wish you well of your ventures. And just remember — a good chicken soup needs garlic, carrots, an onion, and *celery,* most importantly. The flavouring components of celery apparently enhance the taste of chicken most optimally.
Agreed.
Ah, you are one viz ze ladyparts! For you ve haff nice Japanese pillow to name. Also sock maybe not so useful for ze laydeez. Haff boyfriend? Donate sock! Problem solved!
I promise to leave you in the details.
Don't want to spoil anything for your daughter, but do you know who else had his birthday on 4/20?
Kids are so good when they're sick – at least she is. My little drama princess has been stoic about the vomiting … that's how I knew she was really feeling bad. Both of them are doing a lot better this morning and so far my wife and I have not come down with it. Although I'm so tired, I might just conk out. Enough whining – carry on!
I like to imagine hanging a Smart Car on davits in the trunk, for going-ashore parties.
One doesn't "park" cars like these. One docks them.
"why do you say you feel 'trapped' in a man's body?
"well. sometimes i get the menstrual cramps real hard."
OK, now I haz teh Confoozled. Are you a ladyparts or a boybits?
"i'm a boy, i'm a boy but my ma won't admit it."
i'm a dude. just not into acting like a tough guy all the time.
Go ahead. Draw a face on that sock. See if I care.
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