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Monday, September 10, 2001
Hmph. I was all set to scream and shout and stamp my feet about the appalling performance of our state and federal governments, then I got to daycare. They had most of the streets around daycare blocked off. Fortunately for me, I know all of the little back ways through places like nearby parking lots, and got in pretty quick.
When I got to daycare, I found out that there'd been a nut at TJ Maxx across the street who had been waving around a gun in the store. Lovely. The good news is that the daycare faces the BACK of that strip mall. Which means that the kids were safe. Between the solid brick wall out front, and the the cop in the parking lot, I was pretty comfortable. Not thrilled, but comfortable.
Then, tonight, we got more news on the house front. Seems "mid-next week" is similar to Microsoft Release Dates. Windows 2000 came out in 1999, didn't it? Of course, if I remember correctly, Windows 5.0 should have shipped some time in 1996 if I remember correctly. Oh well. The good news is that we're moving closer. Of course, so did the Titanic to the iceberg, so there ya go.
Just to really destroy your downloading pleasure for the day, you can check here to see what we did on Sunday. Please note that thumbnailed version of each picture totals up to not quite a meg for that page. So you've been warned.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001
I'm editing this from work. It's still evolving, and we're only at 9:30 am here.
I'll be honest; any group that "claims" responsibility for these horrific attacks should be prepared. Genocide is an ugly word, but this is a time and a place where it is most definitely warranted. If you're claiming responsibility, start digging.
I've criticized President Bush in the past; I'll stand behind him now. And, if you've taken American money in the past, get on our side or prepare to face us. It's time to pay up.
From what I've seen and been hearing, it sounds like Bin Laden is probably responsible. If that is the case, I want to see two mushroom clouds above Afghanistan before the 6pm news, and the Taliban needs to be told to turn his ass over or be prepared to be glassed in. We've got the nukes, we've got the other weapons, and it's time we employ them. Genocide, as I said, is an ugly word, but with a body count likely to clear 20,000, that's what it's coming down to.
It's been sixty years since there's been an all-out war. It's been ten since we've put "assets" in the field. It might take us a while to get things lined up, but when we do, you'd best be behind us. We're not going to take this shit.
10:45 am The governor (Yes, Jesse) just got done with a press conference. He's locked down the state buildings, schools should remain open but with heightened security, he's spoken to the state National Guard commanders, and has told them to be ready for anything.
And the news is reporting that Bin Laden has, in the past, threatened a massive attack. Right now, I'm angry and scared and sick to my stomach and ... I don't know. This is our generation's Pearl Harbor. The problem is that the attackers are amorphous, their national boundaries undefined, their only defining characteristic is a fanatical belief in the rightness of their actions.
You know that this will not just disappear. This isn't going to blow over. This is, or had better be, war. We can equivocate, we can waffle, we can seek to "build consensus" some other time. Now it's time to put some force behind the words.
I'm sure some will go on about how this changes the government. Big whoop. While I'm 100% behind freedom of the press, this is also war. If the reporters and camera people want to be on the front lines, that's fine. Remember that bullets tend not to discriminate too much between reporter- flesh and soldier-flesh. Dead is dead, and if you wanna show the front lines, fine. Be prepared to have a fork stuck in your ass when you bite it, though.
Bullets don't discriminate. Much like airplanes didn't discriminate against combatant and non-combatant flesh this morning. It's a war of terror. And it's going to be ugly. It's going to be messy. It's going to be disgusting. But it's also going to be an all-out war.
I just hope we win.
Now, I've got other problems to deal with. My wife is in Downtown St. Paul, she's checking to see if she can leave - my daughter does not know what has happened, they're not telling the little kids, so I'm going to pick her up from school, and I'm going to try to explain this. How do you? HOW? I've got to look into the eyes of a seven-year-old and tell her that our world has just been turned upside down.
My mother said this, but I have to agree. People who send their children out to bomb and die can't be reasoned with. If they're going to send eleven- year-old boys against armed soldiers, then we MUST be prepared to kill those armed eleven-year-olds. It's going to look horrifying on the evening news.
And it will be on the evening news. Again and again and again. So be it. Those that sow the seeds of violence will reap the whirlwinds we can bring. And we will. But remember - thousands, THOUSANDS of people died this morning. We're going to have to fight back. And that's the bottom line.
Lovely. The Army Reserves have just been called up. There goes my friend - he's just about a year away from retiring with 20 years in the reserves. I pray to God he lives. He's got two little kids. Of course, a big part of me wants to go with him. I was just listening to the song "Alice's Restaurant" yesterday, and the one part that keeps going through my head is "kill, kill, kill, KILL" - with less hysteria and more, much more, determination.
Or not. Jesus, this flip-flopping back and forth is terrifying.
