On a lighter note
My brother had saved a couple of cases of "Billy Beer"......I know some of you must remember that.
Well, it soon became apparent the stuff would have "collectable" value. So he stashes it away like some mint baseball cards with the intent of holding it until it's true day comes along (probably right about now would have been good).
At the time, we had a bar. He marries one of the bartenders he hired (based on her looks). Well she was, aside from being a general piece of shit anyway, also an alcoholic.
Eventually gets divorced, and moves. While packing he comes across his Billy Beer. She had drunk it all. Warm, stale, whatever happens to beer stored in a Long Island garage over several winters and summers.
I forgot about it til now. Maybe he kept the empties....(highly doubt it).
OK, now OFF the lighter note and onto the pissed off mode:
As to the comments from those that think 9/11 was NOT a big deal, or a turning point in our history and culture......ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?? No, it was not the death of millions. So what? It was the death of innocent civilians on American Soil. And though I have all the empathy in the world for those who suffered under Stalin, Hitler, and more recently in Eastern Europe, etc......THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS HERE!!!!! Are American lives worth more than others? No, that's not what makes this unacceptable. What makes this unacceptable is that the human targets were not even identifiable to the perpetrators. They were not trying to kill a specific "enemy". There was no "ethic cleansing". Their enemies were as faceless as were they themselves. They were trying to kill a culture of freedom. In the most cowardly way imaginable!
I don't know too many people who did not lose relatives in the Holocaust. As an American Jew, this is part of our history. Something the whole world should be ashamed of forever. Even so, I find the events of 9/11 overwhelmingly tragic and deplorable. We Jews (and others.....gypsies, gays, etc.) were sent to death camps for who we or they were. The victims of 9/11 were sent to death just because they were alive in the wrong place at the wrong time. Made NO DIFFERENCE to the maniacs who flew those planes into the WTC (and more importantly, to those who sent them) who they killed. None! A cowardly and devastating attack that will live in infamy forever. Accomplished nothing accept an elevated degree of the wrong kind of passions on both sides of an issue that should not exist.
I know Dan M will disagree. I know he can and may quote chapter and verse from the Koran about how Allah said to kill the infidels. This is all bullshit. This is NOT why these terrorists hate us and want us to die. They hate us and want us to die simply because their supposed "leaders" tell them they are supposed to. The cowardly leaders that hide in their caves. Or their palaces. Or wherever they are most comfortable. Because it serves their selfish and inhuman purposes to have their "followers" blindly give their lives and take the lives of "us" so that these "leaders" can retain their power. And their money. And their oil. And their titles.
This is the perversion of a religion for the purpose of the retention of corrupt regimes. And to justify land disputes. And to keep the "constituents" fearful of whatever is different. An exploitation of xenophobia. Now they have exported it.
Traderfut, with whom I usually disagree, and with whom Dan M always does, happens to have some validity to his often rambling "argument" that Islam is a "peaceful religion". While this can be debated ad infinitum, and has been right here, the fact is, how did it work out that even though the Koran says to "kill the infidels", there are also references to respecting and living peacefully with others. Specifically Christians and Jews. And Jesus was a prophet. Etc..
No, this isn't about religion. That is an excuse. It isn't about "decadent western culture"...that too is an excuse. It is about power. And the evil humans are capable of committing to retain or obtain it.
We need to use OUR STRENGTH NOW to change things. I stand by my opposition to going to war with Iraq. I do not, however, oppose going to war with certain "leaders" in any number of countries in the middle east.
Our laws have been too "humane" for too long in matters such as this. Illegal to "assassinate" foreign threats? We are supposed to be the good guys who don't fight back dirty when we are stabbed in the back?
I hate the idea of the politics of war....as in what we seem to be preparing for with Iraq, and whoever is lined up next so that Dubya can get re-elected. He needs to drag this out while our economy keeps going down the shitter. WRONG APPROACH! We can't be appeasing these Saudi Royals and the rest of the corrupt and murderous "leaders". They are our enemies. NOT the people of Islam.
We can and must take down these "war criminals" and show the world that they are nothing BUT war criminals. Let Islam thrive (if it can in a world that has passed them by in the past 800 or so years). But eliminate those guilty of hijacking the religion. Or trying to.
And if this means trying those who collaborate with the enemy, that works for me too. If Cheney and Bush can be proven to be playing both sides against the middle (for example....I am NOT stating they are...just making an extreme point for the sake of argument), then they too are the enemies of America. And they too are the enemies of our culture. And they too should be held accountable.
Let's get 'em all. We cannot lose our freedom to feel safe in our homes and our places of work. This is a real war and we MUST prevail!!!
Peace, whenever possible.
Rs7