My God. I'm close to the Minneapolis Airport - and normally we hear a lot of "airport noise". It's been totally silent. I normally see airplanes coming and going every few minutes. Just a few minutes ago a goose flew past my window, and my thought was "shoot it down!" Dear God. This just isn't happening. When I got up this morning, the biggest worry I had was if Ann's ultimate Boss would be leading the primary race here in St. Paul's mayoral primary.
Dear God. This day just gets more and more surreal. My mortgage company just called to verify my employment. It's not happening. Dear God, I want to wake up. Please? And now one side of the Pentagon is gone. Jesus. And there's still a plane out there that's not been accounted for. Dear God. I feel sorry for those people, but I'm sure the Air Force has been given orders to down the aircraft if it gets near any sort of land-based target.
Another plane crashed near Camp David? Whatinthehell is WRONG with the airport security in this country? Jesus! Did we hang a sign on the damned border - "come on in and screw with us?" If we did, consider it down.
My God...
12:00 Noon Now they say Bush is in Louisana. Makes sense. If there are a half-dozen or more missing aircraft that might be hijacked and still looking for targets. They're evacuating most of the tall buildings in Downtown Minneapolis. Jeez.
War in the internet age. This will be weird. If you're running a server on the internet, patch it or shut it down. It could be a tool. If you're able, give Blood. Al makes a good point, as do others.
It must be a difference in age or temperment. The 24-year-old in my office is calm, the 27-year-old is laughing and joking. Already. Jesus. Idiots do vex me.
Lovely. There was a tanker rollover locally (94 and the 494/694 junction east of town) full of propane. Shutdown I-94 East towards Wisconsin/Chicago. Some nuts are claiming it's related. Right. If it were, you think blowing up a propane tank on a freeway's going to do a whole lot of damage?
Dear God. They just had a guy who was on the 80th Floor of one of the WTC towers. They interviewed him on the radio. He got out and is alive. Certainly, not everyone survived. But some did. Thank God.
And, I see on what's left of CNN's site that the Taliban has expressed sympathy. Right. Bin Laden and his chieftans, on a platter, would be an expression of sympathy. Otherwise, it's just words. We're likely to want more than that in the next couple of weeks and months.
This is an intelligence failure. A Massive failure. Hindsight is useless other than to determine the target. And it certainly sounds like Bin Laden and Company are responsible. We need to get more humint (Human Intelligence) and less sigint (technology/signal-based intelligence).
The Chinese Curse "May you live in interesting times" isn't nearly enough to cover this. This is a day which history's going to have to describe. My vocabulary, which is large, isn't adequate. Sounds like we're down to 50 flights in the air, and nothing non-Air Force is scheduled to fly until 5 am (our time) tomorrow. I bet that goes later.
I don't like the parallels to December 7th, 1941. I don't like thinking we're going to lose millions of lives in a war that might not resolve anything. But, on the other hand, we've been threatened. We've been attacked. And if we are Americans, we need to respond accordingly.. That son of a bitch will die. I just hope we're up to it.
This one brings tears to my eyes. My daughter's school has spoken to the older kids - they've been told what's happened. They've also been told not to talk to the younger kids. What in the hell's gone on?
I'm going to go try to explain this to her. And pray a lot in the mean time.
Flags at half-staff. This is the end of an era.
Later: We got the kids. First, Rhiannon. I passed Minneapolis/St. Paul airport as I was heading into St. Paul. I've lived in the metro area now for twelve years. Most of it on the south side within earshot of the airport (then again within 15 miles of any major metro airport is "earshot"). I can count on at least a half-dozen airplanes in the air when I go past. At least one taking off or landing while I go past. And nothing. Not one plane in the air. It looked like a Chinese Fire Drill at the airport. They stopped all these airplanes and everyone got off. Now, they're just sitting there.
After picking up Rhiannon and determining how her day went, the conversation went something like this...
Honey, some bad people stole some airplanes and crashed them into some buildings. We don't know why they did it, but we know that there are some people who believe so strongly that they're right and we're wrong that they're willing to die. And they're willing to kill those who don't believe as they do. When Grandpa was a boy in High School, there was another attack like this. Back then we knew who did it, and we could find them and blame them. We don't know yet who did this, but we'll find out, and we'll make sure they don't do it again.
Later, to put it in perspective, Rhiannon asked how many people died. I told her I wasn't sure. She said she'd been reading a school book about what happened on the Titanic, and there were a lot of people who died there (I think it was something over 2000, I don't know the exact figure). I told her that it was probably a lot more than that. I told her, after some thinking, that it was probably ten times the total number of kids in her school. She was quiet. Then asked if we could go to McDonalds. I wish I was as resilient.
NBC is reporting that Afghanistan is saying Bin Laden had nothing to do with the attack. Right. And I'm the President of the United States. Sorry, but the bottom line to Afghanistan should be "Bin Laden, or enough of him to identify clearly, in twenty-four hours, or we start the B-52s walking from one end of your country to another. You were willing to destroy the heritage of many civilizations to protect your religion, we're willing to destroy your country to protect our population. Bin Laden, or glass. Your Choice."
I'm sick to my stomach. I want to claw back the hands of the clock. But we can't.
I'll be honest - when I see video of Palestinians celebrating today, I'm set to take that little black, white, green, and red flag and wipe my butt with it. Arafat had better get those people under control.
I never, ever, ever would imagine that I'd wish for Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky to be back in the headlines. It's a hell of a lot easier to explain that than four hijacked planes.
Finally: Two things keep going
through my head.
The first is my screen saver I've had running since last fall, when my personal
life went through such turmoil.
"Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death, I shall
fear no evil, for thou art with me.
And one other thing...
Oh beautiful, for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountains majesty,
Above the fruited plain!
America, America
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
from sea to shining sea.
Be careful out there. The world's a lot nastier place all of a sudden.
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
An open letter to the world...
Many of you have written to us to express sympathy. While the events of Tuesday
occurred half a country away from me, the immediacy of today's modern
telecommunications industry allowed many of us to view, first hand, the second
plane slamming into the tower. The first, and second tower collapses. The horrific
news from the Pentagon. The terrifying, and yet heroic news of the plane augering in
in rural Pennsylvania.
We've been attacked, down to our roots, by terror. By small men of small minds who
hide in the night and send more small men of even smaller minds who believe they will
go to glory in their deaths. They won't. They'll go to hell.
"The idea isn't to die for your cause. It's to make some other poor dumb bastard die
for his cause."
I look into a bright blue sky, thinking it should be gray to match the moods. It should
rain. It should snow. It should be cold and scary and lonely. It is scary in that the
only planes I see are occasional F-16 fighters. I never, ever thought I'd see them flying
patrols over American cities. I never thought I'd see carrier groups and battleships off
the east coast. Protecting us. Protecting our way of life. Hunkering down.
But that's not what America is about.
Many from around the world have expressed sympathy. And for many of them, we are thankful.
However, there are three groups I wish to address specifically.
First, Palestinian-Americans, and Palestinians in this country, and Palestinians everywhere.
We understand what you now see every day. We also want you to know that we will never
equate your pain with ours. Yours is longer, and more individual. This was massive,
catastrophic, and yes, national. Completely, totally different. Cowardly acts of small
men.
Those of you who wave the Palestinian banner would be well-advised to replace it or add to
it an American Flag. When the Eagle hunts, it is indiscriminate in it's prey. It will take
what it sees. It will kill. Indiscriminately.
Secondly, Saddam Hussein. You have benefited from a long, deliberate, and perhaps
misguided sense of restraint. Rest assured that we know what you are doing and where
you are going and what you're trying to accomplish. We're not going to tolerate it for
much longer. When the Eagle hunts...
Finally, the Taliban and those innocents in Afghanistan. Two groups. You will soon face
a choice. A simple choice. A very simple, straight-forward equation. Give us what we ask
for, or die. Some call it terrorism. Not hardly. We will give you a warning. The innocent
do not shelter evil. Only the stupid and evil do. We will name the time and the place. And
do not mistake our resolve for doing the job. Yesterday's shock and incredulity will,
certainly, harden to resolve to do this job as it needs to be done. This Eagle WILL hunt.
This Eagle's talons will certainly cause more harm than you could ever dream. So be it.
You have tried to destroy our way of life, not knowing that it's not centered in
buildings, or possessions, or in planes. Not in money, or technology, or in a business.
It's in the heart, and it's in the home of every single American. Last night, today,
tomorrow, and it will continue. Forever. We will not go gentle into the night. You would
have us retreat, or die. We choose neither. We choose to attack. To strike, to defend
our way of living, our way of life. We will survive, we will fight, and, as our
Commander In Chief has said, we will win. Make no mistake about it. We will win.
The time for "mediation" is over. The time for "negotiation" is over. You are on our side,
or you will see the Eagle hunt. The eagle takes all prey, for the eagle knows that it needs
to eat to survive. This Eagle, on the other hand, will take care of all prey, for it knows
that a claw unpulled this time will return, again and again, to pick at it. The Eagle will
hunt...
Thursday, September 13, 2001
Yippie Skippie it's...Friday!, September 14, 2001
Saturday, September 15, 2001
Sunday, September 16, 2001
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P. Dominik. All rights reserved. No reproduction without express
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